The Architects

Compelled by our commitment to our bodhisattva vow, we combined our expertise and insights to assume the responsibility for conceptualizing and laying a foundation for this Association. Our prayer, our hope is that we all will jointly continue the work to frame, build, and benefit from it.

Linda Cobb

My Buddhist practice has taught me how to contend with reality and that effects manifested in the future are seeded in the causes that are made today. As Bob Marley sings, "None but ourselves can free our minds." So to stand up and take action to achieve liberation without being distracted or discouraged is in part our bodhisattva vow. My Blackness is supported by my Buddhist practice not cancelled by it.

Universal liberation for all is the promise of Buddhism!

Michael Belton

I have been practicing Nichiren Buddhism for a tad over half my life. I can truthfully say that my life "took off" once I began chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I became a Buddhist because I had finally reached an acute awareness that I needed a spiritual component to my life. What I found, through chanting, was the foundation for a vastly more fulfilling and contributive existence than I could ever have imagined.

I was drawn to BAD because I had been chanting to somehow combine my growing urge to live a more culture-centered life with my Buddhist practice. Over many years of chanting I was vexed by the question of 'why am I practicing this Japanese religion?' While I had accomplished a great deal during my earlier practice, in many ways that period increased my sense of isolation, because few in the organization in which I began Buddhism seemed to naturally understand my situation.

During the time when these vexations were reaching a fever pitch, one of the founder/leaders of BAD, Sister Thembi was making heroic attempts to connect with me. At the time, I was too wrapped up in admiring my personal dilemmas to respond to her entreaties. One morning during my prayers, I realized I was acting stupid by ignoring her. I also realized that acting stupid was a behavior that I could easily give up. So I invited her to lunch. For me, that lunch was the beginning of a more honest, culturally-centered and in depth practice of Buddhism. Correspondingly, it was the beginning of one of the most exciting, challenging, and productive periods of my life.

Patricia Nelson

"Reach wider still" has always been a major part of my life's journey. As a young person, I knew that there had to be more than what I was experiencing in church and that I would be welcomed for all of who I am. As a Buddhist, the awareness and knowledge that I have received incredibly enriches what my practice continues to be. Empathy, compassion, patience, courage, resilience, forthrightness and a true embrace of self and others, is so needed being a part of the African diaspora in a Western context.

Valerie Geaither

(aka Thembi)

JOY…pure, unadulterated!! That’s what the past 38 years of Buddhist practice have been about and yielded for me. There are a couple underlying philosophical principles that attracted me to Buddhism and that sustain a joyful practice. The first principle is that goodness, beauty, and wisdom pervade the universe fundamentally uniting us all. Thus, we have the challenge, albeit the capacity with the tools our Buddhist practice affords us to (a) recognize and reinforce this goodness, beauty, and wisdom in all beings and all phenomena and (b) awaken and be a witness to the same in our own lives. The second principle is that it is our own ignorance and delusion regarding our goodness, beauty and wisdom and our capacity to realize it which cause misery and pain. Again, we have the opportunity with the Buddhist tools at our disposal to (a) execute our power to change any poisonous, toxic circumstance and (b) liberate ourselves from the impact of the negativity that exists in our lives and the world. Being able to utilize my practice to develop my capacity to realize in real time these principles (which by the way directly correspond with the Hermetic Laws of ancient Egypt) contributes to the joyful effects in my life.

One of the things that is constantly being reinforced for me is that the more I give and support others, the more I gain, the more joy I truly experience in the depths of my life. The absolute thrill of sharing Buddhism with my Brothers and Sisters to construct pure, healthy, happy lives is beyond measure. It is truly exciting to be able to use such a powerful tool to bring out in our families and our communities our inherent beauty, to lift our life vibration, to free ourselves from seen and unseen shackles, and to become absolutely happy as peoples of African descent throughout the Diaspora. This has been my passion and is my mission.

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