East Bay Meditation Center

ONLINE: Kapwa Meditation for Filipinx/a/o Community
2026-04-29 07:00 - 07:30, 2026-05-06 07:00 - 07:30, 2026-05-13 07:00 - 07:30, 2026-05-20 07:00 - 07:30, 2026-05-27 07:00 - 07:30, 2026-06-03 07:00 - 07:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | East Bay Meditation Center, 285 17th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
We are happy to announce that a weekly Kapwa Meditation for Filipinx/a/o folks will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 8, from 7:00 to 7:30 AM Pacific Time. We will continue to gather every Wednesday morning, coming together for support and practice, on our paths of individual and collective transformation.

In addition to our weekly meditation, we would like to remind everyone of our monthly Kapwa Deep Refuge Group for Filipinx/a/o folks. Launched in the Spring of 2024, we meet on the third Sunday of every month, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM Pacific Time.
Together, in both spaces, we aspire to cultivate a special community space in the intersection of Filipinx/a/o identity + culture + history and Buddhist spiritual practice.
The Zoom credentials are the same for both our weekly Wednesday meditation and our monthly gathering.
If you identify as Filipinx/a/o and would like to join, please contact us at: kapwa.deep.refuge@gmail.com

ONLINE: 8 Step Buddhist Recovery Deep Refuge
2026-05-02 10:00 - 11:30, 2026-05-09 10:00 - 11:30, 2026-05-16 10:00 - 11:30, 2026-05-23 10:00 - 11:30, 2026-05-30 10:00 - 11:30, 2026-06-06 10:00 - 11:30
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: Afrikan Healing and Wisdom
2026-05-03 09:00 - 10:30, 2026-06-07 09:00 - 10:30
ONLINE: Afrikan Healing and Wisdom
With Vimalasara Mason-John, Arisika Razak, and Aleta Toure’
First Sundays, starting November 3rd 2024
9:00 – 10:30 AM PT
Closed captioning provided over Zoom

November 2nd: GIVING THANKS/THANKSTAKING
Note that this day is also when we change our clocks in most of the United States (fall back one hour), so please plan accordingly.
This month in the USA we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day – honoring the resistance and resilience of Native American peoples to European imperialism, and genocide. Today, let’s share stories of our joint struggles against enslavement and settler-colonialism, celebrating the bonds of kinship, support, and intermarriage that developed between our peoples throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. In particular, let’s remember the Plymouth Rock Black Indigenous people, whose story so rarely gets told.
We also acknowledge the complexity of our histories, recognizing African American participation as Buffalo soldiers in wars against Native Americans, and our enslavement by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole nations. We honor the steps towards healing taken by the Cherokee nation which apologized for the enslavement of African Americans and granted full citizenship rights to all the descendents of Cherokee freedpeople.
Please bring your stories, your ancestors and your lineages to share.
——
Join us for EBMC’s first Black-led, Black-Sangha Affinity group held on the first Sunday of every month starting on Sunday, November 3rd, 2024 from 9 AM till 10:30 AM.
Today, those of us living in the USA vibrate to the breath of our Ancestral North Star, highest realm of guidance. Our ancestors are with us, as we step into a seemingly repeated quantum leap of time, during one of the most turbulent election seasons since the presidential election of 1876, and the 1877 compromise which ended Reconstruction. We are in a sentinel moment, echoing the situations described in Martin Luther King’s book, “Why We Can’t Wait”. Like our Diasporan kinfolx, we are questioning our common humanity, as we see the age-old dream of peace, and ecological balance distorted in the deep and seemingly bottomless pool of genocide, war, climate change, ecological devastation, poverty and global health pandemics.
Join us as we bring a timely spoonful of Afrikana medicine to these challenging and difficult times. We’ll add ancestral healing traditions to the simple practice of the breath, sharing meditations, libations, chanting and other embodied practices to remember our resilience, honor our ancestors, and support an inclusive and affirming community for all members of the Afrikan Diaspora.

