07/28/2026
We are honored to welcome back Dr. Santosh Raut (known as Maitriveer Nagarjuna in retreat settings) for a six-week online course beginning September 13th: B.R. Ambedkar and NavayΔna Buddhism: Caste, Liberation and Engaged Practice. Programmed by Anna Kalyani Sardar ().
Together with guest teachers Cornel West, Rima Vesely-Flad, and William Edelglass, we'll go deeply, and in community, into the legacy of B.R. Ambedkar: the 20th-century Buddhist political thinker, jurist, and social reformer who understood the Dhamma as a complete response to oppression, dignity, and freedom.
Cornel West () places B.R. Ambedkar alongside W.E.B. Du Bois as twin figures in a shared tradition, one where no honest reckoning with truth or justice can look away from the suffering of Dalit, Black, and Indigenous communities alike.
In her book Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition, Rima Vesely-Flad () turns to Ambedkar's Buddhism being a rejection of caste hierarchy and its empowerment of women and the marginalized as a resource for Black Buddhist ethics today.
William Edelglass frames Ambedkar's turn to Buddhism as choosing a "religion of principles" over a "religion of rules," reconstructing the tradition itself as a tool for dignity, solidarity, and facing caste violence honestly.
In Dr. Raut's words: "What does it mean to take up Buddhist practice as an act of liberation for all beings?"
This class is an invitation to practitioners of every background to consider how the Dhamma might deepen and widen our engagement with the work of justice, dignity, and collective liberation in our own fractured present.
π Sundays, Sept 13 β Oct 25 (no class 10/18)
π 10:00β11:30 AM ET
π» Online via Zoom
π€² $225β$350, equitable pricing available, no one turned away for financial reasons
Financial assistance deadline: Sept 3
Registration deadline: Sept 10
Link to register: https://brooklynzen.org/?p=20780
(Image: illustration of B.R. Ambedkar by , created for World Buddhist Flag Day 2025)
