Sacred Truth in Our Mother Tongues 

I was raised at various intersections of race, culture, and religion with roots stretching from the coffee-flower scented mountains of Puerto Rico to the smoky stairwells and found art gardens of Loisaida. I learned how to explore the world during times when LES was littered with abandoned buildings oozing art, music, drugs, sex, and a wild expressiveness that it probably won’t ever see again. (It was really dangerous and scary, so that’s probably for the best.) It was the last flush of dark bohemia before the new millennium.

The rhythms of my language were shaped by elders, cousins, parrandas, prayer, mix-tapes, community development and poetry. We were trained to dance fluidly between professional English and our family’s sacred blend of Nuyorican Vernacular English (NVE). That’s not an official term, or anything, but it’s the best way to explain that blend of NYC Spanish, AAVE, and slang from every immigrant wave to come through the constantly evolving city watched over by Libertas. We code-switched with the goal of finessing our linguistic alchemy— our realities, rhythms, and roots with pride y sabor (to the point of recognizing variations in flavor by borough, if you were good). 

This hybrid language made of streetlight metaphors, graffiti wisdom, sacred ancestral calls, soft “yo’s,” powerful “bendicións,” and tragic “benditos” carries generations of adaptability, survival and joy. It’s what we use to comfort each other when people and systems betray us, and how we celebrate our lives, clapping the clave to congas and bass.

And now… it’s one of the languages I explore and express Dharma in.

These Times… Yeah, Degenerate Feels Like The Right Word

“In degenerate times, one should practice skillful means to encourage beings to turn toward the Dharma, using whatever methods will bring them joy and understanding”
-Vimalakirti Sutra, Chapter 2

I am so grateful that the Dharma Jewel, the realizations, the opportunity itself, doesn’t stay in any one place. It began (for us) with a man of color, on the other side of the world, who rejected caste, wealth, and a pretty easy life to walk through his country first seeking and then teaching liberation in ordinary words. The Buddha spoke so all people could benefit— not just kings and scholars, and gave us 84,000 teachings to meet us where we are. That was 2,500 years and 8,000 miles ago yet they’re still profoundly relevant… for everyone that seeks them. Blows my mind!

Quite obviously there is some bonkers karma ripening on a collective level. It’s heartbreaking… and it’s everywhere. I spent quite a bit of time researching, meditating, praying, and brainstorming over it and I do believe that the most helpful thing I can do is have faith, connect, and follow my heart. I trust Dharma. Every time I’ve taken leaps of faith, it’s always been blessed. And bendiciones are meant to be shared, after all.

“Even if there are only a few who uphold the true Dharma in degenerate times, they are like a bright light in the darkness, guiding all beings to liberation.”
-Mahaparinirvana Sutra

So, these creations are for all my fellow intersectional Buddhists (and all the Bodhisattvas-in-training, emerging Dakas, and Dakinis on-the-down-low) putting in the effort to diminish their own delusions and share light while this planet goes through whatever we’re calling this. If it actually is the last bright flush of enlightenment before a descent into complete degeneration… well… may we all get to liberation rapidito and shine brightly enough to leave a glowing path that can be seen for aeons!

The Privilege of Finding the Dharma

“To hear the Dharma even once and awaken faith is difficult indeed. It is like a blind turtle surfacing once every hundred years and placing its neck through a ring floating on a vast and endless sea.”
— Majjhima Nikāya 129, Bālapaṇḍita Sutta (The Foolish and the Wise)

I know it’s a sublime privilege to have encountered the Dharma in this lifetime. Teachings on emptiness, compassion, and liberation are so incredibly precious and transformative. No more suffering? No more rage or confusion? No more ignorance?!? Seriously, the profundity of a path to liberation and enlightenment can not be overstated. It just can’t.

I spent my whole life seeking truth. It never made sense to me why it had to be sought out in the first place. Why was it not just shared? And why didn’t this world make sense?! (There’s a good chance I was a pretty annoying kid, which I feel bad about) It wasn’t until I began studying Dharma that I felt like I was getting complete answers to my questions. The first teaching I heard on karma felt like eye drops and a shower (with a deep conditioner for the curls) in the middle of the desert. 