REGISTRATION LINKS – sign up now for current and future meetings!
November 2nd registration
December 7th registration

COST

Here at EBMC, we practice gift economics and our programs are offered freely without set fees. Financial gifts from our community 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. We ask that those who have more financial means give more, in order to help balance the giving of those who have less financial means.
To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please do so via our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana. Consider becoming a monthly donor for any amount! These contributions are especially valuable to our sustainability.
Please also consider giving a financial gift to our teachers as well, who do not receive a salary for their work, and give their teachings freely to all. In this way, we practice sacred reciprocity between teachers and students.
Giving Information:
VENMO: @Arisika-Razak
PAYPAL: arisikarazak@gmail.com
(Please reference “Afrikan Healing & Wisdom” and the teachers will share the gifts with each other)

TEACHING TEAM

Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John is the author of the new revised edition of Detox Your Heart – Meditations For Emotional Trauma published by Wisdom books in 2017. She is co-author of the award-winning book Eight Step Recovery – Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction. She is a TEDx speaker and is the author of eight books including her award winning novel Borrowed Body. She is the curator of Teachings in Uncertain Times, an online retreat by Teachers of Color for Tricycle Magazine February 2017. She is a leading African Canadian voice in the field of Mindfulness for Emotional Trauma and Addiction.

Arisika Razak, MPH, EBMC Core teacher, is the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Previously a nurse-midwife, her teachings incorporate diverse spiritual traditions, women’s health and healing, multicultural feminisms, queer theory, and diversity theory. Arisika has led national and international healing workshops and ritual celebrations for women for over three decades, as well as embodied spiritual workshops for people of all genders. She has co-facilitated workshops with Marlene Jones at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and regularly leads workshops at EBMC.

Aleta Toure’ (Visiting Teacher) Aleta Toure’ bears witness as a vessel for social change through organizing, education and healing arts. She centers healing in monastic lifestyle knowledge though Intentional Communities and Black cooperative movements. Her cooperative serves communities through Black Trauma Anonymous (BTA), Tai chi, Ecstatic Healing Dance and Healing Responders. Aleta spends time within Peace Pagodas, monasteries, hermitages, and dojos which have framed her work through Free Marissa Now, “I am Troy Davis”, University Without Walls and other Diasporic Movements. She leads the 2025 California Reparations Interfaith Healing Walk to bring healing, theory and practice back as a Liberation tool.

ONLINE CLASS SERIES: Finding Liberation in Relationship
2026-05-04 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-05-11 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-05-18 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-05-25 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-06-01 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-06-08 18:30 - 20:30
Finding Liberation in Relationship: Accountability, Conflict, Boundaries and Feedback
4 Monday evenings
December 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd 2025
6:30-8:30 PM PT (Time Zone Converter)
Online, open to all
With Dawn Haney and Regent Brown
Closed Captioning Provided on Zoom

In this time of so much conflict, devastation and uprising, how do we bring our practice to our relationships, and how do we find freedom and choice there? Our friendships, partnerships, family and communities can be a source of joy and support, and also of struggle and suffering. In this four week class we will explore concrete practices grounded in Buddhist meditation, somatics, and transformative justice.
We will practice feedback, boundaries, mindful accountability, and nervous system regulation, while applying mindfulness to investigate our conditioned tendencies and positionality in power relations. Through turning towards the delight and difficulty in our relationships, including with Sangha, we will build resource and resilience and create space to be our most authentic selves in our relationships and in the larger world.

Cost
The teachings are regarded as priceless. So they are offered without a fee. You are invited to support the teachings and our efforts by contributing voluntary donations (the practice of “Dana”) for the expenses of the meditation center and the support of the teachers.
The ticket prices are listed as different tiers with suggested donations based on income ranges. For those who wish to give more, you may choose an “add-on” to your ticket. For those unable to give, there is an option for that.
Other ways to give:
To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, you may do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.

To support our teachers, please do so via:
Venmo: dawnmarissa or Paypal: dawnmarissa@gmail.com
Venmo: @Regent_Brown or CashApp: $RegentBrown

Thank you for the gifts of your generosity and for supporting the work of East Bay Meditation Center and our beloved teachers who have volunteered their time.

Universal Access Requests on Zoom to help with sound and video quality. If possible…
1. When speaking, introduce your name, pronouns, and (optionally) a brief physical description of yourself.
2. If using virtual backgrounds, please use static, simple, high-contrast backgrounds.
3. Please keep your camera still while your camera is on.
4. Please repeat your name when you speak to help those with visual impairment.
5. The host/volunteer will attempt to read any comments that appear in the chat out loud.
6. Please strive for clear audio and mute when you are not speaking. Phone access is also available.
7. If you have unmet access needs, please send a message to the volunteer or host in the chat. If the chat is not accessible to you, please offer them briefly in one minute or less via voice. Please do not send access requests directly to other participants.

