Open Hours: Post-Election Refuge
2024-11-06 10:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
We will open our center from 10 AM – 6 PM for anyone needing a place of refuge. Our temple and kitchen will be available for use. Open to anyone who wishes to come.

Our Midday Sangha will be hosting a hybrid meeting from 12 – 1:30 PM. All are welcome to join.

Center Open Hours
2024-11-07 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-12 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-14 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-19 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-21 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-26 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-11-28 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-12-03 11:00 - 13:00 and 9 more dates
We welcome you to drop by the center for unguided silent practice, our library, or a cup of tea in our kitchen.
with EBMC Staff
Daytime: Tuesday & Thursday
11 AM – 1 PM Pacific Time
EBMC is a fragrance-free center and is wheelchair accessible. N95/KN95 masks required.
Note: Due to capacity limitations of our small staff, we may occasionally need to shorten or cancel open hours. We will do our best to give as much advanced notice as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Center Open Hours
2024-11-10 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-11-17 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-11-24 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-12-01 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-12-08 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-12-15 16:00 - 18:00, 2024-12-22 16:00 - 18:00, 2025-01-05 16:00 - 18:00 and 2 more dates
We welcome you to drop by the center for unguided silent practice, our library, or a cup of tea in our kitchen.
with EBMC Staff
Sundays
4 – 6 PM Pacific Time
EBMC is a fragrance-free center and is wheelchair accessible. N95/KN95 masks required.
Note: Due to capacity limitations of our small staff, we may occasionally need to shorten or cancel open hours. We will do our best to give as much advanced notice as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Beloved Families and Communities: Practicing Together for Love and Justice (Nov. 17, 2024)
2024-11-17 13:00 - 16:00
Beloved Families and Communities: Practicing Together for Love and Justice
November 17. 2024
1:00 – 4:00 PM in-person at EBMC, 285 17th Street, Oakland
with Lisa Fujie Parks, Fresh “Lev” White, Anjali Sawhney, Rascal Roubos, Renata Moreira, Kinshasa Bennett, Raul Bentacourt, and Dana Wright

For parents, grandparents, and other caregivers, extended and chosen family, and children/teens/young adults ages 5-18+.
SPACES ARE LIMITED. PLEASE SIGN UP BY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 5PM.

Each family only needs one registration.

This half-day program invites parents, grandparents, and other caregivers, extended and chosen family, and young people (ages 5-18+) to come together in support of beloved families and multigenerational community in these times. We will practice meeting each moment mindfully: honoring grief, anger, and fear, cultivating connection, comfort, and joy, and celebrating love, justice, and belonging.

This first in-person gathering of the family/caregiver sangha since the start of the pandemic offers a fresh start and an opportunity for renewal. The program includes all-ages circle time and age-specific breakout activities, with dharma practices woven throughout.

We aspire to gather with participants who represents the diversity of the many families and communities practicing at EBMC, with majority BIPOC and LGBTQ+ participation and a maximum of 40 participants. Please be patient with us as we do our best to accommodate individual family needs while creating the conditions for a supportive and inclusive space.

