WiserEarth Group Support

Viewed your "Complete Interview" today at Google Video.  I have studied Eastern Religion in a university course

many years ago.  I've read some of Alan Watts, Phillip Kapleau, and Patanjali.  I am also familiar with the work

of Thich Nhat Hanh,  I recommend his video "Social Change at the Base".  His work in "mindfullness" training

may be a resource for the work you are doing in the Oakland area.  Of all the Buddhist dharma talks I've

listened to on the internet only Thich Nhat Hanh seems to resonate.   I have purchased his book Old Path White

Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha but have yet to read it.  I am from New Orleans but have been

living in Houston since 1986.  I work in the airline industry, married and am the father of twins age 7 ( I also have

a 31 yr. old son from my first marriage).  I am not a practicing Buddhist nor am I a member of any sangha.  My

attraction to Buddhist thought is mainly one of psychology.  As an African-American I see the "neuroses" i.e.

suffering (dukkha) at my every turn.  You can not cure a sickness (a dis-ease) if the patient is un-willing to admit

to the debilitating affects of his illness, and not only to himself but likewise to others.  Racism in America (and

within the walls of many of its sanghas) is not viewed as a disease, it is merely viewed as "discrimination" or an

"ignorance".  The "tokenism" within the American-Buddhist community as it relates to people of color is itself

"a symptom" and must be addressed.   Is the first of the "eightfold path" (right view)  to be actualized and not

remain merely a professed  "ideal" ?  Maybe next season CNN can do a "Black in the Sangha" documentary.