Dakini Store Books for Black History Month

For Black History Month, the Dakini Store is highlighting four books written by African-American authors, taken from our BBAIPOC authors collection. We also include a fantastic journal to inspire personal and social work celebrating inclusivity and mindfulness. Each of these books is filled with heart-opening stories by renowned Buddhist teachers. There are endless praises to sing about these books, however, Myokei Caine-Barrett’s review of Black and Buddhist provides the best summary: “The journey into Blackness is a way of practicing the paramitas, underscored by the ever-present resilience and abundance of Black magic, of Black joy. Black folks have always known suffering–and have also always exhibited a wide array of ways to end suffering without sacrificing humanity, joy, or love. Accept the invitation.”

To view the BBAIPOC collection, click here.

The Mindful Activist helps you identify your true calling in the world when it comes to being socially aware and active, while focusing on caring for yourself along the way. Through a series of prompts, lists, and meditations, this journal helps you find ways to use your unique skills and interests to spark conversation and create change on a local, national, and global scale. The journal is illustrated throughout and features a beautiful leatherette cover for light and easy carrying. Its 160 elegantly designed, ruled pages are made from archival paper and take both pen and pencil nicely.

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This collection of eighteen scholarly and popular essays spans a lifetime of reflection and teaching by Jan Willis. Grouped in four sections—Women and Buddhism, Buddhism and Race, Tantric Buddhism and Saints’ Lives, and Buddhist-Christian Reflections—the essays provide timeless wisdom for all who are interested in contemporary Buddhism and its interface with ancient tradition.

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In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. The resulting explorations display not only the promise of Buddhist teachings to empower those facing racial discrimination but also the way that Black Buddhist voices are enriching the Dharma for all practitioners.

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In The Way of Tenderness, Zen priest Zenju Earthlyn Manuel brings Buddhist philosophies of emptiness and appearance to bear on race, sexuality, and gender, using wisdom forged through personal experience and practice to rethink problems of identity and privilege.
Manuel brings her own experiences as a lesbian black woman into conversation with Buddhism to square our ultimately empty nature with superficial perspectives of everyday life.

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Afrikan Wisdom represents an intersectional, cross-pollinated exploration of Black life–past, present, and future. Award-winning author and editor Valerie Mason-John (Vimalasara)’s collection of 34 essays–written by an eclectic and inspirational group of Black thought leaders and teachers–reflects on the unique and multilayered experience of being Black in the world today.

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