Many Communities, One Sangha:
Exploring the Reality of Equity & Inclusion
with Rhonda Magee, Mushim Ikeda and Crystal Johnson
A Benefit for the East Bay Meditation Center and the SZBA BIPOC Support Fund
October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30; 1:00-3:30 pm Pacific
It has been over a year since the murder of George Floyd spurred a reinvigorated effort to bring the principles and practices of racial equity to our sanghas and our lives. While many have had some success, many of us report disappointment at the progress we have made. This course is designed as an online facilitated community inquiry to support and energize sanghas and dharma practitioners seeking to create equitable, inclusive communities.
We will explore questions such as:
- What do we actually mean by equity?
- What are the values, intentions and commitments that drive our pursuit of equity?
- What does it mean to create sanghas that offer safety, dignity and belonging to a diverse community?
- What does it mean to practice being in “right relationship” to hierarchy and authority in our communities?
- How do we work with the intensity of emotion and pain that arises when we are intimate together?
- How do we handle the loss (for some) of “traditional” ways?
- How do we handle the harm that has already arisen (and continues to arise) so that we can move forward in a different way?
We invite you to join us in deep inquiry and practice to investigate together how we can create the ongoing conversation in our dharma communities and our lives that will allow us to create community spaces that provide safety, dignity and belonging to as diverse a group of people as possible. This course will offer dharma talks, panel discussions, journaling, and small and large group discussions, supported by embodied practices that support our capacity to be in the difficult conversations that lead to real change.
Please be aware that this is not a beginning class. To join us, we ask that you bring openness and curiosity, some experience exploring the impact of racism, homophobia, misogyny, ableism, transphobia and classism on our communities, and the capacity (or at least the aspiration!) to stay with difficult conversations.
Registration and Fees:
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. If you have questions, or would like to attend this course without payment, please contact Anna at info@szba.org.
This event will benefit the East Bay Meditation Center, and fund the initiation of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association's BIPOC Support Fund.
The East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, CA, was founded and is led by a majority of POC teachers and practitioners. EBMC opened its doors in 2007 to provide a dharma refuge for people of color, members of the LGBTQI community, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented communities. Through conscious cultivation of practices of Radical Inclusivity, Shared Leadership and Gift Economics, EBMC seeks to foster liberation, personal and interpersonal healing, social action, and inclusive community building. Through our writings and teachings such as this one, we offer support to other dharma communities and practitioners who are seeking to more fully live their practice in the world.
The Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA) is a nonprofit, professional organization for Soto Zen priests in North America. Founded in 1996, the SZBA has worked to preserve and promote the Dharma, while facilitating trust, respect, communication, ethical conduct, and education among the many sanghas of Soto Zen lineages and in the wider community for more than 25 years. Today the SZBA offers its members national conferences, training guidelines, peer and mentoring programs, educational opportunities and resources, and much more. Enrollment fees from this course will help the SZBA establish a BIPOC Support Fund; a fund to support Black, Indigenous and People of Color in Soto Zen lineages.
Course Instructors:
Rhonda Myozen V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and a leading innovator in the integration of mindfulness practices, multicultural education and social justice advocacy. She has spent more than twenty years exploring the intersections of anti-racist education, social justice, and contemplative practices. She is an internationally sought-after public speaker, mindfulness teacher, practice innovator, storyteller, and thought leader on integrating Mindfulness into Higher Education, Law and Social Justice. A practitioner and lay teacher of Zen Buddhism, she is a student of Buddhist teachers Roshi Joan Halifax, Norman Fischer and Venerable Bhikkhu Analayo, and of a range of traditions.
Rhonda is a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where she has served as an advisor, and has likewise advised a range of leading mindfulness-based professional development organizations, including the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, and the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. Rhonda’s award-winning book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Penguin RandomHouse TarcherPerigee: 2019), was named one of the top ten books released for the year by the Greater Good Science Center, and received similar recognition by Psychology Today and the editors of Mindful.org.
Rhonda’s teaching and writing support compassionate conflict engagement and management; holistic problem-solving to alleviate the suffering of the vulnerable and injured; presence-based leadership in a diverse world, and humanizing approaches to education. She sees embodied mindfulness meditation and the allied disciplines of study and community engagement as keys to personal, interpersonal, and collective transformation in the face of the challenges and opportunities of our time.
Rhonda has served as a guest teacher in a broad range and variety of mindfulness teacher training programs -- from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness and Research Center to Spirit Rock -- and is the author of numerous articles on Buddhism as a support for the problems of our time.
Mushim Patricia Ikeda is a socially-engaged Buddhist teacher, community activist, diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, parent and author based in Oakland, California. She has a background in both monastic and lay Buddhist practice and is a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center.
Mushim is well known for her down-to-earth, humorous, and penetrating approach to Dharma and social transformation. She has taught residential meditation retreats for people of color, social justice activists, and women nationally, and her work is based in values of cultural humility, acknowledging the wisdom that is ever-present in individuals and collectives, and the need for expression, empowerment, and co-creative self-determination in marginalized communities. She has been featured in the award-winning documentary film Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry and as one of three subjects in the documentary Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America, distributed by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.
As a writer, Mushim is the recipient of multiple awards, including the 2014 Gil A. Lopez Peacemaker Award from the Association for Dispute Resolution of Northern California, recognizing her innovative one-year program, Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA), mindfulness training for social justice activists, at East Bay Meditation Center. In September 2015 she received an honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology (sacrae theologiae) degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry.
Crystal A. Johnson, Ph.D. is a retired clinical psychologist and a Community Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, CA, where she also serves on the Leadership Sangha (Board) and as a member of the Radical Inclusivity Committee. She completed the year long Commit2Dharma training at EBMC, as well as the 2-year Dedicated Practitioner Program and the 2-year Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In her teaching, she focuses on creating/co-creating programs for white dharma practitioners seeking to build awareness, knowledge and skills to challenge the dynamics of white privilege and race-based oppression, and create truly inclusive sangha. Her courses include White and Awakening in Sangha at EBMC, Unpacking Whiteness: Reflection and Action at the San Francisco Zen Center, White and Awakening Together at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Unpacking Whiteness for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership for Branching Streams. She offers consultation to individuals and organizations seeking to disrupt the practices of white supremacy culture and support change toward racial equity.
