Monthly Book Reading
Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice, by Charles Johnson Dharma discussion by Chang He’: Revisiting the Preface, pp IX – XII
We began reading Charles R. Johnson’s book, Taming the Ox, in March of this
year. I am very grateful to Sensei for introducing this writer to us. I was not aware of him
previously, although I have read several works by Black Buddhist writers following
the publication in 2014 of Taming the Ox— 12 tumultuous years they have been, in
fact, for Black Americans.
My having been raised in Black Africa and having married into an interracial
American family ties me to aspects of Black culture that most White Americans do
not share.
I immediately became curious about “the author’s background and style” that Sensei
Sangaku asked us to gain insight into, “as [Johnson] explores the house holder
zen…and shows himself subject to the five desires, yet is also seen to practice
meditation.”
- Most spiritually rewarding work was Turning the Wheel: Essays on
Buddhism and Writing (2003). Two activities that have anchored his life for
65 years. - Significant changes since then. Sequel appropriate.
- The publication dates of the pieces included in Taming the Ox range from
2000 to 2014, that is, from 26 yrs ago to 12 years ago. - Drawn to Asian cultures since a teen. ‘Four stages of life’ in Hindu culture.
- Virmalakirti Nirdesa Sutra. (Buddhist) Composed in1st or 2 nd C CE.
- Five desires: wealth, food & drink, fame, sex, sleep.
- Threefold world: a conceptual framework of the entire, unenlightened
existence, comprising three interconnected realms—Desire, Form, and
Formlessness—where beings cycle through birth, death, and suffering. It is used to describe the entirety of the saha world, often metaphorically referred
to as a “burning house” of attachments.- World of Desire (Kama-dhatu): The realm inhabited by humans, animals,
and some celestial beings, dominated by instinctive, material, and
sensual desires. - World of Form (Rupa-dhatu): A higher realm of celestial beings who
have detached from sensual desires but still possess subtle physical
forms and experience spiritual joys. - World of Formlessness (Arupa-dhatu): The highest, non-material realm
consisting of four levels (boundless space, consciousness, nothingness,
neither thought nor no thought) where beings exist in pure meditation
- World of Desire (Kama-dhatu): The realm inhabited by humans, animals,
- Mysterious yet attractive onset of ‘winter.’
- Buddhist experience is the human experience in all colors and complexities.
- Emergence of Black American Dharma practice
- Hope that readers (including grandson) see the sacred in the secular, the
transcendent in the everyday.
Highly recommended interview.