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ONLINE: Cultivating Home in Our Hearts

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Cultivating Home in Our Hearts: A daylong for adult adoptees and fostered, or child welfare system survivors

With Fresh “Lev” White, Sean Feit Oakes, Phoenix Song

Saturday December 10th 2022

10AM – 4PM PT (Time Zone Converter)

This class is for us who experienced separation from birth families at early ages to explore the heart of the Buddha’s teachings: that pain and loss are built into life and are the seeds of wisdom and liberation. We’ll explore the wounds and potential gifts of adoption, and practices to support self-love, compassion, and the cultivation of deep refuge in the world.

All adult (18+) adoptees, formerly foster home or system youth, and any adult who were forced/separated from their birth family at young ages are welcome. Please have food, drink, or other comfort items available as needed.

 

 

ONLINE: Celebrate Winter Solstice with Chakra Tai Chi

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Celebrate Winter Solstice with Chakra Tai Chi

With Jenn Biehn, Rosetta Saunders, nialla rose

Wednesday December 21th 2022 9AM – 10:15AM PT

Time Zone Converter – Closed Captioning Provided

Chakra Tai Chi is a cleansing, empowering practice that includes easy-to-learn, accessible Tai Chi movements, visualizations, colors, elements, and sounds. This moving meditation brings the chakras – the vortex of energy centers – into balance and allows the energy to move more freely. Once the energy is flowing in our bodies, we can each find our own process for healing, find our own body wisdom.  Movements offered both seated and standing.  No prior experience necessary. Join us in welcoming the winter season! 

 

Please note: Registered participants will receive a zoom link to join us online with their Eventbrite confirmation email. Thank you for your support

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please 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. 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.

ONLINE: Finding Liberation in Relationship

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Finding Liberation in Relationship: Accountability, Conflict, Boundaries and Feedback
with Dawn Haney and René Rivera

4 Wednesdays evenings: November 30, December 7, 14, 21

6:30-8:30 pm PT (Time Zone Converter)

ASL Interpretation and Closed Captioning Provided

In this time of so much conflict, division 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, 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 we will build resource and resilience and create space to be our most authentic selves.

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100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. 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. You are invited to make donations directly to the teachers to support their Dharma service.

 

Please note: Registered participants will receive a zoom link to join us online with their Eventbrite confirmation email. Thank you for your support

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please 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. 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.

HYBRID: Receiving or Witnessing the Bodhisattva Precepts & Vows

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Hybrid daylong with EBMC
Online on Zoom and in-person @ 285 17th St, Oakland, CA 94612

With Mushim Ikeda

Sunday, December 18, 2022

10:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific time (Time Zone Converter) 

Closed Captioning provided on Zoom 

 

This hybrid event is a morning of meditation (instruction provided for beginners) and Bodhisattva practices, followed by an afternoon ceremony, where approved applicants will receive the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, the Four Great Vows of the Bodhisattva, and a Dharma or Buddhist name.

Priority for in-person attendance is given to those receiving the Vows and Precepts, specifically those who have completed at least one of the preceding class series, Path of the Bodhisattva 1 (4 classes, October 2022) and Path of the Bodhisattva 2 (4 classes, November 2022) and who have submitted an application and received approval from the teacher.

Friends and family members of people receiving the Vows and Precepts are welcome to join on Zoom, for the joyful ceremony, which will run from 2:15 to 4 pm Pacific time, and can register here.

Questions: Email admin@eastbaymeditation.org or click “contact us” on the EBMC website, www.eastbaymeditation.org

 

 

Please note: Registered participants will receive a zoom link to join us online with their Eventbrite confirmation email. Thank you for your support

For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 40 people to allow ample space for social distancing. 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 HERE.

East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible.

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

To offer a gift to support the teachings, please do so Venmo: Mushim Ikeda @MushimPatricia-Ikeda or PayPal: info@mushimikeda.com

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please 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. 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.

ONLINE: Parent’s Meditation Group: Practicing With Our Children & Families

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An Online Meditation Group for Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers with Lisa Fujie Parks

Monday, November 28th 8:45-9:45PM PT (Time Zone Converter)

Closed Captioning Provided

EBMC’s Family Practice Class teaching team will be offering a monthly parents’ meditation group for restoration, support and connection during these challenging times. We will offer a short talk, guided meditation and sharing. We welcome all parents/grandparents/caregivers of young people to join us. No prior experience is necessary.

