An Embodied Dharma of Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Jasmine Syedullah
The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice May 19, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190632922.013.37 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that new waves of dharma insight are producing new teachers and fugitive practice formations, including an emergent virtual network of sangha practitioners who remix contemplative practice into protocols for embodied social change and political organizing. Contends that practice is political for everyone, and that embodied approaches to the first noble truth must reckon with white supremacy. |
Abstract
Abstract: Some may resist the inclusion of conversations about race, gender, and sexuality in a discussion of the dharma, but they are precisely why we, queers and folks of color, are seeding a dharma for the world as it is right now, one that cuts through the heart of how we are sitting with and suffering separation in these times. A brief sketch of a gathering of black largely US-based dharma teachers and practice communities in October 2019, this chapter argues that there are new waves of insight and awareness turning the wheel, bringing with them new kinds of teachers and more fugitive formations of practice. Reflecting on practice as a way of telling time, this chapter traces an emergent virtual network of sangha practitioners based in the Buddha’s teachings, but fugitive from traditional practice paths, who collectively remix contemplative practices into protocols for embodied social change and political organizing. An embodied reading of the break-away lineage of Radical Dharma, this chapter centers the leadership of Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Lama Rod Owens with whom the author co-wrote the book Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation released the summer before the 2016 Presidential Election. This chapter considers how practice is political, not just for the queer-of-color practitioners, but for everyone, and considers what place their experiences and insights have within the global landscape of Dharma practice. In short, how might embodied approaches to the first noble truth have to reckon with the presence of white supremacy.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |