All News
We are honored to share the digital program from Love, Power and Liberation and offer deep bows to our sponsors and supporters, without whom the program would not have been such a tremendous success!
We are thrilled to announce that “Love, Power, and Liberation: Angela Davis & Lama Rod Owens in Conversation (moderated by Prentis Hemphill)” will be livestreamed, in addition to our in-person experience!
This intergenerational dialogue between three of our most important contemporary visionary thinkers is happening at a crucial moment for our communities, on November 8, 2024, three days after the November election. Given the stakes at this time, we will need a place to find refuge, build strategy and gather in community. Angela Davis and Lama Rod will reflect on our current political moment and why a response grounded in a radical vision for the future and a commitment to collective liberation is more critical than ever.
This historic event is also a fundraiser for the crucial work of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) and we invite you to give generously to support our important community institution.
Get your livestream or in-person tickets now! They are going fast!
EBMC has been a refuge, a spiritual home, and a mindfulness and meditation training center in downtown Oakland serving people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people living with disabilities, social justice activists and the general community for almost 20 years. Founded in a celebration of diversity and equity, EBMC has been described as a beacon of light around the world for organizations committed to radical inclusivity and the intersections of activism and contemplative practice.
At EBMC we rely on a generosity-based model of financial sustainability called Gift Economics. This means that there is no set fee for any of our offerings, and everyone is invited to give at the highest level they can for the benefit of all. Through this practice we are encouraged to shift our relationship to money and to capitalism and to invite equity and radical inclusivity into our process of healing and spiritual liberation.
UPDATE: Applications for these positions are closed as of September 2024.
Please click the links below for more information.
Please send your application for the Community Engagement Coordinator by Friday, August 9,2024.
Please submit application materials (cover letter and resume) for these positions to Monica Munjal, Administrative Director: monica@eastbaymeditation.org
Thank you for your interest!
This statement was published to our newsletter on November 10th 2023
We are deeply grateful to this community for the care and commitment we are witnessing and your willingness to engage deeply so we can be the type of meditation center you call home. As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us in his book Creating Peace, “The secret of creating peace is that when you listen to another person you have only one purpose: to offer [them] an opportunity to empty [their] heart.”
May you know we receive your heart fully. We are committed to being a place of refuge where individuals can find peace, solace, safety, and a sense of belonging. Our hearts wish to offer a more principled stance about what is unfolding in Palestine and Israel.
East Bay Meditation Center’s Leadership Sangha and Staff join the resounding global chorus of people demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and all the occupied Palestinian territories. We believe that peace is not only the absence of armed conflict but also the conditions that enable free and equal access to resources and self-determination for Palestinians. Thus, we further call for the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid, and the restoration of water, food, fuel, electricity, and internet for the people of Gaza, and we call as well for the protection of Palestinian indigenous communities—the Bedouin Jahalin, al-Kaabneh, al-Azazmeh, al-Ramadin, and al-Rshaida tribes — and the release of all Palestinian and Israeli hostages and political prisoners to support an end to violence.
We are witnessing an unfolding genocide and escalation of decades of state-sanctioned violence and land dispossession against Palestinians. It is heartbreaking to witness how innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza are now being bombed and killed in their homes, hospitals, places of worship, schools, and neighborhoods. Their collective punishment, the unlawful blockage of humanitarian access for civilians of Gaza, followed by infeasible evacuation orders and forcible transfer of the population in Gaza are all grave violations of international humanitarian law. The number of Palestinians killed is now over 10,000 people, and this number continues to grow even as we mark one month since Hamas’ October 7th attack, when 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds of civilian hostages were captured.
We recognize the complex historical and colonial roots of the conflict. We are witnessing the forces of US-sanctioned occupation and settler colonialism actively facilitating hatred, division, dehumanization, and asymmetrical violence. This violence is occurring between groups of people who have both historic and ongoing relationships to genocidal oppression.
We stand firmly against these waves of dehumanization, hatred, and violence in all their manifestations, be they anti-semitism, islamophobia, Zionism, and more. Affirming Palestinian rights, dignity, and humanity is also a call for those truths to be exercised for all. As the Plum Village Monastic Community of the USA writes in their recent statement, violence only leads to more violence and reduces any possibility of dialogue and reconciliation; therefore, we need to “go beyond the delusive and destructive idea that we are separate from each other” and resist the temptation to dehumanize, blame, punish, or retaliate against the perceived other. The conditions that Palestinians in Gaza have been living within are a form of violence. Settler colonization is a form of violence. All genocides are violence, and what we are witnessing unfolding in Palestine is violence that we cannot turn away from. Through the lens of dharma, we see the imperative of confronting oppression with a heart of wisdom and a resolve for a peaceful, equitable future.
We encourage you to join us in calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza :
Contact your representatives This link includes a script and click-to-call feature.
Join actions against the Gaza siege and genocide— U.S Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace .
We are in this together. Your feedback, dialogue, pain, sadness, solidarity, practice, and growth are all welcome in our pursuit of being a community of deep, dynamic, and expansive metta. We hope you join us in practice and participate in emerging events offered by EBMC. We will be working with sangha members leading on these issues to organize more opportunities for reflection, dialogue, action, and refuge.
