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
"Learning From the 60s" - Lisa Nakamura Reads Audre Lorde
When considering what to offer for her ODA practice, Lisa considered chanting or reading from a more traditional Buddhist text such as the Heart Sutra. She found, instead, that reading the words of A…
Platforms for Zazen: The Cushion to the Computer w/ Lisa Nakamura
LISA NAKAMURA (she/her) is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Culture and Digital Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also a core faculty member of the …
"The Practice of Staying" with Yenkuei Chuang
YENKUEI CHUANG was born a Taiwanese girl before she became an American woman. As a licensed psychologist, somatics and mindfulness teacher, she is passionate about helping people heal and find freedo…
Insight Dialogue & Further Relationality with Yenkuei Chuang
Yenkeui Chuang & Rev. Liên dialogue on some "edges" of "Diasporic Asian Americans," overseas Asian practices, and then Insight Dialogue. Yenkeui shares fascinating details of the interconnections fro…
Part 2 with Dr. Paula Arai "There is no Buddhism without Women" (& forthcoming book!)
In a continuation of the previous episode conversation with Dr. Paula Arai, Paula shares an in-depth overview of her current "embodied" research on the often unacknowledged contributions to Buddhism …
"There is no Buddhism without Women" with Dr. Paula Arai (Part 1)
Dr. Paula Arai talks with Dana about being brought up by her Japanese mother, and how she realized the way that she embodied Buddhism in her body and mind not through intellectual study or what Weste…
Connection is Vital: A Re-Visit with Bo Hee Moon (+Finished version of poem!)
Rev. Liên Shutt and Bo Hee Moon continue their conversation on Asian American diasporic identity, and Bo Hee reads the finished version of her poem "Meeting with my Asian Sangha Tonight."
Read the poe…
"Meeting with my Asian Sangha Tonight" with Poet Bo Hee Moon
Listen in to hear how Bo Hee Moon was inspired by practice in the 3-month course "Lotus Rising from Mud: A Path for Anti-Asian American Restoration.
Guest:
BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old …
Meeting the Mentor with Ryan Lee Wong
Guest
Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Temple and is the Administrative Dir…
Zen Practice As Community Building with Ryan Lee Wong
Guest
Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Temple and is the Administrative Dir…
"Compassionate Touch Meditation" with Sharon Suh
Enjoy this short guided meditation from Sharon Suh, called, "Compassionate Touch Meditation."
Guest:
SHARON SUH is professor of Buddhism at Seattle University and author of Being Buddhist in a Christia…
"Silence is Not the Way" with Professor Sharon Suh
A layered and engaging discussion with Prof. Sharon Suh on what "Asian American Buddhism can be defined as; including the refusal to be silenced.
Guest:
SHARON SUH is professor of Buddhism at Seattle U…
What Happens When We Don't Get What We Want? with JP deGuzman
Enjoy this short dharma talk from Reverend Jean Paul Contreras deGuzman.
GUEST
REV. DR. JP DEGUZMAN (he/him) is minister’s assistant at the 103-year-old San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple …
O'kagesama-de (All thanks are due to you...) with Reverend Jean Paul Contreras deGuzman
Rev. Dr. Jean-Paul Contreras deGuzman talks about how he came to Jodo Shinshu Pureland Buddhist practice coming from a Catholic family and after moving forward from a traditional path as an academic.…
Meditating on the Dharma Joy and Disquiet of Asian American and Identity
Dana provides us with some reflections and meditations on this season of ODA so far, inspired by some of the discussion around Asian joy in the last episode with Mihiri Tillakaratne and Noel Alumit. …
Bodhi Leaves: The Asian American Buddhist Monthly Co-Associate Editors Mihiri Tillakaratne and Noel Alumit
In this rich and joyful conversation, Rev. Liên and Rev. Dana talk with Mihiri Tillakaratne and Noel Alumit, the co-founders and co-associate editors of Bodhi Leaves: The Asian American Buddhist Mont…
Rev. Liên's 2024 May We Gather Dharma Message: Stewarding the Net of Indra
This is the audio of a recording of Rev. Liên's dharma message at May We Gather 2024: A National Buddhist Pilgrimage for Asian American Buddhists, in Antioch, California. You can also watch the video…
Summary of May We Gather 2024: A National Buddhist Pilgrimage for Asian American Ancestors
This is the audio of a video of a summary of the events at May We Gather 2024: A National Buddhist Pilgrimage for Asian American Ancestors, Co-Coordinated by Funie Hsu, Chenxing Han, & Duncan Ryūken …
Reflections with the 2024 May We Gather Co-Organizers: Funie Hsu, Chenxing Han and Duncan Ryūken Williams
Funie Hsu, Chenxing Han, and Duncan Ryūken Williams are the co-organizers of May We Gather, a collaborative project of commemorative healing, by and for Asian American Buddhists and their spiritual f…
Grief Practices with Rev. Dana Takagi
Rev. Dana shares some of the ways she practices with grief.
Mentioned in the episode:
World Central Kitchen (website)
Dai Hi Shin Dharani (Sutra of Great Compassion) (text)
https://www.youtube.com/watch…