We all get handed these stories, right? Every one of us—we’re born into a family, a time, a region, a culture. We get handed a story about what we look like. As we express our capacities we get stories about whether we are more or less capable. Not only do we get individual stories, but we also get collective stories. We miss a great deal when we only pay attention to the story that’s been handed to us and we’re not intimately connected to the deeper story of who we really are—as Buddhists say before our mother was born. We come encoded with a deep memory of who we’ve always been but when we arrive on the scene our focus is turned toward the external. We forget we have that operating information about who we always are.
Summer of Peace: Subtle Activism Summit
Interested in bridging your practice with the positive change you seek to bring about in the world?
Social Justice & Buddhism w/ Omega Institute – INTERVIEW
Each community possesses, as Gandhi offered, a piece of the truth—of Dharma. When we seek the embodiment of these truths, giving ourselves permission to be more honest, more healed, more whole, more complete—when we become radical—neither the path of solely inward-looking liberation nor the pursuit of an externalized social liberation prevails; rather a third space, as-yet-unknown, emerges. It is radical dharma. And it is ours.
Buddhist Statement on Racial Injustice
If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, we can walk together. Our collective aspiration within the Buddhist traditions is to become truly inclusive and beloved communities. In this process, we are committed to honestly and bravely uncovering the ways we create separation and unintentionally replicate patterns of inequity and harm. In the same spirit, we are committed to engaging with other faith and social-justice groups in support of undoing racism throughout our society.
Love and Justice Are Not Two: Diversity & Inclusion in Sanghas — Rock Blossom Sangha
Rev. angel visits a sangha from the Mindfulness Community of Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition as they grapple with what diversity and inclusion look like in the face of a long history of white-led sanghas in the west.
Creating Enlightened Society: A Truly Intimate Idea
Short teaching by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams from the Creating Enlightened Society conference in Northern California the “Creating Enlightened Society” gathering hosted by the Sakyong, Jamgon Mipham … Angel Kyodo Williams, Founder of the Center for Transformative Change; Jyoti, … Rev Angel Williams speaks of “a truly intimate idea”: …
Revolution In Review | A Year Of Change
Transform. First as a monthly e-journal, and now as a full-blown blog, evolved from a simple newsletter that reported on just our little universe into the premier periodical for reflecting upon and lifting up the emerging field and movement that has become known as Transformative Social Change.
Occupy: A Message of Inclusion, Compassion, Nonviolence: 11/12 – Call To Practitioners, Meditators, Clergy, Yogis, People Of Faith, Keepers Of Spirit
we had this idea that if we can get people that are invested in transformation to show up at Occupy, everyone would see that having more folks of color feels right.
Compassion: Some have begun to use the language of the 99% to be against the 1%. While the 99% language is powerfully illustrative, an “us vs. them” frame makes the conversation about people vs. people when it is clearly the underlying system that is at fault for enabling and condoning massive economic imbalance. We don’t need another angry movement, we need inspiration
Where’s Your Wall Street?
With decisions made by the General Assembly, “a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought,” OWS seeks to stand for “the other 99 percent” of Americans that are on the stinky end of the economic shitstick that’s been beating the crap out of us all, while the 1% at the top of the food chain get fat eating off the plates we made for minimum wage.
Apes Will Rise | Rebellion For The Heart
Just as London was beginning to be set ablaze by Blackberries, I was bracing myself for the current Hollywood reboot of Planet of the Apes. The 2001 remake starring Mark Wahlberg left me mortally wounded, having claimed itself a “revisioning” of the original story and movie, it managed to not only leave every racist/colorist myth in place but it was also elevated it to a spiritual plane by being robed in pseudo-Himalayan garb so that the apes were a cabal of ill-compassionate, slave-owning monks and priests. It was one of only two movies