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Consulting Opportunity: Real Estate Committee Project Management
Available Immediately
The East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) seeks a consultant to provide short-term, specialized project management support to the Real Estate Committee guiding the identification, purchase, and build out of a new facility for the Center in downtown Oakland. We expect the project to require between five to ten hours a week of consultation.
EBMC signs on to Defund the Police recommendations for Oakland City Council
“Lives saved in Oakland means lives saved across the nation.”
May 20, 2021: East Bay Meditation Center #EBMCOakland has signed on to the Defund Police Coalition’s call to Refund, Restore, and Reimagine our communities in Oakland. The Defund Police Coalition has been working hard to cut the Oakland Police Department’s budget by 50%, and ensure that those funds are reinvested in much needed community resources, services, and programs that keep us safe and healthy.
As a result of grassroots pressure and tireless advocacy, a City of Oakland “Reimagining Public Safety Task Force” adopted powerful recommendations for how the city can be redirecting funds away from policing and into community health and safety. Please read these recommendations here: https://bit.ly/3oAkgZT They will be presented to the Oakland City Council, and will be discussed and voted on in the coming months. We will let City Council members know that these recommendations have massive, popular support from all corners of our city and movement!
If you’re part of an organization that wants to sign on to Refund, Restore, Reimagine – Support the Call to Defund OPD and Invest in Our Communities! – you can find the Googledoc here: https://bit.ly/3f7va6x
When Will East Bay Meditation Center Reopen Its Physical Space?
As vaccines become more available and the State of California slowly begins to reopen businesses, some of you may be wondering whether East Bay Meditation Center will be reopening our physical space. We are monitoring the herd immunity rates for Alameda and surrounding counties and want to ensure that our communities have access to vaccines, and for those that cannot get vaccinated, we are mindfully creating safer spaces for in person events.
As we have seen, conditions surrounding COVID-19 are ever changing and EBMC’s priority is to ensure that we continue to cultivate a place of refuge for all, with special care for our most vulnerable Sangha members. We are committed to radical inclusivity and accessibility, and will be keeping our physical space closed for the foreseeable future.
We thank you for your continued support of our many online programs. As we face the unknown challenges of the time ahead of us, EBMC remains committed to the safety and well-being of the communities we serve. In the words of the great Buddhist teacher Shantideva:
May the frightened cease to be afraid
And those bound be freed.
May the powerless find power
And may people think of benefiting one another.
Unpacking Whiteness: Exploring the Delusion of Race from a Buddhist Perspective | A Benefit for EBMC hosted by Soto Zen Buddhist Association
Unpacking Whiteness: Exploring the Delusion of Race from a Buddhist Perspective | A Benefit for EBMC hosted by Soto Zen Buddhist Association
Unpacking Whiteness is a 4-session online course to benefit the East Bay Meditation Center, led and facilitated by Crystal Johnson.
More white people than ever before are waking up to the terrible impact of racial injustice, and seeking ways to skillfully keep our commitment to relieve suffering. This class, taught from a Buddhist perspective, is designed as a collaborative exploration of our conditioning as white people and a time to develop skills for interrupting racism and building diverse community.
This class is designed for white people who are learning about whiteness; it is open to anyone who would like to join.
This event will benefit the East Bay Meditation Center and fund the initiation of the SZBA’s BIPOC Support Fund, a fund to support Black, Indigenous and People of Color in Soto Zen lineages. We offer sliding scale registration and invite you to give as generously as you can. The course is open to everyone, regardless of donation level.
You may sign up and find more information here: www.szba.org/courses
Tomorrow Tues May 4 “May We Gather: National Buddhist Ceremony for Asian American Ancestors”

May 4 2021 Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors ceremony
Spiritual Teacher & Leadership (STL) Training
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.
Vote for EBMC’s René Rivera for Community Grand Marshal SF Pride 2021!

René Rivera Vote for Community Grand Marshal SF Pride 2021
We Hold the Grief of our Asian and Asian American Sangha
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.]

