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No More Race Talk

| arun

I’ve lost sleep recently, overwhelmed with doubt and confusion. When I started this blog nearly a year ago, I had an unshakeable sense of mission. Someone needed to speak up for Asian Americans in the Buddhist community. Since those heady early days, my conviction has faded, although my blogging has continued. Then my attitudes slowly began changing. Today I read similar sentiments on another blog, which helped me realize that there’s a deeper truth out there.

We really are just one race. I mean the human race. I know I’ve been blathering on about racial diversity for months now—but it’s all pointless. Because we can’t build a modern and supportive community if we continue to recognize and reinstantiate antiquated and socially constructed divisions like race. Every word I’ve typed on so-called “race issues” has ended up dividing our communities and vilifying innocent organizations who aren’t doing anything other than creating open spaces for true enlightenment. Only when we can let go of racial distinctions will we finally be able to let go of racism.

We need to stop talking about “white privilege” and making white people feel guilty for so-called “racial inequity.” Being white comes with absolutely no privilege at all—there are tens of millions of poor white people in America, and I’m sure they don’t feel privileged. Historical issues of slavery, Chinese exclusion acts, Japanese internment are the fault of no one alive today. No one benefits from these long-ago injustices other than dead people! And it’s not the responsibility of white people to know about what they didn’t do. All this race talk amounts to nothing more than a thinly veiled perpetuation of racism towards white people.

More than anything, I must apologize to all Buddhists of Color who’ve been reading this blog. We need to accept that enlightenment knows no color. We need to stop perpetuating a mentality of victimhood. So what if our ancestors were oppressed? So what if there aren’t many “Asian Americans” in Buddhist magazines? Let me share a Buddhist secret with you: the First Noble Truth is, “Life sucks!” We were born where we were by virtue of our karma from a past life, and it’s our job to not cling to that and focus on the real goal of enlightenment. Just shut up and deal with it. If it means you have to try harder than someone else, then try harder. Your enlightenment is your own responsibility.

So from now on, no more talk about race. If you feel people in the magazines don’t look like you—well, that’s your ego talking. If you get upset when someone calls you Chinese when you’re really Japanese—well, that’s your ego talking again. Talking about race will only create more suffering, divide the community and ultimately hasten the downfall of Buddhism. We live in an age where a black man can become president of the United States of America, I think it’s high time that we can finally stop talking about race in American Buddhism, and move onto important things.

Many thanks to Mixed Race America for these incredible insights.

Akon’s Sri Lankan Tale

| arun

News stories about Akon have been clogging my Buddhist news feed. If you’ve been ignoring the situation as much as I’ve been, here’s an overview of what’s been going on.

  • Less than two weeks ago I learned about Akon’s music video, which many deemed an insult to Buddhism. [The Worst Horse]
  • Protests degenerated from heated rhetoric to stone-throwing before Akon’s scheduled Sri Lanka performance. [The Worst Horse]
  • The government yielded to internal pressure from a fired up constituency and refused to issue Akon a travel visa. [Barbara’s Buddhism Blog]
  • Sri Lanka’s overseas public image certainly isn’t benefiting from the antics of this controversial minority of militant, nationalist Buddhists. [Sweep the Dust, Push the Dirt]
  • Ven. Dhammika provides his own musings on this topic.I can’t say I have ever heard of Akon. But if he’s touring Sri Lanka (a beautiful country but let’s face it, top of the list [f]or rock music backwaters) he must be very desperate. And as for his video, I think the indignant monks can go back to their meditation in peace. After the video and Akon himself are forgotten (in 5 years?) the Buddha will still be around and attracting an audience. The Buddha has survived worse.[Dhamma Musings]

Will the furor die down now that Akon’s rescheduled to the Maldives?

Buddhist America in the Press

| arun

I decided to sift more finely through my “Buddhist” news feed and pick out articles on Buddhism in North America—some more tangentially than others. Here are some stories from March 26–29 (in no particular order).

  • Arjia Rinpoche discusses his book about experiences under Chinese rule at the Morris Book shop in Lexington Kentucky. [Lexington Herald-Leader]
  • The Frederick News-Post covers Zen master Gosung Shin at the American Zen College in Germantown, Maryland. [Frederick News-Post]
  • Buddhist nun Jun Yasuda leads a 700-mile trek through New York for environmental responsibility. [The Citizen]
  • Rabbi Vanessa Boettiger connects tonglen practice with a meditation on Passover. [The Bennington Banner]
  • Geshe Thupten Phelgye speaks about economics and human rights at Gonzaga University. [Gonzaga Bulletin]
  • Buddhist monks from Los Angeles join in a ceremony at the Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat race. [Oregon Live]
  • Chua Phuoc Hau in Louisville suffers vandalism, but also receives community support. [The Courier-Journal] (Also see Danny Fisher’s blog.)
  • Brandeis students incorporate Buddhist meditation into a weeklong celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. [The Brandeis Hoot]
  • The Missourian covers the state’s only Cambodian Buddhist monk. [Columbia Missourian]
  • Watsonville Buddhist Temple holds a pancake fundraiser to support a Buddhist youth conference. [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
  • The Argus Observer reflects on Shin Buddhism and Hana Matsuri at the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple. [Argus Observer]
  • Here’s a snapshot of the diverse Buddhist scene in Austin, Texas. [Austin American-Statesman]

It’s a great task for a sick day when you don’t want to do anything mentally intensive. I also feel so much more connected to Buddhist America! Maybe I’ll do it again next week.

