Tomorrow Tues May 4 “May We Gather: National Buddhist Ceremony for Asian American Ancestors”

May 4 2021 Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors ceremony
All News
May 4 2021 Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors ceremony
The Spiritual Teacher & Leadership (STL) training program launched in February 2021 with 30 participants and 4 core teachers. The purpose of the training is to cultivate future teachers and leaders to step into leadership roles within EBMC and into surrounding communities and sibling organizations.
Read more about the participants HERE.
René Rivera Vote for Community Grand Marshal SF Pride 2021
The East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) expresses our collective grief and outrage at the ongoing violence targeting Asian and Asian Americans and in the wake of the most recent tragic attack in Atlanta. We stand in solidarity with Asian and Asian Americans in beloved community.
These violent acts of hatred are arising due to the current and historical oppression of Asian Americans in the U.S. They are the direct result of our nation’s deep roots in white supremacy, imperialism, and xenophobia.
EBMC is committed to co-creating a culture of strongly-rooted resistance, resilience and well-being. This is our steady response to the violence and injustice we witness in society. We continue to cultivate the ground for deep systemic change, to end multigenerational patterns of oppression, and to uphold a spiritual vision for freedom and joy for everyone. This is a time to take refuge in the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and support one another on the path of non-harming.
East Bay Meditation Center will continue to offer collective spaces for healing and taking refuge together in Sangha, especially in the coming weeks. We will share programming updates that will include space for our Asian and Asian American Sangha members and opportunities to build solidarity with our BIPOC/White allies. In the meantime, we continue to hold space at our People of Color Sangha practice group on Thursday evenings and our Asian American Deep Refuge group on Tuesday evenings. We are in the process of scheduling more programming and will share details soon. We encourage you to lean on EBMC and each other in Sangha during this time.
The following is a link to compiled resources, including donation, volunteer, and action opportunities: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/
[Cover image used with permission from artist Pauline Cuevas. Artwork was commissioned by the California Endowment.]
February 28, 2021
Volunteer Position Description: EBMC Real Estate Subcommittee member
We are very happy to be at a point in our search for a sustainable home for EBMC that we need to add members to the EBMC Real Estate Subcommittee of the Space Force! The Space Force (officially the Advisory Committee to the Strategic Planning Committee) is the group in our sangha(spiritual community) that has been working to move EBMC to a sustainable home. During this time of pandemic we have continued to meet and work toward this goal. As we move closer to the time of purchasing a building, we are seeking additional volunteer support.
We are looking for someone who:
The estimated time commitment is four to six hours per month, including two Zoom meetings, which usually happen on a weekday afternoon. The committee uses a modified consensus decision-making process, using gradients of agreement. (We’re happy to tell you more.)
By contributing your skills and expertise, you’ll be helping to create a new chapter in the history of American Buddhism and helping to shape the new home of one of the most diverse, social justice-centered sanghas in the world.
If you are interested, please complete this brief form and we will be in touch! If you know someone else who might be interested, please pass this on to them.
Group photo of EBMC Sangha. Photo by Candi Martinez Carthen.
With deep gratitude for your practice and your support of our sangha,
Marian Urquilla, Kaily Heitz and David Foecke
East Bay Meditation Center Real Estate Subcommittee
EBMC is currently seeking a volunteer Dharma in Motion Zoom Moderator.
For more information on this volunteer position, please read the Volunteer Description.
Contact: shah at eastbaymeditation dot org if you are interested!
2020 sent a lot our way. For so many of us this year, leaning into our meditation practice and coming together in community—in all the creative, new ways a global pandemic has required—has been essential to our continued wellbeing. The EBMC community endures as a bright light in the darkness of these times, and we have built connections never dreamed of as we continue to create our Beloved Community.
As we look forward to another year, here is some of what we accomplished together in 2020:
In March, we very quickly moved all of our offerings online, and we have been heartened that the number of people joining us has increased by more than 400% over the last year. In October 2020, for instance, we had over 1,000 registered participants at events, compared to 200 at the same time in 2019. We continue to prioritize the participation of BIPOC, so these numbers also include more people of color than ever. Another benefit to our new online Sangha is that people are joining us from all over—from L.A. to N.Y.C. and Canada to South Africa!
We continued to offer dozens of retreats and classes in 2020, which this year included a series of events designed to provide refuge, healing and community building in the wake of the state-sanctioned killings of Black people this summer. We offered Calling for Justice, by and for Black practitioners; Sacred Reciprocity, for BIPOC practitioners; and Cultivating Solidarity and Building Stamina for Transformative Action, for white practitioners to challenge systemic racism. We offered Race and Grace: Conversations on Liberation with Black Male Dharma Teachers, which centered the voices of Black male Dharma teachers and is the first event of its kind that we know of anywhere.
Our yearlong Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA) program for social justice activists (photo) continues to train activists to take mindfulness practices into their organizations; the new PiTA8 cohort this fall includes 61 activists, including those from across the U.S. and as far away as Germany, England and Brazil!
This year we increased our commitment to access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Sangha members and offered ASL interpretation for 17 individual EBMC classes and our Rooted and Resilient Fundraiser with Spring Washam. We have implemented Closed Captioning across all practice groups, classes, and events, and we are committed to continuing to provide ASL interpretation for 1 to 3 classes each month.
We launched the Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Training (STL) Program this fall, which is a two-year training program for dedicated practitioners. STL is focused on centering the integration of radical inclusivity and social justice in Dharma training and leadership development, for which EBMC has become a model across the world.
Our quest to find a warm, welcoming, sustainable home is underway! Our “Space Force” committee is working diligently to find a new space by fall of 2022 that will keep us both rooted in Oakland and growing our connections across the US and beyond. The three things we are currently focused on are: 1) looking for an accessible physical space that meets our needs, based on the priorities identified by the Sanga; 2) identifying and deepening relationships with philanthropic investors who may become inspired to support our vision for the future; and 3) creating ways for everyone in our EBMC community, near and far, to be part of this effort.
Stay tuned as we roll out our campaign in the coming year. We need you to be part of it—we won’t be able to do it without you!
At the same time that we are immensely proud of what we have accomplished this year with you, our Beloved Community, we continue to need your support to face the growing demand for what EBMC uniquely offers as a community that prioritizes radical inclusivity, commitment to social justice, and spaces of refuge and healing.