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I first heard about EBMC at a queer retreat at Spirit Rock with Larry Yang, Arinna Weisman and Pascal Auclair. At the time, I didn’t live in the Bay Area, so I got involved in meditation communities in San Diego. My circle of meditation friends and I would dream of having  something that mirrored EBMC’s strong POC and queer representation. These dreams faded after moving to Arizona, where there is even less of a queer, POC meditation community. With the onset of the pandemic, however, access to the center opened up for those of us who don’t live near Oakland. 

EBMC became my silver lining during the lockdown. Being able to regularly attend the Alphabet and POC sanghas were my means of feeling connected. Attending became  essential for coping with the extreme isolation of the first year of the pandemic. These groups were also the only outlet I had to a secular spiritual community that wasn’t about religion or religiosity but something more spiritual. I recall EBMC community teacher, Arinna Weisman, talking intentionally about the word “remember” as a way of re-membering who we are. This teaching reminded me of my humanity and the humanity of those around me, regardless of how their values might differ from my own. Within the center, I’ve found liberation in building relationships with people with whom I’ve been able to explore the difficulties and joys I’ve had in life. In the sangha, I’ve found a nourishing form of refuge, a sense of belonging, connection, and ease. That it is a secular space is important because our connections become about re-membering our shared humanity, rather than adhering to ideologies.

The teachings and communities at EBMC have profoundly affected the way that I work and relate to the people I work alongside. I see groundedness reflected in the way the volunteers, staff, and leadership at EBMC live and embody values of the organization in a way that stands in contrast to cultures of over-saturation, over-stimulation and quick gratification. For instance, at a community meeting updating everyone about EBMC’s search for a new space, “community” extended to include anyone connected to the center, not necessarily those physically close by. I was also struck by the attention the committee paid to making sure that our new space was accessible, not just by having an elevator, but by ensuring that most of the center’s operations take place on the first floor. Here, I see our values being truly embodied by the organization. When we say radically inclusive, we want everyone in our community to feel welcome, not just the majority.

In an effort to more deeply connect with and support this community, I joined the Alphabet Sangha Coordinating Committee in 2020, providing leadership and tech solutions for the sangha’s online platforms. I’m grateful to EBMC for providing such a safe and welcoming space for myself and others, now across the country and the world; and I hope you will support the center as well. 

I first became aware of the East Bay Meditation Center some years ago, while searching for fellow travelers on the journey into deeper study of Buddhism. As a Black woman who had become a lawyer and then law professor, I knew something about moving through a world structured by white supremacy and patriarchy, and was on the lookout for those committed to waking up to the suffering caused by that. I sought those actively creating communities of practice that seemed capable of living up to the promise of the Four Noble Truths to help bring an end to suffering while promoting healing, repairing and uplifting love.

 Fortunately for me, at a gathering of teachers from a variety of religious traditions, I met Brenda Salgado, a force of nature who would go on to serve as the Center Director for EBMC. Later, while working with other meditating lawyers to provide more support for socially-engaged practices, I learned that jon a. powell, whose work I had long admired, would be offering a workshop there. I decided to attend that conference and was immediately struck by the welcoming and fully inclusive, community feeling at EBMC.

Years later now, I’ve been fortunate to offer guided meditation and practices to support mindfulness-based engaged resilience for the POC Sangha and other practitioners at EBMC. And alongside founding teacher, Mushim Ikeda, and Crystal Johnson, I’ve helped co-create and deliver a fundraiser for EBMC: a course of study and practice aimed at sharing skills and insights of multicultural community building with the leaders of other centers of Buddhist practice across the United States and beyond.

Founded on love and generosity from within, EBMC’s leadership in the field of Buddhist practice in the United States will no doubt continue to flourish. And I look forward to deepening my work with EBMC’s dedicated and loving community. But doing so requires the support of those who can see and feel the critical value of providing trustworthy spaces for all who seek to learn, heal and grow in awareness, compassion, agency and energy for mutual aid. I am deeply honored to support EBMC’s mission of providing a safe, welcoming and inspiring place for all who seek genuine liberation in this rapidly changing and historically challenging time. I invite you to join me. Please give what you can.​​