Contemplative Practices For People Of Color

Sabbe satta sukhi hontu! May all beings be happy! - phrase

American is born both from the ancient and timeless teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who said: all deserve to be happy, to hear the , and North America’s founding dream of freedom and equality. Yet, in spite of these intersecting histories, most in the United States are economically, socially, and culturally homogenous. Even though highly realized teachers from Asia come to the United States to teach the Dharma, those who teach alongside them or those who sit in the audience are rarely people of color. Some people of color attend once and never return because they don’t have a sense of community or connection in which to feel safe, valued, heard, seen, or welcomed. The adverse effect of this is the continued marginalization of certain members of society, members who have as much interest to practice , alleviate their own suffering, and unite body and mind.

The San Francisco Center

For the last 15 years the San Francisco Zen Center has been making a conscious effort to encourage people of color to visit their center and experience Buddhism. Using all three of their bay area centers and a series of one-day retreats, practice groups and visiting teachers, the membership of the Zen Center strives to become more diverse and understand the issues effecting people of color.

The Diversity Committee

The San Francisco Zen Center created an ad hoc Diversity Committee in 1993 to look at ways to diversify the center’s membership. The job of this committee was to see how the center could best serve the people of color who were already attending programs at the Zen Center and to see how they could encourage more members of the surrounding community to visit and discover the teachings of Buddhism. A few programs were planned, but the center did not have the resources at that time to put all their ideas into action.

The Committee’s First Steps

In 1999 the Zen Center submitted a proposal to a foundation that was giving money to organizations working with people of color. The proposal was accepted and they were able to hire their first part-time Diversity Coordinator, Dr. Lee Lipp, Ph.D. Already a member of the Zen Center, Dr. Lipp started to examine the center’s needs and see how she could help fulfill them. She says, “I started looking at what was happening at Zen Center and what it looked like people wanted to have happening. So, I started by introducing myself around and, not too long after that, I met a teacher of color.”i

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

This meeting led to the establishment of a “Teachers of Color” residency program. They invited teachers of color from different traditions around the United States to live and teach at the Zen Center. Teachers who had lived in the U.S. for most of their lives were targeted in the hopes that they would understand the effects of racism as it plays itself out in this country. The first teacher to join the program was Monty Suhita Dharma. He stayed at the center for two and a half weeks and gave many talks at the center’s public programs. He also led a one-day retreat for people of color and spoke at many other dharma centers in the area. Dr. Lipp says, “At the culmination of his visit, he invited the extended community, meaning whoever was practicing or whoever wanted to come, to join with the people of color , to chant and drum as part of a healing ceremony. It was quite moving to me.”ii The committee also started inviting people who held positions of leadership at the center to attend a series of diversity trainings at an organization called Visions. The idea was to cultivate cultural competency in the center’s decision makers. These trainings continued for almost two years and led to people beginning to see the interaction between class and color. The membership requested a workshop on the topic and a series of informal classes were offered by one of the center’s teachers.

Working with the non-Zen Buddhist community

Through the years many teachers of color have visited the San Francisco Zen Center and offered programs to its membership. Oakland-based Angel Kyudo Williams facilitated a half-day retreat called ―The Dharma of Martin Luther King,‖ and Kamala Masters, one of the founders of Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui, led a two and a half day Vipassana retreat for people of color. The center also started to work on other diversity areas such as women’s issues and religion, gay issues, and issues around disability. While these areas have not become as well defined as the people of color programs, the work continues at many of the Zen Centers in the bay area.

The center also started working with centers in different Buddhist traditions to share ideas, successes and failures. For a time a few members of the San Francisco Zen Center’s Diversity Committee worked with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Diversity Committee. Also, in 2002, the San Francisco Zen Center started having diversity trainings at its three retreat centers. All members of the centers were required to attend. At this time they also started offering program scholarships to people of color who otherwise would be unable to attend their programs.

