Black Women’s Engagement with Buddhism for Healing from Anti-Blackness: A Narrative Inquiry
Chioko Juliette Grevious
Journal of Humanistic Psychology July 9, 2026 DOI: 10.1177/00221678261464649 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative narrative inquiry Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Black women whose publicly available memoirs and essays describe experiences with Buddhist practice |
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key findings | The author identifies three interrelated narrative patterns among Black women writing about Buddhist practice: inherited vigilance, spiritual rupture, and eventual reclamation. The author argues that Buddhist practices such as meditation and compassion support awareness of intergenerational "soul wounds," a gentler relationship to self and lineage, and reconfiguration of suffering narratives without pathologizing Black women's responses to systemic violence. |
Abstract
Black women’s engagement with Buddhism represents a distinct and under-examined pathway for healing from anti-Blackness. Drawing on publicly available memoirs and essays, this qualitative narrative inquiry explores how Black women describe their experiences with Buddhist practice in relation to racialized suffering and meaning-making. Using an interpretive thematic analysis, I identified three interrelated narrative patterns: inherited vigilance, spiritual rupture, and eventual reclamation. The findings illustrate how Buddhist practices such as meditation and compassion support awareness of intergenerational “soul wounds,” a gentler relationship to self and lineage, and the reconfiguration of suffering narratives without pathologizing Black women’s responses to systemic violence. This research contributes to qualitative and humanistic psychology by demonstrating the value of narrative inquiry with secondary data and by expanding understandings of spirituality as a culturally situated and relational resource for healing within racialized contexts. Implications for clinicians and researchers working at the intersection of race, trauma, and spiritual practice are discussed.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan... | 2017 | Qualitative study with mixed-methods | |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Common Core Thesis and Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Mysticism in Chinese Buddhist Monks and Nuns Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhist monks and nuns | 2011 | Mixed-methods study | n = 139 |
| Anger regulation in traumatized Cambodian refugees: the perspectives of Buddhist monks. Buddhist Cambodian monks in Massachusetts | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 6 |
| The Lived Experiences of Experienced Vipassana Mahasi Meditators: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Experienced Vipassana Mahasi meditators | 2018 | Qualitative study |