Buddhist teachings on how we have been conditioned to interpret raw data; which then drives us to behave. -- An excerpt from Rev. Liên's book, Home is Here, to accompany Professor Michael Omi's in-depth interview on racial formation this month.

REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and those seeking a “home” in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder of Access to Zen (2014). You can learn more about her work at AccessToZen.org. Her new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path. See all her offerings at EVENTS

Professor Michael Omi joins Rev. Dana to help us contextualize the current climate of racial formation, namely the propagation of a far-right ideology of an oppressed white race, in a much longer history of constant changing in definitions of and associations with racial identities. In Buddhist terms, we can see the theory that Michael co-developed contains an essential Buddhist perspective, namely that of Mental Formations. Stay tuned later this month for a practice offering from Rev. Liên!

Michael Omi (he/him/his) is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author, with Howard Winant, of Racial Formation in the United States (Third Edition, 2015), a groundbreaking work that transformed how we understand the social and historical forces that give race its changing meaning over time and place. He is also the co-editor of Japanese American Millennials: Rethinking Generation, Community, and Diversity (2019). At Berkeley, he served from 2012-2016 as the Associate Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society (HIFIS), and in 2020 he was the inaugural Chair of the Asian American Research Center (AARC). Professor Omi is a recipient of UC Berkeley’s prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award --- an honor bestowed on only 285 Berkeley faculty members since the award’s inception in 1959.

This practice offering is from co-host Rev. Dana Takagi, in connection with Professor and Historian Alice Yang's interview, "Our Heritage of Othering and Resistance" which dropped July 1st.

Dana speaks to the need to address specific kinds of suffering as Buddhist teachers and practitioners, as not all suffering is the same. She reflects on the vow to save all beings, and how this stems from a grounded embodiment of our own humanity to understand the humanity of others who need our support the most in these times. 

Your host

REVEREND DANA TAKAGI (she/her) is a retired professor of Sociology and zen priest, practicing zen since 1998. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian American history at UC Santa Cruz, and she is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. 

Professor Alice Yang helps us put the systematic othering we are seeing in the U.S. today into historical context. She discusses the oppression and disappearance of people, and points out how protest movements are often erased from the history Asian American and other immigrant groups in the United States, when the truth is that we can embrace and continue a deep heritage of resistance. Alice emphasizes the urgency of knowing our history to expand what we think is possible in the present, and why it is important to resist the othering of any community member whether they are in our ethnic group or not. 

Guest

ALICE YANG is Chair and Professor of History at UCSC. She is also a founding faculty member of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department at UCSC. Her publications include What Does the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress, and Major Problems in Asian American History. She co-directs the Center for the Study of Pacific War Memories and recently curated the exhibit Never Again is Now: Japanese American Women Activists and the Legacy of the Mass Incarceration.

Host

REVEREND DANA TAKAGI (she/her) is a retired professor of Sociology and zen priest, practicing zen since 1998. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian American history at UC Santa Cruz, and she is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. 

We hope you enjoy this dharma talk from Rebecca Nie, "10 Vows". 

GUEST BIO:

ZEN MASTER REBECCA DAWN NIE is the founder of MV Sanctuary and Vice President of the Maitreya Association for Buddhist College Chaplains. As Stanford’s Chaplain-Affiliate, she oversees the Buddhist religious and spiritual life for students, faculty, and staff. Her offerings ranges from Continental Zen to Buddhist Yoga, offering healing wisdom for contemporary life through dharma teaching, translation, and new media art.

Learn more about Rebecca at

http://mvseon.com/

Highlighted Works

Yin Mountain: The Immortal Poetry by Three Daoist Women (2022, Shambhala). 

Heart Sutra: A Network Audio Technology-Assisted Visual Music Composition

Rebecca Nie talks about the common misconception that China is an ethnic monolith, and how she identifies with her Huaren heritage. Although her spiritual path was discouraged in her early life, she discusses being connected to a centuries old heritage of a resilient Dharma that allows us to dream without limitations even through turbulent times.

Rebecca also mentions a book-in-progress which will be a translation of Chan Zen Master poems responding to turbulent historical moments, pointing out how there is much more to Zen poetry than peaceful monks in serene mountains.

