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Gratitude Story from Melvin Escobar: Growing and Healing from Trauma

In this week’s Season Of Gratitude, EBMC Sangha member and teacher Melvin Escobar shares his experience with the potential to transform trauma through connection in Sangha:

In this week’s Season Of Gratitude, EBMC Sangha member and teacher Melvin Escobar shares his experience with the potential to transform trauma through connection in Sangha:

What’s in your cup? Do you feel like you have enough? Does being part of the EBMC community help fill your cup?

Before arriving at EBMC 10 years ago, I realized that my cup was pretty empty, mostly from many years of being a social worker. I was suffering a lot from compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

It wasn’t until I began learning Buddhist teachings that I started to see suffering more clearly and to learn practices to make my work in the world sustainable. What has helped the most has been connecting to others that are doing both the inner and outer work necessary to cultivate healing in the world. Being a part of EBMC has also shown me that my cup is kept full by the mutual generosity of genuine community.

I have been a member of the POC and Alphabet (LGBTQ+) sanghas, served on several EBMC committees, helped manage events, and have helped start the new Latinx Sangha at EBMC. As an EBMC Community Teacher, I am passionate about exploring the concept of Posttraumatic Growth (PTG).

The Buddha’s teachings remind us that life can be traumatic and that there’s a path out of suffering. Posttraumatic Growth emphasizes that we can even grow and heal from trauma. Our traumas don’t have to define who we are; they can serve as reminders of our strength and resilience. And connection, by reminding us that we’re not alone in our suffering, is an essential ingredient for PTG. I continue to experience PTG through my connection to the EBMC community.

What is spiritual home to you? What’s in your cup? How can we use what’s in our cup to continue to grow and sustain EBMC as our spiritual home? Sometimes the only way of knowing what’s in our cup is by giving. It is through a mutuality of giving and receiving that we create a spiritual home that helps us survive and thrive, especially in these challenging times. EBMC’s model of Gift Economics, and specifically the Buddhist practice of Dana, has helped me experience my cup as a wellspring of resources that flow from the teachings.

May we lovingly use what’s in our cups to water freedom, so that all beings may experience the liberation that comes from the refuge of having a spiritual home.

In community,
Melvin Escobar
***
Dharma Friends,

Will you join Melvin using what is in your cup to water freedom? At EBMC, our financial model of Gift Economics is only possible through our connection to one another, where all of us give to the extent we are able, at the highest level we can, to support our Sangha as a whole.

Thanks to a generous Sangha member, every dollar you give before the end of the year will be doubled! Please support EBMC and help us reach our year-end match by making a one-time gift, or by becoming a Friend of EBMC monthly sustainer, today.

Gift Economics takes all of us. Thank you for being a part of this community, where our connection to one another sustains our ability to keep our doors open for all.

Gratitude Story from emiko yoshikami: How EBMC transformed my broken pieces

Dear Sangha,

We are grateful and thrilled to announce that a generous Sangha member has offered to match all gifts to EBMC, up to $10,000! Between now and the end of the year, you can double the impact of your generosity to EBMC dollar for dollar.

As we enter our Season of Gratitude at EBMC, community members are sharing powerful stories of the transformative power of Sangha. The following story is from Midday Sangha member emiko yoshikami:

I grew up with the Dharma, spending my young adulthood meditating and going on retreats. I felt it was a stable presence in my life, a path I could always rely on. However, when I was twenty-two-years-old I had an experience that radically changed my relationship to Buddhism. Following two back-to-back five-day silent meditation retreats — an LGBT retreat and a POC retreat — I had what psychiatrists term a “manic episode.”

I was involuntarily hospitalized and diagnosed with “Bipolar I with psychotic tendencies.” Trying to make sense of this experience, I reached out to Dharma teachers, but it didn’t help. Sadly and unintentionally, I began to hold Buddhism with suspicion and grew a bitterness towards Sangha. Sporadically I would try to reconnect with others since I knew the Dharma held deep wisdom. One of those attempts led me to the East Bay Meditation Center.

