Arisika Razak, RN, NM, MPH
Arisika is the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her teachings incorporate diverse spiritual traditions, women’s health and healing, multicultural feminisms, queer theory, and contemporary diversity theory. Arisika has led national and international spiritual and healing workshops and ritual celebrations for women for over three decades, as well as embodied spiritual workshops for women and men, including several daylong workshops at EBMC. She has also co-facilitated workshops for POC with Marlene Jones at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
An educator with Oakland roots, Blake has been a Zen practitioner for a couple decades. Lay ordained in 2004, he first sat with the EBMC sangha when it resided on Broadway and has recently rejoined the sangha and POC Leadership Committee. His interests are in cultivating the dharma in people of color communities as well as participating in prison dharma projects.
Evan Hashi has been practicing at EBMC since 2016, and has lived in the East Bay since 2013. As a musician and artist, he is interested in how the dharma and mindfulness practices can be in conversation with creative visions and relationships, and as a Hawaii-born, 4th-generation Japanese American, how he can bring his full self in supporting people of color communities, and beyond.
Julio was born in Peru and lived there until his family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. He formally studied engineering and still works as an engineer, although he spends much of his time volunteering for social justice causes and practicing mindfulness in all aspects of his life.
Rachel McLean is a public health practitioner, crafter, and wanderer who got hooked on the dharma after experiencing metta (lovingkindness) meditation at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007. She was introduced to EBMC by her friend Lisa Moore in 2008/2009, and soon began volunteering at Alphabet Sangha, partly for an excuse to talk to people! She is a graduate of the Practice in Transformative Action (PITA) program and leads a monthly mindfulness meditation group at her workplace. She is deaf in her right ear so if you say hello, please do so from the other side!
Rebekah Eppley is a writer and librarian living in Oakland. S/he was first introduced to meditation and the Dharma through Mindful Writing workshops taught by he/r beloved late teacher Chris Malcomb. S/he found her way to EBMC in 2014 and has been practicing with the Maha Sangha since that time. S/he volunteered as a Temple Keeper in 2018 and found this to be one of he/r most rewarding volunteer experiences. S/he is grateful for the spiritual family and community that has embraced he/r at EBMC. S/he is married to Carmen Cortez, h/er partner of 23 years.
René Rivera is a leader and bridge-builder, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René has been a student of the Dharma since 2004 and has been a part of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) Alphabet Sangha since 2008. He has participated in the Commit to Dharma and Practice in Action programs at EBMC and the Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock. He currently serves on the EBMC Program Committee and Midday Sangha coordinating committee.
Sarwang Parikh (he/they) was borne into the Dharma within a devotional Hindu Gujarati Indian culture from an immigrant, working-class family in the South. They have been steeped in the practice and study of the Yogic sciences and Buddhism, primarily within the Theravada Vipassana lineage, for over 16 years.
Sarwang strives to weave ancient wisdom traditions with a decolonized approach to mental health as a psychotherapist primarily serving BIPOC masculine-of-center folks. He also regularly facilitates mindfulness-based trauma resilience trainings within school systems and organizations.
Sarwang's devotion to the Dharma has been sustained through Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioners Program, being a long-time sangha member East Bay Meditation Center (currently a part of STL: Spiritual Teacher Leadership training); mentoring youth with iBme; and supporting Engaged Buddhism at Buddhist Peace Fellowship (link needed). Sarwang is most at home in a forest, playing flute/handpan drum, immersed in a sci-fi novel/film or on the dance floor.
Shay is a Buddhist-Marxist computer scientist/gardener with a deep love for books, plants, and the struggle. Thanks to EBMC she began a meditative practice 4.5 years ago that has not only saved her life but transformed it.
Yasemin (they/them) is a young person of Turkish and European descent living on Ramaytush Ohlone land (SF) since 2018. They have been practicing meditation and dharma since high school as a means of healing and learning. They explore how the dharma informs our response to capitalist conditioning, the dharma's inherently queer & anti-capitalist nature, and weaving Buddhist practices with Muslim practices from their homeland. They are an artist of multiple mediums and bring the dharma into their creative work.
