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ONLINE: White and Awakening In Sangha 2.0

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*Just Announced*

White and Awakening in Sangha 2.0

Dates: Feb 28 – May 16, 2021

Pre-req: This program is designed for and open to white-identified people who participated in the White and Awakening in Sangha course at the East Bay Meditation Center (or an equivalent program with permission of the teachers).

Description:
This in-depth program will provide pathways for building on and deepening anti-racist engagement, supported by Dharma practice and Sangha. This exploration will be informed by both traditional Dharma teachings and contemporary work around intersectional identities, ancestral healing, trauma and grief, structural and institutional racism and how self-identified white people can support BIPOC-led initiatives in the community. We will emphasize skill-building, engaged practices, and inner process work ranging from intra-personal identity through community action.  We will work within the Buddhist framework of commitment to non-harming, generosity, community healing, and the liberation of all beings.

Format:
This is an intensive, virtual 11- week program, alternating meetings of the large group, with small group meetings that center on support for community-based action.

  • 6 large group sessions, Sundays from 2:30-5:00 pm Pacific Time
    • February 28
    • March 14
    • March 28
    • April 11
    • April 25
    • May 16
  • 5 small group sessions, to be held on the weeks in between the large group meetings
  • Readings, reflections and homework, typically not requiring more than 2 hours per week
  • Practicum / volunteer component

Accessibility

Closed Captioning will be available for all Zoom meetings.  We regret that we cannot offer ASL interpretation at this time.  If you have other accessibility needs, please let us know on your application; we want you to be comfortable! 

Applications

To apply, please complete this application form.  Applications will be accepted until the class is filled.  The class is limited in size, so we recommend that you apply as soon as you can.

Questions

If you have questions about the course or the application process, please contact us at:

whiteandawakening AT eastbaymeditation DOT org 

 

We look forward to being with you!

Crystal Johnson, Kitsy Schoen, Heather Lear, Hilary Berwick, Brad Snyder, Evan Hoppin, Sarah Emerson

Honoring Beloved Friend & Teacher, Shahara Godfrey

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You are warmly invited to join us as we honor our beloved friend and teacher, Shahara Godfrey on Sunday, December 13th 2:00PM PST (Time Zone Converter) 

 

We at the East Bay Meditation Center want to support Shahara’s family with burial expenses and outstanding bills, which are significant. We are asking those touched by Shahara’s teachings, her spirit, and her wise and compassionate heart, to donate towards these expenses. All funds raised will be given directly to Shahara’s family.

 

To contribute to Shahara’s Homegoing Expenses, please donate at: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/shahara

To contribute to a virtual tribute board honoring Shahara’s life, please visit: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/X2gvty3r

Please leave your memories, your thoughts, your inspirations, your learnings, your images, your words—spoken or written, and your feelings on this page, as a testament to Shahara’s life, so deeply lived with integrity and grace.

 

To join the memorial, please use the zoom link below. 

Deep Bows, EB

The Zoom link to join this event is:
 
Meeting ID: 982 8691 7296
 
If you do not plan to use the Zoom app, please use the link below to find your local number to call in.

 

 

Time Out with Tune-Yards & Friends – Saturday 12/12/20

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As an expression of gratitude from Sangha member Merrill Garbus, we’re excited to announce that Tune-Yards will be hosting a musical fundraiser THIS SATURDAY, December 12th!

The event will be on YouTube, FB Live, and Twitch.

TIME OUT WITH TUNE-YARDS AND FRIENDS
a meditative fundraiser for East Bay Meditation Center
Featuring Maria Jose Montijo, DJ Cecil, and Thao
5PM PT / 8PM ET Saturday, Dec 12, 2020
Come in your comfiest clothes, get your pillow ready,
and help us weave a musical love letter to EBMC!

“EBMC has saved my life…” Season of Gratitude Continues with Cynthia Gutierrez!