I was incredibly attracted by EBMC’s hot politics. (Wha!?? Uprooting systems of oppression, healing justice, and collective liberation?! HELL YES!) But I still felt a strong sense of disconnection and alienation. (These people talked the good talk, but could they hold my broken pieces?) Two years ago I found EBMC’s peer-led Midday Sangha, a welcoming space for POC and mixed-race folk like me. During the weekly potluck we are invited to speak from the heart and listen from the heart. It was there that I began opening up about my story. And I was amazed to find myself feeling very held.

In Midday Sangha, each week I felt more at home. And my bitterness began to dissolve. It was amazing to watch. No teacher was able to make this happen. It was the deep listening in the room – not in the form of responses, but in the layers of sharing our stories, holding space for the complexities and contradictions of our humanness.

This space invited me to explore my own complexities in a different way. It was my white mom who had raised me with the teachings of Jack Kornfield and others. But from my Japanese dad’s side, I discovered that I come from a very long line of Pureland Buddhist priests. I learned that my grandparents built a temple in Berkeley in the late 30’s (before they were interned). I visited this temple for the first time three months ago. I have also discovered new meaning in my “psychosis” through reading Thich Nhat Hanh (courtesy of the EBMC library).

I hold deep gratitude for EBMC, a Sangha that supported the Dharma to come flooding back into my life. EBMC embodies the intentions for the world I want to live in, where we grapple with how to care for each other – not in some uniform “right or wrong” way – but with continuous attention to how our realities are shaped by histories of power imbalances, dominant narratives, and all that we carry with us.

In solidarity and with compassion,
emiko yoshikami

****

During our Season of Gratitude, emiko is one of many Sangha members who are sharing the ways that EBMC has changed their lives.

For over a decade, EBMC has run on a radical Gift Economics model which ensures our programs are accessible to all. Gift Economics means that we rely on the generous support of our community to support our Sangha as a whole.

Please support EBMC and help us reach our $10,000 match by becoming a Friend of EBMC monthly donor or by making a one-time gift today!

Thank you for supporting this radically inclusive meditation center that is changing lives every day.

Where to buy respirator masks: regularly updated list

Sangha, let’s take care of one another! Here’s a regularly updated list of where you can find respirator masks in the Bay Area. Thank you to CompassPoint for guiding us to this list.

 

[Photo by tam wai on Unsplash]

White Awakening and Sangha

Six Session Program for White Practitioners
January 27 – June 2, 2019 (Applications due December 1, 2018)

EBMC’s White and Awakening in Sangha (WAS), is designed to build the awareness and skills of white practitioners toward the creation of a truly inclusive sangha. For more information and an application form, go to https://bit.ly/2JrZUOb. If you have questions about the program, or would like information, please contact us at: WhiteandAwakening@eastbaymeditation.org
The core teaching team is: Crystal Johnson, Kitsy Schoen, Baruch Golden, Hilary Berwick, Paul Irving, Ellery Graves, Irene Ross, Tom Malarkey

Want to increase diversity in the neuroscience of meditation?

Participate in the first community-based neuroscience study between EBMC and UCSF called the EMBODY study. We are making strides to make this the most inclusive neuroscience study of meditation to date. We have recently made it more inclusive by expanding the ages included, in dialogue with EBMC community members. We are looking for diverse meditators who 1) are 25 years or older, 2) have consistently practiced meditation for 5 years in their lifetime, and 3) are interested in brain activity during meditation measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participation would involve 1) phone interview and online surveys, 2) 3-hour visit to UCSF Mission Bay, including 2 hours in a MRI scanner, and 3) receiving a picture of your brain and $75. Travel costs are reimbursed. People of all genders, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, and ability status are encouraged to participate. E-mail embodystudy@ucsf.edu or call 415-514-8445 for more information.

People should not participate if they have magnetic metal in their bodies, would not be comfortable in an MRI scanner, and are having difficulty paying attention to experiences (such as breath and thoughts). For an informational pamphlet on this study, click here.

Seeking new EBMC board members! Oct. 22 deadline

We’re seeking new #EBMC board of directors members! Want to help make social justice movement and socially-engaged Buddhist history? Applications due Oct. 22 for the amazing, diverse East Bay Meditation Center Leadership Sangha (LSangha). Three year terms. For full information and online application form, please go to http://bit.ly/2QqWzB2 or click here

Announcing EBMC’s New Half-year Radical Buddhism Leadership Program for People of Color!

