What is in a name?
Black, female, queer, Zen priest, author
Krista Tippett’s guest for April 19, 2018 on On Being was Angel Kyodo Williams. She is “an esteemed Zen priest and the second black woman ever recognized as a teacher in the Japanese Zen Lineage.” She is also “the founder of the Center for Transformative change and the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace and Radical Dharma; Talking Race.”
As always, it is not my intention to repeat this enlightening and thought-provoking conversation. I urge the reader to give themselves the gift of this conversation.
While listening to this conversation I was again reminded of how easy it is for me to slip into the habit of using labels as a shortcut for a decision on what to think of others and, thus, how to treat them. Actually, I do this with myself as well as with others.
As Ms. Williams points out, by the time we reach the chronological age of so called adulthood (or younger) we have collected a junk drawer of so called truths about ourselves and the world. It is our job as adults, if we are committed to growing emotionally and spiritually, to dump all these truths out on the dining room table or other work table and to then begin to sort through them to determined which ones have solid evidence or even common sense to back them up and which ones need to be discarded. I love the analogy of the junk drawer. In that junk drawer we may find objects left by previous owners, stuff that we just tossed, or stuff we collected from parents, siblings, and others.
It is true that Ms. Williams may self identifies as a female, black ,queer, Zen priest and author. The label female tells one nothing about what character traits she has, her physical strength or what jobs or profession for which she is suited. Likewise, the term black tells one nothing about her ancestors, her character traits, if she is an activist or just busy being who she is. It does not tell one anything about her speech pattern or even what color she is – black, brown, light, dark , yellow, or white. The label of queer tells one even less. Is this about her sexual preferences, her political affiliations, or just her acceptance of a range of people and feelings with whom she identifies? The label of Zen priests certainly, by itself, tells one very little, except perhaps that she may consider herself to be attempting to explore a spiritual path.
This leaves the label of author. The fact that I have listed some books which have been published under her name does point to a direction, but even that tells one very little in and of itself about her journey.
If one discards or disowns all these labels as peel off stickers one is than left with the challenge or the opportunity to meet this person as one who brings to the table many commonalities and gifts. If, in fact, one has the courage to introduce self to self without any labels, but with deep respect, then one might discover a precious gem made even more precious by unique lines, cracks and bands.
Ms. Williams does not talk of knowing ourselves but of uncomfortably “unknowing of ourselves’. That person is not the labels one has accepted or one has been assigned, but a person in the process of becoming which Father Gregory Boyle would say is a process of returning self to self.
Written April 23, 2018
Black, female, queer, Zen priest, author
Krista Tippett’s guest for April 19, 2018 on On Being was Angel Kyodo Williams. She is “an esteemed Zen priest and the second black woman ever recognized as a teacher in the Japanese Zen Lineage.” She is also “the founder of the Center for Transformative change and the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace and Radical Dharma; Talking Race.”
As always, it is not my intention to repeat this enlightening and thought-provoking conversation. I urge the reader to give themselves the gift of this conversation.
While listening to this conversation I was again reminded of how easy it is for me to slip into the habit of using labels as a shortcut for a decision on what to think of others and, thus, how to treat them. Actually, I do this with myself as well as with others.
As Ms. Williams points out, by the time we reach the chronological age of so called adulthood (or younger) we have collected a junk drawer of so called truths about ourselves and the world. It is our job as adults, if we are committed to growing emotionally and spiritually, to dump all these truths out on the dining room table or other work table and to then begin to sort through them to determined which ones have solid evidence or even common sense to back them up and which ones need to be discarded. I love the analogy of the junk drawer. In that junk drawer we may find objects left by previous owners, stuff that we just tossed, or stuff we collected from parents, siblings, and others.
It is true that Ms. Williams may self identifies as a female, black ,queer, Zen priest and author. The label female tells one nothing about what character traits she has, her physical strength or what jobs or profession for which she is suited. Likewise, the term black tells one nothing about her ancestors, her character traits, if she is an activist or just busy being who she is. It does not tell one anything about her speech pattern or even what color she is – black, brown, light, dark , yellow, or white. The label of queer tells one even less. Is this about her sexual preferences, her political affiliations, or just her acceptance of a range of people and feelings with whom she identifies? The label of Zen priests certainly, by itself, tells one very little, except perhaps that she may consider herself to be attempting to explore a spiritual path.
This leaves the label of author. The fact that I have listed some books which have been published under her name does point to a direction, but even that tells one very little in and of itself about her journey.
If one discards or disowns all these labels as peel off stickers one is than left with the challenge or the opportunity to meet this person as one who brings to the table many commonalities and gifts. If, in fact, one has the courage to introduce self to self without any labels, but with deep respect, then one might discover a precious gem made even more precious by unique lines, cracks and bands.
Ms. Williams does not talk of knowing ourselves but of uncomfortably “unknowing of ourselves’. That person is not the labels one has accepted or one has been assigned, but a person in the process of becoming which Father Gregory Boyle would say is a process of returning self to self.
Written April 23, 2018
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