The current state of the center

Eventually the ad hoc diversity committee was formalized by the San Francisco Zen Center’s board and became the Diversity and Multicultural Committee. Although one of the focuses of the committee is working with people of color, the committee itself remains mostly white and that has led to occasional difficulties when working with people of color in the center. Dr. Lipp, now retired from her position as Diversity Coordinator, discusses how members she’s been working with react when they discover she is white, “here they thought I was a person that could be completely trusted, but I’m white. There’s some hesitancy. It seems to me that this is the suffering of racism for all of us. That people of color see me and my skin is white and they come

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

with this…most white people are not trustworthy and I’m one of them. That’s how the separation happens. It’s a disease that’s continuing.”iii

The only program for people of color currently scheduled at the Zen Center is “A Retreat For People of Color and Their Friends.” Co-facilitated by Sala Steinbach, an African-American, it encourages people of color to bring their white friends to meditate and discuss how the issues of racism affect them. Sala says, “I want everybody at the table…I want everybody to know that Buddha was talking to all of us. That’s all. And so that is, for me, what the day-long is.”iv

While the center doesn’t presently have a Diversity Coordinator, the center’s work with diverse populations continues on. Currently in the midst of a reorganization, the center hopes to once again start planning new programs in the upcoming months.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Most of the sorrows of the earth humans cause for themselvesv Jack Kornfield

Spirit Rock

Spirit Rock’s mission on diversity ―is to promote the transformation of the Spirit Rock community (Board, teachers, staff and sangha) so that at all levels, institutional and otherwise… embodies multicultural inclusiveness, engages in authentic dialogue, and collaborates across differences. We are dedicated to the inclusion of all races, genders, classes, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, disabilities, cultures, ethnicities, etc.‖vi

In 2001 the Spirit Rock board adopted the Diversity Program Initiative, ―to awaken and sustain an engaged exploration into the many levels of seen and unseen separation among the Spirit Rock community using the fundamental grounding of our Dharma practice.‖vii The point was to make the invisible visible with the following objectives in mind:

To create on-going programs which weave diversity awareness into the fabric of the entire Spirit Rock community. To commit to the transformation of attitudes and behaviors in ourselves and in our sangha which reduce the humanity or inherent value of any person or group. To create opportunities to join together in spiritual practices which respect and honor our differences and our underlying interconnectedness. To create and evolve the spirit and attitude of inclusion, and a genuine openness and curiosity toward experiences that are different from our own.viii

In 2002 the first ever African American Retreat was held at Spirit Rock. Alice Walker spoke to a gathering of teachers, community leaders, and practitioners from across the nation. Since that first retreat Spirit Rock has continued to offer gatherings specifically for groups and individuals

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

who often find themselves in the minority, such as People of Color or the Lesbian Gays Bisexual and Transgender (BGBT) communities. Although the events may be exclusive, they are not meant to disconnect the participants from their neighbors or their surroundings but rather provide a safe place for people to come together with shared socio-cultural experiences.

―In today’s multicultural world we encounter differences in many forms at every step and every moment,‖ says Urusa Fahim, Diversity Coordinator at The Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. ―Developing a practice around diversity and cultural difference is a reminder to explore our own thoughts, assumptions and feelings about these encounters.‖ix At Spirit Rock a variety of Diversity Programs are offered year-round to help participants reflect upon how these differences define and divide the modern world.

Diversity Groups

The diversity programs explore the ways in which meditation can be used to help specific identity groups understand the division and the suffering that often result from existing on the fringe of society.

In order to begin the healing process, one must first feel comfortable enough to meditate, reflect and communicate. Urusa Fahim elaborates: ―Being among our own helps us create a safe space where the focus can be on individual and collective healing. It removes us from an environment where our defenses might be activated, allowing us to open up more to the present moment.‖x

To help their students along the path to insight and truth, the teachers of the diversity programs utilize, and sometimes combine, the vipassana and the metta meditation techniques. Vipassana, or ―insight meditation‖, is a method of meditation which focuses on moment-to-moment .xi Metta, also known as ―loving-kindness‖, is an attitude of universal, unselfish and all-embracing love, which seeks happiness for all.xii The retreats and seminars include guidance in silent sitting, walking, and eating , as well as group exercises in mindfulness and communication.

