The tragedies of the recent mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; and Gilroy, California, return East Bay Meditation Center’s community to our ongoing commitment to love in action. Our weekly Midday Sangha meditation group sometimes reads this statement at their meetings: “As our worlds burn in violence and in hatred, we recommit to creating safe space in which all who come in through our doors are seen, heard, valued, and accepted. East Bay Meditation Center, in downtown Oakland, California, is a Sangha, or community, of people for whom spiritual practice is not separate from social justice and social transformation. EBMC is a diverse urban meditation center where we learn and practice loving kindness, bold compassion, courageous joy, and sustaining power for the long road ahead. We move and work together to create the world in which we want to live. Our hearts are broken, our community is whole.”

[photo credit: Jon Tyson on Unsplash]