This site is about writing, painting, and the way that Buddhism has influenced my life. I have taught writing and literature for many years and have thought a great deal about process—and about evaluation. In December 2024, my new book Bensonhurst Sutra: Tales of an Italian American Buddhist will be available on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. The e-book is already available.
This new book is a series of essays and stories centered on the condition of our spirit as we live our lives and do our work. What kindnesses do we allow ourselves? What pressures do we carry with us? What happens when we are doing well? What happens when we are stuck?
Academic and corporate culture—and the art world as well—instill in us an
overwhelming concern with the ego or “self.” How good are our drawings, our writing, our looks? How much money do we have? Will we win any prizes? Will people admire us? Or will we be judged as bunglers, second-rate? What grade or ranking will we get in this culture where everything is assessed? This is the air we breathe. How do we get out from under it?
We begin by noticing: Oh, I’m feeling competitive, superior, embarrassed, second rate. And then we let go—maybe for just a second. But we do it. We entertain the idea that there is another way to be that is kinder to ourselves and kinder to all of those with whom we’re competing, all those who are suffering from the same competitive disease.
While my earlier book, Teaching Toward Freedom: Supporting Voices and Silence in the College Classroom (New York: Routledge, 2018), focused mainly on my work as a teacher at Brooklyn College, Bensonhurst Sutra is about my personal life—my childhood growing up in the Italian American community of Bensonhurst, and my eventual turn toward Buddhism. It explores my relationship with my family, my feelings about myself as a student and a person in search of a spiritual life. As time passed, I developed relationships with Buddhist-oriented meditators, and then with visual artists with a Buddhist practice. I took a series of courses at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts, and I became a part of a “sangha,” a community of other Buddhists–some artists, some not–who are committed to trying to lessen suffering in the world, their own and that of all beings.
I include the first chapter of the book here. It appears in the second section of this website, My Books.
Thank you for reading! I would love to hear from you. Geri DeLuca