In our imperfection, grief, anger, and deep compassion, we are beside you. With care,
EBMC Staff and Leadership Sangha
Editor’s note: Inspired by the Othering and Belonging Institute’s statement we acknowledge that this statement reflects the contributions of diverse EBMC members and does not fully capture the nuances and sentiments many of us feel. We hope to share more in the weeks to come and invite you to share with us here.
Dear Sangha,
A PowerPoint slide deck and a corresponding PDF have been created to be a resource developed from cohort 8 and 9 teaching materials from the Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA) program.
They are freely available to all as well as for graduates of the PiTA program. Practice in Transformative Action is a yearlong program of secular mindfulness training for social justice activists from the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC).
The PowerPoint slide deck contains links to instructional videos in mindfulness meditation practices, which are geared to address justice movement work, including disability justice. Please click here to view and/or download.
We give deep thanks to Erica Bridgeman for the resources and to Mushim Ikeda for being the guiding teacher and mentor for 10 years of the PiTA program.
With Metta,
EBMC
Dear Sangha,
We are excited to present a NEW program called Commit 2 Sangha, from April to June 2024, and led by teachers Dawn Haney, Patrick Brown, and René Rivera!
Commit 2 Sangha is a 3-month program to deepen practice in sangha, our spiritual community.
Please join us for 6 sessions of a non-judgmental learning space to build connections with other EBMC mindfulness practitioners and deepen wisdom to practice Buddhist and social justice teachings that cultivate community. In the midst of the challenges of life, we are creating a community of practice that cultivates refuge and resilience, particularly centered for people with marginalized identities.
We offer this in-person pilot program to develop some of the relationships and capacities for the center to offer future online/hybrid versions, and a potential yearlong program in the lineage of Larry Yang’s Commit 2 Dharma.
Applications are open NOW through March 29: bit.ly/c2s2024
We hope you will join us for this new community-building series! If you have questions, please email c2s at eastbaymeditation dot org
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.
East Bay Meditation Center is celebrating our community by hosting a summer party at Snow Park!
We have been mostly online for over three years. As we learn to meet in person more safely, we are looking forward to marking this new moment with a community celebration. Join us as we commemorate EBMC’s hybrid programming at our July 16th Reopening Celebration at Snow Park followed by a week of hybrid classes and practice groups.
On Sunday, July 16th from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM we will be holding space at Snow Park, a block from our center and also hosting group tours of the temple. We are honored to have one of our dear EBMC founders, Larry Yang, welcome us to the celebrations at the park. Join us for group meditations, sound healing, dance and drumming under the oak trees. You’re also invited to bring your spiritual friends and community, roll out a blanket and catch up in the sun.
Small group tours of EBMC will happen on the hour, with sign-ups at the park, and include: access to a memorial altar honoring sangha/community members lost in these last three plus years, a twenty-minute group meditation in the temple room, and information about the center and upcoming programs. For the tour, you will be asked to put on shoe booties at the door and to wear a KN95/N95 mask throughout your time inside the center.
There will be a closing circle at the Snow Park’s Putting Green at 1:45 pm.
Come celebrate with us! Watch this space for the Sunday event and weeklong hybrid schedule.
Email ramon (at) eastbaymeditation.org if you want to volunteer, have proposals or questions
Please save the date and look out for more details to come.
Larry is a senior advisor in Mindfulness and Healing Justice for the Kataly Foundation, to provide grants for supporting community-based mindfulness and awareness practices and projects for ethnically and racially diverse multicultural communities and organizations. For 20 years, Larry has taught meditation retreats nationally. He has a special interest in creating access to both Buddhist and secular mindfulness for non-dominant cultures, and in transforming the strong currents of White Supremacy in our Mindfulness communities. Larry has practiced meditation for 30+ years, with extensive time in Burma and Thailand, and a six month period of ordination as a Buddhist monastic. Larry is one of the founding teachers of both East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland) and Insight Community of the Desert (Palm Springs). He has trained teachers for spiritual leadership within communities of color and LGBTQI communities for 15 years. Larry was honored for his work in racial justice by being selected as the community Grand Marshal in the 2016 San Francisco LGBTIQ Pride Parade, whose theme that year was “For Racial and Economic Justice.” His book, “Awakening Together: the Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community,” is published by Wisdom Publications.
Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks and be fully vaccinated against covid19, which at this time means having received the covid bivalent booster no less than two weeks before the event. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.)
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.
About the Role
The Development and Fundraising Coordinator will be the primary person responsible for administrative and communication to execute fundraising efforts, including our recurring donor program, three yearly fundraising campaigns, fundraising events, and gift economics education. The Development and Fundraising Coordinator works in partnership with the Development Director who frames EBMC’s development strategy and practices in a shared leadership structure. EBMC operates from a Shared Leadership framework, where workers develop a sense of shared ownership and accountability through committee work, emergent strategy, and staff relationship building. This is a full time, 35 hour per week, salaried position.
Click here to read full Job Description.
If you are interested in joining the team at East Bay Meditation Center and helping us uplift our mission of fostering liberation, personal and interpersonal healing, social action, and inclusive community building, please email your resume and a cover letter to hr AT eastbaymeditation DOT org
