Please order through your local bookstore. I love Independent bookstores.
After being involved in Buddhist practice for over twenty years, after an L.A. upbringing in an African-American Christian church, I intertwine throughout the book personal experiences as student of Buddha’s teachings. My life in the Sangha, my teaching in local communities, and my travels around the world meeting other Buddhist practitioners enliven my answers to the most fundamental questions about Buddhist practice. I wrote, “Had I not opened myself to the many teachings from the earth, such as Buddha’s wisdom, it would have been nearly impossible to survive the fires of my soul.” The book is self-illustrated.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT BUDDHISM…..
“Zenju Earthlyn brings the Buddha’s teachings alive in a fresh and powerful voice born from her own fully lived experience of transformation.”
—from the foreword by Thich Nhat Hanh
“Tell Me Something about Buddhism is a dharma gem of great wisdom. Just reading Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s clear, beautiful and inspiring answers to questions about Buddhist practice quieted and calmed my mind as quickly as the wood striking wood sound of a han calling me to awakening.”
–Charles Johnson, author of Turning the Wheel: Essay on Buddhism and Writing andMiddle Passage, winner of the National Book Award
I touch the earth. I honor my ancestors with my sitting meditation practice. And to them I say, “Let each breath be a gift of my love.” –Zenju
BE Love
May the heavy become light,
May what’s ill become well,
May what’s violent become peace,
May rage be settled,
May the idea of enemy be banished,
May actions be filled with sincere purpose,
May wellness be illuminated,
May gifts be recognized,
May all that we know to BE LOVE,
pour out and overflow
wherever it is needed.
—Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
(Gengetsu Jana Drakka and Zenju during ordination Sept. 2008)
I hope you are well today. As I continue to follow the path, I encounter many people who have never been introduced to the teachings of Buddha and who become curious about Buddhist practice. There is even more curiosity when they see that my skin is black and that I clearly have African ancestry. Many have asked, “How did you come to an ancient Asian practice, such as Buddhism, as an African American person?” read more »
No one or nothing can take away my dreams,
There is no amount of money that can purchase them for me,
No amount of education that can create them,
No enemy that can walk up and rob me of them,
There is no legislation that can guarantee them for me.
No one or nothing can take away my dreams,
I need only be clear of what my dreams are,
Release the fear that holds me back from myself,
that keeps me from giving.
And then understand that the dream requires that I wake up
And do it.
Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s new book, Tell Me Something about Buddhism: Questions and Answers for the Curious Beginner, is a simple yet uncommon introduction to the Buddha’s teachings. Manuel, an African-American Zen priest, takes a direct and personal approach to the dharma. “What does Buddhism have to do with black people?” she recalls her younger sister once asking her. In Tell Me Something about Buddhism, Manuel reflects on the ways in which being black has informed and enriched her understanding of Buddhism. “The practice is to make companions of difference and harmony, see them both as oneness itself,” she writes. “We cannot take the teaching of harmony to serve the desire for sameness and comfort.”
After reading Tell Me Something about Buddhism, I wanted Manuel to tell me a little more about her life and practice. Read on for excerpts from our recent email exchange.
How did you come to Buddhism? I was introduced to Nichiren (Soka Gakkai International) when I was eleven years old at a shopping strip in Los Angeles. I remember being fascinated as I was dragged away by my Christian mother. Later the Soka Gakkai practice was introduced to me several times by friends throughout my young adulthood. However, at the time there was an inner pull from Christianity toward the African Yoruba spiritual tradition with a transplanted tribe from Dahomey (in modern Benin.) read more »
No one or nothing can destroy your true spirit. And yet there are events in our lives that make us feel that the light deep within has been blown out. The possibilities of recovering may appear impossible. To heal we try on various paths not knowing that our true spirit has never left us. The inner home we are born with remains intact just as the sun remains in the sky despite a tornado or hurricane. In thunderstorms some of the sun’s warmth is temporarily blocked but not completely taken away. If it were lost all together we would completely freeze to death on Earth. We are like the sun.
Meditations
Today, I breathe in, I breathe out. I know that the sun is above me even at times when I feel cold. I recognize myself in the sun. I breathe in the warmth that I am. I breathe out knowing that my spirit is completely intact. Today is a good day to get reacquainted with myself, to say, “Hello, I thought I lost you.” It is a good day to say, “Iam here.” I breathe in and I breathe out.
Here’s the quote for the week. I am open to feedback. Have a well week.
Reflection
How long have you contemplated the things that went wrong, the things that hurt you, or the times when you hurt someone else? There may be remorse, regret, shame, or embarrassment. And we may find ourselves walking around with our burden baskets. When our day is filled with twisting the thorns of our lives deeper into our hearts, we lose sight of the vast beauty of life. We develop a habit of seeing the negative things of life as reality. In such a state our resistance or struggle becomes a way of surviving our lives each day. How is it going with such a life?
Meditation
Today, I breathe in being human. I breathe out knowing that I do my best at easing suffering in my life and for those around me. Today is a good day to lay down my burden basket. I turn toward others and myself rather than against. I wander past the battlegrounds toward an open field in which I can see beyond all that clouds my vision. I breathe in, I breathe out.
Many morning reflections and meditations have been coming to me. I feel that upon awakening I am often filled with a renewed sense of life. I would like to share them with you. Here’s one that you can sit with this week. Use it each day and see if you can discovery something new about your who you are. Have a well week.
Reflection
Perhaps we would not have accepted this life if we knew we would suffer. However, an evolutionary force out of control has delivered us into a state of living. The same force will deliver us into our death. So, each day is a chance to pursue the question: What is this life? And then allow each moment to take place with this question in mind. With such an inquiry life’s activities throughout the day can be met with an open heart. Without having an idea that we know what is going to happen today we can see what is happening, explore it, examine it, laugh at it, revel in it or question it. And if life is a journey of discovering our own hearts then every day is a good day.
Meditation
Today I breathe in my life as it is in this moment. I breathe out knowing that there may be some challenges as I go into the world. As I face the day, I say to myself, today is a good day to live. I say to myself that I will do my best to blame no one or nothing. I see that I am being given another chance to open my heart to my life. I breathe in, I breathe out.
