Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners

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...

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 emph...

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...

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...

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 Ro...

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 disabil...

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 &amp...

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-founde...

In the season 4 premiere, Rev. Liên Shutt and Rev. Dana Takagi discuss the need to continue to forward Asian American and Asian Diaspora Buddhist voices in these tumultuous times.  Thank you to everyone who has listened so far, and continue to tune in! It's not too late to take our listener survey ! Respond by March 21st and get access to an exclusive meditation recording by Rev. Liên: "...

On season 3, we co-created and witnessed an amazing example of how the Net of Indra weaves and connects. We heard from 13 Buddhist practitioners and teachers of Asian American or Asian Diaspora heritage, and in their own words, spoke to what the AA/AD Buddhist experience is for them.  Season 3 is officially a wrap! Thank you to everyone who listened with us, and we hope you join us for more Asian...

Rev Dana follows up on her dharma talk from the last episode dropped on February 18th. She adds to her perspective on the current historical conditions of our time in the United States, talks about breath practice, and offers a chant she's used often for the dying, from Thich Nhat Hanh. Check out the 2011 book Dana discusses in this episode: More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and T...

Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United States a whole bunch of difficult circumstances: the L.A.  fires; the current administration. This dharma talk is from co-host Rev. Dana Takagi. Dana speaks on what wisdom could look like in time...

Meditation to find stability in the midst of current threats in our world: nationally, world-wide, and with climate justice. -- Given at EBMC BIPOC Sangha 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, lic...

Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United States a whole bunch of difficult circumstances: the L.A.  fires; the inauguration. NOTE: This talk was given at a BIPOC group, addressing specific fears & issues of people of color in extrem...

RAM APPALARAJU was brought up as a Hindu and has been on a spiritual path since 90's, first studying Vedanta and pursuing Buddhism since 2012. After years of practice he chose to pursue a path of service and became a chaplain focused on Ecology as well as supporting marginalized people in prisons and homeless shelters. He is now on the faculty at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies' Eco Cha...

As today marks a disturbing time for many of us, I offered a Healing Space today at the same time as the swearing in. It was informal and my aim was to offering 3 aspects of healing: Acknowledging what is with tools we've learned from Buddhism and practice. Second, to attend to the impacts of hurt and harm in ourselves & with each other. Third, committing to enacting qualities and ways we...

What does "caring" really mean? Listen in on this fascinating conversation on Nature, Dharma & Caring for self and the Earth between Ram Appalaraju and Host Rev. Liên Shutt. RAM APPALARAJU was brought up as a Hindu and has been on a spiritual path since the 90's, first studying Vedanta and pursuing Buddhism since 2012. After years of practice he chose to pursue a path of service...

When considering what to offer for her ODA practice, Lisa considered chanting or reading from a more traditional Buddhist text such as the Heart Sutra. She found, instead, that reading the words of Audre Lorde resonated more deeply in her body at this time. And co-host Dana Takagi offers some context on Lorde from Lisa before she reads.   Please enjoy, Lisa Nakamura reading an excerpt from "L...

LISA NAKAMURA (she/her) is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Culture and Digital Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also a core faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program, the Film, Television and Media department, and the English department at Michigan.  Lisa is the author of four books on racism, sexism, and the Internet and her book “Th...

YENKUEI CHUANG was born a Taiwanese girl before she became an American woman. As a licensed psychologist, somatics and mindfulness teacher, she is passionate about helping people heal and find freedom, belonging, and power in the richness of their intersectional identities. Yenkuei loves to eat, cook, dance, do nothing and everything. IG handle: yenkueichuang Publications: Erased No More (Lion&apo...

Yenkeui Chuang & Rev. Liên dialogue on some "edges" of "Diasporic Asian Americans," overseas Asian practices, and then Insight Dialogue. Yenkeui shares fascinating details of the interconnections from all the different traditions she's practiced in. Come listen! YENKUEI CHUANG was born a Taiwanese girl before she became an American woman. As a licensed psychologist, so...

In a continuation of the previous episode conversation with Dr. Paula Arai, Paula shares an in-depth overview of her current "embodied" research on the often unacknowledged contributions to Buddhism that are at the foundation of its continuation throughout history, in part because of the perceived simplicity of these acts of generosity and practice. PAULA ARAI (she/her) (Ph. D., Buddhist...

Dr. Paula Arai talks with Dana about being brought up by her Japanese mother, and how she realized the way that she embodied Buddhism in her body and mind not through intellectual study or what Westerners view as formal practice, but through the simple actions and embodied guidance of her mother. PAULA ARAI (she/her) (Ph. D., Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni...

Rev. Liên Shutt and Bo Hee Moon continue their conversation on Asian American diasporic identity, and Bo Hee reads the finished version of her poem "Meeting with my Asian Sangha Tonight." Read the poem here! Guest: BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, p...

Listen in to hear how Bo Hee Moon was inspired by practice in the 3-month course "Lotus Rising from Mud: A Path for Anti-Asian American Restoration. Guest: BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems...