When Refuge in One other Sangha on MLK Day Was No Longer Sufficient

For Tanya Marie Bonner, the absence of the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at her dwelling sangha was all the time perplexing. Right here, she shares the journey of making an annual program to honor Dr. King and his life’s dedication to the alleviation of the struggling.

Prologue

The monastic management of the Zen Buddhist monastery of which I had been intently affiliated as a lay practitioner had by no means provided any particular purpose why Martin Luther King, Jr. Day had come and gone for many years with none formal ceremonial occasion to commemorate it.

However there did come a time when this absence was now not sustainable for me in a predominantly white sangha as an African-American girl.

That point was within the later a part of 2019, and would lead to our monastery’s first MLK Day Sunday program in January 2020, proper earlier than town, nation, and world as we all know can be perpetually modified by the COVID-19 pandemic. And earlier than the reckonings round racial injustice that might reverberate throughout establishments within the nation.

Dr. King himself embodied the Buddha in his makes an attempt on the liberation of Black folks and different oppressed folks chained underneath a system of racial and financial oppression.

This absence of Dr. King in my dwelling sangha was all the time perplexing to me. Dr. King’s total life’s work was concerning the alleviation of the struggling of Black folks and different oppressed folks within the nation. King himself embodied the Buddha in his makes an attempt on the liberation of those self same folks chained underneath a system of racial and financial oppression.

By the point I sought a proper MLK ceremonial occasion at my sangha, a shift in myself had already occurred. I had moved from pondering the “why” of this absence to asking “why not now?” And, frankly, I didn’t have the capability to sort out each the foundation (why?) and to work with monastic management on creating programming that might set up a brand new sample of acknowledging this essential day (why not now?) on the similar time. This was as a result of there had been so many different earlier efforts to shift patterns of invisibility of the wants of the non-white sangha members that I used to be not simply drained. I used to be, as some Black of us would say, “tired-tired.” Extra than simply drained. Drained squared. Sick and uninterested in being sick and drained. Exhausted.

The Lonely Sangha

The primary chapter in my journey in Zen Buddhism and towards January 2020 started after I was first launched to Zen Buddhism through fellow yoga practitioners in Boston, Massachusetts. The second chapter started a couple of years later after I moved to New York Metropolis in 2004 to enroll in an MBA program, and started in search of a Buddhist “dwelling” on this new metropolis.

The third jewel of the three treasures remained elusive to me on this journey. I knew from the second I used to be first launched to Zen Buddhism that I might take refuge within the Buddha and within the Dharma teachings. These two issues offered me with each day knowledge, consolation, and assist as I journeyed via my life. However the sangha was one other story. I discovered myself for years floating round from Buddhist temple to Buddhist temple, monastery to monastery in quest of that place that felt like dwelling.

I wasn’t anticipating a sangha utopia. Like the superbly imperfect Enso ‘circle’ that stops simply wanting being utterly closed, I used to be comfortable with issues being lower than splendid. I had been raised in public housing in a predominantly African-American and poor neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois by folks aside from my dad and mom (my grandparents). And I break up my time and my identities between that world and a predominantly white and prosperous academic surroundings because of my educational achievements. I used to be able to sitting comfortable with messy.

However lingering stares from white sangha members after I would enter a brand new Buddhist house, the hypervigilance of policing my actions inside, and my invisibility as others mingled round me throughout refreshments after Sunday providers made these environments really feel not simply messy, however unsafe. Efforts to supply house for folks of colour to be in group and apply collectively in some sanghas have been generally met pushback and with accusations of fostering “duality.” This normal sense of feeling “othered” would trigger me to proceed looking out. I grew to become a nomad of types. I’d land largely at my common temple run by the monastic order the place I’d convey that MLK occasion as a result of I drastically wanted and was drawn to its intensive Dharma trainings and its stunning ceremonies that made me really feel a robust connection to the Buddhist ancestors. However I continued to drift from place to position, capitalizing on the strengths of the varied sanghas within the metropolis.

Sangha is meant to be that imperfect, but sustaining basis as we work to develop in our apply.

A type of locations was a New York Perception Mediation Middle sangha that might yearly maintain an occasion on MLK Day in collaboration with its POC sangha. On that particular Monday each January, I might breathe. I’d really feel seen amongst many others who shared my expertise of being a minority in America, and of being an African-American girl in America. And each time I’d return to my common sangha for providers, I’d mourn the lack of that feeling of reference to my common sangha.

