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Rima Vesely-Flad: Greetings, and welcome. My name is Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad. This is the first of a 10-part podcast series on Black Nichiren Buddhists. It is one prong of a larger project on Buddhism and Black liberation. Buddhism is a religious tradition founded in South Asia.
It has been increasingly embraced by Black [00:01:00] practitioners in the United States over the span of 2,600 years. Buddhist teachings emerged, consolidated, and spread from South Asia to China and Japan, and in the seventh century to Tibet. Later, Buddhist teachings of these respective traditions moved westward toward Europe and the Americas.
And in the 20th century, Buddhism’s distinctive teachings on suffering, impermanence, and enlightenment began to attract many Black practitioners. Today, Buddhist thought is well known among Black musicians, artists, scholars, and activists.
My own enthusiasm for Buddhist thought, as it is conveyed through Black voices, is boundless. In April 2022, I published the book Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of [00:02:00] Stillness and the Movement for Liberation. Later that same year, I led a series of online conversations with five Black Buddhist teachers.
This podcast series on Black Nichiren Buddhists is yet another outgrowth of this project. The themes I introduce in these podcast episodes ask how Buddhist practice serves the movement for Black liberation.
Before I go further, I want to introduce myself and the personal reasons I have engaged in this work. I’m someone who loves the world of books. I’m a scholar of religion, philosophy, and Black studies. I came of age politically living in post-apartheid South Africa, and worked as an activist in the United States doing anti-prison advocacy.
I was in the midst of brilliance and committed to the political liberation of my [00:03:00] people, who had suffered violence and exclusion for centuries.
And I was unsettled and anxious. I was always afraid — and honestly, this fear came out sideways even when I tried to restrain it. I often had a hard time in interpersonal relationships if I felt slighted or rebuffed. I was deeply triggered by even the smallest rejection.
This was due, in part, to harm caused by family members who had wounded me at an early age. Of course, this came out in my activist communities. It became clear to me over time that if I could not work effectively with my own mind — if I could not heal my own heart — then I could not work effectively in my political commitments.
This awareness, which [00:04:00] emerged slowly over time, of my acute need to heal, brought me to my Buddhist practice.
I had tried to conform to Christian theology — I had even studied it formally — but it was the practice of turning toward my own mind, my anxiety, my fear, my hatred, my anger. It was that practice that provided a way forward.
I learned meditation practices first in Zen Buddhism, and then in the Theravāda lineages of Southeast Asia, and I began to have a broader view of the meaning of liberation.
I now think of liberation as political, psychological, and spiritual in its different dimensions. For many Black Buddhists, the political project of Black liberation requires psychological and spiritual resources. We find [00:05:00] these compelling teachings and practices in the Buddhist tradition — and this is not new.
Buddhist teachings have always been adapted to the environments in which they’re transmitted. This is true of Buddhism as it is embraced by Black people in the West, in the United States.
One of the Buddhist lineages that has garnered exceptional attention is the Japanese-based lineage Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren Buddhism teaches about Buddha nature, which is defined as the capacity to awaken.
This Buddha nature permeates all beings. It’s an optimistic view of human nature and of animals and the world around us. It teaches us to cultivate goodness in ourselves and to respect the potential for goodness in others.
Nichiren Buddhists [00:06:00] cultivate this innate goodness — this innate Buddha nature — by chanting the title of the Lotus Sutra. This helps them attain wisdom and act compassionately to bring about harmony in society. It helps them manifest happiness in their daily lives.
Engaging in this practice through a Black or Afrocentric lens has fueled transformative experiences for Black Nichiren Buddhists, and this podcast series illuminates the extent of that transformation.
One theme consistent in my interviews with Black Nichiren Buddhists is the importance of music and the emphasis on social justice. By internalizing a narrative of innate Buddha nature while improving social conditions, [00:07:00] Black Nichiren practitioners express how a daily ritual practice has served their mental liberation and their commitment to Black freedom.
And I have to say, in the wake of these interviews, it’s clear to me that even if I personally have not formally practiced it, Nichiren Buddhism is deeply compelling.
I have been researching Black Buddhist thought and practice since 2017 and have found that these Buddhist teachings and practices liberate Black people from psychological suffering — regardless of, or perhaps because of, the specific practices of the various lineages.
Black liberation depends upon healing intergenerational trauma — there’s no doubt about it — and forms of Buddhism [00:08:00] such as Nichiren Buddhism facilitate this process of attaining inner freedom.
I have also discovered that the forms of Buddhism practiced by Black Buddhists emphasize different aspects of the Buddhist tradition than practices found in predominantly white Buddhist communities. This is especially the case in the practices of honoring biological and spiritual ancestors.
Black Buddhists bring distinctive, very beautiful interpretations of the dharma to our communities, and this is especially seen in our embrace of ancestors and elders.
I have been inspired by how Black Buddhists reclaim the Black body as the seat or the vehicle for liberation. Our Black bodies are routinely denigrated in our white, delusional, or white supremacist [00:09:00] society, and this denigration must be taken into account as a source of suffering.
And at the same time, our Black bodies — the Black body, which is capable of anchoring spiritual practices of stillness and movement and sensuality — this Black body is also a conduit for liberation.
I see Black Buddhist practices as models for how to attain psychological liberation, as it is discussed in the Black radical tradition. Black Buddhists cultivate a capacity for non-reactivity.
I have seen beautiful, amazing teachers able to deconstruct false messages imparted in a white supremacist social order. I’ve seen a focus on collective liberation and community. There is an [00:10:00] ability to see beauty, an ability to see and reclaim the Black body.
Since studying Black Buddhist thought — and also in this podcast series, as I’ve talked with Black Nichiren Buddhists — I have continued to investigate ways in which Black musicians, artists, scholars, and activists illuminate Buddhist teachings.
These are teachings on suffering, on the reality of causes and conditions, on the fact of death and impermanence, on the experience of anger and hatred, and on the meaning of freedom.
Oh, freedom. We sing this in our spirituals. Like the music that carried our people through intense oppression over centuries, the chanting practices of Nichiren Buddhism carry forward.
The Black [00:11:00] practitioners interviewed in these episodes tell us what freedom means to them. These are powerful voices.
I’m grateful for support by the Crossroads Project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, as well as the Frederick Len Foundation and the Fetzer Institute.
This podcast series is produced by Sandra Hannebohm, founder of Twice As Good Media.