Programs & Teachers

Instructors of the diversity programs include respected Buddhist scholars and meditation teachers from around the globe. This includes Bhante Gunaratana, president of the Society in West Virginia and author of Mindfulness in Plain English, Joseph Goldstein, renowned teacher of metta and vipassana retreats since 1974 and co-founder of Insight Meditation Society, Marlene Jones a social activist and co-founder/co-chair of the Spirit Diversity Council, and Arisika Razak a Certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor and Director of the Integrative Health Studies Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

In August 2008 a people of color mediation retreat will be co-taught by Larry Yang, a Spirit Rock Community Dharma leader, teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center and diversity consultant, Gina Sharpe a co-founder of New York Insight Mediation Center, Bhante Buddharakkhita a Buddhist monk and founder of the Uganda Buddhist center and

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

Michele Benzamin-MikiRecent co-founder of the Manzanita Village Retreat Center and Ordinary Dharma Center in Southern California. The retreat will practice mindfulness meditation centered in wisdom, compassion and cultivation of a clear mind, open heart and the possibility of experiencing greater happiness and freedom in an often oppressive society.

Gina Sharp of New York Insight says, ―To work skillfully with divisiveness and suffering on a societal level, we must first examine these tendencies within ourselves. In meditation practice, we learn to see the truth of suffering and separation. We learn to understand their cause and the way to freedom of our hearts and minds.xiii

Insight Meditation Society With the aspiration of bodhichitta— the wish for our lives to benefit all— something powerful begins to happenxiv Joseph Goldstein

History of People Of Color Retreats

In the summer of 2003 Joseph Goldstein, Gina Sharpe, and Ralph Steele initiated the first east coast People of Color (POC) vipassana meditation retreat at the Garrison Institute in New York. The event was attended by one hundred and fifty participants from all over the country and was co-sponsored by Insight Meditation Society (IMS), New York Insight, Vallecitos Mountain , and Life Transition Institute. It was a completely danaxv retreat where participants’ program fee was funded by grant money.

Many years previous to the Garrison Institute’s POC retreat, IMS co-founder, Joseph Goldstein had attended a retreat for social activists where he was initially inspired to address the issue of diversity. In the following years he was invited to teach POC retreats at Vallecitos Mountain Refuge in New Mexico where the center had been doing outreach and POC retreats for years with teachers like George Mumford and Ralph Steele. Eventually the topic of diversity came to be a vital issue at Massachusetts based IMS for Goldstein and then board member Gina Sharpe. Goldstein invited Ralph Steele, founder of Life Transition Institute, to be part of the planning. Together the three built on what others had been doing in other parts of the country, creating a bridge to a diverse sangha by providing a safe community for people of color to practice the Dharma. In the IMS newsletter, Insight, Ralph Steele shares his experience: “To be the only person of color at a meditation retreat can be an intimidating and uncomfortable experience. To establish a retreat environment filled with diversity, to create a safe doorway through which people can practice meditation and share their common interest in the Dharma is of enormous importance.”xvi

In Insight, Jamaican born Gina Sharpe says, “Meditation is a powerful tool in working with the pain of racism and oppression. This ancient method of mind training taught and shared on the retreat allowed us all to experience that deepest part of our being, where we are all interconnected.” Interconnectedness is integral to the idea of sangha which in Pali, the language

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

of the Buddhist canon,xvii means “community.” However, the sanghas of American Buddhism are still learning how to fully integrate. Sharpe, co-founder of New York Insight, started a people of color dharma group in the fall of 2006. The group meets monthly and is faithfully frequented by fifty or more people. The format is no different than any other dharma group: sitting, movement, talk, and discussion—except that at the beginning she allows for everyone to get up, shake hands and make introductions. She is building a community and also providing a safe place for people of color to share their common inspiration for meditation without feeling excluded or ignored. She co-teaches a one-day class entitled Voices of Freedom: A Martin Luther King Celebration in which participants ―…will sit and walk together in celebration of racial diversity, inclusivity, and our common heritage as human beings, reflecting on healing the experience of separation. We will express gratitude for the progress that has been made and compassion and acceptance for what has not occurred. People of all races, cultures, and classes are welcome.‖xviii