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Today we bring you a Gratitude Story from Cynthia Gutierrez, a member of the POC Sangha and a graduate of Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA). Cynthia reflects on the ways that EBMC calls us to be our whole selves.
During our Season of Gratitude, we are raising $25,000 to ensure that EBMC continues to be a spiritual home for Cynthia and so many others.
I will never forget what it was like walking into EMBC for the first time! As a first generation Nicaraguan Salvadoran woman, I did not feel welcomed in the primarily white wellness spaces I usually found. EBMC was the first space I experienced that centered wellness for people of color. All this time, I didn’t think there was a space for me, but here I was at EBMC where there are pictures of BIPOC folks, a community board full of BIPOC-led events, a resource library with BIPOC authors! I felt seen and acknowledged in a deep way.
EBMC was also one of the first places I experienced true disability justice in practice. I didn’t have to explain my traumas or my sensitivities. Access is simply a way of being at EBMC. Through my experiences of acceptance at EBMC, I came into relationship with my own disability.
Given all this, I was excited to be accepted into the PiTA program. I found a deeper grounding in my own mindfulness practice and was able to build community with other activists and changemakers that are bringing mindfulness practices to their work. I’ve incorporated my learnings in working with BIPOC folks in social justice, reproductive health, reproductive justice, and recovery spaces.
I’ll always credit PiTA as a critical leadership development training because I got clarity, groundedness, and inspiration to integrate mindfulness meditation into my reproductive justice work. It’s especially come in handy during the pandemic; there have been times when I’ve had anxiety and depression and haven’t wanted to engage with the world. The meditation practice I cultivated in PiTA is honestly what’s kept me going in the days that were hard and painful.
Seeing how impactful a BIPOC-led, access-centered mindfulness space had an impact on me, I’ve felt more empowered to bring it up in different spaces. As a member of the Oakland City Council Alternatives to Violence committee, I’ve raised mindfulness meditation as an impactful intervention for our strategy plan. I would not have been able to name that if I hadn’t been part of the EBMC community. East Bay Meditation Center has saved my life in so many ways. It is my spiritual home and I’ve gotten so much out of it that I consider it a duty to give back and pay it forward however I can!

Season of Gratitude Kicks Off with Drew Ollero

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We’re excited to kick off our 2020 Season of Gratitude with a story from Sangha member Drew Ollero! Drew is part of the Alphabet and People of Color Sangha, and a graduate of Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA 8). Drew reflects on the interconnectedness of his practice with his intersecting identities…

“Do you want to attend a meditation class together?” he said with a half-smile and inquisitive look on his face.

This was never a question I imagined I would have been asked after a second date by my now domestic partner. Saying yes to that question was like an electric jumpstart on a journey I never knew I was on and then became suddenly aware of.

I remember sitting on the edge of my cushion that Wednesday evening, my third date, grasping to every word Mushim was sharing at the Path of the Bodhisattva series. Everything that I’ve done since then as a social worker, organizer, and coach began to appear interconnected. Although meditation and mindfulness weaved in and out of my life before, in this moment I took stock of the room and for the first time felt spiritual refuge.

Over the years, the Sangha and Dharma at EMBC allowed me to work through the hurt and suffering of the world. It provided me the necessary tools and space to challenge systemic oppression and find healing and restoration when the wounds went too deep. It validated my path, my identities, my purpose, and my relationships. To say EBMC is a space for spiritual and personal growth is a vast understatement.

EBMC’s existence is a symbol that “radical” alternatives to the mainstream exist and can thrive. For me and my partner, EBMC continues to be an important part of our practice. It’s a place that we call home (physically and virtually) and a place we go to remind ourselves of our collective path. And to think that it all started with a date!

Deep gratitude and solidarity,

Drew Ollero

 

Help Drew and others continue to find support for spiritual and personal growth at EBMC

by contributing to our Season of Gratitude campaign!

Thanks to generous Sangha members,

every dollar up to $10,000 is being doubled right now!

Covid Relief Fund: Committed to Our Collective Well Being

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We feel so fortunate to be the intermediary between generous donors and members of our sangha who need financial support at this time. We are now accepting applications for our Covid-19 relief fund and we encourage sangha members in need to apply by  November 30th, 2020. 

 

 

 

 

 

We Are Hiring!

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Wednesday, October 28th 2020:

East Bay Meditation Center is currently hiring for an Event Coordinator and Practice Group Liaison!

This is a salaried, part time position. Click here to read full job description. 

Interested parties are invited to send their cover letter and resume to the contact listed on the job description.

The first review of applications / resumes will be Wednesday, November 11th 2020.

The second review of applications / resumes will be on Wednesday, November 25th 2020.

 

 

 

BIPOC-Centered Support for Election Season Stress

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East Bay Meditation Center is gearing up to support our communities during this tense election season with thoughtful programming designed to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

We recognize the ways that historic systemic oppression has marginalized many in our Sangha, especially the legacies of slavery that have resulted in the modern day police state and continued anti-Black and anti-POC policies and practices. Given that this year has already brought multiple waves of challenges, we at the EBMC’s Programming Committee have put together events that we hope will feel supportive to our communities as we approach the election, and support us after the results are announced. 

