A Buddhist Reading of Octavia Butler: A Conversation with Dr. Jessica Zu

September 5, 2026 | Events

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Presented with the Institute of Buddhist Studies

🗓️ November 4, 2026 @ 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST

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How Do We Meet Each Other?

A Series of Black-Asian Dialogues in Buddhist America

A Buddhist Reading of Octavia Butler: A Conversation with Dr. Jessica Zu

 

Jessica Zu is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized peoples to seek justice, build community, and change the self and the world. Her public scholarship asks how scholars could practice relational accountability in their knowledge production and co-create conducive conditions for the flourishing of pluri-versal (against uni-versal) futures. Her 2025 Book—Just Awakening: Yogacara Social Philosophy in Modern China–is published with Columbia University Press. She widely publishes in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, Sophia, Topoi, and History of Religions.

This conversation series brings Black and Asian-American Buddhist scholars and practitioners together for honest dialogue about what it means to practice Buddhism in America today. These conversation partners aim to create bridges and ask nuanced questions — about ancestral practices and culture, about appropriation and erasure, and about what it means to evolve the Buddhist tradition to meet the current moment.

Each conversation is also a practice in itself: honoring the cultural roots each person brings, building real political solidarity, and growing a Buddhist community rooted in both care and accountability.

Hosted by Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, IBS Research Fellow

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies. She is the author of three books and several academic articles on Buddhism and Black culture, as well as religious approaches to systemic violence.

This series is generously funded by the Henry J. Luce Foundation.

More from Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad

James Baldwin argued that racism is not a “Black problem” but a white fear-driven delusion that scapegoats Black people and evades interior work. Drawing on Baldwin’s essays and testimony, we discuss his critique of white moral pretentiousness, evasion, and the projection of shame and fear—especially the fear of death—onto Black bodies. We also see how Baldwin’s analysis relates to Buddhist teaching on dependent origination from the Rice Seedling Sutra.

 

In this dharma talk, we investigate the role of Sati—which is translated as knowing, awareness, presence, or mindfulness—in the writings of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, in conversation with early Buddhist writings.
In this dharma talk, we understand the weight of suffering through the eyes of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. We learn how Baldwin gleaned the difference between suffering due to the violence of racism, and suffering that is central to the human experience. We learn about Lorde’s embrace of the idea that pain can teach us something important, but that we need not suffer uselessly.

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