In-person Policies
EBMC is a fragrance-free, wheelchair-accessible space. We require adult participants to wear N95/KN95 masks, except while eating or drinking in the kitchen. Teacher may be unmasked while speaking.
Gift Economics
Our programs are offered freely without upfront fees. Your financial gifts help to sustain our teachers and our center. Generosity is the Buddha’s first teaching, the lifeblood of EBMC, and an act of sacred reciprocity in our community! When your attendance is confirmed, we will provide information for giving to our teachers and our center. If you wish to give now:
To support the teachers with a financial gift, please do so via:
~Venmo: @Lisa-Parks-12
~Paypal: lisafujieparks@yahoo.com
(please reference “Family Sangha”; the teachers will share the gifts with each other)
To support EBMC and help sustain our center and programs, please do so via:
~Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation
~Website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana
100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.
Teacher Bios
(you can also see this information and teacher pictures here!)
Lev Fresh White, CPCC, is a Certified Professional, Mindfulness & Life Coach. He has been practicing Mindfulness since 2007, and is currently a student of Spirit Rock’s Dharma Leadership Program. In addition to Co-leading the Teen Sangha at EBMC, Fresh! is also a rotating teacher at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, and leads a group for Trans* and Gender Variant folks in Oakland as well. Fresh! earned his Early Childhood Education Credits at Skyline College when he committed to being a classroom assistant and volunteer back in the 90s. Since 2003, Fresh! has facilitated or co-lead over 100 discussions in San Francisco and Marin, in schools and workplaces, with a goal of ending bullying for all, with a focus on creating safety for the LBGTQI communities.
Anjali Sawhney (she/her/s) is a Certified Integral Life Coach and a trained international Leadership Embodiment Teacher (somatic coaching based on Aikido & Mindfulness). Anjali has coached & facilitated somatics & mindfulness workshops in the non-profit, corporate, and educational sectors including the Richmond Community Foundation, California Endowment, UCSF & City of San Francisco. Anjali also serves directly with untapped BIPOC students, those unhoused, and those in recovery by providing coaching, counseling & series workshops through various non-profits as well as independently. She is currently on the EBMC Program Committee and Leadership Sangha (Board). She is passionate about rallying people through community & spirituality as well as street protests for equity & systemic change, is in awe of nature & live music, & on rare occasions is allowed to groove with her children, Aanika and Jai.
Lisa Fujie Parks is a multiracial Japanese and white queer woman who grew up part of her childhood in Japan and makes a home in Oakland, California, the lands of the Ohlone people. Lisa practices the dharma in the Plum Village tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and in other traditions, in service to wholeness and solidarity. Lisa graduated from East Bay Meditation Center’s (EBMC) inaugural Spiritual Teacher and Leadership (STL) training, and also completed the Commit2Dharma program and Practice in Transformative Action program. Lisa is a parent to a young adult in a two-home blended family and works in public health as a facilitator, coach, and advocate. Lisa also serves as the Board Co-Chair of Our Family Coalition, a community organization advancing equity for the full and expanding spectrum of LGBTQ+ families and children. Lisa’s favorite ritual is to go outside to give gratitude to our human and more-than-human relatives and ancestors and listen for guidance.
Rascal Roubos LCSW (they/them) – Rascal is white transmasculine therapist based in Huichin (Oakland) CA, who integrates dharma into daily life through an anti-oppression lens and somatic focused approaches. Rascal is a delighted and sometimes exhausted parent of three in a blended family, multi-household constellation. Although they have benefited much from extended silent retreat over the years, these days Rascal is especially engaged in deepening in practice forms that do not require sitting, or quiet! Rascal is a graduate of East Bay Meditation Center’s Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Training in 2022 and the Commit2Dharma intensive practice and study program in 2012, as well as Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program in 2016 and a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Certification Program in 2012. They had the honor of ordaining temporarily in Thailand in 2013, an experience that informs their dreams of more multi-generational community practice spaces in the West. Rascal loves small daily rituals and seasonal practices to honor the earth, the ancestors, and future generations.
Renata Moreira, M.A.S.T, CCHT (She/they/Ela/Elu) is a queer mixed race lifelong educator of Indigenous Xucuru Kariri and Portuguese ancestries. She brings 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, development and strategic communications to the intersections of trauma-informed care, mindfulness, and culture making. This dynamic first generation immigrant mama is connected to an eclectic lineage of spiritual wisdom and earth keepers across the Americas. Currently, Renata serves as a social impact and wellness consultant, transpersonal therapist, and mindfulness teacher. Shehas brought a passionate Metta praxis to countless educational, public, and private sectors since 2012; always holding the firm belief that all people within systems can liberate themselves towards the rise of a more loving and just world for all beings. She is certified as an MBSR instructor, is a graduate of EBMC’s Pita Program, and has served EBMC as Transition Director. When not co-creating beloved communities, cultivating medicinal allies, or geeking out on somatics and liberation, Renata can be found dancing with her 8 yr old magickal daughter and cooking up new ways to play into healing.
Kinshasa Bennett (she/her). Queer, African-American, pet parent. Psychologist by day. Magic weaver by night (and also day). Currently integrating sitting, dancing, praying, and vocal meditation practices. Incorporating ritual, indigeneity, and authenticity into my life as a Buddhist and keeping sangha in my heart. Launched from EBMC in 2009 and Spirit Rock in 2011. You can find me watching Sci-fi, women’s sports, or dancing in my living room.
Raul Bentacourt began his Buddhist studies when he was 16 in L.A. and has been studying steadily since. He has studied Vietnamese Zen in LA and Soto Zen in Santa Cruz and SF as well as Green Gulch and Tassajara. He spent a year as a personal student to a head instructor from Eijeiji, at his home temple in Japan. He also earned a black belt in Aikido. He eventually found his spiritual home at EBMC in Oakland. He is currently teaching science at a high school in SF where he is also a teacher meditation leader.
Dana Wright (she/her) is a mixed-race Black queer woman hailing from the South. Her first meditation retreat in 2006 ignited her meditation practice and love of the dharma. Dana graduated from the two-year dharma teacher training program, the Spiritual Teacher Leadership program through the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC). She is a visiting teacher at EBMC and has been an EBMC sangha member since its early days. Dana is a parent of a young child and a professor of education at Mills College at Northeastern University, where she supports teachers and emergent educational leaders committed to social justice education and systems transformation. She is a co-founder of the Love & Liberation Sangha, a local community supporting meditation for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Dana is dedicated to exploring how the dharma can help us better understand and navigate the complexities of daily life, build community and work towards social justice and collective liberation.
SIGN UP HERE!

IN PERSON: Connecting as Nature, Connecting as Multiracial (half-daylong)
2024-11-23 09:00 - 13:30
An event produced through the EBMC Multiracial Deep Refuge Group!
This is the sign-up for a Saturday, November 23 facilitated half-day nature retreat for multi-racial people offered by Multiracial Deep Refuge Group members Lisa Fujie Parks and Kim Allen. Space is limited. In filling out this form, you are agreeing to attend the event if space is available. To maintain the integrity of the day, please plan to attend the entire session (9-1:30). The day includes a potluck lunch. You will receive more information about what to bring etc. after registration and confirmation of a slot.
Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGEuvJFZqUzkEvboKNgl9L6qoy5vZL5pvVBoDbdLlGfkSwIA/viewform
UPDATE: The event is now full – waitlist only! Thank you everyone!
