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
I Belong Everywhere with Cristina Moon
About Our Guest for this Episode
As a strategist, author, and Chozen-ji priest, Cristina Moon works with individuals and organizations to develop the sensitivity and spiritual strength needed to lead …
Healing Meditation - Breathing, Relaxing & Wishing on a Star with Dr. Ava Avalos
A 20 minute guided meditation and visualization on the sacred body with Dr. Ava Avalos, a Dharma teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, living in Botswana. No experience necessary. The medita…
When Action is Graced with Compassion: A Conversation with Dr. Ava Avalos
Sister Peace interview of Dr. Ava Avalos from the Order of Interbeing (OI) branch of the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition.
BIO:
Dr. Ava Avalos was ordained as a Dharma teacher in 2018, after over 20 years o…
Rest Meditation with Dalila Bothwell
Dalila Bothwell (she/her) is a Dharma practitioner in the Insight Meditation/Theravada Buddhist tradition and a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader Program. She served as Deputy Direct…
Frank Dharma with Dalila Bothwell
Get to know ODA's Season 2 other new co-host, Dalila Bothwell, as she shares with Rev. Liên frank talk about what it takes to teach and stay true to their experience as queer, Black, and other social…
Calm, Ease with Sister Peace
Enjoy this lovely practice, as Sister Peace walks us gently through a guided meditation to learn to pay attention to the quality of our breath so that we become anchored in the feelings of calm and e…
Unmasked When We Are Together with Sister Peace
SISTER PEACE spent five years in government work before realizing that something was missing. Feeling spiritually bereft, she began practicing at the Washington Mindfulness Community where she encoun…
Body / Breath Meditation by Noliwe Alexander
Noliwe Alexander has been a student of Vipassana meditation for over 20 years.
This is a meditation from a POC Retreat at Spirit Rock 2020
You can reach her at Deep Time Liberation and Peace at Any Pac…
Practicing to Touch Our Edges with Noliwe Alexander
Noliwe Alexander has been a student of Vipassana meditation for over 20 years. Throughout this time of deep devotion to the Dharma, Noliwe has become a dedicated practitioner, meditation teacher of v…
Loving Our Skin: Farewell & Meditation with Kaira Jewel Lingo
In the meditation, Kaira Jewel Lingo refers to the Garrison BIPOC meditation sangha which meets every Thursday at noon, run by her and Marisela Gomez.
Order my book, We Were Made for These Times: Ten…
Attending: A New Year's Meditation with Rev. Liên Shutt
Happy 2023! Enjoy this meditation to support you bring the quality of attending (my latest word for our natural access to the quality of mindfulness.
The "Meditation Training" course referred to in th…
Being Love with Lama Yeshe
A guided meditation invoking creative imagination to cultivate familiarity with our innate quality of being love within a space of active repose. Led by Lama Yeshe.
LAMA KARMA YESHE CHÖDRÖN is a schol…
Reflecting on 2022 and Transitioning to 2023
Tune in as Rev. Liên and Lama Yeshe share a lively discussion of their experiences with Opening Dharma Access during 2022. They also bid farewell to Kaira Jewel Lingo as she transtions from Opening D…
Shodaigyo Meditation for Healing with Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett
Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett chanting is part of this larger program:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0o2e4wsxdicmr1t/Shodaigyo.pdf?dl=0
For the YouTube version of this chant (with about 20 minutes of silent …
You Can Polish the Mirror of Your Life with Myokei Caine-Barret, Shonin
Listen in on this candid and wise interview with Myokei Caine-Barret, Shonin, as she shares about her own path of transformation and how we can all create a deeper experience of refuge for each other…
"A Tale of Two Healers" with Thomas Davis IV
Listen to this dharma story Thomas created and shared at East Bay Meditation Center in August 2022.
This tale deals with our developmental struggles and aversion to what the Path is asking of us, and…
Fusion Dharma with Thomas Davis IV
A fascinating conversation with Thomas Davis IV and Rev. Liên about the possibilities of expanding the range for assessing BIPOC teachers' readiness to teach and the connections between the Dharma an…
The Caturārakkhā, or Four-Fold Protective Contemplations, with Bhante Sanathavihari
In this month's practice offering, Bhante Sanathavihari shares a chanting practice central to the novice monastic training in the Sri Lanka tradition. The Pali and English text is available here for …
Meeting La Familia Where They Are At with Bhante Sanathavihari
Los Angeles Sanathavihari Bhikkhu is a Mexican-American Theravāda monk at the Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood, a Sri Lankan center. He is a student of the late Dr. Bhante Punnaji, a…
Practicing with Outbreath: A Meditation with Rev. Dana Takagi
A short, guided meditation on breath with Rev. Dana Takagi
Dana is a retired professor of Sociology and also a zen priest. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian Am history at UC Santa Cruz,…