04.05.2024 Black & Buddhist In 2014, while earning my doctorate in pastoral counseling, I began mining gems of wisdom from Black Buddhist practitioners in the U.S. I wanted to find out if Buddhism is good for Black people, because for years, it had been ingrained in me that it was not. From my research I learned that — contrary to what I’d previously been told — Buddhism isn’t just helpful for people of Asian and European descent. Black practitioners in the Insight tradition who responded to my research told me that they felt profoundly and remarkably more resilient as a result of their Buddhist practices, and I published those findings. Over the past decade, other research focused on Black Buddhists has taken place, most notably by Professor Rima Vesely-Flad in her book Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022). Now more such research projects are in the works, so what is emerging is increased attention from academia. The new issue of Lion’s Roar magazine is a “Black and Buddhist” issue. I am so excited about this issue that it’s impossible to be still, even after years of practice! All the teachings, stories, and illustrations in the issue are by Black creators, some with celebrity status, and some you may be encountering for the first time. Within its pages, Black Buddhist practitioners from different traditions offer fine art, literature, insights on activism, and more. They discuss African and Buddhist deities, provide practices for folks in different economic situations, and offer powerful reflections on the ten paramis, the perfected qualities of enlightened beings. Below, you’ll find three pieces from the issue, each providing a glimpse into a world known only to a relatively few people on this earth. It is the world of the Black Buddhist experience in America. As you prepare to enter this world, allow yourself to open your mind, your heart, your history, your conditioning, and be blessed by the lived experiences, the insights, the art, the practices, and the wisdom of African Americans practicing the buddhadharma today. Reach deeply into this ebony box of onyx gems and see how blackness shines within the triple gems. —Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Associate Editor, Lion’s Roar 10 Ways to Find True Happiness Introduced by Kaira Jewel Lingo, ten Black dharma teachers dive deep into the paramis, the ten qualities of enlightened beings.   I learned about the six paramitas when I was twenty-three, the first time I attended a retreat in Plum Village, France. I was deeply moved by their nobility. While hiking in the Pyrenees after the monthlong summer retreat, I remember coming upon a beautiful tree covered in soft, emerald moss. In that moment, I spontaneously improvised a paramita prostration practice with the tree as my altar. I knelt with reverence to the tree. I placed my forehead on the earth and turned my palms upward. I breathed in and out, contemplating how I could be more open to the paramita of giving, looking for concrete ways to cultivate generosity in the coming days. After a few minutes, I stood and bowed. I prostrated again, nestling into the soft earth, and contemplated how I could deepen my ethical conduct in daily life. Then, in turn, I contemplated the other four paramitas.   ADVERTISEMENT Open Heart, Wise Heart: The Life & Teachings of Ruth King   Mindfulness allowed renowned Buddhist teacher Ruth King to heal from trauma. Now she helps others find their own healing. A profile by Toni Pressley-Sanon.   How many of us, because of our gender and/or race, have been subjected to assaults on both the “micro” level and the macro level? How many of us have had our childhood innocence stolen by members of our families or strangers who could not face their own rage and sense of helplessness, or by people of other races who felt it necessary to vocalize what they thought of us and “our kind”? King’s work helps us understand that the aggressions leveled at us are symptomatic of what she calls “a disease of the heart.”   True Liberation: Black & Buddhist in America Recently the nonprofit organizatoin Dharma Relief awarded fellowships to Black Buddhist leaders for their work supporting Black communities. Here, Lion’s Roar’s Pamela Ayo Yetunde hosts a roundtable conversation with four of those fellows: Jean Marie Robbins, Pamela Freeman, Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith, and Victoria Cary. Bringing their lived experience to bear, they talk about how Buddhist practice is helping Black people heal from the impact of racism and discover inner peace. Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith: The dharma is a healing force. It’s medicine for the soul. That is why I do it. I practice because everything that is a part of life is in the dharma — the truth of the nature of things. It is a language that I understand, I think, from way back to all of my different indigenous roots. It is the language of what is present, what is real. Practicing the dharma allows me to contemplate, discover, and reflect on ways that I might be able to live this life with more ease and peace, love myself, forgive myself, love others, forgive others in a way that includes forgiving them for racism. The dharma is medicine; it provides me with a salve, which to me are the teachings that, when practiced and applied to my life, support the healing of my being.