Please note: This group is not intended for children’s participation.

Registered attendees will receive a zoom link to join us online with their EventBrite registration. 

EBMC Summer News & State of the Center Report

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Read all about it! What does East Bay Meditation Center and its community have to do with cutting edge Socially-Engaged Buddhism, Deep Time Liberation, the first Yemeni music concert ever in the U.S., indigenous wisdom, the Gift Economics worldwide movement, and much more? Read all about it in the July 22, 2022 issue of the EBMC e-newsletter and the EBMC State of the Center Report.

We’re always happy to answer any questions at admin at eastbaymeditation dot org.

[photo: Alfred Schrock on Unsplash]

Practice in Transformative Action

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Spring Equinox News 2022: State of the Center Report

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All Things EBMC: Spring Newsletter & State of the Center Report 
Did You Know That…?
For complete information,
click to read the full
  •  EBMC has always operated from rental spaces in Oakland, California. Now we need to raise $2.9 million dollars to meet our goal to purchase and renovate a sustainable home for EBMC.
  • EBMC’s Program Director says she’s reflecting “on the robust programming and pedagogy that has shaped our year (2022) so far,” with exciting offerings such as “The Future Is Black: An Introduction to AfroFuturism, Dharma and Black Feminism,” a retreat led by core teacher Arisika Razak and shah noor.
  • EBMC’s board of directors, called the Leadership Sangha or the LSangha, has two new members, Anjali Sawhney and Stephan Gordon? Find out more about them in the March EBMC State of the Center Report!

 

  • We’re looking forward to a new database and a new website, also, in 2022.

 

  • Over the coming year, EBMC will continue to support capacity-building projects including honoraria to support teachers, ASL interpretation, expanded staffing and benefits, and major digital infrastructure improvements.

Read the full State of the Center Report HERE. 

 

EBMC supports us to address conflict and challenge injustice -Tenesha Duncan Gratitude Story!

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EBMC’s Season of Gratitude concludes with a beautiful story from Sangha member Tenesha Duncan about how EBMC supports us to skillfully address conflict and challenge injustice.

“As someone who grew up in a Buddhist household, I’ve long been familiar with chanting and some meditation practices. But EBMC’s secularism and focus on social justice makes it the first space I’ve been in where I’ve felt able to bring my full Buddhist self with all the identities I carry. 

I moved to Oakland in August 2018 for a new job in philanthropy that focuses on reproductive health and justice. Within a year, the challenges I faced in this position led me to seek a therapist who, as it happened, had been a part of the PiTA program. Upon her recommendation, I attended the POC sangha. Being surrounded by the energy of so many other people of color meditating together made me realize what a magical place EBMC is. Shortly thereafter, I applied and was accepted to PiTA 7. Not only did EBMC become a welcoming spiritual home for me through this program, but what I learned about mindfulness through the study of the center’s multicultural agreements would change so much about how I approach my work and life.  

One of my most formative experiences in EBMC was at the weekend  retreat, “Embodying the Timeless Wisdom of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” with Konda Mason and Noliwe Alexander. It was the first time I’d immersed myself in a space that celebrated Dr. King for his radicalism, his complexities, and the way his teachings connect to mindfulness and Buddhist practice. Most powerfully, it offered me the opportunity to reflect on and practice the power of right speech. I realized that the willingness to be honest, to regularly discuss tensions as they arise, and to challenge ourselves to ask questions in order to connect with the whole of people is what makes EBMC so special. These experiences and the way that EBMC holds these values makes me feel less afraid to address conflict and injustice. Here, I can trust that we, as people of color, can carry each other through tensions. Now, in my philanthropic work, I feel more confident to push on the pieces of systemic inequality that I have power over. My experience with EBMC’s values has helped me to bring mindfulness to a space that is deeply ingrained in patriarchy, classism, and white supremacy culture. 

