East Bay Meditation Center

ONLINE: People of Color Sangha
2023-07-13 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-07-20 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-07-27 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-08-03 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-08-10 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-08-17 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-08-24 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-08-31 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) and 4 more dates | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
The People of Color Sangha is a growing community of people of color waking up and getting free!
Thursdays
7:30 – 9 PM PST
Closed Captions Provided.
Zoom info: Meeting details are shared through their mailing list (subscribe on their website), and their Facebook group.

ONLINE: 8 Step Buddhist Recovery Deep Refuge
2023-07-15 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-07-22 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-07-29 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-08-05 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-08-12 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-08-19 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-08-26 10:00 - 11:30, 2023-09-02 10:00 - 11:30 and 4 more dates | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Every Saturday from 10AM – 11:30AM PST / PDT ONLINE
Compassionate Dharma Deep Refuge Buddhist meetings focus on ways to heal addiction. Based on the Eight Steps to Recovery developed by Dr. Mason-John M.A (hon.doc) and Dr Groves, we believe this inclusive approach can build a solid foundation for those at any level of recovery and for those who have yet to seek help.
Through these practices we hope you gain a practice that can sustain you in your recovery.
We are a multi-recovery space. Whether you are navigating addiction to substances like drugs and alcohol, or process addictions, such as disordered eating, codependency, or sex and love addiction–you are welcome here.
Advance Registration is not required.
For additional information, please contact: ebmcrecovery at gmail dot com.

ONLINE: Tender Self-Care in the Midst of Pain
2023-07-22 10:00 - 16:00 | Online
An online daylong retreat with Deb Kerr and Kenji Oshima
Saturday, July 22nd
10am – 4pm (Time Zone Converter) Closed Captioning Provided

Mindfulness and compassion practices are powerful tools to help us navigate what the body often offers to us, including disabilities, ongoing illnesses, injuries, aging or pain. In this daylong retreat, there will be time to meditate, practice simple mindful movement, and share our stories in community with each other. We will explore how dharma practice can lead to greater ease in the midst of vulnerability, and how freedom may be accessible when we can allow the truth of our struggles to be held by our natural compassion and wisdom.

Debra Kerr has meditated since 1991, and is influenced by both Vipassana and Dzogchen practices. A graduate of Community Dharma Leader training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, she co-founded and served on the board of the East Bay Meditation Center from 2000-2006. In addition to teaching and leading support groups for meditation practitioners around the Bay Area, Deb teaches mindfulness meditation in assisted living and long term care facilities, where she also works as a speech pathologist.

Kenji Oshima (Coach Kenji) is the graduate of 2 of EBMC’s yearlong programs, Commit to Dharma and Practice in Transformative Action. As someone who has lived with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for over 3 decades he was on the team that addressed accessibility issues for East Bay Meditation’s move to Harrison Avenue and is a teacher in the EveryBody EveryMind sangha. Kenji is also a Life Coach and an Interfaith Spiritual Director. He has a unique perspective as a bi-racial/bi-cultural/bi-coastal, differently-abled, gay man.

HYBRID: Community Meeting - Shaping EBMC's New Potential Home!
2023-08-26 10:00 - 13:00 | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us in an incredible journey to discover our new potential building! Be part of shaping our future as we unveil plans, gather feedback, and explore possibilities together.
We’re excited to share the details of our building search and upcoming fundraising campaign. Your ideas and insights are invaluable, guiding our project’s direction
Saturday, August 26th:
Building Tour – 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM,
In-person & Zoom Discussion – 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Register here to get the meeting information for zoom and tours.

Due to staff capacity and health safety, space for the physical tours and in-person discussions at the center will be limited to 40.
Building Tour:
Get a firsthand look at the potential building, exploring its space and envisioning the possibilities it holds. Whether you’re a longtime community member or new to the fold, this tour will help you become familiar with the layout and start imagining how it could become a vibrant hub for our activities. Address of the tour about .5 mile from 19th st. BART and EBMC’s current space. It will be shared after registration
Hybrid Meeting: During this interactive meeting, we will:
Share insights on our building search and fundraising campaign.
Provide an opportunity for you to voice your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.
Clarify any questions you might have about the project’s goals and direction.
Introduce the proposed building’s floor plan for review.
Our architect team, who will present the building plan and address your queries live on August 16th, which will be recorded and shared August 26th.
Your Role:
Participate actively, share thoughts, and help us understand your priorities. This open forum welcomes all voices, fostering an inclusive environment where every opinion matters.
Join Us:
Save the dates and contribute your enthusiasm on these important occasions.

Using practice, demonstrations, and discussions, this retreat will use meditation and movement to explore how to create and maintain greater mindfulness and spiritual balance throughout the day. Simple meditation techniques are taught for a range of practitioners, especially beginners. Movements embodying the Five Elements are taught standing, sitting and reclining, and are appropriate for people with diverse abilities. This retreat will be held at Snow Park, so bring a water bottle, a snack and a blanket to sit on. The park is highly shaded from many trees, and bathrooms are available. Because this is an outdoor event, masks are optional, but social distancing is encouraged.

