SZBA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Online Resource Page

This is a collection of books, articles, and other media, from which you can draw to educate yourself and your community about DEIA.

SZBA’s DEIA committee would appreciate any feedback or proposed additions for this resource list, please contact: info@szba.org

Table of Contents

Many of the works listed here could be included in multiple categories, as issues overlap, we have chosen to include any single resource in only one category for simplicity’s sake.

  • SZBA Statement of Recognition and Repentance

  • General Resources for promoting DEIA in sanghas

  • Affinity Groups

  • Buddhist books on intersectional DEIA work

  • Race and Buddhism

  • Whiteness and Anti-racism

  • Indigenous People’s Wisdom, Challenging Erasure, and Land Acknowledgement

  • Gender and Buddhism

  • Teachings of Buddhist Women Ancestors

  • Understanding Nonbinary Gender

  • Confronting and Overcoming Transphobia

  • Buddhist Works by LGBTQ Folks

  • Inclusion for All Ages and Abilities

  • Inclusion for People of All Economic Backgrounds

  • Trauma Sensitivity

  • Power, Buddhist Teachers, and Sexuality

SZBA Statement of Recognition and Repentance

Gathered here today as Zen Buddhist priests and custodians of the dharma, we pledge to face, acknowledge, understand and hold the weight of our collective karma so that we may practice and teach with clarity, vulnerability, and honesty.

With heavy hearts, aware of our own complicity we understand:

That across time and culture men have harmed and dominated women, creating patriarchal cultures of fear. Buddhist and Zen culture have been as guilty of this as any other, sometimes even distorting the teachings to allow for such misguided power to be wielded.

That we in this moment and in this very place stand on sacred ground of indigenous peoples that has been stolen from them and with cruel deception and religious doctrine maintained as if a right of those who have taken it. Our nation has capitalized on this theft, and their internment and genocide— a theft that continues as indigenous peoples remain unacknowledged and uncared for by a cruel social system they had no hand in shaping.

That the colonization of what we call the Americas, and the rise of the United States as a global power, rests upon the enslavement of African people taken violently from their homes and forced to labor under brutal and oppressive conditions.

That we as individuals and communities live in a world in which some, only because of the color of their skin, are accorded social and economic privilege. We recognize the willful blindness that upholds this privilege, as well as the indignity and pain of systematic oppression, exploitation, enslavement, and deportation of those whose skin does not accord them this Privilege.

We atone for the suffering caused by racism in all its forms, and vow to dismantle the white supremacist systems that maintain oppression, including mass incarceration and the deportation, persecution and exclusion of refugees and immigrants.

That we as individuals and communities, have systematically treated people with discrimination, disrespect, cruelty and violence because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

That we as individuals and communities are complicit in an unfair, classist economic system that divides humanity into winners and losers, exploiter and exploited, and that encourages selfishness and conflict.

That as human beings, we cannot separate the gift of our own existence from the violence being done, through short-sightedness, greed, and self importance, to our planet and the many beings with whom we share it.

As individuals, as a sangha, and on behalf of all who came before us, we atone for our participation in all systems that perpetuate domination, violence, greed, disrespect, and unfairness. We pledge ourselves to overcoming these forces in ourselves and in the world for the benefit of all sentient beings, victims as well as perpetrators.

Now as we chant the verses of repentance and renew our vows in the Full Moon Ceremony, we bow in reverence, sorrow, and determination to overcome and heal the forces that cause such pain, for ending suffering within and without is the Dharma’s true Gateway, the Buddha’s True Heart.

September 22, 2018

[Crafted by Koun Franz, Norman Fischer, Greg Snyder, and many participants of the 2018 SZBA conferences]

General Resources for Promoting DEIA in Buddhist Communities

Affinity Groups

There are groups across the United States which provide space for Zen practitioners to connect with folks with whom they share identities and experiences. SZBA would be pleased to support members in forming such affinity groups.  The following links provide examples of and access to groups for Unpacking Whiteness, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, People of African Descent, people on the autism spectrum,  LGBTQ+, European, transgender and gender non-conforming folks.

http://autsit.net/

https://zmm.org/staying-connected/

https://cloudsinwater.org/racial-justice/

Buddhist Books on Intersectional DEIA Work

  • Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community, Larry Yang, Wisdom Publications, 2017

  • A Thousand Hands: A Guidebook for Caring for Your Buddhist Community, Eds. Nathan Jishin Michon and Daniel Clarkson Fischer, Sumeru Press, 2016

  • The Way of Tenderness, Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Wisdom Publications, 2015

  • Dharma, Color, and Culture, New Voices in Western Buddhism, edited by Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin, Parallax Press, 2005

Race and Buddhism

Indigenous People’s Wisdom, Challenging Erasure, and Land Acknowledgement

Beyond Patriarchy: Women and Buddhism

Teachings of Buddhist Women Ancestors

  • The Hidden Lamp. ed. Moon/Caplow. Wisdom Publications, 2013

  • Daughters of Emptiness, Beata Grant, Wisdom Publications, 2012

  • Zen Echoes, Beata Grant, Wisdom Publications, 2017

  • The First Buddhist Women, Susan Murcott, Parallax Press, 2002

  • Zen Women, Grace Schireson, Wisdom, 2009

  • Women of the Way, Sally Tisdale, HarperOne, 2008

Understanding nonbinary gender

Confronting/overcoming transphobia

Buddhist works by LGBTQ folks

  • Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists volumes 1 & 2 edited by Winston Leyland, Gay Sunshine Press, 1998

  • Also see books listed under intersectional DEIA work and Race and Buddhism by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Larry Yang, and others

Inclusion for all ages and abilities

  • This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, Ashton Applewhite, Celadon Books, 2019

  • Feminist, Queer, Crip, Alison Kafer, Indiana University Press, 2013

  • Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019

Inclusion for people of all economic backgrounds

An article on inclusion and equity for folks of all economic backgrounds.

Trauma Sensitivity

  • Trauma-Sensitive Zen, Daishin McCabe, presented at the 2018 SZBA conference.

  • When the Body Says No, Gabor Mate, Wiley, 2008

  • My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, Resmaa Menakem, Central Recovery Press, 2017

  • Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, David Treleaven, WW Norton, 2018

Power, Buddhist Teachers, and Sexuality

  • Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics, Dr. Cedar Barstow, D.P.I.

  • Sex and The Spiritual Teacher, Scott Edelstein, Wisdom Publications, 2011