Sunday February 7, 2021 10:00 am – 5:00 pm PST

Teachers: Crystal Johnson, Dojin Sarah Emerson, Chris Fortin and Tova Green

While this year of pandemic has been disruptive and challenging in many ways, it has also created an opening, a space for greater awareness and urgency around issues of racial harm.  The murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery; the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and the climate crisis, especially on the Black, Latinx and Native communities; and the speed with which so many people in America faced hunger, are all shocking outcomes of the system of race-based oppression in America.

As white people, especially those of us with class privilege, this can be both upsetting and overwhelming.  Our compassionate nature registers the suffering, yet our confusion makes it difficult to know what to do.  In this workshop, we offer brief talks, group discussion, reflection and time for Q&A to explore these states of distress, and examine how to move from the overwhelm, confusion, guilt, uncertainty and isolation to the joyful practice of compassion, fueled by the energy of the Bodhisattva vow.

To register:

Teachers:

Crystal Johnson is a retired clinical psychologist and a Community Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center.  She has taught and co-taught white awareness courses in a number of sanghas, including White and Awakening in Sangha at EBMC, Unpacking Whiteness: Reflection and Action at SFZC, White and Awakening Together at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership for Branching Streams.

Sarah Emerson is a Head Priest at the Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton, CA.  With Chris Fortin, she co-leads a monthly Racial Literacy and Dharma Inquiry group and is part of the teaching team at East Bay Meditation Center for the White and Awakening in Sangha program.

Chris Fortin is a senior teacher at Everyday Zen Foundation and the guiding teacher of Dharma Heart Zen in Sonoma County, CA.

Tova Green is a resident priest at San Francisco Zen Center and liaison for Branching Streams, the network of Zen Centers in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. She co-leads a monthly Unpacking Whiteness affinity group at SFZC.

This program is a benefit for the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA.

In registering for this daylong workshop, we are inviting you to support the work of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, CA. Founded and led by a majority of POC teachers and practitioners, EBMC opened its doors in 2007 to provide a dharma refuge for people of color, members of the LGBTQI community, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented communities.

Through conscious cultivation of practices of Radical Inclusivity, Shared Leadership and Gift Economics, EBMC seeks to foster liberation, personal and interpersonal healing, social action, and inclusive community building.

Through our writings and workshops such as this one for white people, we offer support to other dharma communities and practitioners who are seeking to more fully live their practice in the world.

Please give as generously as you can to support this important work.

 

Presented by Everyday Zen and the East Bay Meditation Center, co-sponsored by Branching Streams, Dharma Heart Zen, San Francisco Zen Center and Stone Creek Zen