Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, was the first American woman and the first person of African Japanese descent to receive full ordination as a Nichiren priest. Today, she is the bishop of the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America. Based in Houston, where she is the guiding teacher of Myoken-ji Temple, she also leads two prison sanghas and has been active in Healing Warrior Hearts (a program for veterans returning home) and The Gathering: Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent.
Myokei Caine-Barrett
Recent Articles
Ask the Teachers: What Would the Buddha Do?
Myokei Caine-Barrett, Dave Smith, and Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön on knowing — or not knowing — what the Buddha would do.
Welcoming Faith
For Myokei Caine-Barrett, how we welcome the various parts of our traditions is a reflection of how we welcome others.
Nichiren Shonin: A Teacher of Equality
Based on letters Nichiren Shonin wrote to his female followers, Myokei Caine-Barrett explains why the thirteenth-century champion of the Lotus Sutra was a practical feminist.
How can a Buddhist strive to “save all beings” without inflating their ego?
Rebecca Li, Kakumyo Lowe-Charde, and Myokei Caine-Barrett answer the question "How can one practice for the sake of all beings without inflating their ego?"