Curricula

2024 Core Buddhist Teachings EBMC
January through July 2024
Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30 pm Pacific time
with Mushim

Hybrid classes (on Zoom online and in person)
Wednesdays starting 1/3/24 and ending 7/3/24

Are you new to meditation? Curious about Buddhism? Looking for a spiritual home?

EBMC offers a seven-month suggested Core Curriculum for those seeking an introduction to the Buddha’s basic teachings. The curriculum also supports those looking to refresh their practice. It is not required that you take all of the class series offered below. You may register for any of the class series that interest you when registration opens for those programs. However, if you register for a class series, please commit to attending all of the classes in that class series.

Registration for each class series opens around 4 to 6 weeks before the first class in a class series.

This seven-month Core Curriculum will focus on the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions, while integrating aspects of other Buddhist lineages, and also embedding the teachings in a social justice perspective aligned with EBMC’s vision. When you register, please keep in mind the overall intention of the half-year curriculum, since each program in this curriculum is intended to build on the previous programs in the curriculum. If you have questions, please email admin@eastbaymeditation.org. A list of recommended Buddhist reading appears here. The hybrid classes (online on Zoom and in-person) in the seven-month curriculum are on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM Pacific Time, and are as follows:

• January 2024: Beginning a Meditation Practice – January 3, 10, 17 and 24 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM 
• January & February 2024: Buddha’s 4 Big Truths (4 Noble Truths) – January 31 & February 7, 14 and 21 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM
  
• February & March 2024: Buddha’s “How to” Guide to a Life of Happiness and Well-being (Eightfold Path) – February 28 & March 6, 13 and 20 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM 
  
• March & April 2024: Buddhist Love, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity (Brahmaviharas) – March 27 & April 10, 17 and 24 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM
  Note: Skipping April 3, 2024. Mushim is on retreat and out of town.
  
• May 2024: The Enduring Precepts: Basic Buddhist Ethics for Our Times – May 1, 8, 15, & 22  – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM
  
• May 2024: How Have the Buddha’s Teachings Helped Me? (wrap up Q and A for EBMC’s Core Buddhist curriculum) – May 29 – Wednesday 6:30-8:30PM
  
• June & July 2024: Liberation from Suffering: Buddha’s Four Noble Truths for BIPOC – June 5, 12, 26 & July 3 – Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30PM
  Note: Skipping Wed June 19, 2024 since it is Juneeteenth and BIPOC may be celebrating with friends in the evening
  
  

Classes and Events
In addition to the Core Curriculum, EBMC regularly offers a wide range of classes appropriate for those new to meditation. Sign up for EBMC’s email updates to get our latest class listings.

Establishing a Regular Meditation Practice and Building Community
Practicing with others is an important way to develop and sustain a consistent meditation schedule. EBMC has several weekly sitting groups to help you practice in community. The groups are listed here.

Path of the Modern Bodhisattva & Bodhisattva Vows & Precepts Ceremony
Buddhist curriculum, Fall 2024

All classes are hybrid, at East Bay Meditation Center (285 17th Street, Oakland) and on Zoom

with Mushim Ikeda, EBMC core teacher

Registration opens around six weeks prior to the start date of each class series. We invite those interested to sign up for our weekly program announcements email.

This Buddhist curriculum at EBMC has three components:

Path of the Modern Bodhisattva Class Series ONE:   Hybrid

4 Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm Pacific time
with Mushim Patricia Ikeda, one of EBMC’s core teachers

October 9, 16, 23, and 30 in 2024

Path of the Modern Bodhisattva Class Series TWO:  Hybrid

5 Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm Pacific time
with Mushim Patricia Ikeda, one of EBMC’s core teachers
Note: This is a deepening of the Class Series One materials, not a repeat

November 6, 13, 20, 27 and December 4 in 2024
[Nov. 27 is 6:30 – 8:00PM since it’s the day before Thanksgiving; it will be a Q and A session.]

