An Uneven but Evolving Change

“I actually see a vast difference, in a positive way, of the evolving Buddhist community in the West, really different from when I came to Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 1991. What I see is a much broader awareness of social issues. And certainly, in the last five or ten years, a much deeper wrestling with issues of race and diversity, and how that fits with the Dharma in this [USA] country. I see that as development. And I also see it as just the beginning of it. Because we're still in the process of looking at the - again, this is an Engaged Buddhist perspective - looking at the structural elements that support a status quo of privilege, of white privilege, if you will, and of male privilege. Those are being chipped away at. But there's so much work to do to actually change and diversify and democratize the structures of our centers, of our institutions. So, that work is happening some places, not happening in other places. It's very uneven, but it's happening in a way that it absolutely was not happening on 1991, when just very few people had these kinds of awarenesses.”

— Alan Senauke