Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Emergent Dharma: Asian American Feminist Buddhists on Practice, Identity, and Resistance

Emergent Dharma: Asian American Feminist Buddhists on Practice, Identity, and Resistance

Suh, Sharon a.

Paperback

Asian American StudiesBuddhismWomen's Studies

Publisher Price: $20.95

ISBN13: 9798889842330
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: Dec 9 2025
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.71 Width: 6.01 Depth: 9.01
Language: English
An essential critique of American Buddhism--11 Asian American women reclaim a vibrant feminist Dharma against whitewashing, patriarchy, and model-minority stereotypes

Mainstream American Buddhism is often portrayed through a narrow, problematic lens: a group of mostly white converts sits on cushions. Eyes closed, blissed out, serenely meditating--this is Buddhism made passive and patriarchal, scrubbed of the rich complexities, myriad expressions, historical nuances, and creative ways of being that animate the living, beating heart of feminist Asian American Buddhism.

This book is an overdue correction to whitewashed American ideas of the dharma. Editor Sharon Suh, PhD, offers a first-of-its-kind anthology that pushes back against patriarchal appropriation, orientalized stereotypes, and the idea that Buddhism means meditation...and meditation only. The book's 11 essays offer a richer, more dynamic vision of Buddhist spirituality. Each asks into vital questions like:

  • Must we meditate? Can other acts--practicing martial arts, performing Japanese tea ceremonies, attuning to the spirit world, visiting cemeteries, hand-making objects--offer new relationships to the dharma?
  • What does it mean to be a Bad Buddhist Auntie who teaches new generations as an imperfect ancestor? Or to be a feminist killjoy who sees Buddhism as a means of healing the wounds of marginalization?
  • How can we live with--not in ignorance of--Buddhism's own history of driving state violence?
  • What do we owe our parents--especially our mothers, to whom we are karmically bound?
  • And how can Buddhism teach us not only about obedience, but about self-love?

Also from

Suh, Sharon a.

View All

Also in

Women's Studies

View All