Bodhisattva Vows and Precepts Ceremony  (Hybrid daylong)

Sunday, December 15, 2024
10 am – 4:30 pm Pacific time
with Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Note: You may participate as a witness/observer, or apply to receive the Bodhisattva Vows and Precepts after participating in the preceding classes

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*Separate registration is needed for each part of the Path of the Modern Bodhisattva class series (Part I, Part II + Precepts Ceremony). Participants interested in receiving the Bodhisattva Vows in Dec are required to take Part I + II of the class series.

I, myself, took the Bodhisattva Vows and made the vow, “Life after life, after life, after life, I will continue my practice and continue my work.” – Bhante Suhita Dharma, Buddhist monk and social worker, 1941-2013

Embodiment! Joy! Commitment! Strategic Action! In Mahayana Buddhism, the Bodhisattva works and plays ceaselessly to liberate all suffering beings, lifetime after lifetime. And – how do you and I show up, day after day, in the gigantic mess of our times, to do the great work? For the sixth time, EBMC will offer two class series exploring what it means to creatively embody the Bodhisattva teachings. Those who complete both class series may participate in the final daylong and either witness or take Bodhisattva precepts and vows in order to strengthen their commitment to collective liberation. These are the same vows taken by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Also, those who do not wish to take the Bodhisattva vows may take either of the two class series. The final daylong is open to everyone who wishes to witness the joyful ceremony (you do not need to have taken any of the previous classes, though it is recommended that you do so). Those who have completed the previous classes and have received permission from the teacher may receive the Bodhisattva Precepts, take the Bodhisattva Vows, and at that time they will receive a Buddhist name from the teacher.  Meditation (instruction provided for beginners), Dharma talks, and interactive exercises.

All classes are hybrid.  Questions: admin@eastbaymeditation.org or mushim@eastbaymeditation.org 

Mushim (Patricia) Ikeda received Bodhisattva precepts at the Zen Buddhist Temple-Toronto, Canada in
1983. She is an EBMC core teacher, a widely-published writer, and a social justice activist based in Oakland, California. Mushim has practiced as both a monastic and a lay householder.  For events, writing, video teachings, go to www.mushimikeda.com

4-Month Curriculum: Fall 2015

The picture of an individual, usually a thin white person, sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, “mindfully” seeking “inner peace” in a meadow or by a waterfall has become a meme that is used to represent Buddhist practice in the U.S. In Western “convert” Buddhist circles, the Buddha’s Path to liberation from suffering (the Eightfold Path, also known as the Middle Way) is often represented as focusing on the individual and on sitting meditation. Yet, none of us exists as isolated individuals and social and political processes are subject to the same law. History teaches us the interbeing of politics. “My” existence as a political and social subject is a product of “your” political and social histories. There is no present without representations of the past – and what we call the future is conditioned by stories of both the past and the present. Systemic oppressions arise and are sustained in this manner.

The purpose of this 4-month curriculum is to explore how an understanding of historical interbeing and the Buddha’s teaching of the Eightfold Path can inform our activism and vice versa. The delusion of isolated history fragments us from ourselves and each other. When we look at how our people’s history does not exist in isolation, but instead arises in dynamic relationship to multiple peoples’ histories, then we may find a basis for a deep solidarity that sustains movement building. “History” lives and changes as we live and change. As we understand these changes, we can be more skillful in bending its arc towards justice.

Classes will be taught by socially-engaged Buddhist teaches and leaders and will include meditation practice, interactive exercises, Dharma talks, and discussions.

The curriculum begins in September with a one day workshop on restorative practices led by the Restorative Practices for Dharma Practitioners Sangha, and is then divided into the three sections of Eightfold Path:

Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood [Sila: Ethical Living]: October class series and half-day retreat led by Dawn Haney and Katie Loncke from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration [Samadhi: Meditation]: November class series led by Mushim

Right Understanding, Right Thought [Prajna: Wisdom]: December class series led by Carol Cano, Donald Rothberg, and Hozan Alan Senauke