Afrocentricity and Buddhism
Afrocentricity
Afrocentrism was most prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. It is still important today! Here we will explore the healing and liberation of the
people of color through Buddhism. African Americans can be, and usually are, emotionally resilient in the face of the many types of suffering
put before us.
Black Buddhists emphasize the reality that the Buddha was a person of color. This helps the African and the African American to align with
the Buddha's mission to protest a society that is suffering under racial injustice. Thus, African Americans bring a unique perspective to
Buddhism by sharing their unique perspectives and experiences while exploring healing and liberation. See More about
Afrocentricity
The Awakening of the Buddha Mind in African Americans is not about choosing Asian culture over American or African culture
The quality of one's views and intentions determines the resulted actions which they experience.
Beings are continuously reborn according to the ethical quality of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and
this quality is, essentially, a factor of the mind. True Awakening, necessarily, involves both ethics and
insight into causality.
The Buddha was Woke!
When we consider the Buddha as a fellow person of color and as a social reformer who was awakened to the truth of suffering
caused by false constructions of identity, including race, gender, caste, and class - we, as African Americans, have to consider him "Woke".
Therefore, Afrocentricity and Buddhism consider the unique ways which African American practitioners interpret and apply Buddhist teachings towards
our cultural experiences. Thus, we see Buddhist teachings as a means to address the trauma of systemic racism. The mainstream European American Buddhist
often individualizes suffering while ignoring the specific oppression faced by racialized people. Buddha as a freedom fighter? Some African American
Buddhists see the Buddha's life story through the lens of a social reformer much like Dr ML King, Jr.. There are parallels between the Buddha's rejection
of India's caste system and the African American struggle, freedom fighters, against racism.
First we need to take note that Afrocentricity, as developed by Molefi Kete Asante, helps the African American to center themselves within the framework
of the African experiences. For the African people, the African American, liberation is accomplished by way of acknowledging and grounding ourselves in
our history, symbols, and values derived from Africa.
The spiritual tradition of Buddhism teaches the student to seek liberation from suffering. It is through Afrocentricity that the African American, and
the African, can better understand and apply the Buddhist teachings. Although Buddhism is universal, the path to liberation will vary because suffering
is experienced differently across different cultures and social conditions. Therefore, the African American approach to Buddhism has to consider both,
the universal truths of the Dharma as well as the historical context that are specific to people of African heritage. Thus, the African American's intersection
with Buddhism often require reinterpreting the Buddhist concept of liberation (nirvana) to include the freedom from the historical and ongoing oppression
of 'white supremacy' when studying Buddhism.
In contrast to the typical mainstream American Buddhist focus on liberating the mind, African american Buddhists point out the need to liberate, not only the mind,
but also the spirit, and the body (the entire soul). This "full-bodied dharma" contend that for those whose bodies, along with mind and spirit, have been oppressed
and devalued, the spiritual freedom cannot ignore the social reality which place chains on all aspects of the human experiences. It would appear that the mainstream
American Buddhism emphasize individual enlightenment. The African American Buddhists, on the other hand, seeks collective freedom, liberation and upliftment for
society as a whole. The individual awakening is a broader consciousness that heals both, the personal and the social mind (spirit and body), the totality of the human
mind both conscious and unconscious.
"All paths -- religious, spiritual, or without name -- intersect in the place of darkness, darkness is the place where the mind is forced to detach itself
from whatever it has grabbed onto in life. And in that nothingness, in that dark place, in dark times we awaken." Zenju Earthlyn Manuel (https://zenju.org/)
Thus, African American Buddhists seeks to build sanghas (Buddhist communities) that promote a true sense of cultural and racial homogeneity. Some dharma communities
ignore and or downplay or dismiss the systemic nature of racial suffering by framing it as a matter of individual attachment or a mental "illusion". While the doctrine
of anatta (no-self) do in fact teach that there is no fixed, independent self, this can be used or misinterpreted to negate identity altogether. For the African
American whose identity has been systematically denied, dismissed, and distorted, acknowledging and exploring our racial identity is an important part of the path to
healing. Thus, the African American practitioners of Buddhism need to share their experiences, process our ancestral and intergenerational traumas, and deepen our
practice without the pressures of a racially insensitive environment. Thus, the need to build community and safe spaces as well as establish affinity groups and retreats
to explore how the dharma is relevant to our unique histories and experiences, and therefore, fostering a profound sense of community. In so doing, we can
address the pervasive racial ignorance and microaggressions experienced by all people of color.
The synthesis of Afrocentric and Buddhist thought is evident in the work of many contemporary and notable Buddhist teachers and writers of color:
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel:
"A Zen priest who writes about the spiritual significance of the Black body and the need to explore, rather than dismiss, identity on the path to awakening."
Lama Rod Owens and angel Kyodo Williams:
"These teachers wrote Radical Dharma, which directly confronts how race and white supremacy manifest within American Buddhist communities."
Charles Johnson:
"In his book Taming the Ox, the Vipassana practitioner and author explores how racial illusions, a product of relative reality,
can be understood through the dharma to achieve freedom."
Bhante Buddharakkhita:
"One of the first African Buddhist monks, he founded the Uganda Buddhist Center and works to integrate Buddhism with traditional African wisdom."
Lion's Roar | Buddhist wisdom for our time
We Remember: Six Remarkable Black Buddhists
https://www.lionsroar.com/we-remember-six-remarkable-black-buddhists/
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