Sunday
Video, Audio, PhotosA Buddhist Call to Action
Offering Meditation In The City – the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York’s very own podcast.
In this episode, angel Kyodo williams, activist and Zen Sensei, leads an engaging dialogue on race, Buddhism and social change with the New York City Buddhist community. This is part one of a two part podcast.
Click the link below to listen to this month’s podcast, and look forward to more coming soon!
Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, angel Kyodo williams is an author, activist and master trainer that has been bridging the worlds of spirit and justice since her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace, signaled a shift in the perception of American Buddhism as all white and upper middle class. The book was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, and “a classic” by Buddhist pioneer Jack Kornfield.
Currently one of only two black women Zen “Senseis” or teachers, she applies wisdom teaching to social issues and is a leading voice for Transformative Social Change. In recognition of her work, angel Sensei received the first Enlightened Society Award from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
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Podcast production by sonamgray.com
What a great dream it would be to share the podcast with your friends!
Jan 14, 2015
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Thank you Rev. williams for your clear, methodical, and heartfelt presentation. In Shambhala we talk about “cocoon” as the personal matrix of habitual patterns we “spin” that keep us trapped in our ideas of who we think we are as individuals. Your skillful calling out of privilege and oppression which denies our interconnection is what the Shambhala International Diversity Working Group has been naming “cultural/societal cocoon”. Not seeing the water we swim in, we collectively cause pain to others and ourselves. The only way we can begin to see what we don’t see, the ways we perpetuate a “cultural cocoon” of “whiteness” beyond skin color, is to deeply listen to others, to actually FEEL and BE with the vulnerability, to TOUCH our humanity, which is our connectedness. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has been asking the Shambhala community to practice this way especially since the introduction of Shambhala Meditation.
We have a long journey ahead. In my role as the Diversity Working Group Chairperson and as a self identified person of color in a predominately white Buddhist organization, I am inspired by your talk!
Note: The Shambhala Times article features part 1 of the podcast, which is Rev. williams talk. Go to http://ny.shambhala.org/blog/ to hear part 2 which is an engaging Q&A that follows the talk.
Jan 5, 2015
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This is so excellent! Thank you so much!
Jan 4, 2015
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Great talk on racial disconnectedness and other forms of myopia. A nice challenge to practitioners to not let their practice trick them back into the ‘Me Project.”
Jan 4, 2015
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She manifests, Cool!