Francesca Maximé – ReRooted – Ep. 53 – America’s Racial Karma with Larry Ward, Ph.D.

www.thelotusinstitute.org Larry Ward Ph.D. joins Francesca to uncover ‘America’s Racial Karma,’ exploring the healing intersection of Buddhism and race in America. Larry Ward Ph.D. is a senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition. He brings twenty-five years of international experience in organizational change and local community renewal to his work as director of the Lotus Institute and as an advisor to the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Drucker School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation, and recently released a new book, America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal. Larry is a knowledgeable, charismatic and inspirational teacher, offering insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his dharma name, “True Great Sound.” Buddhism & Race in America Welcoming Buddhist teacher and author Larry Ward to the Rerooted podcast, Francesca invites him to share how the vantage point of learning and teaching Buddhism under Thich Nhat Hanh helped inform his timely new book, America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal. Francesca and Larry take a close look at how our identities are constructed narratives, but still hold a strong reality in our daily lives; before diving into the historical roots of white supremacy. “I wanted to apply what I had learned through my practice in Buddhism, as well as my scholarly work in Buddhism, to my lived experience of race in America. I wanted to invite people into a deeper look at the human psychology and nervous system interactions that create and sustain white supremacy.” – Larry Ward PhD Explore anti-racism as a spiritual practice in this podcast focused on the spirituality of racial equality, on Ep. 21 of Sufi Heart Colonialism & Seperation / God & Interconnection (13:18) Speaking to the ‘othering’ inherent in colonialism, Larry explains how the idea of being a fixed separate self creates materialism, commodification, and hierarchy – s