A panel of 14 Buddhist teachers convened in New York City on 21 October to discuss the topic of being Black and Buddhist in America. The panel discussion, which was shared on YouTube, concluded a historic gathering of 30 Black Buddhists from a range of traditions in America.

The discussion was introduced by Greg Snyder, head of Buddhist studies at Union Theological Seminary and Zen teacher at the Brooklyn Zen Center. The format featured two panels of seven teachers. Each gave a very brief introduction before the direction of the conversation was handed over to the audience for questions and answers.

The first question from the audience asked the initial seven-teacher panel why they thought that it was important to bring together Black Buddhists for such a discussion in the first place. Magistrate judge and founder of the Justice in Balance forum Gretchen Rohr spoke of an opening that occurs in spaces when in an affinity group, while teacher and author Lama Rod Owens responded that there is a myth that Black people do not practice Buddhism. Meditation teacher and author Ruth King continued, “One of the beautiful things about coming together as a group of Black folks is we don’t really realize what we’re missing until we get encircled together. . . . It’s a beautiful surrender and a beautiful uplifting.”