Black Power Worldwide Meditation Group
The Black Power Worldwide Meditation Group based in Baltimore, Maryland is one of the longest running meditation groups in the world that centers Black. We originally started meeting in 2014 in response to the Freddie Gray murder. The aim of the Black Power Meditation Group is to explore and directly engage our nature through meditation practice, and to use the inherent wisdom and compassion found there to be of benefit to Black people. Black Power is the experience of our innate nature, shining through all of the areas of life where we decide to control and experience ourselves as Black people; behavior, culture, society, our psyches and spirits.
We are currently meeting every second and fourth Wednesday, 7-9pm at The Cedarcroft Center 6112 York Rd. Baltimore MD 21212 on the grounds of the Church of the Nativity and Holy Comforter. Our meeting schedule can be found here: https://baltimore.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=643088
During this group attendees practice Afrikan Centered Chanting, Shamatha Meditation, Contemplation Practice and study of teachings and practices from a variety of Contemplative traditions including Lakota, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Lukumi/Ifa, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism.
We hope to see you there!
The Sadhana of Awakened Melanin
The Sadhana of Awakened Melanin is the world’s first contemplative practice text designed for people desiring to engage in traditional Buddhist centered practices that center Black.
Over the course of 15 years, I created and adapted practices that I felt were important to anyone seeking to walk a spiritual path that also focused on their race, culture and lineage.
This text was created to fulfill the aspirations of four influences: My root guru Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche who continues to fearlessly manifest the teachings of the Kalapayana in order to assist all beings in all realms with realizing enlightened society and my spiritual friend Gaylon Ferguson who endlessly enriches me and others with compassion and wisdom; the fruit of his discipline and exertion. And lastly, my ancestors of the African diaspora who desire that their children live happy, healthy and whole lives; that their offspring remember their hearts and never fall prey to coldness; that they stay together as a family despite attempts at separation; that they experience love within, between and as all things and that they manifest ageless empires that birth doubtless, courageous warriors unafraid to sacrifice self-centered behavior, for the behavior of serving others.
May this text be of benefit to all beings. If there are any faults within they are mine and are a reflection of the continued unfolding of ignorance as wisdom.
The ancestral home of all things is Afrika. It is where the first humans began to ask questions about how to find contentment in a world that offers no stability or predictable comfort. As Afrikans, we are called to reclaim and affirm our relationship with the cosmology shared by all humans and what that relationship looks like through an Afrikan centered lens. Buddhism offers a rational view of humanity rooted in the Earth, community and the body that invites us to explore what it means to be a human, born with this body, this skin and at this time. It does not ask us to discard our conditioned sense of self, but instead to live a meaningful and purposeful life as we are found. Buddhism also asks us to live this life with and for others, and to do so to explore the limitations of solidifying our experience of the world around us. Loosening our grip on our projections reveals a natural spaciousness experienced as an awakened unconditional heart-mind of wisdom, compassion and skillfulness. What this means is that the nature of our Afrikan selves and the myriad ways it manifests in our everyday lives; our culture, society, body and mind are useful and worthy as inherent tools of enlightenment. To bring this about we must shine the light of wisdom through the lens of our Afrikanness to determine for ourselves what Enlightened Afrikan society looks like.
When I began contemplating writing and adapting these practices, I remember wondering how the various truths outlined in the Buddhadharma were being taught to me so that I did not only see enlightenment through the lens of Asia and Europe, but also through the lineage of my ancestors. What I found is that there were no teachings or teachers that attempted to include the history and legacy of Afrikan people in the Buddhadharma, and because I was unwilling to wait for someone to do it I began to write. These practices are an attempt at gathering our awareness around our absolute value as humans and relative value as Afrikans and with that I offer them as a collective experiment for all who are interested to take part in.
The following practices can be practiced together or separately to account for time limitations or the need to connect with the experience of one or more of the practices.
For those new to meditation and contemplation practices, instructions from the text Turning the Mind Into An Ally by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche have been included at the end of the text.
Instructions for each practice can be found at the beginning of each practice in italicized text. Prior to engaging in any of these practices, this author suggests a period of a concentration meditation practice such as Shamatha in order to still the bodymind and allow for more contemplation and integration of the meaning.
May the goodness of the Afrikalapayana dawn!
For those that would like to know more about the Sadhana, to receive permission to practice it and receive a copy ($20) please contact me at milesinstitute@gmail.com
Sadhana of Awakened Melanin
Table of Contents
Introduction
I: Secret, Inner and Outer Invocations
The Four Blessings
Invitation to the Divine
Libation in Celebration of the Universal Lineage of Warriorship
Homage
II: Main Practice: The Three Faces of the Sacred
The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind Towards Sanity
The Four Immeasurables
Contemplation of Nature
III: Closing Chants
Declaration of Victory
Dedication of Merit
IV: Practice Tools
Preparing to Practice
The Posture of Meditation
Instructions for Contemplative Meditation
Short Meditation Instruction
Simple Zuowang Instructions
V: Ancillary Practices
Ritual For Taking the Five Precepts
Buddhist Refuge Practice
Christian Refuge Practice
Integral Refuge Practice
