How did your family inform your spiritual path?
I’ve been practicing Buddhism since I was sixteen or seventeen, after my mother was introduced to Buddhism in 1976.
My family is religious. My grandparents on both sides were Christian ministers. My great-grandmother founded five Christian churches in New York City. All my great-aunts and my maternal grandmother were Worldwide Evangelists. My paternal grandmother was a New Thought Unity minister.
My aunt Effie was a Transcendental Meditation trainer and one of a few Black women who traveled with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1960s. She introduced my mother to Buddhism. As my mother would say, “There’s no coincidence in the universe.”
How would you describe your practice?
I always think of myself as