Emergent Dharma: Asian American Feminist Buddhists on Practice, Identity, and Resistance

Through different Buddhist traditions, the dharma spread through storytelling, with teachers sharing their experiences and observations of awakening to truth, reality, and greater wisdom. In Emergent Dharma, this vital tradition is brilliantly rekindled through the voices of Asian American women artists, scholars, activists, educators, and healers. Edited by Sharon A. Suh, PhD, this volume compiles poignant narratives of deepening and transforming their relationship to Buddhist traditions, offering a contemporary lens on the experiences of immigrants and descendants of immigrants in the United States.

Each essay powerfully articulates the evolving, liberatory nature of personal practices through acts of reframing, inviting readers to consider how cultural nuances can reshape and enrich spiritual practice. Mihiri Tillakaratne offers the liberatory path of embodying a “Bad Buddhist Auntie” – a figure who fearlessly reflects and bridges the sometimes-paradoxical demands of diaspora and spiritual tradition. Syd Yang shares a heartfelt and deeply moving story of healing from an eating disorder, finding profound support and transformation through an unwavering commitment to Bodhisattva Vows. Suh underscores the inherent subversiveness in an arising Asian American “feminist killjoy” brand of Buddhism toward an expansive and inclusive “ethic of love.”

Emergent Dharma is an essential read for anyone committed to understanding the richness of the Asian American experience and the boundless ways in which spirituality can manifest and empower.