Gift economics has also been deeply transformative for my role in philanthropy and how we talk about the shifting power in our relationship to money. Organizations like EBMC are having an outsized impact on the world relative to the resources they receive. Dana challenges me to see what we value as not just being about money, but transforming how we relate to and support one another. It is up to each of us to make sure that the justice work we are engaged in, and the radical leadership work EBMC makes possible, is sustainable. 

I am grateful to EBMC for continuing to show me all the ways I still have room to grow in my justice work, and for the way the center and its programs have strengthened my own leadership in my community.” 

***Thanks to Sangha members like Tenesha and the tremendous generosity of our community, we exceeded our fundraising goal this year and raised more than $40,000 for EBMC’s vital programming! Deep appreciation to all who made financial contributions this Gratitude Season. If you did not yet have a chance to donate, there is still time! Please click here: eastbaymeditation.org/generosity/donate Thank you!!!***

EBMC offers transformative practices for people with breast cancer – Tsehaynesh Abebe Gratitude Story!

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EBMC’s Season of Gratitude continues with a moving story from Sangha member Tsehaynesh Abebe about using the powerfully transformative skills EBMC offers us to deal with life’s challenges and uncertainties.

This is the last day to reach our end-of-year fundraising goal of $30,000! Please join Tsehaynesh and donate today.

When I began the Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA) program for social change activists at EBMC, I was completing my yoga instructor training, continuing my plant medicine studies, and had been practicing various forms of mindfulness and meditation. Specifically, I was engaged in a lot of self-study to learn more about how African histories and influences play an integral role in these spaces. Being involved with PiTA exposed me, for the first time, to the experience of studying mindfulness and meditation with a diverse group of other BIPOC practitioners. We celebrated one another, our cultural backgrounds, and explored how our identities inform our spaces and practices; we were living the lesson that there is no one way to meditate or practice mindfulness. 

It was during PiTA that I had a couple of experiences with breast cancer that hit closer to home. I saw that doctors were great at providing medical care to rid bodies of cancer, but that there could be a stronger mind, body, and spirit approach to the whole person in conventional cancer care treatment. Many times receiving holistic cancer care was not covered by health insurance, or the out-of-pocket fees were so expensive that it was out of reach for many – costing thousands of dollars. I recognized that many of the approaches being taught in holistic care were those I had found through my own research or learned at EBMC and were accessible to me because of the commitment to the practice of dana there. 

I knew that the teachings I received at EBMC offered something powerfully transformative for people who are diagnosed with a chronic illness, like breast cancer.  And, it offered an approach that did not deny pain or discomfort, but also made space to acknowledge gratitude in the process. EBMC taught me that an experience did not have to be one or the other – that you can be in discomfort and also be grateful. And that you can seek to remain balanced and positive in your approach to the stress, since uncertainty is a part of life.

 I remember talking one rainy day with someone who mentioned how terrible the weather was. I replied with my gratitude for the rain and for the way that it nourishes the earth and our bodies. This was an automatic response that had arisen from my practice in PiTA with mindfulness around everyday tasks. My approach to eating had changed too. Now, I was consciously chewing and experiencing the tastes and textures of my food and thanking the earth, the sun, the rain, and the people who made this food possible – from the farm workers to those who transport the foods and those who stock the shelves, etc. 

This way of experiencing the world has strengthened my foundation for building an integrative approach to self-care and has been integral to creating an affordable and accessible integrative self-care resource for others to access this kind of support. This year, I started “Our Breast Care,” a site that offers meditations, affirmations, guided imagery, and other evidence-based resources for people who have been affected by breast cancer. This site offers instruction in a wide range of mind-body practices. Using sound, art, breathwork, and movement meditations like qi gong, Our Breast Care focuses on integrative self-care in mind-body wellness, nutrition, sleep, exercise, and the environment. 

I am so grateful to EBMC, to PiTA, and especially to Mushim Ikeda, for generously offering an experience that continues to serve as an anchoring resource for me as I evolve in the work that I do. They have made it possible for me to share what I have learned with other BIPOC individuals who do not have access to these teachings as sources for support, resiliency, healing, and wellness.  My hope is that Our Breast Care can offer a source of support and community to anyone with breast cancer, at high-risk, and/or their loved ones.  And, I hope this inspires your generous giving to EBMC.