From Cradle to…?

| arun

One term bandied about at the Buddhism without Borders conference was cradle Buddhists. I believe Thomas Tweed gets credit for this term, one which aims to refer to Buddhists who grow up in Buddhist families, regardless of whether their families have been Buddhist for over a thousand years or whether their parents quit Catholicism and joined a Zen Center in the seventies. As Wakoh Shannon Hickey discussed problems with different Buddhist typologies, she made a side comment that perhaps I would be satisfied with the term cradle Buddhist.

Well, I don’t like it.

For the record, I appreciate the motivation behind this term, that it transcends the racial (dare I say racist?) undercurrent in the common day use of other terms like ethnic Buddhists and immigrant Buddhists. But to be very plain, this term is infantilizing. I’m also perfectly happy associating with another term that darts about the literature: heritage Buddhists.

For those of us who like to hang out in Asian America, the term heritage Buddhist is very powerful. This expression conveys the very true sense that Buddhism is woven into the fabric of our cultural heritage. Like the broad sense of the term heritage speaker, it includes both people who imbibe Buddhism through their childhood milieu and also those who later come to Buddhism through a sense of affinity with their cultural heritage. Heritage Buddhist gets at how we see ourselves.

Heritage shouldn’t be understood in contrast to convert. Several of my friends identify as both convert and heritage Buddhists. They are not born into Buddhist families (i.e. they’re not “cradle Buddhists”), but they also relate to Buddhism through a sense of familiarity or belonging. At the same time, many of us “cradle” Buddhists very much turned our backs on the Buddhism of our childhoods, only to be drawn back to different forms that diverge radically from the traditions we first experienced. One example is in the growing interest in the Vietnamese community for Theravada Buddhism. So while still heritage Buddhists, many of us are also converts within our own religion.

Lastly, don’t overlook the distinction of the growing pool of converts’ children (Dharma brats?) and their children out there. I’m happy to call them heritage Buddhists too, but this group grapples with some very unique issues that deserve to be understood in the context of their unique identities and upbringing. I’m not sure that plopping all of us down in the same cradle—as opposed to converts and sympathizers—appropriately reflects differences in both how we act and also how we see ourselves.

So scholars, maybe think about revisiting the term heritage Buddhist. If there’s an exceptional moral/academic imperative behind the term cradle Buddhists, is it so hard to instead talk about “Buddhists raised in Buddhist families”? Maybe I just dislike being institutionally infantilized.

What better term can you think of to replace cradle Buddhist?

Some Effective Outreach

| arun

I finally meditated at Against the Stream tonight. In spite of all obstacles, I made it there, I’m glad I went, and I plan on going again. It’s taken me well over two years to finally get myself over there. For all my writing about increasing diversity in the Buddhist community, I was feeling a bit hypocritical without actually trying to spend time with the whiter groups that I routinely hold in my crosshairs.

Now, I have to admit that I very likely would never have gone if it hadn’t been for one of the readers of my blogs, who happened to notice that I live in Southern California and invited me to the People of Color Night at Against the Stream. I was subsequently invited to attend the Wednesday meditation group. And I went! Simply because the person who invited me was a Person of Color, someone who shares the same concerns and many of the same experiences that I do.

That’s effective outreach right there!

Thank you, Against the Stream, for hosting a People of Color Night, and showing that you care. Thank you, Erica, for kickstarting Urban Refuge where I found out about all this. You all made a difference for at least this Buddhist here.

Yay Theravada!

| arun

In a most intriguing presentation today at the Buddhism without Borders conference, Todd Pereira discards the notion that Anagarika Dharmapala initiated American contact with Theravada in 1893. Instead he looks back even further to August 16, 1829, on which date the famous conjoined brothers Chang and Eng stepped foot on American soil. It may very well be is certainly the case that these brothers later converted to Christianity—they are buried in the graveyard of a Baptist church they had helped build—but their arrival no less stirred up many questions on religion, if not merely the religious imagination.

The connection here to a robust Theravada Buddhist philosophy and practice is, admittedly, exceedingly tenuous. More than anything, the notion that these brothers might not be Christian (even if they already were) opened the door a little more to the possibilities of religion beyond the Abrahamic context of nineteenth century America. Was it an introduction of Buddhism at all? I’m leaning towards doubt.*

In the broader civil rights context, the brothers were true pioneers in Asian American history. They were probably the first Asians to marry white Americans, to be American citizens and to vote in American elections. In less contemporarily popular American firsts, they also grew tobacco, owned slaves and their sons fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War! At this point in his speech, Todd Perreira smiled at the audience, stuck his tongue in his cheek, and yelled, “Yay Theravada!”

