February is Black History Month

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Mural portrait of bell hooks

In the Buddha dharma, there are many contemporary Black teachers who merge the dharma with Black liberatory traditions, recognition of intersectional existences (race, class, gender, sexuality) and social justice. 

Remembering bell hooks (1952-2021)

by Angela Kayira

In the early 1990s, I was first introduced to bell hooks in Women’s Studies classes in College. bell hooks, Gloria Jean Watkins, was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1952. Her pen name, bell  hooks,  was  a  tribute  to  her  great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks (1). bell hooks was well known as a Black feminist, writer and poet; cultural critic, activist and educator. She died in December 2021 from renal failure. hooks described herself as a Buddhist-Christian and would sometimes lament she was not seen as real Buddhist - “no long time with a teacher, no journey to India or Tibet, never present at important retreats  [and] definitely someone engaged in the buddhadharma without credentials” (2). I consider her to be one my ancestors of the Black feminist liberatory tradition and continue to be inspired in how she spoke to the transformative power of love as being integral to the Buddha dharma. In a 1992, Tricycle Magazine interview hooks said: “If I were really asked to define myself, I wouldn’t start with race; I wouldn’t start with Blackness; I wouldn’t start with gender; I wouldn’t start with feminism. I would start with stripping down to what fundamentally informs my life, which is that I’m a seeker on the path. I think of feminism, and I think of anti-racist struggles as part of it. But where I stand spiritually is, steadfastly, on a path about love” (3)

In her book, All about Love New Visions hooks writes:  Awakening to Love can happen only as we let go of our obsession with power and domination. Culturally, all spheres of American life-politics, religion, the workplace, domestic households, intimate relations-should and could have as their foundation a love ethic. The underlying values of a culture and its ethics shape and inform the way we speak and act. A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well. To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives, our society would need to embrace change (4). 

Citations: 

  1. Carolyn M. Jones Medine in the Journal of Word Philosophies July 18, 2022

View of bell hooks, Black Feminist Thought, and Black Buddhism: A Tribute (iu.edu)

  1. Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love by bell hooks in True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism, 2nd Edition (2019) Parallax Press 

  2. Agent of Change: An Interview with bell hooks (1992). Tricycle Magazine. 

https://tricycle.org/magazine/bell-hooks-buddhism/

  1. Part of bell hooks Love Trilogy – All About Love: New Visions (2018) William Morrow Paperbacks.

For a glimpse at just some of the events taking place over the month of February, click HERE

CLICK for an article that addresses the tension between having days and months allocated to social justice issues, rather than it being a matter of everyday awareness, acknowledgement and action. 

HERE are some organizations to which you could donate. 

Please click HERE to download a printable PDF of reading list or see below for books by Black Teachers and Practitioners of the Buddha Dharma (this list is in no way exhaustive). Websites have been added by to those who have one. Compiled by Angela Kayira

Anthologies and Collaborations

  • Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation and Freedom. Eds. Cheryl A. Giles and Pamela Ayo Yetunde (2020) Shambhala. 

  • Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, Jasmine Syedullah (2016) North Atlantic Books. 

Kiara Jewel Lingo https://www.kairajewel.com/

  • We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption (2021) Parallax Press. 

Kate Johnson https://www.katejohnson.com/

  • Radial Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People In an Unjust World (2021) Shambhala. 

Larry Ward https://www.thelotusinstitute.org/about-us

  • America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal (2020) Parallax Press. 

Ruth King https://ruthking.net/

  • Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out ( 2018) Sounds True. 

Earthlyn Zenju Manuel (some of her selected works) https://zenju.org/

  • The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality and Gender (2015) Wisdom Publications.

  • Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging (2018) Wisdom Publications. 

  • The Shamanic Roots of Zen: Revealing the Ancestral Spirit and Mystical Heart of a Sacred Tradition (2022) Shambhala. 

  • Opening to Darkness: Eight Gateways for Being with the Absence of Light in Unsettling Times (2023) Sounds True. 

Rhonda V. Magee https://www.rhondavmagee.com/

  • The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (2019) TarcherPerigee

Lama Rod Owens https://www.lamarod.com/

  • The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors (2023) Sounds True 

  • Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger (2020) North Atlantic Books

Sebene Selassie https://www.sebeneselassie.com/

  • You Belong: A Call for Connection (2020) Harper One.

Rima Vesley-Flad

  • Black Buddhists and the Liberatory Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (2022) NYU Press. 

Spring Washam https://www.springwasham.com/

  • The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground (2023) Hayhouse Inc. 

  • A Fierce Heart. Spring Washam (2019) Hayhouse Inc.

Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams https://revangel.com/

  • Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living Fearlessly with Grace (2000) Penguin Books.  

Jan Willis 

  • Dreaming Me: Black, Buddhist and Baptist: One Woman’s Spiritual Journey (2008) Wisdom Publications. 

