The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was the catalyst that sparked Larry Ward's journey into a life of planetary peacemaking. He's been subjected to racial profiling and has experienced a bombing in his home in Idaho. He was able to move past these traumas when his path led him to the introduction of Buddhist practice in Calcutta in 1977. Then when he met Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1991, the practice of Buddhism became truly central to his life. He was ordained as a Dharma teacher in Plum Village in 2000 and is the co-founder of the Lotus Institute, which offers Buddhist practice for change makers on the journey of individual and collective liberation. Larry Ward, Ph.D. is the author of America's Racial Karma, An Invitation to Heal (Parallax Press 2020)

Interview Date: 7/31/2021   Tags: MP3, Larry Ward, racism, Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village, mindfulness, unprocessed trauma, systemic unjustice, ancestral trauma, Resmaa Menakem, white body supremacy, racialized trauma, circles of sanity, Social Change/Politics, Buddhism