GUEST BIO:

ZEN MASTER REBECCA DAWN NIE is the founder of MV Sanctuary and Vice President of the Maitreya Association for Buddhist College Chaplains. As Stanford’s Chaplain-Affiliate, she oversees the Buddhist religious and spiritual life for students, faculty, and staff. Her offerings ranges from Continental Zen to Buddhist Yoga, offering healing wisdom for contemporary life through dharma teaching, translation, and new media art.

Learn more about Rebecca at

http://mvseon.com/

Highlighted Works

Yin Mountain: The Immortal Poetry by Three Daoist Women (2022, Shambhala). 

Heart Sutra: A Network Audio Technology-Assisted Visual Music Composition

HOST

REVEREND DANA TAKAGI (she/her) is a retired professor of Sociology and zen priest, practicing zen since 1998. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian American history at UC Santa Cruz, and she is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. 

Mushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationally-known secular mindfulness and Buddhist teacher working primarily with justice activists and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) meditation practitioners and with people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. A core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, she is an author whose writing has been published in Lion's Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma and various anthologies. Mushim was selected by Lion's Roar Buddhist media magazine as one of twenty-six "Great Buddhist Teachers" in the January 2022 issue. 

Connect with Mushim at:

Website:  www.mushimikeda.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/mushim.ikeda

Bluesky:  mushimikeda

X / Twitter:  @MushimCA1

Instagram:  mushimikeda

LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/mushim-patricia-ikeda-5307279/

Secular & Buddhist teacher Mushim Patricia Ikeda in convo with Rev. Liên on how mature practice can help us deal with the current conditions of our world.

GUEST

Mushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationally-known secular mindfulness and Buddhist teacher working primarily with justice activists and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) meditation practitioners and with people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. A core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, she is an author whose writing has been published in Lion's Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma and various anthologies. Mushim was selected by Lion's Roar Buddhist media magazine as one of twenty-six "Great Buddhist Teachers" in the January 2022 issue. 

Connect with Mushim at:

Website:  www.mushimikeda.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/mushim.ikeda

Bluesky:  mushimikeda

X / Twitter:  @MushimCA1

Instagram:  mushimikeda

LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/mushim-patricia-ikeda-5307279/

HOST:
REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and those seeking a “home” in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder of Access to Zen (2014). You can learn more about her work at AccessToZen.org. Her new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path. See all her offerings at EVENTS

June Kaililani Tanoue, Kumu Hula, reads her blog post, "Dwell Nowhere and Browse That." Listen as she reflects on a conversation with her husband Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse. Together they are cofounders of Zen Life & Meditation Center of Chicago. You can find the written piece on the Halau i Ka Pono website.

About June

June Ryushin Tanoue, B.S., MPH is co-founder of Zen Life & Meditation Center. Practicing Zen since 1993, she received Transmission in 2014 as a fully empowered Zen Teacher/ Zen Buddhist Priest and Inka as a Roshi in 2022.
June is a Kumu Hula and founded Halau I Ka Pono, the Hula School of Chicago in 2009.   

Read June's piece, "The Hula Sutra" at Lion's Roar. 

zlmc.org

halauikapono.org

Halau I Ka Pono Facebook

Instagram: @JuneTanoue

June's blog posts: https://halauikapono.org/news

June Kaililani Tanoue, Kumu Hula, talks about how to practice observing our thoughts rather than holding onto them, whether times are easy or tough. Hear about how June started Halau I Ka Pono as an offshoot of the Zen Life & Meditation Center after she moved to Chicago, and how Hula is the dance of being a pillar in one's community. 

About June

June Ryushin Tanoue, B.S., MPH is co-founder of Zen Life & Meditation Center. Practicing Zen since 1993, she received Transmission in 2014 as a fully empowered Zen Teacher/ Zen Buddhist Priest and Inka as a Roshi in 2022.
June is a Kumu Hula and founded Halau I Ka Pono, the Hula School of Chicago in 2009.   

Read June's piece, "The Hula Sutra" at Lion's Roar. 

zlmc.org

halauikapono.org

Halau I Ka Pono Facebook

Instagram: @JuneTanoue

June's blog posts: https://halauikapono.org/news