Forthcoming Publications in February 2024

Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation by Kaira Jewel Lingo, Valerie Brown , and Marisela B. Gomez. Parallax Press

  • Join three friends, three Black women, all teachers in the Plum Village tradition founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, in intimate conversation, touching on the pain and beauty of their families of origin, relationships and loneliness, intimacy and sexuality, politics, popular culture, race, self-care and healing. No subject is out of bounds in this free-flowing, wide-ranging offering of mindful wisdom to nourish our sense of belonging and connection with ancestors.

Lifting as They Climb: Black Women Buddhists and Collective Liberation by Toni Pressley-Sanon 

  • Lifting as They Climb is a love letter of freedom and self-expression from six Black women Buddhist teachers, conveyed through the voice of author Toni Pressley-Sanon, one of the innumerable people who have benefitted from their wisdom. She explores their remarkable lives and undertakes deep readings of their work, weaving them into the broader tapestry of the African diaspora and the historical struggle for Black liberation.

Dogen Zenji and Continuous Practice

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For the month of February we will focus on the teachings of Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan. We hope you will join us at our regular practice times, Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings as we inquire into what continuous practice is for lay practitioners. Dogen will give us some prompts, but he always asks us to "investigate this thoroughly", through our own direct experience. We will focus on Dogen’s text “Continuous Practice”. No prior reading is required, but if you would like to follow along, a PDF of Dogen’s complete Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi is available. Click HERE. “Continuous Practice” is chapters 31a and 31b.

What does it means for us as lay practitioners in the 21st century for practice to permeate every aspect of our lives? When we have jobs, families, and relationships, rent or mortgages to pay, groceries to buy. Our everyday experience includes the local and the global, the domestic and the wild, the mundane and the sublime, war and peace... How do we remain present and aware all the days and nights of the week, every moment, even when lying down at night to sleep. Over the course of the month, dharma talks will be given by the guiding teachers and our other Mountain Rain teachers, Joko Claire Talbot and Dai-i Flo Rublee.

Spring--cherry blossoms
Summer--cuckoo's call
Autumn--full moon
Winter-- snow, cold and still
Mind--clear and calm

This poem by Dogen (spare translation by Myoshin) is more than a listing of Japanese seasonal clichés. Dogen's title for the poem, "Original Face" gives the deeper meaning away. Within the changing seasons of our lives, the clear mind witnesses arising and passing phenomena with equanimity, vividly alive. 

Dogen Zenji brought Soto Zen practice from China to Japan in the thirteenth century. His writings have come to be known world-wide for their poetic and paradoxical language, and penetrating depth. By studying Dogen together on both Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, we can widen and deepen our perspectives on practice. Our month will close with a weekend retreat March 2-3. Click HERE for information and registration.

“Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way.”
— Dogen Zenji

Engaged Buddhist Practice – Nature Walk

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November 2023 members of the Engaged Buddhist Practice group went for a full-moon walk in the Roberts Bank Wildlife Management Conservation Area, Fraser River estuary, Salish Sea. 

The night was perfect – hardly a cloud in the sky.  We walked along the dyke as the sun went down and enjoyed the sunset concurrent with the emergence of a harvest moon. It appeared five times its size initially, slowly shrinking and changing colour from bright amber to a pale grey disc. 

The Coast Salish peoples have been in reciprocal relationship with these lands since time immemorial. Yet, on our Nature Walks we are quickly becoming aware of the friction between human beings and nature, which was especially true this time. As the November sky darkened, the otherworldly lights of Westshore, Canada’s busiest coal export terminal, became brighter and more obvious, adding an eerie glow to the ambience,  making it difficult not to think too hard about the environmental damage caused by the port expansion and coal shipments passing through. 

To put this in context, the coal terminal is situated within the Fraser River estuary, a globally significant ecosystem. The estuary’s waters support millions of migrating salmon at early and adult stages of development while its marshes and bogs provide essential resting and feeding areas for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. The area is considered one of the richest and most important ecosystems for migrant and wintering water birds in Canada.For a deeper appreciation of the marvelous and complex ecology of the estuary, do watch THIS.

Despite all this cultural and environmental richness, if you’ve ever gone to catch a ferry in Tsawassen, you will have seen the train tracks and monstrous coal port. 

Did you know:

  • Vancouver’s various coal facilities exported 36.8 million tonnes of coal in 2017, and according to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Westport handles more than 33 million tonnes of this coal annually. This places Vancouver well above Norfolk, Virginia, the busiest coal port in the United States. MORE INFO

  • According to emissions formulas used by the Sierra Club, Vancouver’s 2017 coal exports will produce 99.8 million tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime. This is significantly higher than B.C.’s entire carbon footprint. 

  • Some of this coal is metallurgical coal from mines in the interior of British Columbia, operated by companies such as Teck Resources and exported to Asia for the making of steel. This coal mined within British Columbia pays a provincial carbon tax on its embodied emissions. 

