“That was the tipping point for me,” she says. “I knew I had to do something.”
Vermont may be second only to Maine as the whitest state, yet that hasn’t stopped its spiritual communities from displaying Black Lives Matter signs or discussing race relations in sermons. But Stanley’s new course “Understanding Racism Through the Lens of Core Buddhist Teachings” is perhaps the most unusual local take on one of the country’s most divisive issues.
“African-American friends said to me the best thing I could do in Vermont is start a white affinity group,” the teacher says, referring to a safe space for allies to explore sensitive topics.
Stanley thought about forming a book club around New England educator Debby Irving’s recently released memoir “Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race.”
“I wanted people to start becoming aware,” she says, “but I didn’t want to just sit and read a white person’s experience of white America, especially in white Vermont.”
Stanley also hoped to explore other people, other perspectives and other possibilities — beginning with the core Buddhist teachings of non-harming, compassion and caring.
“Buddhism trains the mind to see past things that limit the way in which you perceive the present moment,” she says. “It’s unbelievable the awareness that can arise when you look through a different lens.”
Growing up in a greater Boston working-class neighborhood settled by immigrants, Stanley first noticed differences based not only on race and ethnicity but also on gender and class.
“Certain people got certain treatment and other people got something else.”
Having traveled to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, Stanley settled in Brattleboro in 1973 to teach at the nonprofit organization that’s now named World Learning.
“When I was in Japan, I experienced prejudice and discrimination as a white person in ways I never could have here,” she recalls. “I was refused access to apartments. I had people pointing fingers at me or literally backing away.”
Stanley hasn’t forgotten the feeling of being labeled a “gaijin” — an outsider — nor does she want to. She instead uses it to fuel her work. But uniting Buddhism and Black Lives Matter isn’t without its struggles.
Buddhist practices of meditation and mindfulness may be entering the mainstream, but they’re not attracting the full racial spectrum. Of the approximately 2 million Buddhists in the United States, about two-thirds are Asian and the remaining third is largely white, spurring calls from spiritual leaders for more diversity.
“I’ve heard some Buddhists say our teachings have nothing to do with racism,” Stanley notes of another challenge. “But to me they’re completely connected.”
Launching the course locally this fall, the teacher and students from a 30-mile radius have studied commentaries on racism by Irving and other contemporaries (including the New York Times video series “A Conversation on Race”) as well as ancient teachings on the Buddhist concepts of interdependence, wise view and wise intention.
“We all need an intention beyond righteousness,” Ruth King, an African Choctaw American teacher of Buddhist meditation and philosophy, writes in one of the assigned readings. “Ask yourself, what is your vision of racial healing? Why is this important to you personally? What do you need to face up to and own in order to stay awake to racial suffering? How would this benefit all beings?”
Stanley just concluded the fall semester, but her work continues. She’s set to offer the course online this winter and attend a Harvard Divinity School conference on Buddhism and race next spring.
“I have no history of being a social activist, but I do have a long commitment to peace and people of different ethnicities, cultures, classes and genders understanding one another,” Stanley says. “People need to learn. I feel like I’ve just begun.”