There’s a purpose that Sangha is included among the many three treasures. Sangha in its conventional which means refers back to the monastics and different academics in whom lay practitioners like myself search assist alongside the Eight-Fold Path. This definition was expanded within the West to consult with all members of a Buddhist group. Tibetan Buddhist Trainer and Shambhala Founder Chogyam Trungpa as soon as described the essential function sanghas play this manner: “The sangha is the group of people that have the right proper to chop via your journeys and feed you with their knowledge, in addition to the right proper to exhibit their very own neurosis and be seen via by you.” (O’Brien, 2020). Sangha is meant to be that imperfect, but sustaining basis as we work to develop in our apply. It supplies a supportive, guiding hand once we lose our approach.

I had watched for nearly 20 years POC sangha members be known as upon and/or volunteer their emotional labor on behalf of white sangha members to “reduce via…journeys” and “feed…with their knowledge.” The connection felt very one-sided. It was tough for POC sangha members to be “fed” when these upon whom they rely to chop via their very own “journeys” and challenges are caught in their very own fears round identification, race, and the nation’s historical past of white supremacy. A necessity for larger variety in issues like Dharma academics, retreat choices, and sangha practices would have to be identified after which options actively conceived and largely executed by POCs themselves.

Calling Collectively the Beloved Group

That is how I arrived at declaring the annual invisibility of the presence of Dr. King each January and taking a management function in working with monastics and another POC sangha members in planning that first MLK Sunday service. In between a full-time job, educating part-time at a College, and serving on my native governmental group board, I gave all of myself to this occasion, as did different POCs serving to to execute it.

Admittedly, this primary foray into an MLK Day service was quite a bit about private want. I used to be decided to create the sangha I wanted. I used to be uninterested in roaming to pay homage to this particular person who performed a key function in my very own present freedoms. I additionally longed for a deeper reference to my sangha as results of their eyes opening up and eventually seeing me.

I left that day feeling nearer to and extra seen my sangha than I had ever felt earlier than.

I contemplated why others like me could have hesitated in pushing for this previously. Had the hierarchies constructed throughout the sangha (i.e., monastic and lay individuals, Board Members and everybody else) satisfied POC sangha members of their restricted energy to affect such main adjustments? Had we internalized our personal powerlessness? However I used to be decided to step into my very own energy and in my understanding of my equal place throughout the sangha. And my query about “what if we maintain an MLK Day occasion?” grew to become an announcement of “we should.” The high-ranking monastic who was serving to us with occasion planning expressed fears concerning the unknown, and the way this occasion can be obtained by the sangha. She was afraid of the deliberate “open dialogue” a part of the occasion, and whether or not issues would get too heated. And, truthfully, we have been all a bit afraid. I felt an unlimited stress to get this proper, lest POCs within the sangha are denied a chance to strive once more.

Then on January 19, 2020, the sangha opened its doorways for its first MLK Day Program, and we known as it “Calling Collectively the Beloved Group.” This system was open to not solely the monastic and lay practitioners, but in addition to any members of the various Brooklyn group exterior of the predominantly white sangha doorways who wished to hitch us. And so they did in a packed corridor.

We stored issues uncomplicated and easy that first yr. We sat in a a number of row semi-circle. Numerous sangha members and others from the group volunteered to learn various quotes from the Buddha and MLK. An altar with the well-known {photograph} of MLK and Thich Nhat Hanh greeted attendees as they entered. We listened to recordings of MLK’s phrases. There was a Dharma speak. Folks made ancestral choices on the altar. And that open dialogue ended up being fairly highly effective and nurturing. I left that day feeling nearer to and extra seen my sangha than I had ever felt earlier than.

Epilogue

There’s now an annual MLK Day program each January on the sangha, albeit digital now as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

And whereas different unresolved points round race, energy, privilege, and oppression throughout the sangha have resulted in my selecting a extra restricted involvement than previously, I really feel an unlimited sense of service to current and future sangha members in having laid the inspiration for this essential day of recognition.

Maybe others might be impressed to proceed to ask for the sangha that they want in different methods. Could they have the ability to roam much less and know they’ve discovered dwelling.

Namaste.

Reference

O’Brien, Barbara (2020, August 25) Taking Refuge: Turning into a Buddhist. Retrieved from https://www.learningreligions.com/taking-refuge-becoming-a-buddhist-450056

This text was created in collaboration with Buddhist Justice Reporter, who describe themselves as a group of BIPOC dharma practitioners engaged in peaceable resistance to white supremacy and violence.