ONLINE: Apranihita: Meditation as Radical Rest
2023-09-04 10:00 - 16:00 | Online
Daylong Program – 10AM – 4PM
Labor Day Monday, September 4th
Online over Zoom

Apranihita: Meditation as Radical Rest
Thich Nhat Hanh identifies apranihita (aimlessness) as one of three doors of liberation. In the context of capitalist culture that values people based on their productivity, the practice of apranihita invites us to feel our wholeness, worth, and perfection in our very being. Our facilitation team brings lived experience of chronic illness and psychiatric disability in our queer bodies of color. This practice has been central for some of us in navigating the world at these intersections. We hope to share how the practice can support us in rewriting dominant narratives around “laziness,” value, and rest.
In this daylong retreat, we will practice aimlessness and explore a relationship with this form of radical rest. Our time together will include talks, breakout groups, easeful meditation practice, and opportunities to reflect on what rest means for you and your community. All levels of practice and familiarity with Buddhism and meditation are welcome!
TEACHER BIOS:

emiko (she/they) was raised with the Dharma through the Western Insight tradition and began practicing Vipassana meditation as a child. Ancestrally, she comes from a long lineage of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priests. Seeded with Insight meditation, steeped in the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, guided by Kuan Yin, touched deeply by Dzogchan, and growing into Higashi Honganji, emiko welcomes the many Dharma streams that flow through their life. They are a graduate of the East Bay Meditation Center’s first Spiritual Teacher & Leadership training and is currently a participant in the Sacred Mountain Sangha’s Dharmapala Training. She facilitates various sanghas locally and internationally, and works to create Dharma spaces by and for marginalized groups such as sex workers, and those disabled, neurodiverse, and/or chronically ill. As a mixed-raced, mixed-Buddhist queer, they practice holding contradictions with equanimity as they strive to co-create a more just and compassionate world.

Rahil Rojiani (they/them) is a queer, genderfluid, South Asian Ismaili Muslim, and an abolitionist trauma-focused psychiatrist. Their Dharma journey is held in multiple Tibetan and Theravadin lineages, including as a student of Lama Rod Owens. Rahil has been facilitating healing spaces and teaching meditation primarily for BIPOC and community organizers since 2014. With a particular love for element and shadow work, Rahil is dedicated to the intersection of justice and somatic healing for collective liberation.

Guangping Chu (all pronouns) is a student in the Plum Village tradition with the dharma name Playful Freedom of the Source. Meditation practice is an integral part of their healing journey, which includes uprooting patriarchy, singing to trees, making reparations for intergenerational wealth, navigating chronic Lyme Disease, and generous amounts of play time. Guangping facilitates meditation in numerous spaces on land and online, including Heartwood: A BIPOC Mindfulness Community.

ONLINE: Kwan Yin Dharmas: Compassion Practice for Queer and Trans People
2023-09-14 17:30 - 19:00, 2023-09-21 17:30 - 19:00, 2023-09-28 17:30 - 19:00 | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Class Series, Thursday evenings
Sept 14, 21, 28 – 5:30-7 PM
Online over Zoom

Kwan Yin Dharmas: Compassion Practice for Queer and Trans People
Welcome to a transformative class series designed exclusively for queer and trans individuals, where the guiding light of Kwan Yin’s compassion will illuminate your path.
🕊️ About the Class Series:
Kwan Yin is the bodhisattva who “hears the cries of suffering of the world with ease.” She/They is always extending their compassion and protection to us, we need only to call on them to strengthen our relationship to what she’s offering: safety, guidance and belonging for all queer and trans people.
In this class we will work with the dharmas of compassion (karuna), equanimity (upekkha) and loving kindness (metta), calling the bodhisattva to us through chanting their invocation, to hold and protect queer and trans people everywhere. No experience, or even interest, in working with a deity is necessary. Each class will include embodied practice in compassion and the felt sense of safety, and discussion in small groups.

TEACHER BIOS:

emiko (she/they) was raised with the Dharma through the Western Insight tradition and began practicing Vipassana meditation as a child. Ancestrally, she comes from a long lineage of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priests. Seeded with Insight meditation, steeped in the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, guided by Kuan Yin, touched deeply by Dzogchan, and growing into Higashi Honganji, emiko welcomes the many Dharma streams that flow through their life. They are a graduate of the East Bay Meditation Center’s first Spiritual Teacher & Leadership training and is currently a participant in the Sacred Mountain Sangha’s Dharmapala Training. She facilitates various sanghas locally and internationally, and works to create Dharma spaces by and for marginalized groups such as sex workers, and those disabled, neurodiverse, and/or chronically ill. As a mixed-raced, mixed-Buddhist queer, they practice holding contradictions with equanimity as they strive to co-create a more just and compassionate world.

Ream, pronouns: She/They. Ream is a queer organizer and somatics practitioner of European ancestry currently in Oakland, CA, organizing for economic and racial justice and immigrants’ rights, working for over 25 years in the labor movement and currently as the Strategic Campaigns Director for the United Domestic Workers’ Union. Ream is a graduate of EBMC’s PITA and WAS programs and is a co-founder of the Social Justice Sangha. Ream is a practitioner with Generative Somatics, teaching “Somatics for White Racial Justice Organizers” and holds trauma healing groups with activists and movement leaders.