Ralph Steele, founder of the Life Transition Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, continues to teach toward building a diverse Buddhist sangha. The Institute’s website quotes Nelson Mandela: “The truth is we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free." The vision for the institute includes “freedom from racism and social injustice through the practice of meditation.xix” The practice is described as, “[a] deep inquiry into ourselves to illuminate and heal the root beliefs that lead to racist behavior and social injustice; practice of various meditation techniques to learn to cultivate an awareness and compassion to support such internal change.”xx

The Momentum Continues

The momentum continues to build across the country as dharma teachers offer people of color study groups, participate in diversity councils, and discuss how to attract people of color to the Dharma in a heartfelt way so that they realize they are an invaluable component to the sangha. In the meantime POC retreats continue to be offered by the Insight Meditation community. In June of 2008, Goldstein, Sharpe, Larry Yang (East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California) and Bhante Buddharakkhita (founder of the Uganda Buddhist Center) will co-teach a retreat at IMS. Uniquely, this retreat “creates a space of ease and support for people of color to meditate together and cultivate inner freedom.”xxi While also providing the “Buddha’s teachings on mindful awareness, illuminating a path toward healing and greater happiness.”xxii

As part of their core culture, IMS places value on diversity. “We value making the dharma accessible to as many people as possible, and we value diversity in staff, yogis and teachers… representing all racial and economic backgrounds, ages, genders and levels of wellness.”xxiii In order to address diversity IMS offers affordable and accessible programs to address the variety of economic barriers. Taking time from work is out of the question for many people and the cost of retreats can be out of reach. IMS states on their website, “We are committed to providing broad access…and to ensuring a lasting legacy of the Buddha’s teachings for future generations.”xxiv Specifically, the people of color literature states, “Our wish is to make this retreat accessible to anyone who would like to attend.”xxv IMS offers a “You Choose” fee option, charging a minimum of just $10 per day. The retreats are run like any other vipassana retreat: meditation, silence, dharma talks, and private interviews. Often, during the dharma talks, there is reference made to the issue of racism within the context of the practice, but the biggest difference is that

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

the person on the cushion next to you understands what it means to be excluded. For this reason POC Retreats fill quickly and there is often a waiting list or lottery. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive and teachers say that both the leaders and attendees experience the joy of being part of a community.

Diversity at The power of supreme humanness exists in everyone. The vision of the Shambhala is to connect powerfully to everyone, not just the elite person alone.xxvi Chogyam Trungpa

Shambhala Buddhism is not a closed a container of purity but a body that aspires to offer the teachings to all in the hope of creating an enlightened society. “Enlightened society means that we work with challenges in an enlightened way, in an unbiased way, in an unconditioned way, and in the tradition of best practices…”xxvii One of the challenges of creating an enlightened society has been the issue of diversity. In the last five years a great amount of effort has been given to understanding the issue and to making incremental changes in the Shambhala community so that it comes closer to mirroring the diversity of society.

The Shambhala International website has a dedicated section on diversity. There you can find a treatise authored by Dan Hessey entitled Notes on Diversity and Accessibility. It states, “Shambhala, as a society and as a path, is about knowing the world beyond ego and its credential. This is the ultimate view of inclusivity and diversity.”xxviii Also posted on the website is The Treatise on Society and Organization, authored by current lineage holder Rinpoche. “All individuals have a place in Shambhala society. There should not be a sense of outer and inner, but rather a sense of being included in the compassionate embrace of heaven and earth.xxix

Diversity Working Group

Total inclusiveness is a tall order for an international organization with centers across continents, cultures, languages, nationalities, religions, ethnicities, and races. Yet, realizing diversity at Shambhala has become a serious contemplation. At the first Shambhala Congress in November 2003, diversity was identified as one of the most pressing issues needing to be addressed. In response, the Shambhala leadership, including President Richard Reoch, established the Diversity Working Group (DWG) and priority was given to understanding what the community needed. The Working Group was given three tasks: raise awareness of diversity, raise awareness of diversity needs and issues, and raise awareness of the need for all to look closely at their own biases.

