Larry Ward

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January 30, 1948 – August 19, 2025

7th Day Memorial Ceremony

Dharma Talk: Be a Real Human Being

“I think we have to create communities of resilience. This community of resilience is one of kindness, openness, generosity, sanity, and loving. And there are so many people in this land who do not believe this is possible. So for me, I haven’t figured it out. I know it has to be concrete, it has to be embodied so that when people encounter it, they go, “Oh my goodness. I didn’t know experientially that this was possible.”

I am practicing right now with a couple of mantras. The first one is, “Stand up in the house of belonging.” Don’t act like this is not your land. Don’t act like you can’t take charge because it’s obvious to me that the principalities and powers who are supposed to be in charge of this land at this moment are absolutely incapable. So stand up! Act like you are a real human being. Don’t let somebody define your life for you or your power for you.

The second is, “Take your seat at the table of healing and transformation.” I’m thinking of the words of my Grandma. She said, “Don’t let some fool take your seat.” Take your seat. Stand up. Be present and care for yourself, love yourself. Because as you love yourself and care for yourself, that love will leak out. It will spill out all around you with a fragrance of holiness.

And the third is, “Ride the winds of change, unafraid.” Act like the mighty ones of old, who knew no fear. Embrace their wild resilience and their vision of what is really possible for us together.” Stand up in the house of belonging, take YOUR seat at the table of healing and transformation and ride the winds of change, unafraid.”

~~ Larry Ward, America’s Racial Karma, an Invitation to Heal

Dear colleagues, Our friend and colleague, Larry Ward made his journey to the spirit world this morning. He was in his home with his wife, Peggy, and collapsed. He did not regain consciousness.

Larry’s journey of care – from teenage years in the Civil Rights movement to leadership in the Ecumenical Institute and ICA and Dharma teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh – leave profound wisdom to the spirit of humanity and our becoming compassionate kindness energy in our daily lives

Larry and Peggy have been renowned teachers in the tradition of Thich Naht Hanh for many years. His recent book on Americas Racial Karma led to opportunities for him to speak on many forms of media. Larry and Peggy are the directors of the Lotus Institute which reaches many practitioners around the globe. In recent years, Larry spent much of his daily time in nature and writing poetry. Be watching for his poetry book to be published. He also had been preparing to do three talks on Kazantzakis this fall.

The breadth of consciousness that Larry touched will ripple for centuries. Those of us close to him personally journey forward with a deep chasm of loss. We will share more as I am sure others will soon.

What an incredible remarkable thing this living is.

~~ Dianne Greenwald snd Salvatore (Ray) Caruso

Dear colleagues, Oh two such vibrant and creative spirits, both of whom Joe and I encountered when we joined the Order in June 1968 were Larry Ward and Joy Warner Greene. And somehow, at this same week in 2025 we have learned of their passing.

Larry was a powerful presence from Day 1. His intellectual prowess and spiritual profundity knocked the sox off most of us. Somehow Larry and Joe and Nadine and I “clicked”, and we often hung out together for theological conversations and dancing. We came to love this family, and were delighted when our sons (Ben and Jon) and their son (Emanuel) met at summer camp, and later on when they all three settled in Boston, MA.

If Joe were here with me today he would applaud Larry’s decision to get sober, and would give abundant thanks for how Larry’s work with Thich Nhat Hahn has invited practices of mindfulness that are now shared around the world.

How blessed we are, colleagues of the Long March, to have lived in the presence of such amazing Saints. Grace, peace and love,

~~ Marilyn Crocker

I was a lone Town Meeting recruiter in Maine when stationed out of Boston in 1977. Larry and Nelson Stover were the Strike Force “Commanders” shuttling us back and forth on weekend sessions between Boston and Hartford. One weekend in the fall I arrived in Hartford to find we were all going to see Star Wars (the first one). When we returned, we were instructed to prepare for an enactment of the weird bar scene and ended up in a dance that lasted for some time, everyone taking their turn to pass through two lines of colleagues to the music from the film. That is the kind of weekend activity that refreshed us and prepared us to head out to conquer the New England wilderness that fall. Journey on Larry.

~~ Linda Hamilton

Larry Ward, dressed in a dazzling white suit, gave the New World talk at the first town meeting, called LCC (Local Community Convocation) in Atlanta, June 1974. We had 200 participants. Larry was amazing.

~~ Diann McCabe

I remember his singing – and his presence.

~~ Bill Schlesinger

Honoring the Light of Larry Ward

The Plum Village Community is grieving the passing of our beloved Dharma Teacher Larry Ward (True Great Sound). He was a lighthouse of the Dharma, a revolutionary spirit, and a visionary of Engaged Buddhism.

Ordained as a Dharma teacher in 2000 by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Larry wove together Buddhist practice, neuroscience, organizational change, and social imagination. Through what he called “Deep Buddhism,” he integrated mindfulness, trauma healing, and wisdom traditions to support the transformation of racial and collective karma.

Together with Dharma teacher Peggy Rowe-Ward, he co-founded The Lotus Institute, creating a place of refuge and transformation for many around the world. Over five decades, he lived and worked in more than twenty countries, guiding communities, leaders, and practitioners.

He was the author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal and co-author, with Peggy Rowe-Ward, of Love’s Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships.

~~ Plum Village

I remember Larry’s inspiring persona in the 70s (and also beyond) when I worked with him in the Black Academy. In him, I sensed the pain and struggles of an entire section of the US population and also its revolutionary spirit. To ICA’s mainly white community in Chicago at the time, he stood as the Other, holding it accountable for rising above any natural parochialism. Jouney on, great soul.

