Tag Archives: Buddhism

A Nichiren priest resists the idea that meditation is the uniting factor across Buddhist traditions. By Myokei Caine-Barrett Published at https://tricycle.org/magazine/our-common-thread/ during the summer of 2016 When I first began to practice Buddhism, I knew very little about it from an intellectual, academic standpoint. The only thing I did know was that the sound of chanting the Odaimoku [sacred title] of the Lotus Sutra, as well as various portions of the sutra itself, captured my heart and my spirit. I was immediately drawn to the chanting and the ritualistic aspects of practicing—the smell of incense, the greenery, the flickering candlelight, and the rhythmic sounds all provided an avenue to explore myself from the inside. After a half century of practice, I’m still chanting. But I also learned quickly that faith, practice, and study were prescriptive for a deeper experience and understanding […]

A Right to the Dharma An Interview with Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin By Linda Heuman in the Fall of 2011 for Tricycle.org Many Westerners who have some familiarity with Nichiren Buddhism conflate the whole of the tradition with Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the most widely practiced Nichiren sect in America. But Nichiren Buddhism is not just SGI. More than two dozen non-SGI sects of Nichiren Buddhism collaborate under an umbrella organization called Nichiren Shu. Curious about these other faces of Nichiren, Linda Heuman spoke with Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, a Nichiren Shu priest and the resident teacher at Myoken-ji, a temple in Houston, Texas. The daughter of an African American father and a Japanese mother, Myokei Shonin is the first woman of African American and Japanese descent—and the only Western woman—to be ordained as a priest within the worldwide Nichiren Order. (She is also the […]

By Myokei Caine-Barrett, Special to CNN August 22, 2010 11:50 a.m. EDT Part of coverage on Black in America Editor’s note: Buddhist Myokei Caine-Barrett is the first woman of African-Japanese descent, and the only Western woman, to be ordained as a priest in the Nichiren Order. She is the resident priest and guiding teacher for the Myoken-ji Temple, home of the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Texas. She talks about her journey to Buddhism in “The Black Pulpit,” a weekly series that explores faith in the black community. (CNN) — My journey of faith began at age 11 when I began to study the Bible, inspired by Audrey Hepburn in “The Nun’s Story” and enamored of Jeffrey Hunter in “King of Kings.” I yearned for the passion and devotion of faith, as expressed Hollywood-style, to deal with my isolation as a child of […]