From the beginning, the DWG has been chaired by Cortez Rainey, formerly the Shambhala resident training director of the Baltimore Center. Rainey had the fortunate first experience of taking a class at the Baltimore Shambhala center from a person of color. “It was a positive experience but I was still curious about the idea of enlightened society and how it could include the African American community.”xxx Years later, after attending numerous Shambhala trainings, he still considered the question and it had blossomed into a dialogue with Sakyong

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

Rinpoche and President Reoch. In the autumn of 2004 Rainey and others in the working group surveyed over three hundred Shambhala practitioners to identify areas of focus and develop recommendations. The group who discovered that not everyone in Shambhala society felt understood, appreciated, or free to participate. While race (89%) was the most important diversity issue, income (82%) and ethnicity (81.7%) were also barriers to studying the dharma within the Shambhala community.xxxi

At the 2004 Shambhala Congress the DWG presented the findings and recommendations from the survey which included providing leadership, program affordability, promoting language, program, and teacher diversity, providing diversity training, and engaging in diversity practice through the study of the Shambhala Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation. Furthermore, the DWG emphasized the importance of appointing a diversity contact at each center and preparing an annual report.

Aspirations On Diversity

In 2005 the governing body committed support for a document entitled Aspirations on Diversity, Accessibility and Compassionate Care; a document to post at the entrance of every center, denoting the center as a place where there is an “…understanding of and respect for the basic goodness inherent in all individuals, social groups and cultures… committed to the practice of meditation-in-action, and to genuine communication… to foster a welcoming atmosphere free of prejudice and to develop an inclusive and enlightened society… committed to creating a practice, study, and work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity…” xxxii

Going Beyond Bias

The importance and need for diversity training at all levels of the started with training to members of the main governing bodies. In August of 2005 at Shambhala Mountain Center, Sangyum Agness Au, chair of the Shambhala Commission on the Status of Women and Feminine Principle, presented an in-house talk to the Sakyong's Council and Center Directors, entitled “Going Beyond Bias”.xxxiii The workshop discussed the principle of “no bias”; a situation of openness where one (1) doesn’t react out of fear with aggression, (2) nor join “this” group over “that” group out of a hope to belong, resulting ultimately in separation, (3) nor ignore that bias exists.

Before Shambhala started training their senior teachers, leading Buddhists in North America were dialoguing about diversity. Shambhala Acharya (senior teacher) Gaylon Ferguson, core faculty member at University, and a practicing Buddhist since 1973, was invited in 2002 to attend the first African American Retreat sponsored by Spirit Rock Meditation Center. There he met and befriended Reverend Hilda Ryumon Gutiérrez Baldoquín, a priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and editor of the 2004 collection of essays by people of color, Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism. By 2004 they co-taught their first program at the Berkeley Shambhala Center. The program attracted thirty people of color who had traveled from near and far in great anticipation of the long awaited POC gathering. “My memory of the first night was that people were grateful to acknowledge their background in a Buddhist context. There was a feeling of gratitude and inclusiveness and being welcome.”xxxiv

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

Ferguson attributes the retreats success to the crucial detail that all the senior mediation instructors were people of color.

Since the first program together, Ferguson and Baldoquín have gone on to teach other programs like “Awakening to Freedom: Linking Spirit Across Differences,” at the Berkeley Shambhala Center in 2007. Twenty-six participants and five staff people of color explored, “how our habitual pattern of seeing others as separate and different from ourselves keeps us from embodying our innermost desire to be free in this lifetime.”xxxv They also co-taught “Meditation in Action: A Contemplative Retreat for People of Color” at the New York City Shambhala Center. Eighty-one participants came from Puerto Rico, Canada, the United States, and various Buddhist lineages and entire program was taught, staffed, and coordinated by people of color.