~~ Dharma

I remember Larry as a powerful teacher. He seemed uniquely able to channel the spirit presence that he had emersed himself in. I continue to have vivid images of a retreat he led in Denver many years ago. Condolences to Peggy.
~~ Catherine Welch

Ray, Diane and dear friends. Deepest condolences to Peggy and everyone who was close to Larry; heartfelt gratitude for Larry’s great spirit; and a warm thank you for sharing news that feels like a disturbance in the force.

~~ David Dunn

We will miss him! What a life of spiritual service!

~~ Blaise Sands

Dear colleagues, Jan Sanders and Blase Sands just called to tell Bonnie and me of Larry’s passing today. I wept. I am so grateful for these fifty-five years of being colleagues, friends, students of Buddhist and Christian wisdom, and social and ecological activists. I was so looking forward to hearing him speak tomorrow about the Spiritual Exercises of Nikos Kazantzakis. Larry’s words and deeds will continue to touch many lives forever. Blessings in grief and gratitude,

~~ Rob Work

Dianne, Thank you for this tribute to Larry Ward. We all know him as the powerful spiritual pioneer as the Order:Ecumenical and the Order of Interbeing. He has been planting seeds of continuing this spiritual adventure into the unknown unknown in many sanghas in North America together with his beloved wife, Peggy Rowe Ward. He continues in the sangha together with Thich Nhat Hanh. Larry is now a beloved ancestor, too. My prayers are with Peggy. May her tears be healing prayers for peace as we grieve together. 🧡🧘💛Judi White🙏🏻

Homage to our beloved ancestor, Larry Ward

Larry Ward has been a powerful presence of love and care in my life since before I was born. He and my parents worked together in the Ecumenical Institute (later known as the Institute of Cultural Affairs, a global intentional community dedicated to spiritual renewal and social change). Because the children in our community were cared for collectively, Larry cared for me as a baby. He was among the first Black leaders in both the ICA/Order Ecumenical and the Plum Village Order of Interbeing, where he was a gifted teacher, bringing wisdom, courage, and compassion to every space he entered.

Larry was both a Baptist minister and a Buddhist Dharma teacher, a combination that for him never posed a conflict. He felt that Jesus and Thích Nhất Hạnh were deeply aligned, and his life reflected the way these two traditions could harmonize. At times, his voice carried the power and fire of a Baptist preacher, and at others, the gentleness and clarity of a Buddhist teacher—blending seamlessly into something uniquely his own.

His Dharma name was True Great Sound, and he was indeed a master of sound. He soothed, uplifted, and gave confidence through his soulful songs; through the way he recited a poem from the depths of his being; and through the way he directed us in his teachings to listen to the sounds of the world—both the suffering and the joy—and to respond wholeheartedly.

When I became a nun, Larry’s mentorship and steadfast support were a guiding light. Together, he and I helped organize the first POC retreat at Deer Park in 2004, which is still to date the largest BIPOC retreat ever held in the U.S., and we continued organizing and teaching these retreats in subsequent years. Larry’s Dharma talks were tender, authentic and transformative, addressing the pain and resilience of people of color. He embodied and encouraged us to “stand up in the house of belonging” as he writes in his poem, For You.

We also collaborated with others on creating a new Touching the Earth practice to honor the many racial and ethnic land ancestors in the U.S. When Thích Nhất Hạnh asked me to edit his teachings from the POC retreats into a book, he requested that I include Larry and my teachings in it, and Together We Are One: Honoring Our Diversity, Celebrating Our Connection came out in 2006.

Larry experienced enormous suffering in his life, but he moved through the world with grace, humor, and lightness. He was deeply grounded in the Dharma, which allowed him to steadfastly engage with both personal and collective shadows. His book America’s Racial Karma is a luminous and courageous guide on how healing America’s racial wounds is inseparable from our collective awakening. Thích Nhất Hạnh’s deep love and respect for Larry and Peggy were evident in his invitation to them to live permanently at Deer Park, a rare honor. Larry and Peggy invested their lives in building community and mentoring others wherever they went and they were beloved as teaching couple all over the world.

Larry and I had the opportunity to teach together again at Omega in 2023, at the “Be Not Afraid: We Were Made for These Times” retreat. Larry and Peggy’s visit to our home in 2023 left us with such wonderful memories of their warmth and presence. That same year, we gathered with Buddhist and Christian practitioners for a communal reading of bell hooks’ last unpublished work of poems and prayers at Harvard—an experience of communing with the ancestors and each other in which Larry was a bright and powerful light.

He wrote a beautiful foreword to Valerie, Marisela, and my book, Healing Our Way Home. His luminous book of poetry, completed just this summer (2025), moved me deeply, and I was honored to endorse it. His words reveal what he lived: the wisdom, beauty, and compassion he continually shared with the world.

Larry Ward was, as Judi White put it, both a spiritual revolutionary and a spiritual evolutionary, embodying the courage to challenge systems of suffering while also evolving our collective consciousness toward love and liberation. And he loved life while doing this—he savored music, poetry, friendship, dogs, and the joy of connection to the living world.

Larry Ward’s life was a testament to love, courage, and service. He leaves a luminous legacy of teaching, mentorship, and presence that will continue to guide and inspire. I am so grateful for the gift of his life and feel honored that I had the opportunity to walk alongside him on this beautiful path.

~~ Kaira Jewel Lingo