Jake and Jane W. meditating in their home.
Photos by: Wren A., Matthew D., Heather F., A S., Emily S., Sylvia T., Jane W.

During an end-of-December ceremony, members of Rose City Rebel Dhamma advanced for 2021 their unique interweaving of deep Buddhist practice and social justice activism.

Reflecting the dynamic changes of 2020, Rose City Rebel Dhamma members for the first time used Zoom for their annual intention-setting ceremony. This replaced their traditional in-person ceremonies in Portland, which were replete with rows of cushions, candlelit altar, chanting, and cords tied around wrists. In addition to setting their intentions for the next year, members took the refuges and precepts.

Even as 2020 demanded physical distancing and isolation, the year demanded reckoning with unresolved racial injustice, and strengthening our study of the Dhamma through a social justice lens.

Wren’s altar with tobacco pouches as offerings.

Now in 2021 our members are quickening this work, honing our skillful engagement with the antiracist dimensions of the teachings and practices. As many guiding teachers have encouraged, we’re following the gradual path while practicing like our hair is on fire.

Our Sangha moved its weekly sits online when COVID-19 hit, but it has been a challenge to replicate the flow of in-person meetings over Zoom.

We have historically structured our sits with meditators seated in a circle, a physical reflection of the group’s emphasis on collaborative learning and support. A 40-minute meditation is followed by a reading, sourced from a variety of teachers and lineages. To bring different voices into the room, all present are invited to share in reading the text aloud.

The Sangha leader then expounds on themes presented, drawing from the suttas (particularly the Pali Canon), personal experiences, and influential voices. Participants are encouraged to share how the topic lands with them, or what is present for them in their practice and life.

Heather B. meditating on her skateboard sitting bench.

Time-tested principles of mindful sharing are encouraged, such as confidentiality, avoiding cross-talk, and refraining from commenting on others’ sharing unless invited. Steeped in mutual respect and the Dhamma, this structured sharing has supported the familiar Buddhist practice of self-reflection, so often a solitary endeavor.

The Buddha taught that wisdom comes from curiosity. Rose City Rebel Dhamma Sangha members lean on curiosity, which helps to mitigate the reflexive words and thoughts that come with any social conditioning, perhaps acutely with white racial conditioning.

Showing curiosity in one’s own unexamined depths, as well as others’ sometimes-surprising behaviors, facilitates trust. Cultivating one another’s confidence and faith in this way, Sangha members find the courage to be curious and experimental in their practice. 

Most of the Rose City Rebel Dhamma root teachers have been monastics in the Theravada lineage of Thai teacher Ajahn Chah. But as householders, Sangha members have oriented toward engaged Buddhism, where activism and spiritual practice inextricably link. From this viewpoint householders have a greater responsibility to be politically active, while remaining grounded in the precepts and the eightfold path.

A screenshot of a Rose City Rebel Dhamma online sit.

Many Sangha members have been activists for years if not decades. Their deep commitment to the Dhamma fuels their community work, as they aim to lessen suffering in themselves and in the world. Members understand the teachings of the Buddha as antiracist and anti-capitalist, and regard the beautiful teachings based in sila, samadhi and panna as inseparable from social justice.

Practicing in a Buddhist tradition requires that one endeavor to cut through anger, greed, and delusion. This predominantly white Sangha explicitly acknowledges the racist history of Portland, which was built on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes.

Portland is the whitest city of its size in the United States, and site of some of 2020’s most-visible Black Lives Matter protests.

Woven throughout Rose City Rebel Dhamma’s weekly sharing and reflection, is the recognition that this Pacific Northwest city is deeply rooted in colonizing white supremacist impulses. These impulses shaped the entire United States, and led to the institutionally racist policies and beliefs that suffuse it.

Stuffed Buddha reading “Love and Rage.”

Steve S., a new Sangha member and beginner practitioner, said he has “begun reading on white privilege to better understand the discussion.”   

  “The Dhamma talks/articles by people of color have helped me to see things outside of my white privilege perspective. It is not just about personal freedom, but in service of contributing to ending suffering of others.” – Wren

“This isn’t just about becoming calm through meditation, but realizing that all the teachings of the Buddha have direct application to our society. Just learning about ways to frame our personal, political endeavors through a social lens deepens my compassion and hope for healthy change.” – Nancy S.  
 
“…I see it as inseparable … we bring the Dhamma back into our daily experience, even though the material we use is typically from monastics who live very different lives. It’s nourishing to talk to people who have activist AND spiritual interests together.” – Emily S.   

Teachers and Sangha are essential to illuminate gaps in awareness. At the root of our studies are the teachings and guidance of people of color, rooted in antiracist thought and practice.

The sangha offers meals to monastics at Pacific Hermitage, in White Salmon, Washington.

Through their writings, workshops, and online offerings, we are grateful for the teachings of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Ruth King, Dr. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Rhonda Magee, Resmaa Menakem, Lama Rod Owens, and Reverend angel Kyodo williams.

As a majority white Sangha, the members of Rose City Rebel Dhamma will never have the same experiences as these Black spiritual and intellectual leaders. Through mindful listening their words move us deeply. In endeavoring to embody their teachings, we engage in the labor of dismantling white supremacist conditioning.

Traditional Buddhist concepts hiri (inner conscience that allows remorseful reflection of misdeeds) and ottappa (a healthy fear of committing unskillful deeds that may bring harm to ourselves or others) guide us in becoming better collaborators on the path of antiracism. Hiri and ottappa help us recognize when we make mistakes, or act through delusion.

 “Through this Sangha, my practice has been further opened to the concept of collective liberation and racial justice. I find kalyana mitta (spiritual friends) with whom to explore these topics and practices.”  – Sylvia T.

Heather B. altar with ceremonial cords around Buddharupa.

Sangha members cultivate awareness that there can be a shadow side to interpretations of Buddhist teachings. When it comes to devoting oneself to antiracist activism, which means witnessing and working with what is painful, ugly and uncomfortable, spiritual bypassing can be a real hazard.

Spiritual bypassing, using spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional and psychological issues, sometimes appears under the pretense of renunciation or a misunderstanding of equanimity.

From the vantage point of white privilege, we might ask why we would want to turn toward that which is painful, when we might instead focus solely on our own experience. Yet to turn away from the difficult is to give in to delusion, and to the perceived safety of our habit structures of comfort. 

To paraphrase Lama Rod Owens, there is a difference between experiencing discomfort and suffering actual harm. It feels imperative to play the edge of discomfort, where authentic wisdom and genuine growth are generated.

The vital way Rose City Rebel Dhamma members share out loud, while reflecting on readings and practice, grounds the teachings in the body and breath. As kalayana mitta, members support each other in developing compassion for themselves and for each other.

Working through the tendrils of delusion that can cause harm to self and others requires this witnessing. With this mutual support, breaking through unskillfulness to act in ways that will be of benefit to all becomes a collective practice. True liberation is collective liberation. We are not free until all of our cousins are free.

“The group looks at the edges … How I participate and show up is linked to the compassion I develop in my practice.” – Jason W.