I’m just a practitioner trying to make their way on the path (amidst the hot quicksand of my delusions). I’m not a guru or anything, but since I’ve been so incredibly blessed to find Dharma in this life, aand I know how hard it is to find reflections of this kind of spiritual intersectionality, aaand I’ve spent my life collecting creative and facilitation skills… my heart said lean into a creative spiritual practice as an offering of right livelihood and use the skills I love (arts, technology, craftsmanship, and sustainability… and NVE!), to create Buddhist imagery, resources, and swag for my sangha, family, and peoples. Maybe find ways to make things a little easier, prettier, and lighter for my fellow practitioners, light bearers, and Dharma nerds out here. Especially those passing out eye drops!

‘Cause if this life is a shot at true evolution… we should take it, right?! (Yeah, you wouldn’t have read this long if you didn’t feel that way too, so fist bump… with sparkle fingers!)

Acknowledging the Cultural 

Lineage

I cannot speak about my own Buddhist study or practice without acknowledging the immeasurable kindness and generosity of the Buddhist cultures that carried these teachings through centuries of war, colonization, and oppression. Without Tibetan, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, and so many other Buddhist traditions, I wouldn’t be writing this today.

For centuries, Buddhist masters, monastics, and practitioners have preserved, expanded upon, and transmitted the Dharma in ways that are nothing short of astonishing. In the face of unimaginable hardship, the teachings have been carried forward, intact and luminous.

That’s not something I take lightly. It is a gift of indescribable value, one that I will always be profoundly grateful for. My engagement with Buddhism— through study, practice, and this offering— is done with reverence, respect, and the awareness that even though the Dharma Jewel itself may not have any inherent national or racial identity, I only have the opportunity to study Dharma because of the effort of generations of people from various cultures, nations, and races other than my own. 

I speak about Dharma through the lens of my own experience, perspective, and language in service of the Dharma, and I pray that it is not seen as mocking, offensive, or appropriating, as it is a genuine creative offering for the purposes of turning the wheel of Dharma, any way that I can. It is my wish is to support Dharma traditions, not take away or distract from them.

May my words, my practice, and this work be of service. May they honor the unbroken stream of wisdom that has carried these teachings across time and space. May all beings experience the joy of enlightenment.

 

“May I become a boat, a bridge, a light, a medicine—whatever beings need, wherever they need it.”  
—Shantideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra 3:18

A Humble Offering Mini Collection

This tiny collection is a little reflection of the meeting point of Buddhist practice, cultural identity, and creative work. Memories of Street Lotus and Visions of Street Mandalas are visual expressions of devotion—born from daily practice, shaped by diaspora, and built using digital tools.

They are part of a personal exploration of what it has meant to create sacred spaces (of body, speech, and mind) within complex realities and are inspirations from lived experience. I’m sharing these offerings in the same spirit as one might light incense to support reflection, mindfulness, and presence. 

Memories of Street Lotuses

The first image, Memories of Street Lotus is inspired by the layers of graffiti art that surrounded me growing up in the Lower East Side. Not just the wildstyle, tags, or ads—but the different messages: the ones with history and culture that touched the soul. 

Those images of history, strength, hope, and wisdom from my youth have long since been replaced, either with new paint or new buildings, but the impressions they left will always be with me.

Street Lotus draws from that language. The lines, the layers, the color fields, and textures—all carry the influence of those urban surfaces where people tried to speak, express, or transform. That visual memory meets the symbolism of the lotus. A reflection of dharma growing in unexpected places.

 

 

Visions of Street Mandalas

The second piece of this micro creative experience is Memories of Street Mandalas. This piece carries the feeling I used to get standing by the rivers around New York City as a teenager. It didn’t matter if it was the FDR Drive, the Cloisters, the Piers on the west side (when they were still just piers) or any of the blocked off areas in the 5 boroughs (sometimes even a quick jump on the path to Jersey)—I loved finding quiet, hidden, semi-dangerous places that felt sacred in their escape from the constant buzz of NYC life. 

I was always overstimulated and perpetually drawn to spots of wild, overgrown beauty and solace even with their grime and neglect (and the occasional remains of the previous night’s debauchery). The kinds of spaces where the smell of broken concrete was carried on a refreshingly cool and silent breeze… where I could hide by the water and just be for a moment.

This a reflection of what those moments of peace felt like. They were blessed moments in overlooked corners. Places that weren’t meant to be altars but become them when I could finally catch my breath.

 

I hope you enjoy them!

 

Love,

Taireina

References

Buddhist Text Translation Society. *The Vimalakīrti Sutra*. Translated by John R. McRae. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2004.

Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. *The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra*. Translated and edited by Tony Page. London: Nirvana Publications, 1999.

Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans. *The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya*. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.

Wallace, Vesna A., and B. Alan Wallace, trans. *A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life* by Śāntideva. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1997.