“Dharma is essentially the training to be free just as radical[ness] and queerness is the training to be free,” says Lama Rod Owens in Radical Dharma. This parallel structure—between the Buddhist spiritual path toward transformation and a political route toward justice—animates this compelling tome from North Atlantic Books. Because America has a history of racial oppression, Owens and his co-author Rev. angel Kyodo williams assert, American Buddhists must also deal with that history and its legacy if they wish to practice the Dharma meaningfully in the modern day.

Read my full review of this remarkable new book on Buddhistdoor.

Above photo by Phil Roeder / cover photo by Gerry Lauzon / via Flickr Creative Commons.