In this 2011 Buddhadharma Forum, Larry Yang, Amanda Rivera, Bob Agoglia, and Rev. angel Kyodo Williams discuss how to foster meaningful diversity in American Buddhism.

Introduction by Charles Johnson

I would wager that every Buddhist enjoys the story about Hui-Neng, the sixth patriarch of Zen, who presented himself as a poor “commoner from Hsin-chou of Kwangtung” to the abbot of Tung-shan monastery in the Huang-mei district of Ch’i-chou in hopes of study, and was rebuked by the abbot with these words: “You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a buddha?” Hui-Neng replied, “Although there are northern men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their buddha-nature. A barbarian is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha-nature.”

Read the full interview here: https://www.lionsroar.com/road-to-diversity/