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Overview

A look at the history and many facets of our Beyond Fear of Differences program

Since 2017, through the combined efforts and inspiration of the sangha, we have created:

We also continue to offer Women-only retreats, as we have for several years.

Since 2016, here are some of the ways monastics, teachers, and the white sangha and the cis-gendered sangha have been deepening their understanding of racism and gender discrimination:

How did we get here?

Let’s start with the fact that Zen Buddhism, like almost all of the major world religions today, emerged and evolved in the midst of several very patriarchal cultures. Originating from within the patriarchal and caste systems of ancient India, Buddhism traveled to China and then Japan, which were also  very patriarchal cultures. 

Fast forward to mid-20th century in the United States, where Japanese Zen landed in the midst of a culture in which patriarchy is inextricably bound up with capitalism and white supremacy. 

While the heart of the Dharma does not teach male superiority, or white body supremacy, these social conditions and structures have formed the context in which the dharma has been taught, practiced and handed down. These forces, energies, and biases have influenced and shaped the way teachings are communicated, as well as the forms and structures of training. This has caused harm and excluded people. 

As a community, the MRO recognizes  that if we want to create a sangha – and world – where the Buddha’s teachings are actually embodied in how we live, train and practice together, we have to examine the systems – both Buddhist and societal – that perpetuate bias and oppression, and then adjust, create new training methods and structures that help us fulfill this commitment, ever greater equity, diversity and inclusion.  

What makes this so compelling and powerful  is that the spiritual basis for this work is integral to the teachings and practices of Buddhism itself.  However we may appear and  identify, the work of diversity, equity and inclusion when engaged as Buddhist practice, is a deep study into the suffering and liberation of the self. It is heart-mind-body work that we need to do together.

A Brief History of DEIJ Work in the MRO: What happened before 2017?

Daido Roshi, our founding abbot, was a bold visionary and devoted Zen teacher who dedicated himself to establishing a place of Zen practice and training. He grew up Italian Catholic in New Jersey in the 1930’s and 40’s, and while he had progressive views on many things, he was also comfortable within, and utilized, many of the hierarchical structures of Japanese Zen. In founding the Monastery he employed a very top-down leadership style, and employed that as both a teacher and administrator. He passed away in 2009 after nearly 30 years of shaping and leading the MRO. As the next generation of teachers stepped in to lead the MRO, the importance of anti-bias work emerged as a prominent focus at the Zen Center of New York City, where Shugen Roshi was abbot.

In the mid-2000s, Shugen Roshi initiated a series of periodic informal evening discussions around issues of race and gender in the context of the Dharma. In 2011 this evolved into a group of about a dozen sangha members (about ¼ identified as Black, Latinx, or People of Color) committed to working together with Shugen Roshi to engage this work more rigorously and see where it would lead. The vision was to utilize the group to develop individual understanding and transformation, to develop skills in multi-racial dialogue, and to work toward bringing these to the larger sangha. 

In 2013 the group launched a 9-month course for the 35 multi-racial members of the sangha to do anti-bias work, which was ambitious in its attempt to go deeply into  undoing bias based in  racism, gender, and sexual orientation. In 2014 and 2015, the ZCNYC formed a People of Color affinity group and an LGBTQ+ affinity group, respectively. In 2016, after moving back to the Monastery, Shugen Roshi initiated an effort to bring this work and his vision of The Beyond Fear of Differences initiative to the sangha upstate. 

Fast forward to 2017, the year in which one of our Black sangha members submitted a diversity proposal to MRO leadership, Board and teachers. At this point the BFOD planning group was just being formed, and our city sangha had just initiated the “What is Whiteness?” anti-oppression group for white-identified sangha wanting to study and uproot white supremacy. During the fall of that year, the BFOD Planning Committee was created to help make decisions and guide our aspiration to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable community. 

Along similar lines in 2013, we began addressing the male-dominated culture infused within traditional Zen Buddhist forms and liturgy. To honor women and those who identify as non-binary within our practice and sangha in the Mountains and Rivers Order, we created new liturgy and altars to honor our Women ancestors and gender fluidity. An altar for Mahapajapati, who sought and received ordination as the first nun in the sangha of the Buddha, was placed in the front of the zendo at the Monastery to honor all the women ancestors, including those whose identities have been omitted from the historical record.

On the Monastery main altar, statues of a gender fluid of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, and female Prajna Paramita, an embodiment of wisdom also known as the “Mother of All Buddhas,” were added, and four images of other female ancestors were also added to the ancestor’s altars in the Monastery’s Buddha Hall and at Fire Lotus Temple. During our regular Sunday Program at both the Monastery and the Temple, a liturgical chant of the Women Ancestors, beginning with Mahapajapati until most recently with Jiyu Kennett, has been incorporated into the service. The full chant is recited every other Sunday, in alternation with the traditional  Ancestral Lineage (which is predominantly male), and an abbreviated version is recited on Sundays when the traditional lineage is chanted.

Since the inception of the BFOD planning committee, we have been actively making changes to our structures, our policies, our programs, our facilities, our communications, how we train and practice together so that we can create a culture where everyone feels welcome, regardless of their identity, and feels supported to train, practice and realize their buddha nature. You can see the list above to have a look at how these changes are taking shape.

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