With the impetus of recent events and growing appreciation of the Black Lives Matter movement, many people, as well as social and cultural institutions, are starting to seriously examine themselves for implicit bias and whether they may be unintentionally contributing to the perpetuation of social inequities. We hope that the current podcast series can be a platform for continuing to explore this perspective in the context of American Mindfulness and vipassana communities.
The United States has been witnessing an explosion of multiracial bravery inspired and led by Black individuals speaking truth to power, standing up against racism and for social justice, from well-known sports franchises to giant corporations. While these acts may at times be confrontational and even put an individual’s job security in jeopardy, they highlight uncomfortable and too-long-ignored truths that societies must finally face, both people as individuals, and collectively. The nature of these challenges to power and the status quo was at times uncomfortable to hear, but mostly they were offered in the spirit of positive change, to push the needle towards initiating—at long last—an honest and open dialog about has been avoided or unseen for far too many years. In this same spirit, even if some of the interviews included in this series may provoke discomfort or unease, we hope that the episodes can be a platform for bringing a similar sort of conversation about entrenched practices, protocols and attitudes within the vipassana and mindfulness communities.
Episodes Include:
Racial Equity Training in the Vipassana organization of S.N. Goenka: What place does engagement in social justice issues have, if any, within vipassana meditation centers in the tradition of S.N. Goenka? That is question Clyde Ford is asking, and is at the heart of a training session he led for students and teachers at Dhamma Kunja, a vipassana center in Washington state. In addition to being a corporate trainer on racial justice, Clyde is a dedicated vipassana meditator in the Goenka tradition. He is also a software engineer, a chiropractor, a psychotherapist, an environmentalist, a 12-time, award-winning author, and currently a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. He has appeared on Oprah and NPR, among other shows, to share his expertise. In this episode, Clyde shares what led to his ground-breaking training at Dhamma Kunja, and what topics he covered in the session. We talk about spiritual bypass, past attempts at targeting courses for African American communities being blocked by the US leadership, proactive outreach opportunities to communities of color, ensuring that vipassana centers are more inclusive, the appointment of Black teachers, and finding a balance between spiritual practice and worldly affairs. This fascinating discussion provides an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at how one North American vipassana center in the tradition of S.N. Goenka is exploring ways to transition into greater sensitivity in the second decade of the 21st century.
Insights in an Unjust World: At this time of increased tensions, there is a sore need for personal reflection and introspection, deep and active listening of “the other”, and communication across all boundaries and communities. And when we do this based firmly on the bedrock of the Buddha’s timeliness teachings of liberation, the possibility of living through these difficult days together, while advancing on the Path, converge. On this episode, we are treated to a reflective and introspective look at how Black practitioners have applied Dhamma wisdom through the pain of racism and prejudice.
An Assault on Faith: Sometimes a single moment can be so profound… or so complex… that it takes hours, or even days, following the encounter to get a handle on it. In the story that follows, that “moment” has been taking years to process. In this case, the actual moment in question is simple enough: Yonie, an African-American vipassana meditator in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, travels to Myanmar to pay homage to the lineage of his teacher and consider monastic ordination. Several days into his stay at a Yangon monastery, he is in the dining hall awaiting lunch, when a long-standing Burmese monk aggressively motions for him to leave, and when he doesn’t, the monastic hauls off and kicks him. This disturbing incident—which in terms of time, lasted no more than a minute—is astounding in its complexity, and poses many swirling questions to untangle and process. Our conversation unfolds with Yonie and I doing our best to explore its many threads, and includes such topics as global anti-racism, how Dhamma practice can inform one’s response to prejudice, the collective trauma of Burmese given their recent history, the indirect nature of Burmese communication, and much more.
The Rocky Road of Dhamma: We examine the overlapping lines of Dhamma practice, racism and social justice in this episode by talking to three Black American meditation teachers. We hope that this show can be a platform for examining entrenched biases, practices and attitudes within the vipassana and mindfulness communities.