On ‘Down by the Riverside’
A study of refuge and liberation in Black spirituals and Soto Zen Buddhism
By Felicia Sy
The following is an excerpt from the June 13, 2024 article Felicia wrote for Tricycle magazine. She is one of our board members, a sangha member, and BIPOC facilitator…and wears many other hats besides at Clouds!
As a queer, female-identifying African American practitioner of Soto Zen Buddhism, I imagine enlightenment with celebratory fanfare, complete with a marching jazz band and a shake for my shimmy; I let my backbone slip with ease. I can even hear tambourines and trombones proclaim my arrival. Yet, in the Zen Buddhist tradition, liberation is typically seen as something more ordinary. I am regularly reminded of the words of the Buddhist monk Wu Li: “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” There is something both beautiful and mundane about this statement.
This Juneteenth season allows African Americans and allies around the country to pause and reflect on our emancipation from slavery. It prompts me to contemplate the similarities between the ultimate liberation from suffering and the processes for attaining liberation from systemic oppression as a dance between the mundane and the sacred. How might we reconcile the two?
Felicia Washington Sy is a licensed independent clinical social worker and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A practicing Buddhist for 14 years, she combines mindfulness-based social-work practice and intercultural theory to train practitioners to work with diverse populations across the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. She is a Clouds in Water Zen Meditation Center member in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where as part of a team, she co-facilitates the BIPOC sitting group.