Larry Yang BIPOC Support Fund Launch IMCW is honored to announce the launch of the Larry Yang BIPOC (Black, Indigeneous and People of Color) Support Fund. This fund will be used to provide resources to BIPOC students and teachers as they seek to learn, teach, and otherwise deepen their experience in the dharma. Our sincere belief is that when barriers to full inclusion are eliminated, there is a natural shift in the balance of power that leads to a greater sense of community and collective transformation for the benefit of all..... December 10, 2020By Larry Yang, Trisha Stotler Affinity, announcement, Diversity, SocialJustice
Aspiring Allies Finding Our Way In our Buddhist and mindfulness communities, there are many times that call for us to be allies to one another. My own aspiring ally journey has brought a lot of growth along with many setbacks; heart-felt intentions along with plenty of uncomfortable mistakes; and it continues to bring deeper, more real, loving, joyful relationships with folks in my life. On this journey I’ve been looking for freedom; freedom and justice for myself and for all beings. All of this is spiritual practice..... December 3, 2020By Ric Chollar Diversity, SocialJustice, teachings
It takes a Sangha: Normalizing Accessibility in Our Mindfulness Communities We are all grateful that we are able to maintain contact with one another and practice together through technology during this period of prolonged physical isolation. One of these days though, we hope we will be together in physical practice space again. Our yearning is to share embodied presence with one another. We miss the ability to touch, to be beside, to feel the rhythms of each other’s hearts as we practice. May this be soon. But for some of us, returning to physical practice spaces will not be simple.... November 19, 2020By Alison Shapiro , Tara Beech Affinity, Diversity
Harriet Tubman: A Lesson in Moving Through the Unbearable She is running in the darkness, a young Black woman, breathing hard, stumbling, but moving, moving in exhaustion and fear, but moving. It is dark, but she has a sense of where she is going. This is where I meet Harriet Tubman. This is how I came into practice. So often, the attention placed on Black bodies is focused on what we do with them or what is done to them. Too often, our hearts, our vision, and our spiritual practices are ignored as the action of our bodies are either praised or vilified. Harriet Tubman has become the epitome of Black woman as action hero.... November 5, 2020By Ayesha Ali Diversity, teachings
Black Lives Matter: A Call to Awareness for Non-Colored Practitioners of Mindfulness Like a child grabbing for a treat, white people and white institutions reach out to black people they barely know or have forgotten about over time. I am a crone, and was around the last time black people were feared and thus brought into white awareness. As a crone, a Buddhist, and a practitioner of mindfulness, I choose to understand this as reaching out rather than reaching in. Reaching in is the first obligation of practice. It is by this practice that I have found space and freedom. I have found a space -- not afforded to me as a black, female body in this world -- to discover my body, my breath, and for the purpose of this writing, the contours of my life.... August 12, 2020By Ayesha Ali Diversity, SocialJustice, teachings