
IN PERSON: Great Compassion Ceremony to Soothe an Aching Heart
A Devotional Kwan Yin Practice
Sunday April 27th 2025
2 to 4PM PT (Time Zone Converter)
With emiko yoshikami, Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio, and Melina Bondy
Open to all
The center is fragrance-free and wheelchair accessible
N95/KN95 masks required
Whether you are curious about Kwan Yin devotional practices or a longtime Kwan Yin devotee, you’re invited to join us in community for the Great Compassion Ceremony invoking the bodhisattva of compassion, also known as Avalokiteshvara. From the Mahayana tradition the ceremony offers a sacred ritual space to release obstacles and to tap into a heart force that can hold the whole world in the midst of difficulty. The ceremony connects us with Kwan Yin, the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, ancestors, and earth spirits, through chanting, mantras, and accessible variations of bowing. We will be making an offering to Kwan Yin. (You are invited to bring a small natural offering to place on the altar.) The ceremony is centered around recognition of harm done–personally and collectively–as we strengthen the Bodhisattva commitment to serve all beings.
To honor the varying physical abilities of our beloved community, the leaders will demonstrate multiple ways to perform the bowing practices from standing, sitting, and lying down, as well as offering other options using hands only, nodding the head, or simply “bowing” within the heart. Please note that it’s not necessary or important to do full bows to participate fully in this offering. If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact the leaders in advance.
Please note: This event is IN PERSON ONLY. We hope to offer a hybrid version in the future!
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.
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.
Venmo: @emiko-yoshikami
Paypal: @emikoyoshi
(Please reference “Kwan Yin”. The teachers will share the gifts with each other.)
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.
For in-person participation:
For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 60 people to allow ample space for social distancing. Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.) Please note: The teacher may be unmasked while teaching.
To attend in person, you need to be completely free of fragranced body and clothing products — more information and a list of fragrance free products, including those that are especially good for people of color, appears on our website: https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/
East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible.
Teachers
emiko yoshikami (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 reaching toward Higashi Honganji, emiko honors 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.
Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio is a white, cis, queer mom and writer who has taught movement and mindfulness in the Bay area for twenty years, bringing body love and social justice to her teaching and learning. She completed the Dedicated Practitioner’s Program at Spirit Rock in 2016, teacher training at Mindfulness Training Institute in 2017, and racial justice facilitation training with Holistic Resistance in 2020. She’s honored to be part of EBMC’s Spiritual Teacher Leadership program. A long time dharma practitioner, she has witnessed first hand how the practice of mindfulness has brought more compassion, connection, and joy to her relationships and her life.