Maitri

Acharya Ferguson defers to Baldoquín’s experience, “Hilda is definitely my mentor and I’ve followed in her footsteps. [In retreats] she makes a space of openness and warmth and then delivers the teachings on suffering, self-acceptance, and being present. She lets people bring up their own experiences and she knows how to balance the Dharma with awareness of discrimination, or sexism, or whatever it is.”xxxvi

Ferguson uses Maitri practice (metta in ) or an unconditional friendliness to oneself to emphasize how important it is to make friends with oneself as you are, and thereby presenting meditation from a starting point of self-acceptance. He says, “Meditation allows aspects of ourselves we’re proud of and aspects of ourselves we are ashamed of and we allow it to come up. We can look at the internal wounds like white supremacy, homophobia, exclusion, subordination, etc. That is the meditative journey. In the Shambhala teachings we say, mind of fearfulness placed in the cradle of loving-kindness. It’s not a different meditation teaching, it just has a particular charge if you’ve been a member of a group where you’ve been segregated in some way.”xxxvii But he emphasizes, “Diversity is for everyone’s awakening, not an alternative part of Buddhism. The Buddha talked about “moksha” or liberation, which includes social freedoms as well and being with each other without habits of bias. The Buddha invited outcasts to be part of the sangha. He welcomed them to step forward and take refuge.”xxxviii

The Baltimore Shambhala Center and sponsor Active Compassion invited Acharya Ferguson and Acharya Arawana Hayashi to co-teach “Going Beyond Bias” in 2007. More than eighty people of color received instruction in mindfulness (shamatha) and awareness (vipashyana) meditation practice and Ferguson encouraged people to practice contemplative exercises like exchanging self for others to cultivate empathy and compassion. Hayashi, a member of the governing council of the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership and a senior teacher within Shambhala, guided talking circles and deep listening practices on the ground of trust and openness to encourage people to talk about their experiences in a safe and welcoming space.

Looking Into Our Own Bias

“Exploring Bias: The White Experience” was the follow-up program at the Baltimore Shambhala Center. The participants practiced meditation and contemplation and were encourage to “the

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

individual and shared experience of race and ethnicity and nurture healing where there is suffering …They also invited people to participate in a conversation about what it means to be white in contemporary society. The program was a beginning point for an ongoing dialogue about raising awareness about our own bias’: silence around bias, learning to talk about bias, and “seeing diversity as an integral part of the Dharma and extending it into our life inside and outside the sangha.”xxxix

Five Years Later

In January of 2008, five years after the inception of the Diversity Working Group, President Reoch addressed the members of the group via a conference call. Now the largest working group in the mandala, its members are comprised of sixty people of African, Asian/Pacific, Caribbean, Hispanic/Latina, Middle Eastern, or Native American ancestry. The group reported on their progress and noted that the focus remains the same: creating safe supportive encouraging environments with the aspiration of developing core curriculum and programs, training instructors, teachers, leaders, and creating a community that addresses racism, bias, oppression, indifference, isolation, etc. There was also mention of the newly established North American People of Color Scholarship Fund created collaboratively between the Chicago center and leaders in New York City, Toronto and Baltimore. The purpose of the fund is to make financial assistance available to people of color who aspire to attend programs that will enable them to contribute more fully to Shambhala society and to be of benefit to people who share their backgrounds.

On Martin Luther King Day in 2008, centers in Atlanta, Berkeley, Philadelphia, and Baltimore held observance days to open their doors to the broader community for whom Dr. King is an important figure. At the Berkeley Center, Acharya Ferguson gave a talk on the Shambhala Vision and the Dream of Beloved Community and he plans to propose that Shambhala Centers consider offering talks on the U.S. MLK holiday to contemplate the intersection of what Dr. King called “the dream of beloved community” and the Great Eastern Sun Vision of Shambhala.

