I am so excited to share this special issue of The Arrow Journal, “Movement Dharma: Towards a Buddhist Movement Chaplaincy.”  We co-produced this issue with Union Theological Seminary’s Buddhist Studies Program, which I now call home, out of a shared sense of commitment to liberatory praxis and around a core set of questions concerning the dharma and its relevance and accessibility in these times.

American Buddhism stands at a critical juncture. While Buddhist communities have grown significantly across the United States, contributing contemplative practices and philosophical insights to millions of practitioners, Buddhism remains largely absent from public discourse on the urgent moral and social challenges of our time. Unlike Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions, which have developed robust frameworks of public theology, Buddhism has yet to develop a sustained, visible public theological voice in the American context.

This absence is not due to any inherent limitation in Buddhist thought. Buddhist scriptures offer profound resources for addressing contemporary crises, and many of our Buddhist communities have a distinguished history of public activism. Yet in recent years, the relative silence among Buddhist spiritual leaders on urgent crises—from Gaza to the climate crisis to rising authoritarianism—have been, frankly, astounding.

Those who have been on the front lines organizing and, to put it bluntly, saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done, are also facing their own sets of challenges. Our movements themselves are facing profound challenges in the face of fascist political regimes, including heightened uncertainty, fracturing, burnout, and new forms of silo-ing.

At Union, we’re convening a Praxis Group on Buddhist Civic and Spiritual Leadership and Movement Dharma to meet these challenges. Together with a team of Buddhist scholar-practitioners, movement chaplains, and activist-organizers, we are building a framework for a Buddhist Public and Liberation Theology, to help us understand and address Buddhism’s lacking public political voice, and to help us imagine what a Buddhist Movement Chaplaincy—or a Movement Dharma—might contribute at this moment. This work is unfolding alongside rich lineages of spiritual activism from diverse wisdom and religious traditions.

Union Theological Seminary is a natural home for this project. For nearly 200 years, Union has been a globally recognized seminary and graduate school of theology where religious life and scholarship meet to reimagine the work of justice. The Arrow’s lineage has also been pointing us toward understanding and enacting enlightened society. It is an honor and a gift to be in partnership, and to bring our deep, thoughtful, and committed communities together for this project.

The essays in this issue are written by several members of this new Praxis Group, as well as Union’s Buddhist Studies community more  broadly. Several other scholar-practitioners contributed beautiful essays and articles to help work out and work through some of the core concerns of our overall Movement Dharma Project.

Mishka’s opening essay wrestles with the term, “Socially Engaged Buddhism”: “Isn’t the dharma—by way of its cosmology, ontology, ethical frameworks—by default ‘socially engaged’?” she asks. Her reflections call us to consider what this term does for us—and also what it might distort. Santosh Rout’s article unpacks the pillars of Ambedkar’s “Dhammology” and situates it within the broader field of socially engaged Buddhism. He then places Ambedkar in dialogue with W. E.B. Du Bois and Howard Thurman, before turning to what a contemporary Buddhist movement chaplaincy might learn from all three.

Tenzin (Tendor) Dorjee’s interview on the movement for a Free Tibet brings struggles for liberation into sharper focus. He reflects on the lack of Buddhist public engagement not only in relationship to Tibet, but also Gaza, and calls us to consider what courage and the bodhisattva vow might really ask of each of us.

Rebecca Esho Greenslade’s essay considers the relationship between Gloria Anzaldúa’s notion of “spiritual activism” and the principles and practices of the bodhisattva path undertaken by Buddhist movement chaplains as a means of coalition building and bridging. Pamela Ayo Yetunde’s interview, “Was the Buddha Movement Chaplain?”, explores themes of exile and how leaving the familiar can support political and spiritual awakening.

Chris Hoff brings teachings on “selflessness” to bear on our movements. His essay challenges the focus on “community” in our circles, and invites us to consider how loosening our grip on the comforts of certain aspects of identity might help us actually practice solidarity. Robbie Madfis calls our attention to frameworks in general and asks us specifically to consider how nondual Buddhist ontologies might help us navigate complexities concerning justice and abolition.

Sean Fentress’s essay on his time on Hart Island is a stunning example of chaplaincy, and the arts of accompaniment, bearing witness, and transmuting suffering. We were even further moved by Sean’s mentioning of the datura plant, which we found in the portfolio of this issue’s guest artist, Maria Renee Johnson. It felt like a divine coincidence, and also a confirmation that her beautiful, earthy work—which captures and reflects so many of the dualities and tensions inherent in movement dharma—was the right art for this volume.

Adam Lobel’s essay is worth the read. (We are looking forward to the book!) Building an effective Movement Dharma calls us to understand various models of transformation found within our spiritual and political lineages. We can’t wait to study this one together. And speaking of studying, please get a copy of Jessica X. Zu’s book, Just Awakening, which just one the Numata Prize in Buddhist Studies. It was a joy to interview her.

Huge gratitude to Mishka for dedicating such joyful, tireless energy to editing and laying out this issue, and for being such a gifted writer, thinker, and collaborator! I am grateful, too, to my friend and colleague, Monika Son—our Special Guest Editor—for giving so much of herself to this project, as she does for so many other communities and projects she stewards. Her insights, energy, and care are reflected in these pages. Thanks also to our beloved Erika Arthur for careful editing and enlivening moral support. Thanks also to Robbie Madfis for research support for the overall issue. Last but certainly not least, thanks to Greg Snyder, founder of Union’s Buddhist Studies Program, for his endless visionary capacity, contagious enthusiasm, and committed collaboration.

Thanks again to all of our contributors for being so very generous with their writing and wisdom. May the courage, care, and vision called forward in these pages be realized, for the benefit of all!

 

Brooke D. Lavelle, Ph.D.
Co-Director, The Arrow Journal and Courage of Care
Program Director, Union Buddhist Studies Program

Issue art by Maria Reneé Johnson