In the five-plus years of the podcast, I'd say that we have spent a LOT of time on various "hot button" issues - I mean, we live quite squarely in the ones that surround race and identity, wouldn't you say? - but one of the facets of identity that we don't often explore is that of religion. Not because we don't want to talk about it, but a lot of times the opportunity doesn't really present itself.

That's why we were so excited to talk to one of the authors of Healing Our Way Home, a new book that addresses white supremacy and identity through the lens of Black Buddhist teachings.

What started out as a series of conversations between three practitioners morphed into a whole book, focusing on self-care and Buddhist teachings with the goal of collective liberation in mind, but in a way that's totally different than what we've seen out there thus far.

Can't wait for you all to listen and learn more.

What to listen for:

• A brief explanation of the Buddhist history and teachings

• What it was like knowing Zen Master Thich Nhat Han

• Three powerful questions we should all be asking ourselves, as we work to remain centered in our own selves while experiencing the world in its current poly-crisis state.

About the authors:

KAIRA JEWEL LINGO is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents' lives of service and her dad's work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh's monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is the author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of the forthcoming, Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation (Feb 2024) from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.

VALERIE BROWN, True Sangha Power (pronouns she/her), is a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, ordained in 2018, and a member of Religious Society of Friends. She transformed her twenty-year, high-pressure career as a lawyer-lobbyist into human-scale, social-equity-centered work, guiding leaders and organizations to foster greater understanding, authenticity, compassion, and trust.

MARISELA B. GOMEZ is a co-founder of Village of Love and Resistance in Baltimore Maryland, organizing for power, healing, and the reclamation of land. She is a meditation and Buddhist teacher, physician-scientist, and holistic health practitioner. She lives in the lands previously stewarded by the Piscataway, Lumbi, and other tribes, colonized as Baltimore Maryland in the USA. She is the author of Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore along with other scholarly, political, and spiritual writings.

For more information: https://www.parallax.org/product/healing-our-way-home/