Book: Lifting As They Climb, Black Women Buddhists & Collective Liberation by Toni Pressley Sanon 2024

There is deep wisdom in this book. It reminds us of a core belief of Black culture: that we do not traditionally believe in advancing by ourselves. That we are climbers is a given because we are taught, some of us, to “jump at the sun” as Zora Hurston’s mother, Lucy, instructed her. But we are also instructed to have one hand stretched to earth to catch and hold on to whoever is behind us and also hoping to ascend. I believe Buddhism is deeply compatible with black people because we have, traditionally, cared  very much about compassion, kinship, and being true to the soul.

The women in this book, wanderers and adventurers, radicals and teachers, poets, are forging a new direction for all people who are feeling abandoned by formerly believed in structures of compassion that fall short when reality becomes too overwhelming to bear.

As the genocide of a people is witnessed every day; as child murder, trafficking and enslavement confronts us every hour; as the earth burns and the heavens pour, as starvation and homelessness abound;  where is refuge?  I believe it is with each other, offering our best. ~aw

Truckers/child trafficking