The alternative is Black Buddhism---we choose to meditate and achieve both psychological and spiritual liberation through silence---allowing for Black and Queer bodies to free themselves from a society and debate built on white myopia, microaggressions, and systemic injustices.

The suffering induced by racism compels Black Buddhists to interpret teach- ings on non-self in nuanced ways. Many practitioners spoke of the impor- tance of bringing lived experience—including suffering due to racism—to the cushion. These practitioners spoke of the trauma endured by African ancestors and a need to honor the cultural heritages within African traditions, as well as to remember the agony of being dislocated from families, land, traditions, and languages. The Black Buddhist teachers and practitioners interviewed for this study are keenly aware that they stand on the shoulders of those who have paved a path to social and institutional access; they are also deeply in touch with the anguish that they themselves feel. Black Buddhist practitioners feel the weight of oppression in predominantly white sanghas as well as the larger social environment. They note that white practitioners will notice dark skin color without acknowledging their own discomfort and myopia. The hegemonic whiteness of American Buddhism can feel alienat- ing and isolating; whiteness perpetuates suffering in an environment that is, paradoxically, actively focused on alleviating suffering. As Black people become liberated, it is critical that white practitioners who possess privileged bodies—within white hegemonic contexts that privilege them—be compelled Racism and Anatta95 to interrogate their assumptions, their social power, and their tendency to individualize suffering. As white people “do their work,” it is important that Black people be vis- ible and affirmed in predominantly white spaces: in sanghas, workplaces, and in a society that aggressively polices people of color. In addition to promoting the value of Blackness, it is important to promote queer identity: to embrace the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. For many Black Buddhist teachers, finding a spiritual home in which queer identity is welcomed is as paramount as finding a sangha that grapples with race, racism, and privilege. In short, promoting Blackness and queerness allows for a social ease in a broader culture that suffers from white myopia, microaggressions, and systemic injustices. The ability to be honest about the origins of suffering facilitates exhaling, taking off masks, and cultivating of authentic pres- ence. Practitioners feel that they are showing up for their own lives, in their entirety; that they can embrace Black identity and also let it dissolve; and that race does not have to be the central facilitating aspect of their relationships with themselves. They can be whole people who possess dark skin, and at the same time, they do not have to focus entirely on their embodiment, even as skin color mediates their experience in predominantly white social spaces, including sanghas. In being able to take off masks and establish an authentic presence, Black Buddhist practitioners see themselves as being able to embrace two truths: conventional and mystical; relative and absolute. They can be “in the world, but not of it.” They acknowledge the importance of embodiment, but in the practice of silence, can also transcend the messages and norms that are relied upon in the social world. This is often a progression: Black practitioners grapple with their social identity while sitting on the cushion. Over time, the mind settles and a state of non-thinking is accessible. As Black practitioners access a psychological state of emptiness, not thinking, they can eventually hold together two ways of being: a self in the social world, and a non-self in a state of impermanence and constant change. The ability to reach this internal state is psychologically liberating. The Black Buddhists who participated in this study assert that psychological liberation is a precursor for social liberation: Black people must be able to acknowledge, transcend, and transform the degrading constructs of Blackness in order to achieve political freedom. Sitting with racially induced suffering is essential for seeing the depth of it, allowing these messages to loosen their grip on the mind, and deconstructing the damage that has been wrought. Meditation practice facilitates liberation. The foundation of liberation is self-love. Herein, Black practitioners come full circle: they start with the self—damaged, degraded, suffering—and even- tually transcend that self. In the state of non-self, they dissolve the outdated ideas that have perpetuated suffering. As they strive to hold the self and non-self in tension, they evoke an energy of love toward all beings, including themselves. Sitting with one’s internalized messages of degradation, rather than rejecting oneself, is a process of self-love. Challenging white supremacy and whiteness, in sanghas and broader US society, is self-love. In these par- allel contemplative and activist practices, Black Buddhist teachers and long- term practitioners are liberated.