The Movie Good Hair A History and Culture  Buddhist Lecture

By Anthony "Amp" Elmore Sr.

Cris Rock jokes with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah's show. Oprah stated that she made it a rule at her girl's school in South Africa that all girls must wear natural braided hair. Oprah stated that she did not want her girls to face the pain of having to maintain straight hair every day as Black girls in America.
This movie is more than a comedy  but this movie represent a new era of Black people seeking freedom in the world and a challege to the world called in Buddhism "Animality."
This is Marilyn Monroe the quintessential American bombshell who has set the standard of beauty in America.

Greetings from the Proud Black Buddhist Website, the Buddhist Gosho “The True entity of phenomena” (Buddhist Bible) in Nichiren Buddhism reads; “Exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study. Without practice and study there can be no Buddhism. You must not only persevere yourself; you must also teach others. Both practice and study arise from faith. Teach others to the best of your ability, even if only a single sentence or phrase.” The “True Buddha” Nichiren Daishonin encourages us to do our best to teach this wonderful religion if only it is a single sentence or phrase. We make the point clear that we hold no position or authority in Nichiren  Buddhism and our lecture is only a lay person's introduction to Nichiren Buddhist teachings.

Let me explain Nichiren  Buddhism in common sense terms; we do not look to the sky or look to heavens for answers to our problems, nor do we go to some mountain and meditate challeges away.  We Nichiren Buddhist chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo to an object of Worship called a Gohonzon to tap our inherent Buddha Nature or our highest life condition called Buddhahood. We seek the answers to our problems inside of ourselves.  We tap our wisdom, energy and roots of fortune to change our circumstances.  In a Nutshell; Nichiren Buddhism is concerned with teaching you more about what goes on "INSIDE THE HEAD" than what is on the outside of the head.  When we refer to the Mind in Buddhism we mean the "HEART" or our "True Life Condition." This lecture is not just about "Good Hair" but this is an introduction into the teachings of Buddhism in an African American Cultural way.  We use the concept of "Good Hair" to explain the Buddhist teachings.
("The world of Animality")

Nichiren Daishonin writes in the Gosho ““It is the nature of beasts to threaten the weak and fear the strong.” (MW1- p. 52). In the world of Animality our lives are controlled by instinct and emotions and this condition of life is characteristic of animals without reason and respect for other people. The concept of “Good Hair” in the Black community in America is rooted into the Buddhist concept of Animality whereas a strong culture dominates a weaker culture. In the world of Animality we are under the control of our instincts, our instincts are a means for us to adapt to and take advantage of our environment. Animality is the law of the jungle, a pecking order an instinct of survival. Animality is territorial or ensuring a food supply or favor.  The issue of Good Hair is rooted in the Buddhist world of ANIMALITY.  Nichiren  Buddhism teach of the Ten worlds and Animality it is the third world of instincts or animal behavior. The religion teaches one how to reach beyond the world of Animality.  We seek to tap our highest life condition called Buddhahood while living on this earth.

Dalit Woman From India
Dalit Woman From India
The largest population of Black people outside of Africa is in India, there are 200 million Black people and they are called Dalits or Broken people. They are the "outcaste people" or today they are called slumdogs. They live in a cast system in India and today at the time of this writing in 2009   they experience the worst inhumanity another people can place on another.  They are the untouchables of India and they are discriminated because of their caste or because of the family they were born into.  Many of these women are the same phenotype as the African/American women in America except they are born with the straight hair and appearance that many Black women in America desire and spend their life trying to achieve.  Many Black women in America invest more time, energy and resources to their hair than to education, self development and life planning. We  Nichiren Buddhist call this Karma or life circumstances. By Chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo we change our Karma. If Black women knew of the hardship their sisters face in India with the "Good Hair" perhaps they would adopt a deeper view of the importance of hair.

Another exciting thing about Buddhism is the fact that Nichiren  Buddhism deals with life and all phenomena and it does not matter what the phenomena is Buddhism explains all phenomena based on a universal law and concept.  The Gosho reads: " The true path of life lies in the affairs of this world. The Konkomyo Sutra reads, "To have a profound knowledge of this world is itself Buddhism." The Nirvana sutra reads, "All scriptures or teachings, from whatever source, are ultimately the revelation of Buddhist truth."  True Buddhism is about your life and living.  One of the most important thing to most African American women is their hair care.

 Many religions are dominate with the idea of one day going to heaven and finding a place of bliss and many do not deal with how to live on earth. Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism says; “the true path of life lies in the affairs of this world and to have a profound knowledge of this world is itself Buddhism. Further the Daishonin writes “All Scripture or teachings, from whatever source, are ultimately the revelation of Buddhist truth."

The average African/American has no interest nor connection to Buddhist teaching and most consider Buddhism to be foreign, Blasplemous and culturally unapplealing or uninteresting. With the introduction of the Movie "Good Hair" that explores the never talked about and embarrassing phenomena and sensitive issue of the 9 Billion dollar Black care industry in America and the amazing lengths and struggles African/Americans go through to maintain straight or Euro-Centric styled hair.  The Black hair care industry in America has been a hidden culture within a culture.  This lecture explores the depts of this phenomena using the light and window of the profound teachings of Nichiren Buddhism that was founded in Japan over 750 years ago, but Buddhism has connections to people of African decent thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt. While most have no interest in Buddhism many are connected to the phenomena of "Good Hair" and this is what this lecture is all about. We will tackle this subject while giving a window into Nichiren Buddhist teachings the explores the laws of life.

Black historian and the foremost African Scholar on African history Cheikh Santa Diop hinted that the Buddha was an Egyptian Priest   chased from Memphis by the persecutions of the Cambyses . (please refer to Diop’s book “The African Origin of Civilization”.)   In another book “Histories du Japan” by ‘Koempfer claims that the Sacya Buddha of India was a priest from Memphis who fled from Egypt when Cambyses invaded it.   Two things are important about the historical Buddha; British Historian Godfrey Higgins show that the ancient Egyptians were Buddhist who even had a temple in England called "Stonehenge" that we see today.  Higgins reveals also in his book the Anacalypsis that the "tribe of Judah" who first came to Ethiopian thousands of years ago were a tribe of  Buddhist  from India.  Our discussion lends concrete evidence of this person's clear ethnic background and we show that he was a Black man with a lock hair style and this has been hidden in history.  As far back as thousands of years the idea of "Black hair" has been an issue in history.

Do you know  these three Males?  The power of their hair was so immense that the altering or even wearing their hair long not only affected the United States but such actions could have affected the World
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