Teaching Team

Dawn Haney is a teacher, coach, and consultant, committed to helping communities and organizations learn how to navigate change while attending to dynamics of identity and power. They braid together wisdom from Buddhism, social justice, and psychology traditions, and alchemize this with their own experiences as a white, fat, queer, neurodivergent, nonbinary femme to support individual and community change. A dharma student since 2003, she is a Community Teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, mentors new meditation teachers, and offers DEIA and organizational development consulting to meditation programs and social change groups.

Regent Brown (Queen) is a biracial Afro-Indigenous, disabled, two-spirit womxn who has been practicing the Dharma since 2016 and part of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) community of practice since 2018. Regent’s story has had many twists including surviving cancer twice, relocating during the pandemic, and being married for over a decade. And these twists have only deepened Regent’s passion for liberatory practices in the dharma. Regent supports liberation and decolonization as a coach, circle keeper, trainer, healer, facilitator, and participant in interdependent community wellness. As a recent graduate of the inaugural Freedom Together Mindfulness Teacher Program, and a current member of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program, Regent joins a bountiful group of BIPOC mindfulness teachers working to weave decolonized practices through their work, relationships, and communities. Regent’s other practices of manifesting joy include karaoke, goats, traveling to photograph sunsets, gardening, and discovering small parks while walking her 7 year old Corgi mix pup, Perkelsnertz.

ONLINE: Parent-Caregiver Sangha
2026-05-04 20:00 - 21:15, 2026-06-01 20:00 - 21:15
EBMC’s Parent-Caregiver teaching team will be offering a monthly parents’ meditation group for restoration, support and connection.

Parenting often can be challenging…as well as a great practice. We offer a short talk, guided meditation and sharing. We gather to create a safe refuge to share the joys and the challenges of caring for young people by cultivating loving-kindness, compassion, patience and generosity with the support of the sangha. We welcome all parents/grandparents/caregivers of young people to join us. No prior experience necessary.

Meeting time: First Mondays of the month, 8-9:15 PM Pacific Time. On Zoom (closed captions provided).

Click here for more information.

HYBRID: BIPOC Sangha
2026-05-07 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-05-21 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-06-04 19:00 - 20:30
The BIPOC Sangha is a growing community of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color waking up and getting free!
Thursdays
7 – 8:30 PM PT
**Hybrid on First and Third Thursdays (online only on other Thursdays)
**Potluck in the EBMC kitchen on the Third Thursday meeting, from 6-7 PM PT! Bring a dish or beverage to share.
Closed Captions Provided.
Zoom info: Meeting details are shared through their mailing list (subscribe on their website), and their Facebook group.

ONLINE: Alphabet Sangha
2026-05-12 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-05-26 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-06-09 19:00 - 20:30
A meditation group for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Same-Gender Loving, and Two-Spirit communities. Because that’s such a mouthful, we call ourselves the Alphabet Sangha.
Tuesdays
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Please email: alphabetsangha at eastbaymeditation dot org to request Zoom link to join online.
For more information, visit the ALPHABET SANGHA WEBSITE

ONLINE: Kapwa Deep Refuge Group for Filipinx/a/o Practitioners
2026-05-17 09:00 - 10:30
This is a peer-led deep refuge group for self-identifying Filipinx/a/o (including mixed) folks. Together we cultivate a special community space in the intersection of Filipinx/a/o identity + culture + history and Buddhist spiritual practice. We gather to support each other, heal, and walk the Dharma path.

Kapwa Deep Refuge will meet every 3rd Sunday at 9am PST – 10:30am PST via Zoom. The inaugural meeting will be on April 21, 2024.

If you identify as Filipinx/a/o and would like to join, please contact us at: kapwa.deep.refuge@gmail.com

ONLINE: BIPOC Write Action Deep Refuge Group
2026-05-22 18:30 - 20:30
The BIPOC Write Action Deep Refuge Group gathers monthly to pause, ground ourselves and practice writing as a form of creative self-expression and mindful reflection. Modeled on the EBMC Daylong event, the exercises are guided by prompts and participants are welcomed, but not required, to share their work with the group.
The Write Action Group is peer-led and members take turns facilitating and offering guiding prompts each month. Meetings are held on 4th Fridays, from 6:30-8:30pm PT over Zoom. Join us! Please email for more information: bipocwriteactiongroup@eastbaymeditation.org
Note: We acknowledge the history of the name “Write Action”, which was created by Kenji Liu and Mushim Ikeda. It was originally called Write Action for POC when they led the first workshop at EBMC on April 10, 2011.
