A Step

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. Buddha

Having studied and participated in sangha for several years I can appreciate the deep wisdom of Buddha's words. This brown ex-prince from India calls me to embrace the hard truths and deep beauty of my life. At the same time, by acknowledging the what is, which in my case is racism, sexism, ageism, and classism, to name a few, I am not captured by these labels. That freedom from tragic histories and current catastrophes has given me freedom.

So much of what I've seen about Buddhism is written by well schooled, well traveled white people. This is not a diatribe against the history and privilege that make their schooling and travels possible, but simply an acknowledgment that my experience of "Western" Buddhism comes from people whose lineages and lives are very different from mine and of course impact their understanding and practice of Buddhism. This being the case, I wanted to start this blog to give voice to those of us traveling the eightfold path without shoes. Those of us who worry about bus and train transportation money to sangha gatherings, who are unable to afford to buy the many wonderful books. Even more than economic differences and what that means to my practice, I want to give voice for my different cultural references and to look at the assumptions that underlie so much of what I've been exposed to. Further, I want to imagine, craft, and bring forth an alternate sangha structure for people like me.

Thankfully, I am an active part of an amazing POC (people of color) sangha that rocks and rolls in ways familiar that resonates with me. Yet, even there, the majority are much younger and are much more schooled than I am. So, if you ramble by and are similarly walking this path "without shoes" I'd love you to share your comments.