After The Laundry, The Water Pump: A Talk With Sister Clear Grace
Sister Clear Grace is a Buddhist monk who received novice ordination in the Plum Village Vietnamese Zen tradition headed by Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2020, she received higher ordination and carries forward both the Theravada and Mahayana lineages of her preceptor, Venerable Dr. Pannavati Karuna of whom she was transmitted the name Dayananda.
A Black, gender-nonbinary “nunk,” Sister Grace recently converted a Chevy Van into a mobile monastery she dubbed "The Great Aspiration" and set out to bring the dharma to those who might otherwise not find it, primarily LGBTQ communities and communities of color in cities throughout the South.
Sister Grace spoke with me from Audubon Park in New Orleans.
Hello, Sister Grace. Where are you and The Great Aspiration today?
I am on the levee of the Mississippi River in Audubon Park. All the barges and the huge ships coming down the Mississippi come through here. It’s cold and gray and very windy and wet. This is today’s front yard.
About every two or three days I have to get into nature, get still a bit. Being in the city takes a lot of energy and lots of mental work to really lay the self down, watch the knowing mind, and be present for people in deep despair, suffering, and confusion.
How do you find the people you wish to meet and engage with them?
Well, that part’s really easy and comes naturally for me. I think as a multicultural person of color, you learn how to appropriate and how to fit in anywhere. You get really good at understanding and relating to people – not so much proselytizing the dharma or being Buddhist, but really just meeting people right where they are.
I’m not afraid to go into those deep dark places, and I don’t think any of us should be. Why wouldn’t you see a bunch of monks walking through the French Quarter and engaging with people? We don’t need to be all serious and meditation – we can do that too – but we can also just be sharing joy and love and light.
Why wouldn’t we be in those places where there is darkness and despair? That’s what we practice for; that’s what we train for, and those are the ones who need to see it. I mean, we all need to see it, but we tend to avoid those places. We tend to not even see them. We think that they’re in China or Africa; we help the homeless in Thailand. Right here in America we have people who don’t have drinking water, and they’re sleeping on the streets, and our country is throwing them out like garbage.
Sometimes I just drive into these communities, open up my doors, sit outside, and greet people -- Hey, what’s goin’ on? How you doin’? – in that kind of way versus ringing a bell, chanting and bowing, like I’m a monk, and the dharma, and the Buddha, and that kind of thing. And people will come around and they can kind of feel it; they can kind of sense it. And they’re like, So, what’s your get-up? What’s this brown mean? You Muslim?
I never saw a buddha growing up either, and I didn’t know what a buddha was other than the guy at the Chinese restaurant you throw the pennies in and rub his belly, you know? Where was the dharma when I was growing up? It wasn’t in my community. it was one of those things that was in the suburbs like piano lessons or soccer moms. Only certain people have access to that.
How do we be the Buddha, be the dharma talk in our actions, and then give people hope and light through that?
I imagine that you’re coming face to face with the deep divide in our country. How has that been for you?
That’s probably the biggest thing about this journey, but let me tell you, Mark – the divide is real, and it’s big. But it’s also false, and it’s a delusion.
I’m in the South, so I see political violence all day long. But if I can look beyond that and not bring that into the interaction, people who I wouldn’t normally say would embrace the things I do or that I am about have seen me and loved me, and we have laughed and shared joy. In fact, they’re very clear in their expression about being against some of what I’m about, but when we’ve met and we shared love and connection, that spirit of Christ consciousness or Buddha nature has been greater and has shown me that the divide is not as real as it appears to be on social media or on our bumper stickers, our t-shirts, our hats, or our flags.
You have to really be careful with your attachments and your views because we are causing that divide. And no matter what flag they’re flying, in that car is a being who wants love, wants compassion, wants happiness. They think that their beliefs and their views are going to bring better for their family, and when we can understand that, we know that that person in that car is love too, regardless of their views.
How are you adjusting to van life?
Living in a van is complicated. I haven’t quite gotten used to that yet, but it has put me in touch with that craving and that desire to have comfort or to want to be warm, to want to have water to take a shower.
Like I said, today is a still quiet day, but it’s so unpredictable. Like trying to find water can sometimes be the whole of the day – needing to fill up water or take a shower or do laundry – these kinds of things can become complicated. Something goes wrong – maybe the water pump stops working, and I have to disassemble and reassemble it, or the fridge opens up while I’m driving and spaghetti falls out all over the back of the van. Seriously, that is how van life goes.
As a child of a single mother running from domestic violence, I’ve been on the streets before, so it’s not that I don’t know what it’s like. But we tend to forget that the simple daily needs can be such a struggle Sometimes I just want to plug up somewhere so I can have heat; I just want somebody to let me fill up my water so I can wash my body.
When you find people who are interested in meditating, do you practice with them?
Absolutely. Just the other day I was in this park, and I met three young beings, three little practitioners – five, six, and two – and one of them had been meditating for two years in school, and he was like “Oh, so what does a monk do?” And I suggested we meditate. So we just kind of sat in the park.
I’m more often talking to people about understanding our minds, so we’ll practice just understanding the habitual mind through discussion and sharing, versus trying to bring someone into meditation. We have such a skewed concept as Americans that it’s all about peace, calm, relieving stress, and relieving anxiety. And it’s really not that. That’s not the whole of it.
How long do you plan to do this? Will you continue around the country?
I would love to. As long as The Great Aspiration keeps running, and as long as conditions are met to do so, I would love to do this for the rest of my life. It’s a big country, and this can evolve into many different things. I hope to get an organization up soon and find some support.
I really would like to have a sort of pop-up concession stand where I could serve food to those who live on the streets –oatmeal, breads, or soup – especially in our cold winter months. In my lay life, I ran several restaurants for many corporations, so I have skill in that. But it doesn’t take a lot to have a big pot of grits, oatmeal, or hot coffee and roll up in the neighborhood and be like “Who’s hungry? Line up.” As a monk, we’re often asking for alms or donations. These alms would be for the people, for whoever is hungry, whoever needs a meal.
Yeah, this is how I would like to finish being a disciple of the Buddha. Walking in this way – riding in this way (laughs).