We are excited to announce EBMC’s newest program: “Resilience, Refuge and (R)evolution” a six month Radical Buddhism leadership program for self-identified People of Color that begins in January of 2019.

In order to nurture and create deepened connectivity, networking and growth for current and future POC leaders, “Resilience, Refuge and (R)evolution” has limited its participation to 35 individuals.

Application period is October 1 – November 12, 2018.
Program is Jan – June, 2019.

Flier Design: Candi Martinez Carthen

EBMC is a fragrance free space. Learn how you can support our commitment to keeping our space accessible to everyone!

Updated Information for RISE for Climate, Jobs, and Justice: Mobilization and March on September 8 in San Francisco

Updated information!   RISE for Climate, Jobs, and Justice

Mobilization and March on Saturday, September 8 in San Francisco

Location: Here is a map with our two primary locations.

Contingent: We will be marching with the Buddhist contingent, which is part of the faith communities contingent. The faith communities contingent will be at the front of Block #3 “We Rise for Democracy”, which is gathering at Embarcadero Plaza “stage left” (or if facing the stage head-on, to the right of it.)

When: Saturday, September 8, 2018

→ 8:30 a.m. | Meditation at Ferry Park

→ 9:15 a.m. |  Interfaith service at Ferry Park

→ 10:00 a.m. | Line up, music, celebration, and choral flashmob |Embarcadero Plaza – (southeast corner of the plaza in between the public bathroom and the half circle plaza stage)

→ 11:00 a.m. | March with the interfaith community to Civic Center Plaza

→ 12:00pm | Resource fair and street mural painting (We expect we’ll be breaking the world record for the largest street mural! And the faith community will have our own mural.)

Members of the Midday Sangha invite the EBMC community to join us at the San Francisco RISE for Climate, Jobs, and Justice Mobilization.

We will carry the EBMC banner. Please bring your own message signs, if you can. We will offer masks that protect from smoke pollution as a symbolic message, should you choose to wear one. If you are not going to join the 8:30 AM meditation at Ferry Park, meet us at the West Oakland BART at 9:15 a.m. if you want to travel together. Or join us in San Francisco by 10:00 a.m. at the corner of Mission and Spear. We will then meet up with the EBMC community members who will have participated in the meditation. We’ll all meet at the southeast corner of the plaza in between the public bathroom and the half circle plaza stage with the greater faith community.

Contact/ Please RSVP Joan Lohman 510-410-8062

roaminlohman2@sbcglobal.net

Please reach out to Joan if you would like to help organize, or text her on the day of the march to locate our contingent.

Governor Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit is September 12-14 in San Francisco.

Street Mural & Choral Flashmob

  • Street Mural –The faith community will have our own mural section within what we expect to be the largest street mural ever! Please contact Meg Duff <duffmeg@gmail.com> if you are interested in being part of this!
  • Music –The interfaith community will kick off the march with a huge choral flashmob! The interfaith community is looking for choirs and singers to join us for this. For more information click here and contact Derek Tam <musicriseforclimate@gmail.com>
  1. Volunteers– The faith community is looking for a number of volunteers to play various roles for the faith community on the day of the march. Please review this spreadsheet if you might be interested in helping with anything from carrying the Egret Puppet to setting up our Interfaith service altar.

Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice: March and Rally on September 8th in San Francisco

Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice

March and Rally Saturday, September 8th San Francisco

Gathering 10 a.m. Embarcadero Plaza

March to Civic Center 11 a.m.

Members of Midday Sangha invite the EBMC community to join us at the San Francisco Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice March.

We will carry the EBMC banner. Bring your own message signs. We will offer masks that protect from smoke pollution as a symbolic message, should you choose to wear one. Meet us at West Oakland BART at 9:15 if you want to travel together or join us in San Francisco by 10 at the corner of Mission and Spear. We can move to the march organizing spot together.


Contact/ Please RSVP Joan Lohman 510-410-8062

roaminlohman2@sbcglobal.net

Please reach out to Joan if you would like to help organize, or text her on day of march to locate our contingent.

Governor Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit is September 12-14 in San Francisco.