Moving Forward

Things are happening across the mandala. The San Antonio center offered a Buddhist class in Spanish and provides Spanish translation of Dharma books. The Washington D.C. center offered a beginner’s meditation program in Spanish. The New York City Center has a monthly POC meditation group. A grassroots group called the Shambhala Diversity Alliance formed to support efforts to address diversity issues in the Shambhala practice and study programs.

In Fall 2008, for the first time ever, a Shambhala Training Level I will be offered to People of Color. It will be co-taught by Acharya Hayashi and Reverend Baldoquin. The title of the program is “The Art of Being Human” Through the practice of meditation, we glimpse unconditional goodness as the ground of our existence. Opening to ourselves with gentleness and appreciation, we begin to see our potential as genuine and compassionate human beings.

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

Western Buddhism is no longer synonymous with exclusivity or elitism, nor does it support systemic racism, bias, and oppression. The focus now is creating safe and welcoming spaces for honoring People of Color (POC) to learn and practice. Dharma centers like the San Francisco Zen Center, Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, New York Insight, and Shambhala International are shifting the way they present the Dharma to allow for barriers to come down and equanimity in community to grow.

Centers Referenced

Active Compassion http://www.activecompassion.org/index.php [email protected]

East Bay Meditation Center 2147 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612-2309 (510) 268-0696 http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/

Insight Meditation Society 1230 Pleasant Street, Barre MA (978) 355-4378 http://dharma.org/

Life Transition Institute 110 Delgado Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505)982-4183 http://www.lifetransition.com/

New York Insight Meditation Center 28 West 27th Street, 10th floor, New York, New York 10001 (212)213-4802 E-mail: [email protected] http://nyimc.org/

San Francisco Zen Center www.sfzc.org 300 Page Street San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 863-3136

Shambhala International http://www.shambhala.org 1084 Tower Road Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 2Y5, Canada (902) 425-4275

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

Spirit Rock Meditation Center Woodacre, CA (415) 488-0164 http://www.spiritrock.org/

Vallecitos Mountain Refuge 1219E Gusdorf Road P.O. Box 3160 Taos, NM 87571 (575)751-9613 Email: [email protected] http://www.vallecitos.org/ExpressionEngine/index.php?/vallecitos_main/index/

Uganda Buddhist Center Plot 31, Garuga Road, Bulega, Entebbe P.O.Box 16650, Kampala Uganda (256)0782-159985 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.ugandabuddhistcentre.org/

ENDNOTES i Personal Communication between John LaRose and Dr. Lee Lipp, Ph.D. 2/27/08. ii Personal Communication between John LaRose and Dr. Lee Lipp, Ph.D. 2/27/08. iii Personal Communication between John LaRose and Dr. Lee Lipp, Ph.D. 2/27/08. iv Personal Communication between John LaRose and Sala Steinbach v Kornfield, Jack.(1994).Buddha’s Little Instruction Book.A Bantam Book. 2/27/08. vi Spirit Rock Mediation Center.Spirit Rock Diversity Program Mission Statement. retrieved 3/21/08.http://www.spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=8&catid=2&scatid=31 vii Spirit Rock Mediation Center.Diversity Program Initiative (2001)retrieved 3/21/08. http://www.spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=308&catid=2&scatid=31 viii Spirit Rock Mediation Center.Diversity Program Initiative (2001)retrieved 3/21/08. http://www.spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=308&catid=2&scatid=31 ix Fahim,Urusa. Engaging with Diversity as a Buddhist Practice.(2007) Spirit Rock News. Vol. 20, Number 1, Feb. 2007 – August 2007, p.6. x Fahim,Urusa. Engaging with Diversity as a Buddhist Practice. Spirit Rock News, Vol. 20, Number 1, Feb. 2007 – August 2007, p.6. xi Insight Meditation Society website. http://www.dharma.org/ims/ai_factsfigures.html#meditation. retrieved 2/25/2008. xii Buddharakkhita, Acharya. Metta: The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love (1989). retrieved 2/25/2008. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/buddharakkhita/wheel365.html#intro. xiii Healing The Suffering of Racism: A Retreat for People of Color.Insight Newsletter. Spring-Summer 2006, p.11. xiv Goldstein, Joseph. A Heart Full Of Piece.(2007).Wisdom Publications. retrieved 03/21/08. http://www.dharma.org/ims/ai_news_worth_spacious_heart.html. xv Dana: the practice of generosity or charity: one of the Paramitas as well as one of the All- Embracing Virtues, where it means, in the latter, giving others what they want just to lead them towards the truth. xvi Steele, Ralph. People of Color Retreat. Insight Newsletter. Fall 2003. http://www.dharma.org/ims/pdf/2003_fall_insight_newsletter.pdf. xvii Pali is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. It is best known as the language of the earliest extant Buddhist canon, the Pali Canon, and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. xviii New York Insight Meditation Center. http://nyimc.org/index6.htm. retrieved 12/27/07. xix Life Transition Institute. Profile. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.lifetransition.com/Profile/profile.html. xx Life Transition Institute. Profile. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.lifetransition.com/Profile/profile.html.