I look forward to his published research, which includes much more than the (again, admittedly tenuous) story of Chang and Eng Bunker. Although most Theravada temples were established by Asian immigrants who came after 1965, Buddhist Americans seem all too quick to forget those who came before. Some of my favorite stories include the Buddhist monarch who offered Lincoln assistance in the Civil War, or even the Buddhist monarch born on American soil.

*Update: Many thanks to a certain scholar who kindly pointed out off-the-blog that as the Bunkers self-identified as Baptists, they and their descendants deserve to have this remembered. The post has been changed accordingly.

Home Altars

| arun

Nate DeMontigny is collecting photos of home altars. How fabulous! If I had one, I would submit in a heartbeat. The closest thing I have right now is a travel altar on loan. Ever since my main Buddha statue broke, the other altarpieces have dispersed themselves around my home. Imagine if these photos were gathered up into a home altar gallery. How wonderful would that be!

Multiracial Asian Americans Needed!

| arun

I know a few of the readers here and at Dharma Folk identify as hapa/mixed-race Asian Americans. They might be interested in participating in the study below.

Participants Needed for Study on Biracial Asian-White Family Relationships

I am writing to you from Loyola Marymount University where I am an honors student in the Psychology Department. I am currently working with Dr. Adam Fingerhut on an online survey study about Asian/White biracial individuals. The study has been approved by LMU’s Institutional Review Board (LMU IRB # 2009 F-42).

I am trying to recruit a large sample of Asian/Caucasian biracialindividuals for a study on family relationships. Those who participate in this study will be entered into a lottery to win one of 10 $20 iTunes gift cards. To participate, or to learn more about the research, please visit:

www.biracialstudy.com

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Allison McFarland at amcfarla@lion.lmu.edu, or Adam Fingerhut, Ph.D. at afingerh@LMU.edu, 310-258-8637.

Thanks!
Allison McFarland

I strongly encourage it! I’d suggest looking into it even if you were adopted into a biracial family.

Allies & Identity

| arun

Reviewing Mark Herrmann’s thoughts on blogging makes me wonder if I can balance community involvement with the toil of the blog. Or maybe I need to six sigma it up a little. Regardless, I have a bouquet of interesting webpages open in browser tabs—and far too little time to explore them as I’d like to—below is an unorganized survey of what’s on my mind.

Many thanks to Justin Whitaker for his post on Buddhism and race in America. Also thanks to Maia Duerr for continuing the discussion and providing resources. I never thanked John Pappas either—from back in 2009—but he’s also gone out of his way to educate himself about situations where he’s been bitten, and he’s been happy to share what he’s learned, no less. I am deeply moved by the efforts these individuals make (among other allies out there!)—precisely because they don’t have to, and also because I believe that they have a greater influence among white Buddhists than I do.

Also on my mind are broader thoughts on issues of identity, race and culture. I was inspired by stories of white people without “white names”—particularly, a white American football player who identifies as Japanese American, and a white herbalist with a black name. These stories highlight the fluid ways in which ethnic identity can operate. To an extent, your identity is how you see yourself. But it’s what other people say you are. For most of us, the reality is somewhere in between.

I’m of the mind that the same issues apply to groups of people. When a sangha decides to “strip Buddhism of it’s cultural baggage”—is that an identity statement?

Oh—I finally made it to People of Color Night. I’ve been so inspired! Angelenos, come out an represent come April!

Buddhism & Video Games Come to the Stage

| arun

Full Contact Enlightenment had an interesting post this morning about a play in Los Angeles involving Buddhism and video games!

In the recent newsletter from Ken McLeod, he made mention to a play by the name of “Cave Quest” put on by the East West Players in Las Angeles. The group are described as “The Nation’s premier Asian American theatre and

“EWP has premiered over 100 plays and musicals about the Asian Pacific American experience and has held over 1,000 readings and workshops. Our emphasis is on building bridges between East and West, and one measure of our success is an audience of 56% Asians and a remarkable 44% non-Asian attendance.”

The theme behind EWP’s production of “Cave Quest” will certainly resonate with many Buddhists who are noticing the increased trend towards ‘get enlightenment quick/make me rich’ gurus hoping to package up enlightenment in a easy to purchase format.

The play is described on the EWP’s website as follows:

“The search for inner peace is often a life long journey. However, Justin Yi plans to condense that journey into minutes by packaging it into a $49.95 video game. In order to create the game, he tracks down Padma, a legendary American Buddhist nun in a Tibetan cave high in the Himalayas. Padma hasn’t spoken in five years, but that’s okay, he’s only looking for the bullet points of enlightenment. When Justin’s charm and fervor falls short, he embraces darker tactics and the cave becomes an arena for a conflict of wills and surprising revelations that changes the course of their lives.”

If anyone does check out the play, I’d love to read a review. It’s running until March 14th so get there quick!

Many thanks to TMcG for this heads up. I’ll be sure to check out this playsometime this week!