I am still thinking about last evening with the EBMC POC Sangha with Larry Yang and our Beloved Community/Family. It was a truly uplifting and cogent evening for me. First, just sitting in between two powerful and vibrant women of color ( Carmen D. Melendez and Mushim Patricia Ikeda) was a clear indication that the evening was going to be special. And it was. It was also good to see POC sangha coordinating committee members Anastasia Chamery, Thomas Davis IV and Sierra Pickett, whom I had not seen since each of then had returned from their respective recent retreats. WELCOME HOME, Beloved Ones. There was such richness for me contained in Larrys words of wisdom it is difficult to know where to start though not impossible. And so... I was speaking with POC sangha coordinating committee member Lauren Veasey afterwards about how Larrys story about his father and how his fathers students continued to come back to share time with him 40 years after these individuals had been students of Larrys father reminded me of something about my own beloved grandfather. My grandfather, Maurice Strider, had been a university professor of art, art history, and African art for several decades at the time of his joining the ancestors in 1989. During his funeral, a line of his former students, representing all the different generations of students he had taught, one by one, came to the podium to speak about how my grandfather had encouraged each of them to strive to be greater than he himself was, like Larrys father had done with his students. One Love! I was also powerfully struck by the acknowledgement that we as POC practitioners and leaders (Larry recognizing that the leaders are also practitioners) in a spiritual tradition (Buddhism) that in America is, at least visibly dominated by white people/dominant culture people, will not be given the keys to the kingdom and the road maps to leadership, so to speak, by these people. To me, this is nothing more than a foundational awareness that we all must admit to being the case. It is not a call to victim status nor is it a call to defeat. It is a call to community development within a paradigm that we ourselves co-create. And so because of this we must create and co-create that unique, creative, and sustaining form of leadership recognition, development, nurturing, and SUPPORT in ways that provide a template for inspiring ongoing community leadership development...at least seven generations out! Buddha Have Mercy! Preach Brother Larry Yang! and Thank YOU!
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 15:27:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015