Dear Friend,

It's been well over a year since the uprisings following the murder of George Floyd (and countless others). As people were protesting all over the world, Vimalasara and the BCO launched a series of courageous conversations about race, and many white people in the Triratna Buddhist Community engaged in study, discussion, introspection and in some cases action steps as a result.

What has happened in that time and what difference has this all made? After a surge of consciousness-raising and compassion, we also know there has been a backlash in some parts of the world, collective and individual. There has also been a well-documented backlash towards DEI (Diversity, Inclusion and Equity) initiatives in Dharma communities.

Meanwhile, violence and discrimination continue in so many forms, including brutal state violence towards Black and Brown refugees at borders, and horrific anti-Asian violence which came to prominence in the news in recent months, but has a long history behind it.

How is your heart with all this? How is your momentum? What support do you need to know how you can make a difference?

Toni Cade Cambarayou once said “it is the role of the artist to make the revolution irresistible.”. We'd like to think that the role of the (white) Awareness Is Revolutionary project is to make waking up to and from our racialized conditioning irresistible. Yes, there is utter heartbreak. And, our experience this past year has also been of powerful spiritual friendship and joyful free-ing up of what holds us back in this engagement with the suffering of race and racism. The taste of freedom is very palpable.

What can the Dharma bring to anti-racist movements, and how can anti-racism inform our Dharmalife? We don’t have all the answers, but so far this exploration has been incredibly life affirming for so many.

In this first quarterly newsletter, we've got some exciting updates and opportunities to share with you.

In solidarity,
Maitrisara, Singhashri and Upayadhi

An invitation, and a request for support

In examining our own conditioning around race and gender, we have come to realize that we need to get better at asking for help. We also need to decentralize and foster co-creation. Nearly a year has gone by since we started. We have a vision and plans, and much to celebrate. We also know what the bottle necks are at this stage. Below is a list of four clearly identified needs. We invite you to consider these opportunities. We also welcome other suggestions not named here.

Volunteer Opening: Curriculum Coordinator

Volunteer Opening: Digital Library Coordinator

Volunteer Opening: Blog Coordinator

Pro-Bono Consultant: Podcast / Vlog launch

Upcoming Programming

Our vision is to “liberate the curriculum” of the WAIR website by early 2022. Currently we have developed 12 modules for self-organizing white Buddhists to use as they see fit, along a timeline that works for them.

We hope to welcome some volunteers to our team to help carry this work across the finish line, so that it can be more widely distributed and most of all, put into practice. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, we highly recommend the following course which is wonderfully facilitated by two trusted and remarkable co-conspirators in this work, Evangeline Weiss and Chris Crass: Responding to the Call: Supporting White Anti-Racist Faith/Spiritual Leadership.

4 Tuesday Zoom calls: October 12th, October 26th and November 9th and November 16th, 1:00-3:30PM EST (6pm- 8:30pm UK time).

Black Feminist movement strategist Linda Burnham put out the call to white anti-racists:  “If we don’t organize white people around their suffering, we know someone else will.” This workshop is one of many responses to that call.

Introducing SMURF

Standing Meeting of Undoing Racism Facilitators (SMURF!)

This is a peer group for Order Members and mitras, of any and all racial identities, who are already engaged in facilitating some kind of anti-racism work in a Triratna context, local or otherwise.

We share what is working (and not working), and what might be relevant to our range of contexts. We reflect on our own personal growth and liberation through this work, with curiosity, compassion and courage.

Find out more about SMURF, including when we meet, at the link below.

Inspiration

So much has happened in the Buddhist world around race in these past 12 months, and we cannot do justice to it all. This being said, we are lifting up 3 initiatives that have particularly inspired us in various ways.

May We Gather: This event was first national Buddhist memorial service in response to anti-Asian violence. It was magnificent and poignant ceremony held on May 4th, 2021, forty-nine days after the Atlanta-area shootings that claimed the lives of eight people, including six women of Asian descent. Talks on the paramis was given from different Buddhist leaders, and a remarkable range of traditions were represented. These are the highlights, and the full ceremony can also be view here.

Black & Buddhist Summit: Back in February of 2021, an on-line summit was organized on the occasion of the launch of the wonderful book Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom. All the sessions were very powerful, and included our very own Suryagupta and Vimalasara. All the content is now on-line, much of it free, or you can choose to donate to the event and access all of the talks and conversations - well worth it!

Deconstructing Whiteness: Joy Brennan, a Soto Zen priest and a professor of Buddhism and East Asian Studies, offered a powerful article on whiteness through the lens of the Yogachara tradition. She writes: “The call for white people to understand how whiteness as an identity construct came about and how it shapes our own experiences is a call to overcome this false subject–object divide and to see the workings of the mind for what they are.”

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