At The Edge of Self
Insight Myanmar30 Okt 2025

At The Edge of Self

Episode #422: “There is beauty in owning one's racial identity. There's beauty in owning, valuing, and respecting one's heritage, ancestors, sexual identity, and gender identity. But on the other side of the coin, there can also be imprisonment there.”

So says Bhante Sumano, an African-American monk at Empty Cloud Monastery. This is the 6th episode in our ongoing “Intersections of Dhamma & Race” series, in which we examineentrenched protocols, practices and biases within the vipassana and mindfulness communities.

Bhante Sumano begins by telling us how he came to take on the monk’s robes. Originally from Jamaica, he moved to New York City for college and has stayed there ever since. Bhante Sumano trained under Thich Nhat Hanh and Thanissaro Bhikkhu before ultimately deciding that Empty Cloud was the best fit for him, as he appreciated the flexibility and openness in how the monastery embraced different Theravadin traditions.

Bhante Sumano goes on to describe how the Buddha’s teachings have guided him in understanding and responding to racism. He expresses disappointment with how he has seen the wider Buddhist community respond to the recent social justice movement, and feels that even many experienced teachers have “blind spots” that prevent deeper understanding. Finally, he shares the value in providing safe spaces where practitioners of color can come to practice the Dhamma.

Episoder(506)

On the Ropes

On the Ropes

Episode #132: Zach Abuza, a columnist at Radio Free Asia and a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC, provides his analysis of the tactical and strategic situation facing the Tatmada...

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A Jaded Hellscape

A Jaded Hellscape

Episode #131: Mike Davis is CEO of Global Witness, an international NGO that seeks “justice for those disproportionately affected by the climate crisis: people in the global south, indigenous communit...

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Igor Blaževič on the Spring Revolution

Igor Blaževič on the Spring Revolution

Episode #130: Igor Blaževič experienced the chaos, violence and fear of the Bosnian War at a young age. Once the war ended, Igor wanted to support others who were suffering from the lack of freedom he...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum

Episode #129: Andrea Passeri and Hunter Marsten co-authored an article which looks at Myanmar’s quest for a non-aligned foreign policy, and that is the subject of this podcast discussion.In 2011-12, f...

28 Okt 20221h 33min

Chinland’s Forgotten War

Chinland’s Forgotten War

“The greatest tragedy of Myanmar as a country is that it gets the headline for a week or two, and then it generally gets buried, because so many other things are happening,” Matt Davis explains. With ...

21 Okt 20221h 50min

Helping to Cushion the Blow

Helping to Cushion the Blow

Episode #127: “I basically started meditating about eight years ago, and it's it changed my life completely,” Claire Thorp tells us.For years, Claire had been intrigued observing how her partner kept ...

14 Okt 20221h 33min

Fiction and Fun in Burma

Fiction and Fun in Burma

Episode #126: When Rose Metro sat down to write Have Fun In Burma, a novel set during the Rohingya crisis, she was already well aware that the country has long been viewed through an exotified, Orient...

6 Okt 20222h 3min

Keeping the Burmese Language Alive

Keeping the Burmese Language Alive

Episode #125: Given the deteriorating and destabilizing situation in Myanmar, one might assume that experts in the fields of Burma Studies, along with Burmese language teachers, would be more importan...

30 Sep 20221h 43min

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