Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners
Welcome to "Opening Dharma Access," a podcast where we hear stories from BIPOC teachers & practitioners about their Dharma experiences and practice, and how those inform the ways they are sharing & practicing the Dharma today.
Season 3 description: Hosted by Rev. Liên & Rev. Dana Takagi
This season, we will have a new focus: Uplifting and Forwarding Asian American/Asian Diasporic Buddhist Experiences in the West.
With our guests and audience, we will explore the specificities of Asian American/Asian Diasporic experiences. We take as given that there are generational differences (hence the historical moment matters!) and we hope to also delve into Asian family norms and values, our inchoate understanding of ancestor worship, issues of identity, representation, stereotypes about sexuality and sexual identity, and Asian American depression.
A theme we'll be using to help guide our conversations is The Disquiet - a term we are adapting from writer/poet Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet) -- which, in our view, signals a complex recognition of self, mind, and body. The evidence for the foregoing includes scholarly research indexed in aggregate statistics on depression, youth suicide, and other issues in immigrant or first-generation families. While Asian Americans are not alone in experiencing trauma, the racial languages and discourses of othering are different for us than for other groups.
What do we hope is the outcome of this podcast? Our first aim is to give voice to the range and depth of Buddhism in Asian and Asian American generations. We hope, in doing so, we help to shine a light on the limited or myopic envisioning of race in primarily white sanghas. Asian and Asian American diasporic truths about practice are a teaching for contemporary dharma organizations and centers. We recognize the depth and range of Asian and Asian Diasporic Buddhists is a wisdom mirror for organized Buddhism in the West.
Thank you to the Hemera Foundation for their generous support of Season 3!
Contact us at: Info.Access2Zen@gmail.com
Further Info at: AccessToZen.org
Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners
The Middle Seat, guided meditation with Solwazi Johnson
A 30 minute guided meditation led by Solwazi Johnson at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. It was part of a larger talk he gave called "The Middle Seat." This recording is from DharmaSeed.org. Listen to our latest conversation with Solwazi "What's Values Got to Do With It?" to hear more.
GUEST
Solwazi Johnson (he/him) teaches mindfulness meditation classes and leads mindfulness meditation retreats and workshops throughout the U.S. and the world. He has practiced mindfulness meditation for over 25 years, focusing on Vipassana since 2003. In addition, he has studied and practiced meditation in many places, including Thailand, Burma, India, and South Africa. He is a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leaders' Training and Spirit Rock's four-year Retreat Teacher Training. In addition, for over five years, he served as the guiding volunteer teacher for the Prison Buddhist Ministry/Mindfulness Meditation Program in a Federal Prison located in Englewood, CO. He is currently with the Mindfulness Mentor Teacher Certification Program.
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