ABOUT RJ&D
Open to All: Black, Indigenous People of Color and White-identified folks.
The purpose is to create brave spaces for honest conversations about racism and to bring our practice and Buddhist teachings into anti-racism work.
The format is generally open, facilitated forums, with prompts for reflection, sharing, and discussion on the issues of racism within our community and society.
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We meet both separately in affinity groups, including self-identified Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) and White-Identified, and together as a unified community.
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The "container" for our gatherings is structured on shared, consensual community agreements.
The Idea is that through sitting practice and group discussions, we examine our personal experience, habitual patterns, and assumptions. There are also discussions of dharma view and practices to work compassionately and skillfully with each other and through difficult conversations.
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A typical mixed gathering may include:
Sitting Practice
Affinity Group Breakout Sessions
Community Sharing and Discussion
Aspirations and Conclusion
We also now hold monthly Public Sits for Racial Justice to meet in a public space and meditate as a collective to bring attention to racial justice issues.
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$10 suggested donation benefits the BIPOC sitting group
For more information, please email us.
For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color members, please also click here.
For upcoming meetings, please visit our Events Page.
SOME HISTORY
Racial Justice & Dharma (formerly known as "Race, Racism and Racial Inequality") was started as a community group of the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York by long-standing members intent on addressing inequality and racial harm within our Buddhist community and to provide ongoing gatherings for all people to unearth and undo their own internalized biases through Buddhist practices, readings, discussions, guest teachers and activism.
PRACTICE. TEACHINGS. COMMUNITY.
TEACHINGS
We study what Buddhism has to say about race and racism along with a range of secular teachings. Some of our favorite teachers include:
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Acharya Gaylon Ferguson
Acharya Arawana Hayashi
Charlene Leung
PRACTICE
This group was started under the umbrella of Shambhala and has since then grown to include those of other Buddhist traditions. We continue to embrace mediation practices rooted in the Tibetan tradition as well as those from other communities, both Buddhist and secular.
COMMUNITY
RD&J is open to all.
We currently do most of our gatherings online and in affinity groups.
We host regular meetings for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and separate gatherings for those who identify as white.
We also hold regular, mixed-group gatherings for practice and (distanced) socializing.
THE TEAM
Racial Justice & Dharma was started as a community group of the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York by some long-standing members intent on addressing inequality and racial harm within our Buddhist community and to provide ongoing gatherings for all people to unearth and undo their own internalized biases through Buddhist practices, readings, discussions, guest teachers and activism.
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As a team we embody several different identities and backgrounds: Asian, White, Mixed-race, gender-identities, and socio-economic backgrounds as well as falling on different parts of the Buddhist spectrum and path.
