“I’m dedicated to promoting what the Buddha was dedicated to promoting, which is liberation,” says Rev. angel Kyodo Williams.
Williams talks to Lion’s Roar’s Melvin McLeod about the meaning and impact of “radical dharma.” Read our profile of Williams from the January 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar.
Melvin McLeod: Hi, this is Melvin McLeod, the editor-in-chief of Lion’s Roar magazine. We’re joined by my friend, Reverend angel Kyodo Williams, a Zen teacher and activist who is profiled in the December/January issue of Lion’s Roar. Reverend angel, thanks for joining us.
Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: Thank you for having me.
Melvin McLeod: You’re the co-author of a book called Radical Dharma. What do you understand “radical dharma” to be?
Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: The root of radical is “radix” and that means a whole or complete, and dharma of course has many different inflections, I would say, rather than interpretations, and one of those is amongst others is truth. Of course, we often as Buddhists think of dharma as the teachings of the Buddha and that’s when its “capital ‘D’ Dharma,” but it also has meanings such as one’s calling, one’s path, and also universal truth, which is why it was ascribed to the Buddha’s teachings. And so I think of radical dharma as the whole truth and what it means to enliven and inform one’s practice with the whole truth — both one’s practice formally in Buddhism, but also one’s practice of justice in the world.
Melvin McLeod: So you’ve said, which we publish, that you’re not actually dedicated to promoting Buddhism per se, but that when you go out into the world, and I think particularly out into the black community, the larger black community, which may or may not be familiar with an unusual Asian religion called Buddhism, that you’re actually interested much more in promoting certain values rather than Buddhism per se. So what is it that you go out, even though you may be identified as a Buddhist teacher, what is it that you’re dedicated to presenting if not Buddhism itself?
Rev. angel Kyodo Williams: I think that I’m dedicating what the, I’m dedicated to promoting what the Buddha was dedicated to promoting, which is liberation. And that really, I’m talking about really core understanding of human dynamics — the dynamics of our mind, the dynamics of our behavior, the dynamics of how we relate to one another — and somewhere along the line that then got popularized by this fellow known as the Buddha and when it met with the West and we started to call it Buddhism. So I’m not doing anything particularly different in that sense of going into an experience of understanding and developing more skill, more awareness of understanding how it is we unfold as human beings on this planet, and how it is that we relate, and ultimately how it is that we find ourselves caught up in a kind of cycle of suffering. And often I say that the Buddha said he taught one thing and one thing only, which is suffering, and I think the way that I reframe it and think about it in modern times as “I teach one thing and one thing only which is liberation,” the end to suffering.Read more here:
Related Content:
The Core of Belonging
In this profound conversation, Tami Simon and Rev. angel take a deep look at how society shapes our sense of belonging—and how we can all take back the power to belong for ourselves.
Living the Questions: Why 2020 hasn_t taken Rev. angel by surprise – Krista Tippett w/ Rev. Angel – PODCAST
A companion conversation in the On Being episode that has been re-aired for the third time — Krista catches up with Rev. angel Kyodo Williams on how she’s keeping her fearlessness alive through pandemics and rupture.
The World is Our Field of Practice — On Being w/ Krista Tippett
This prophetic conversation, which Rev. angel Kyodo Williams had with Krista in 2018, is an invitation to imagine and nourish the transformative potential of this moment — toward human wholeness.
Reclaiming The Wholeness Of Our Stories – The Four – Michael Ray Mathews, Jacqui Lewis, Otis Moss III, Lisa Sharon Harper w/ Rev. Angel – PODCAST
angel Kyodo williams · Reclaiming The Wholeness Of Our Stories – The Four podcast
The Magic of Radical Dharma Camp – Radical Dharma Camp-Omega 2021 [excerpt]
Rev. angel walks us through the cost + violence of unfulfillment & calls us into the question of where do you stand?
Centering Leadership In Presence
Featured Event
Embodied Social Justice Certificate
Go deeper. For the third year, Rev. angel is co-director of this 3-month online program in which you can join leading-edge teachers working at the intersection of embodiment and social […]