Wow, this was such a great article. I wonder if Tricycle and Lion’s Roar would publish it…. Hahaha, just kidding, of course. You write what James Baldwin called, Rupturing Truths, truths that smash the falsehoods in our society, in this case, American Zionist Buddhism. Your writing breaths life into a morally stagnant Buddhist culture that has used its white supremacy models to oppress the moral outcry of its sangha members, revealing power structures, revealing how the Dharma itself has been weaponized for the benefit of those it power. What I expect from these institutions is to look deeply into the causality of this Genocide. What Mind-Poisons and Wrong Views have created this 100 years of suffering for the Palestinians, and what will be the waves of incredibly harmful KARMA that is flowing from these violent delusions. I praise you, Alexandra, for your fierce compassion and clarity.
Thanks for writing such a clear clarion call. This is speaking to truth to power and I am certain it will wake many readers up to the incongruent behaviour of their teachers. Well done, you have given us references we can use to state & support our case. I deeply appreciate this wise wrathful piece.
I am so so grateful to hear that it can help students speak up in their sanghas. It’s been long overdue to push back on the silence or deflection from our spiritual teachers.
Great article & vital read for moral clarity, and most important, backed up by the precedent set by the Buddha and Suttas for clear naming and actions to be taken in response to the horrors of the Gaza genocide. The silence and justifications used by gate holders of the Dharma has crushed all open discussion, which has led to a strange dissonance while setting up the precedent for a lack of intellectual and moral rigor in our Buddhist scene.
bless you and thank you, Alexandra, for your clear voice of wisdom and compassion cutting through all the BS parading as "buddhism" and "equanimity." so appreciate your voice!
love to you. you really cut through and expressed this so well. people are hungry for spiritual teachers who can help us live in these times. not avoid! I'm so grateful to you!
I am truly grateful for the scholarship and clarity in this piece. I also appreciate that a road to reparations is laid out. My experience with anti racist work has shown that while we cannot afford to go at the pace of the people who are least inclined to change, we also cannot turn every issue into one where you either have to have been perfectly literate and perfectly behaved from the start or you have to go sit in the corner. That absolves people from joining in when and where they can. And it encourages people to only stick to the issues they know well vs challenging themselves to develop an effective praxis for new issues as they arise. I think this is at issue with the editorial decisions being made. Being a good journalist and editor is about being open to learning new things all the time. And where you don’t have the “capacity,” it’s about working hard to improve your sourcing and freelancer pipeline to include POVs beyond your own. This takes time to do well. But that’s no reason not to get started. Right now. In this present moment. That’s what my personal practice of Buddhism calls me to do, as a writer, a caregiver and a meditator. I’m so grateful to be in sangha with others who can support this intention so we don’t have to do it alone. 🙏🏽
Nice but gaza isn't the only genocide happening around the world thabks to capitalism and its connecting delusions and is ultimately a media distraction.
Wow, this was such a great article. I wonder if Tricycle and Lion’s Roar would publish it…. Hahaha, just kidding, of course. You write what James Baldwin called, Rupturing Truths, truths that smash the falsehoods in our society, in this case, American Zionist Buddhism. Your writing breaths life into a morally stagnant Buddhist culture that has used its white supremacy models to oppress the moral outcry of its sangha members, revealing power structures, revealing how the Dharma itself has been weaponized for the benefit of those it power. What I expect from these institutions is to look deeply into the causality of this Genocide. What Mind-Poisons and Wrong Views have created this 100 years of suffering for the Palestinians, and what will be the waves of incredibly harmful KARMA that is flowing from these violent delusions. I praise you, Alexandra, for your fierce compassion and clarity.
Aw blush. Thank you for the notes, they breathed extra clarity and fire into this piece. I couldn’t do this without our fierce little sangha.
Thanks for writing such a clear clarion call. This is speaking to truth to power and I am certain it will wake many readers up to the incongruent behaviour of their teachers. Well done, you have given us references we can use to state & support our case. I deeply appreciate this wise wrathful piece.
I am so so grateful to hear that it can help students speak up in their sanghas. It’s been long overdue to push back on the silence or deflection from our spiritual teachers.
Great article & vital read for moral clarity, and most important, backed up by the precedent set by the Buddha and Suttas for clear naming and actions to be taken in response to the horrors of the Gaza genocide. The silence and justifications used by gate holders of the Dharma has crushed all open discussion, which has led to a strange dissonance while setting up the precedent for a lack of intellectual and moral rigor in our Buddhist scene.
Thank you! I totally agree that open discussion has been absolutely crushed.
bless you and thank you, Alexandra, for your clear voice of wisdom and compassion cutting through all the BS parading as "buddhism" and "equanimity." so appreciate your voice!
Thank YOU! I am so grateful for spiritual friends like you to help us all find the courage to speak truth to power.
love to you. you really cut through and expressed this so well. people are hungry for spiritual teachers who can help us live in these times. not avoid! I'm so grateful to you!
I can relate. I’d really like a teacher too in this moment. There are a few who are cutting through delusion, but not enough.
I am truly grateful for the scholarship and clarity in this piece. I also appreciate that a road to reparations is laid out. My experience with anti racist work has shown that while we cannot afford to go at the pace of the people who are least inclined to change, we also cannot turn every issue into one where you either have to have been perfectly literate and perfectly behaved from the start or you have to go sit in the corner. That absolves people from joining in when and where they can. And it encourages people to only stick to the issues they know well vs challenging themselves to develop an effective praxis for new issues as they arise. I think this is at issue with the editorial decisions being made. Being a good journalist and editor is about being open to learning new things all the time. And where you don’t have the “capacity,” it’s about working hard to improve your sourcing and freelancer pipeline to include POVs beyond your own. This takes time to do well. But that’s no reason not to get started. Right now. In this present moment. That’s what my personal practice of Buddhism calls me to do, as a writer, a caregiver and a meditator. I’m so grateful to be in sangha with others who can support this intention so we don’t have to do it alone. 🙏🏽
Very well said. Thank you. 🙏🏼
This article expresses many of the thought on my mind, but better than I could have expressed it myself. Thank you
Nice but gaza isn't the only genocide happening around the world thabks to capitalism and its connecting delusions and is ultimately a media distraction.