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Buddhism, Racism, And Jazz

Norman Fischer

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THE OTHER DAY I PICKED UP a world religions textbook my twin sons were using for their freshman high school history course. The chapter on Buddhism had a subdivision entitled "Western Buddhism," and here you could see pictures of life in an American Zen Buddhist monastery, along with thoughtful text on the subject. I was surprised. Apparently, with the accelerated pace at which everything moves these days, American Buddhism has arrived at a point of establishment while still being formed. It seems then a good time to think about it in a fresh way, to unearth roots we haven't yet dug. Maybe if we look at it from a different angle we can see something we haven't seen before. Looking at this textbook, thinking about roots—at the same time that I've been taking a self-directed crash course in jazz, listening to Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, et al.—got me musing on connections I hadn't noticed before.

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