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011

xxi People of Color Retreat. Insight Meditation Society. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.dharma.org/ims/retreat_detail.php?id=107. xxii People of Color Retreat. Insight Meditation Society. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.dharma.org/ims/retreat_detail.php?id=107. xxiii Mission & Goals. Insight Meditation Society. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.dharma.org/ims/ai_strategic_goals.html. xxiv Mission & Goals. Insight Meditation Society. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.dharma.org/ims/ai_strategic_goals.html. xxv People of Color Retreat. Insight Meditation Society. retrieved 12/27/07. http://www.dharma.org/ims/retreat_detail.php?id=107. xxvi Hessey, Dan. Notes on Diversity and Accessibility. Diversity Resources(7/28/04). retrieved 03/05/08 http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/notes20040808.html. xxvii Au, Agness. Going Beyond Bias.(2005) Joint Mandala Governing Council and Sakyong’s Council Meeting.. retrieved 03/05/08. http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/GoingBeyondBias.pdf. xxviii Hessey, Dan. Notes on Diversity and Accessibility. Diversity Resources(7/28/04). retrieved 03/05/08 http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/notes20040808.html. xxix Mipham, Sakyong.Treatise on Society and .(2003) retrieved 03/05/08. http://www.shambhala.org/int/webdocs/SocietyOrganization.html. xxx Personal communication between Christina Burress and Cortez Rainey. March 14,2008. xxxi Practioners Survey Results. retrieved 03/05/08. http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/2Practitioner_Survey_Results.pdf. xxxii Shambhala Aspirations on Diversity, Accessibility and Compassionate Conduct, retrieved 03/05/08, http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/ShambhalaAspirationsOnDiversity.pdf. xxxiii Au, Agness. Going Beyond Bias.(2005) Joint Mandala Governing Council and Sakyong’s Council Meeting.. retrieved 03/05/08. http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/GoingBeyondBias.pdf. xxxiv Personal communication between Christina Burress and Gaylon Ferguson. March 12, 2008. xxxv The DOT.Winter 2007. Vol. 4, No. 3.retrieved 03/05/08. http://www.shambhala.org/congress/diversity/NorthernCaliforniaShambhalaPeopleofColorRetreat.pdf. xxxvi Personal communication between Christina Burress and Gaylon Ferguson. March 12, 2008. xxxvii Personal communication between Christina Burress and Gaylon Ferguson. March 12, 2008. xxxviii Personal communication between Christina Burress and Gaylon Ferguson. March 12, 2008. xxxix Personal communication between Christina Burress and Cortez Rainey. March 14,2008..

Property of The Garrison Institute. This paper cannot be reproduced without permission. 2011