Greetings my name is Anthony “Amp” Elmore publisher of the proud Black Buddhist or African and African American cultural Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist website. I think that I am more Buddhist than I am Black and I think that somewhere in space and time I chose to be born Black so that I come into this world and share Buddhism with Black or African/American people.
It is not so easy being Black and it harder if you are a Black Buddhist. When you become a Buddhist you will cease to being just Black and your will become more. Our ethic and social backgrounds are only a temporary emergence of the five components. The realms of the five components are; 1.Form 2. Perception 3. Conception 4. Volition 5. Consciousness. The realms of the five components are only temporary component phenomena and this reality is governed by the universal laws of change.
When you as a form (African/American) change your Perception (insight) you will develop a Conception (idea) and this will change your Volition (will) and you will gain a new Consciousness (awareness). The highest awareness or Consciousness that we seek in the Buddhist religions is called enlightenment. The road to enlightenment is a difficult road to travel.
I Anthony “Amp” Elmore begin traveling the official road of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 1974. One writer wrote ; “do not go where the path may lead, but go where there is no path and leave a trail.” This website is our effort of pointing you to the trail.
A Nichiren Shoshu Priest gave me the best advice to practicing Buddhist that I can share with you who is interested in pursing the Buddhist teachings. The Priest told me that Buddhism was natural and that I should pray to develop a natural practice. Can you imagine a small Japanese man telling me that I should develop a natural Buddhist practice and exactly what does that mean.
First there is no handbook to teach a Black man or Black Woman to be a natural Buddhist. Being a Buddhist in America is not natural; in fact if you let other African/Americans know that you are even thinking about Buddhism you will be ostracized and considered crazy or weird. However over the course of many years I learned to become a natural Buddhist that I am able to live and share by example.
The most difficult problem that I had in life during my youth and this problem is a very sensitive issue in the black community that is never discussed and that is the “abusive karmic relationships between Black men and Black Women.” Let me put this issue in a language that perhaps only Black people can understand. Please check out Tyler Perry movies and how Tyler deals with the issues of our Black male and female relationships. Tyler often characterizes the issues of soft and loving Black men.
I have never told anyone this but I know this to be true to many people and in my life was the fact that many African/American relationships of having the terrible karma of not having the ability to be “to be kind, loving and sensitive to each other.” The most painful challenge that I faced in life was not racism or white people but the most painful thing that I faced was the karma of the inability to be a kind and loving African/American male.
In my personal life there was nothing more heartbreaking than the fact of me not being able to be myself and to become a loving husband. As a youth coming up I would hear my dad say; “you cannot be good to a Black woman” and I never understood the irony in my relationships and it was the fact that every woman that I truly loved and who I would almost worshiped dogged me out 100% and the relationships where woman almost worshipped me I could not appreciate and my life was an endless and ruthless cycle of an incomplete and unfulfilled relationships. If I loved a woman she did not love me and if she loved me I did not love her.
In every single relationship in my life where I went back to women who once loved me, the very minute that I tried to love them they could not love me. Such relationships are pervasive among Black men and Women. I learned that such relationships or a circumstance was a matter of karma and until you changed your Karma you would always have such a problem. Almost everyday I watch this drama of Black male/female challenges happen each day.
The African/American church is full of lonely women who do not have a man and our streets and jails are full of Black men who are simply screwed up. It is not only racism that plagues Black people but an even greater epidemic in the Black community is the abuse that we Black men and Black women put on each other.
The difficult relationship reality may not be a part of your Karmic reality, however I bring this issue up to give you a practical understanding of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and how you can change your karmic relationship and how you can use this religion to make your life a happy life. Many sisters believe that the only way to have a happy marriage is through Jesus. I was able to find a happy marriage via my Buddhist practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo just like Tina Turner did in her marriage to Ike Turner.
Problems for Black people are not just relationships but it could be drugs, heath, financial, career or simply the fact that you want plain mental and physical happiness. Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism has given me happiness more than I could have never imagined in life.
Let me quote the Gosho or (Buddhist Bible) as to how Buddhism has worked for me; the Gosho: HELL IS THE LAND OF TRANQUIL LIGHT reads;
“One who, on hearing the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, makes even greater efforts in faith is a true seeker of the way. T'ien-t'ai states, “From the indigo, an even deeper blue.”
Because of my Buddhist practice my life has become like the indigo leaves that you dye repeatedly and becomes deeper than the Blue than the original indigo plant. When I started practicing Buddhism I was this crazy man of the 70's who loved Karate and martial arts so much that everyone thought that I was crazy, because of my Buddhist practice I was able not bring dignity to myself, my family and my community as I went on to become a five time World karate/Kickboxing champion. Not only was I a champion but I was able to secure a major sponsorship with a major American coloration in that I was once sponsored by the Adolph Coors company.
I later wrote, produced, directed and starred in a movie called “Iron Thunder” that tells about my life as a Kick boxer and I have appeared in Jet, Ebony and almost every major Black publication in America including producing a few fights that appeared on Black Entertainment television.
During my young days I was a dashiki big Afro wearing brother who most people considered strange and out of touch with our conventional social culture. Because of the benefit of my benefit of my Buddhist practice I have been able to turn my love from Black history and culture into becoming a single person who has perhaps the largest production designs of African products in the world. I honestly think that I have created more contemporary African designed products than any single person in the world.
I created the first all African home in America and my Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen will introduce to Congressional records my definition of African Style that I defined being the creator of the first “All African Home in America.”
Just like the Indigo plant my Buddhist faith has helped me to become a Deeper Blue or better than I have been in the past or even more intense with things in my life.
In my personal life you will rarely ever hear me talk about Buddhism because I have been able to integrate Buddhism in my personal life in a natural way as it was suggested to me by my formal Nichiren Shoshu Priest Rev. Hodo Sugeno. There is no clear cut manual on Buddhism as to how to be a Black Buddhist in America and it is difficult culturally for the average African/American to understand Buddhism since it is not dispersed in a cultural relative prospective.