Note: Some of the practice groups below are open to all backgrounds; we have clearly indicated those groups. We felt it was important to mention some of these as they support the intersection of our identities beyond racial identification (i.e., gender, ability, sexual orientation).

In the weeks to come, we will be announcing more programming in addition to what is noted below. The best way to stay updated on programming is to sign up for our events newsletter and follow us on Instagram or Facebook. 

EVENTS

NOVEMBER 7 – Taming Anxiety for Black, Indigenous and People of Color with Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt

Does your mind seem to “be all over the place”? Do you find yourself worrying a lot? Do you feel easily overwhelmed and filled with anxiety? Do you obsess about “shoulds’” and “coulds’” and, therefore, find it hard to focus? Buddhist teachings and meditation practices have long addressed ways to be with such emotions and thoughts. In this one-day, we will gather and to learn ways in which we can work with worry and anxiety. 

 

NOVEMBER 25 – The Dharma of Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad for People of Color with Spring Washam 

The time is NOW…for us to call on one of our greatest Ancestors and that is Harriet Tubman! This mini-retreat is meant to be soul food for the heart with gospel music, deep dharma, and a sprinkle of shamanic magic on top. We are in the midst of a revolution and together we will learn how to be conductors of love in our communities. 

 

DECEMBER 19 – Creativity, Vulnerability & Power: Moving Forward Together For Self-identified Black, Indigenous, People of Color & Multiracial persons (Event link forthcoming)

With Mushim Ikeda, Dr. Zahra Ahmed & Christian Howard

Drawing on “deep time” and Dharmic mindfulness-based practices, can we as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and Multiracial persons) see and seize the opportunities now arising to move forward together toward liberation? Is there a “magic formula” for both solidarity and emergent strategy arising from our diversity? Our teaching team consisting of a former Buddhist nun, a professor of political science, and an international organizational design specialist proposes a boldly compassionate community discussion on how Creativity, Vulnerability and Power manifest, interact, and hold the potential for transformative change.

DEEP REFUGE PEER-LED

MEDITATION PRACTICE GROUPS

NOVEMBER 14 – Latinx Deep Refuge Practice Group

NOVEMBER 23 – Trans & Genderqueer/Gender Variant Deep Refuge Group (Note: open to all racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds)

DECEMBER 12 –  Multiracial Peer-Led Deep Refuge Group

WEEKLY MEDITATION PRACTICE GROUPS

THURDAY NIGHTS- POC Yoga (Zoom link in EBMC POC Sangha Facebook Group) AND POC Practice Group –  People of Color Sangha

TUESDAY NIGHTS- Alphabet (LGBTQI+) Practice Group (Note: open to all racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds)

SUNDAY NIGHTS – Every Body Every Mind (Differently Abled and Chronically Ill) Practice Group (Note: open to all racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds)

Congratulations to Our Graduating Teachers!

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Spirit Rock Teacher Training graduation, 9/11/20

#EBMCOakland congratulates our teachers Amana Brembry Johnson, Noliwe Alexander, Carol Cano, JD Doyle, Konda Mason, Louije Kim, and Victoria Cary upon their graduation, which took place online on Sept. 11, 2020! From Lion’s Roar: “The Spirit Rock Dharma Teacher and Spiritual Leadership Program held an historic graduation ceremony on September 11. After an intensive, four-year program of training and study, the most diverse class in the program’s history was empowered to teach the dharma. Every single graduate self-identifies as a member of a nondominant culture, whether by gender, orientation, race, ethnicity, or ability. Ninety percent are BIPOC and fifty-five percent identify as LGBTIQ. It is perhaps the most diverse group of new dharma teachers in the history of American Buddhism.”
East Bay Meditation Center is proud to congratulate the EBMC teachers and *all* of the graduating teachers in this history making group of American vipassana Buddhist teachers. We are also grateful to EBMC co-founder Larry Yang and his colleagues Gina Sharpe and Kate Lila Wheeler, the guiding teachers of this remarkable cohort.

APPLICATIONS OPEN for Board of Directors (the Leadership Sangha) at EBMC

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Do you feel moved to serve on the board of directors of East Bay Meditation Center? Thank you, and we’d like to hear more! 

August 31, 2020 is the deadline for application for the EBMC Leadership Sangha (board), also known as the LSangha. 

More info and application form here:  https://bit.ly/3fS0BiV .

To see who’s on the LSangha now, go to https://eastbaymeditation.org/about/lsangha/. 

#EBMCOakland