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Statement in Support of Palestine
In March 2026, the EBMC Teacher Sangha came together to write the following statement in support of Palestine:
At the East Bay Meditation Center, we strive to practice the Dharma in its social context and cultivate Buddhism as a liberation theology rooted in ending the suffering wrought by all oppressive systems.
The teachings of the Buddha, as is true of all wisdom teachings, call us to protect all life. The Metta Sutta reminds us of “a mother who protects with her life, her child, her only child.” We stand in alliance with life and are called to work to end the harms of the world.
We oppose all forms of racism, including Zionism—the ideology that claims the land of Palestine belongs exclusively to the Jewish people and that the settler-colonial state of Israel is their inherent birthright. This ideology has been used to deny the humanity and rights of Palestinian people and to justify violence, including massacres, the destruction of homes, schools, and hospitals, and the forced displacement and subjugation of Indigenous Palestinians through land dispossession, apartheid, and military occupation. Zionist strategists manipulate past traumas the Jewish people have endured to argue that a supremacist nation-state is the only path to Jewish safety. Resistance to Zionism, an oppressive, violent, colonial and genocidal project, is therefore anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-oppressive. The East Bay Meditation Center itself stands on stolen Indigenous land in California, and many in its community come from families who have experienced displacement caused by war, colonialism, chattel slavery, and other forms of oppression.
Our vow to protect all life is a sacred commitment to act to end violence, including Israeli genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Because Israel is the largest single recipient of military aid from our government, we, in the United States are especially implicated in this genocide and abuse. We call for a future where everyone living in Palestine can live their lives freely in vibrant, safe, equitable communities, with basic human needs fulfilled.
We wish for the safety of all beings in the region, and an immediate end to all forms of colonial oppression.
ONLINE: We Choose Each Other with Dean Spade, Weyam Ghadbian and René Rivera

ONLINE: We Choose Each Other: Showing Up in Harrowing Times
With Dean Spade, Weyam Ghadbian, and René Rivera
Saturday, April 25th 2026
12-1:30pm PT
Online via Zoom
How do we show up for each other in principled, loving ways in a world on fire? How do we tend to relationships and move toward liberation?
At a time when violence, division, and disconnection feel ever-present, The East Bay Meditation Center invites you to join us for a timely and heart-centered conversation, We Choose Each Other: Showing Up in Harrowing Times.
Beloved movement folks Dean Spade, Weyam Ghadbian, and René Rivera will explore how we take action that is rooted in love, stay in relationship amid rupture, and engage conflict without reproducing harm. Grounded in EBMC’s commitment to liberation, belonging, and socially-engaged Buddhist practice, this conversation will weave together decades of movement work, conflict transformation, and trauma-informed meditation to ask: What does it mean to choose each other—again and again—when so much that is happening in the world pulls us toward isolation? This gathering will offer both practical tools and spiritual nourishment for building resilient, accountable, and loving communities that can meet this dumpster-fire moment and create the world we want and need.
This timely 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 this important community institutions.
Dean Spade has been working in movements for queer and trans liberation, and against war, police, prisons and borders for the past 25 years. He’s the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) the director of the documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!.” His new book is Love in a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up and Raise Hell Together, and he is the host of a new podcast with the same name.
Weyam Ghadbian is a facilitator, trainer, organizational consultant, and mediator who has been working with grassroots and social justice organizations for over a decade. Weyam is Syrian and was politicized at a young age by parents who were exiled from Syria for dissent. They co-created the Turning Towards Each Other Conflict Workbook with Jovida Ross and have spent the last five years translating it into a customizable curriculum for groups and organizations to build healthier cultures. They are a Gemini, an eldest child, and moonlight as a comedian.
René Rivera is a meditation teacher and restorative justice facilitator working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer Latinx trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, as a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. He loves to share his own daily life practice of bringing awareness to how he shows up in all kinds of relationships, with self, beloveds, friends, family, community and with the land. René is a facilitator in training for the School of Consent and a restorative justice facilitator, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.
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.
For a list of our offerings and more information please visit our website at www.eastbaymeditation.org.
Volunteer on EBMC’s Leadership Sangha!
January 2026
Volunteer on EBMC’s Leadership Sangha!
We’re seeking dedicated community members to join EBMC’s Board/Leadership Sangha (L Sangha) or a Board committee. Share your skills and help guide EBMC’s mission of equity, compassion, and collective liberation!
Open Roles:
- Leadership Sangha (~5 hrs / month) – Governance of EBMC, policies & long term goals. –
- Committee Roles (~10 hrs / year)
- Development Committee – Fundraising & donor engagement
- HR Committee – Policy creation & staff support
- Building Committee – Construction support for our Capital Campaign
- Finance Committee – Financial planning & oversight
- Communications Support – Expertise for our Development team
Want to talk in person with an LSangha member about this opportunity? Join us Saturday, January 24 from 1pm – 3pm at our New Year Celebration.
If you’re passionate about supporting EBMC’s work and bringing your expertise to our vibrant community, we’d love to connect! Please complete this form and a member of our volunteer team will get back to you.
PiTA 2.0! A New Iteration of “Practice in Transformative Action”
PiTA 2.0: Practice in Transformative Action
We’re excited to announce the next iteration of PiTA (Practice in Transformative Action) 2.0, a 6-month, in-person program at EBMC facilitated by past PiTA Apprentice Teachers and endorsed by EBMC Founding Teacher Mushim Ikeda.
PiTA 2.0 empowers participants to integrate mindfulness and Buddhist principles into their social justice work through healing, practice, and community.
Who This Program Is For
PiTA 2.0 is open to individuals who:
- Practice (or are curious about) mindfulness and Buddhist-informed practices such as meditation, mindful eating, movement, metta, and self-compassion.
- Are engaged in—or seeking to engage in—justice-centered activism as organizers, educators, healers, cultural workers, or other transformative roles.
- Desire community and collective learning, rooted in the spirit of beloved community.
- Can commit to two in-person sessions per month over six months (3.5 hours each; at least 8 of 10 sessions).
- Are willing to bring time, energy, and emotional capacity to shared practice.
- Embrace shared leadership and collective responsibility.
- Are open to co-creating across differences with attention to healing, conflict transformation, and equitable practices.
Program Objectives
Together, PiTA 2.0 participants will:
- Practice mindfulness in many forms, including meditation, movement, mindful eating, metta, and self-compassion.
- Embody and share how Buddhist principles strengthen personal resilience and collective justice movements.
- Co-create spaces for healing, transformation, and beloved community.
- Apply mindfulness-informed strategies to build non-violent, joyful, and liberatory relationships and systems.
- Connect with and be inspired by the intergenerational PiTA network past and present.
Application Details
- Applications open September 1 – November 15, 2025
- Notification of acceptance by December 1, 2025
- If you’ve been part of a previous PiTA cohort, you are welcome to apply again.
If you value inner practice as a foundation for outer change and are seeking a mindful, relational, and justice-rooted learning community, we warmly invite you to apply to PiTA 2.0

