Brother on the Path: Bhante Panna
I’ve long followed Bhante Panna’s fascinating spiritual journey through his Instagram photos, YouTube testimonials, and short blog entries. An African-American Buddhist monk in Thailand and Cambodia, his wisdom and life experiences have so much to offer. So I’ve been wanting to talk to him for a long time! Although we have a longer sit-down interview in the works for an upcoming podcast, I was delighted we were able to talk to him briefly for this third episode in our Dhamma & Race series.
“There is trouble on the path at times, because there is nobody that I have met so far that is like me. I’m the only black monk that I have met in three years, period!”
“Being a monk from African American descent, or Aboriginal descent, is also something that is very surprisingly amazing and beautiful, with all its ups and downs. It is also a very beautiful experience because what I've learned through meditation, and Buddhism, is something I would be able to take back to my community, and share with them the things that I've learned that maybe they, or we, have never really been in contact with before, ever!
So it's a responsibility, but a beautiful responsibility. And it actually helps my practice, it helps me want to do better and be more sincere in my practice.
So therefore, I don't tarnish the image that the Buddha has prescribed for us. And I'd like to see more people from the African Diaspora becoming involved, and Buddhist practice as a monk or at least a practitioner of Vipassana, and learn how to apply the skills that will learn from Buddhism in their everyday life.
There is trouble on the path at times, because I do have to understand that there is nobody that I have met so far that is like me on the path. I'm the only black monk that I have met in three years, period!
And we do get a level of treatment that is different from others. And sometimes they can be out of naiveté. Or sometimes they could be out of malice. But it's still not enough to stop me from becoming a better person. The actions or ignorance of someone else is their mistake. That's their karma. But the way I respond to it would make it my karma.
So I choose to react in a way that is going to make my peace, tranquility, more important than my personal feelings and thoughts about someone else's misinformation or misjudgments. With that being said, the only way up is to keep walking forward. If I'm too busy looking behind me and too busy looking too far ahead of me, I won't be able to pay attention to what I'm doing in the present moment. I can miss a step, and I can fall off the ladder. If I pay attention to right now, I have the power to change the past and the future because they all happen at this moment right now.”