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: [email protected]
Further Info at: AccessToZen.org
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 30 minutes
- Episodes
- 96
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
Belonging to Zen, Belonging to Shin: Two Traditions, One Engaged Heart w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi
Judy Yushin Nakatomi talks about her practice in the Zen and Shin traditions. She also discusses how she is practicing with her Bodhisattva vows through engaging with the current internment of minori…
How Thinking Drives Our Beliefs & Actions: with Rev. Liên
Buddhist teachings on how we have been conditioned to interpret raw data; which then drives us to behave. -- An excerpt from Rev. Liên's book, Home is Here, to accompany Professor Michael Omi's in-de…
The Struggle to Construct Racial Meaning with Michael Omi
Professor Michael Omi joins Rev. Dana to help us contextualize the current climate of racial formation, namely the propagation of a far-right ideology of an oppressed white race, in a much longer his…
I Vow to Save All Beings: Insisting on My Own Humanity with Rev. Dana Takagi
This practice offering is from co-host Rev. Dana Takagi, in connection with Professor and Historian Alice Yang's interview, "Our Heritage of Othering and Resistance" which dropped July 1st.
Dana speak…
Our Heritage of Othering and Resistance with Historian Alice Yang
Professor Alice Yang helps us put the systematic othering we are seeing in the U.S. today into historical context. She discusses the oppression and disappearance of people, and points out how protest…
"10 Vows" with Rebecca Nie
We hope you enjoy this dharma talk from Rebecca Nie, "10 Vows".
GUEST BIO:
ZEN MASTER REBECCA DAWN NIE is the founder of MV Sanctuary and Vice President of the Maitreya Association for Buddhist Colleg…
Big Heart Resilience with Rebecca Nie
Rebecca Nie talks about the common misconception that China is an ethnic monolith, and how she identifies with her Huaren heritage. Although her spiritual path was discouraged in her early life, she …
Heart Sutra Fragment 3: Introduction & Reading by Mushim Ikeda
Mushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationally-known secular mindfulness and Buddhist teacher working primarily with justice activists and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) meditation practi…
Grow Up in the Dharma with Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Secular & Buddhist teacher Mushim Patricia Ikeda in convo with Rev. Liên on how mature practice can help us deal with the current conditions of our world.
GUEST
Mushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationa…
June Tanoue Reads "Dwell Nowhere and Browse That"
June Kaililani Tanoue, Kumu Hula, reads her blog post, "Dwell Nowhere and Browse That." Listen as she reflects on a conversation with her husband Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse. Together they are cofou…
Hula As Resistance w/ June Tanoue
June Kaililani Tanoue, Kumu Hula, talks about how to practice observing our thoughts rather than holding onto them, whether times are easy or tough. Hear about how June started Halau I Ka Pono as an …
Season 4 Premiere: Engaged Asian American/Asian Diaspora Buddhism for Our Times
In the season 4 premiere, Rev. Liên Shutt and Rev. Dana Takagi discuss the need to continue to forward Asian American and Asian Diaspora Buddhist voices in these tumultuous times.
Thank you to everyo…
Season 3 Compilation - A Beautiful Web of Asian Heritage Buddhists
On season 3, we co-created and witnessed an amazing example of how the Net of Indra weaves and connects. We heard from 13 Buddhist practitioners and teachers of Asian American or Asian Diaspora herit…
Breath, Perfect Harmony, and a History More Beautiful and More Terrible w/ Rev. Dana Takagi
Rev Dana follows up on her dharma talk from the last episode dropped on February 18th. She adds to her perspective on the current historical conditions of our time in the United States, talks about b…
Widening Our View and The Challenge of Seeing Perfection w/ Rev. Dana Takagi
Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United…
Meditation on Safety with Rev. Liên Shutt
Meditation to find stability in the midst of current threats in our world: nationally, world-wide, and with climate justice. -- Given at EBMC BIPOC Sangha
REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized le…
Talk: Healing in Time & Space with Rev. Liên Shutt
Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United…
Meditating on Trees with Ram Appalaraju
RAM APPALARAJU was brought up as a Hindu and has been on a spiritual path since 90's, first studying Vedanta and pursuing Buddhism since 2012. After years of practice he chose to pursue a path of ser…
Inauguration Healing Space with Rev. Liên Shutt
As today marks a disturbing time for many of us, I offered a Healing Space today at the same time as the swearing in. It was informal and my aim was to offering 3 aspects of healing: Acknowledging wh…
Eco-Dharma Care with Ram Appalaraju
What does "caring" really mean? Listen in on this fascinating conversation on Nature, Dharma & Caring for self and the Earth between Ram Appalaraju and Host Rev. Liên Shutt.
RAM APPALARAJU was brought…