  • In recent years, Vancouver’s coal ports have also accommodated a massive increase in exports of thermal coal, which is used for the production of electricity. Some of this exported coal is mined within the United States, in particular in the Powder River Basin. Along the West Coast of the United States, six proposed facilities were scrapped as communities rejected proposals for coal export terminals for environmental reasons. Native American tribes directly affected by these proposals led the charge.

  • In B.C. similar projects are not subject to the same rigorous review, partially as a result of the gutted Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. This makes B.C., thanks to our existing terminals and growing port capacity, the last hope for desperate coal producers in the Powder River Basin, hoping to get their product to market before thermal coal goes extinct. MORE INFO

  • On top of that,  American coal exported through Roberts Bank does not pay a provincial carbon tax. If the provincial government wanted to, it has the power to recoup some of these costs under the Climate Leadership Plan. We can’t apply the carbon tax to coal mined outside our borders, but we could impose an equivalent levy. This regulatory fee would level the playing field with B.C. coal producers and ensure all exporters pay something to mitigate the adverse impacts of their industry.

Why this failure of climate and economic leadership in government?

  • Political donations from U.S. thermal coal players like Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Fraser Surrey Docks together are in the tens of thousands of dollars to the governing party, with high hopes for the coal terminal proposed at Fraser Surrey Docks.

  • Metro Vancouver has benefited handsomely from the presence of the coal industry, according to numbers compiled by the B.C.-based Coal Alliance. Between 2012 to 2017, coal-related companies spent $2.29 billion in Metro Vancouver, including $470 million in the City of Vancouver proper.

However, there is hope, and there are actions that can be taken:

“In Zen, our practice is about taking nothing for granted. All has been given to us and it is a sacred act to acknowledge the gift of this life; this body, each other, our temple (zendo), the earth on which we stand, the trees, the birds and all creatures, the wind and sky.”
— Joan Halifax - April 1, 2022

  • Rights of Nature is a growing body of law that seeks to reframe how nature is conceptualized under the law, and how it is governed, by broadening the legal rationale for its protection.  A new report, Rights of Nature : Pathways to Personhood for the Fraser River Estuary by researchers from the University of British Columbia and Raincoast Conservation Foundation seeks to determine how granting the Fraser River Estuary legal rights could produce much-needed changes to governance in the region and how those changes could recover species at-risk. MORE INFO

  • For more inspiration, read HERE about how the Georgia Strait Alliance is a leading advocate for the protection of the Salish Sea.

-blog written collaboratively by Augusta Lockhorst, Angela Kayira, and Naomi Steinberg

Welcome 2024 - Words from the Teachers

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Heiwa Peace calligraphy by Shinmon

Dear sangha friends,

We hope the holidays have been a time for rest, reflection and renewal for you, as well as time in the good company of family and friends. We know that the dark days of early winter can also be a time when the pain of loss and grief, personal and global, can weigh heavily. As we open to a New Year, this is a good time to allow the stillness of winter dormancy to heal our frayed edges and unattended places of hurt, to touch our deepest yearnings for peace, connection, and freedom from suffering. It's a time for each of us to renew our bodhisattva vows, so that our words and actions will emerge from a place of deep care for all beings. (Note Michael's Wednesday evening dharma seminar on The Power of Vow.) 

In the coming weeks we will each be taking some time for personal retreat and reflection, and we encourage you to include similar intervals, in whatever ways you can, in your days, weeks, months and year.  "Personal time" is a misnomer, because the ways we attend and care for ourselves, and the ways we are cruel to ourselves, extend outwards and onwards to others in ways we are largely unaware of. 

The past year has been one of great change for the Mountain Rain sangha, with the launching of our new practice space, Bright Stream Temple, and adapting to our new sesshin venue at Brew Creek Centre. So many of you have offered so much: time, volunteer work, thoughtful planning, and financial contributions, and most important, showing up to practice together, in-person and virtually. We want to express our deep gratitude to you all. When our energy flags, when we're feeling the age upon us (as Kate's mother used to say), all we have to do is come and sit in community, and be upheld by the sincerity of your practice. 

In the wider sphere, the past year has brought the ongoing anguish of wars, racialized and gender violence, homelessness and displacement, opioid deaths, economic, ecological and climate instability, all due to the complex effects of human greed, hatred and ignorance. And right in the midst of all that, all around the world are people acting with kindness and compassion, courage and creativity, responding to suffering beings. Our everyday Zen practice supports us to stay steady, and trust that how we live in this world matters. 

As a New Year's gift, here is a calligraphy by Shinmon of the Japanese word for peace, heiwa, for you to download (Click here), or you can pick up a copy at the Wall St. zendo.

Warm bows and wishes for peace and well-being to you and all beings, 
Myoshin Kate and Shinmon Michael