Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners
Welcome to "Opening Dharma Access," a podcast where we hear stories from BIPOC teachers & practitioners about their Dharma experiences and practice, and how those inform the ways they are sharing & practicing the Dharma today.
Season 3 & 4 description: Hosted by Rev. Liên Shutt & Rev. Dana Takagi
This season, we will have a new focus: Uplifting and Forwarding Asian American/Asian Diasporic Buddhist Experiences in the West.
With our guests and audience, we will explore the specificities of Asian American/Asian Diasporic experiences. We take it as given that there are generational differences (hence the historical moment matters!) and we hope to also delve into Asian family norms and values, our inchoate understanding of ancestor worship, issues of identity, representation, stereotypes about sexuality and sexual identity, and Asian American depression.
A theme we'll be using to help guide our conversations is The Disquiet - a term we are adapting from writer/poet Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet) -- which, in our view, signals a complex recognition of self, mind, and body. The evidence for the foregoing includes scholarly research indexed in aggregate statistics on depression, youth suicide, and other issues in immigrant or first-generation families. While Asian Americans are not alone in experiencing trauma, the racial languages and discourses of othering are different for us than for other groups.
What do we hope is the outcome of this podcast? Our first aim is to give voice to the range and depth of Buddhism in Asian and Asian American generations. We hope, in doing so, we help to shine a light on the limited or myopic envisioning of race in primarily white sanghas. Asian and Asian American diasporic truths about practice are a teaching for contemporary dharma organizations and centers. We recognize the depth and range of Asian and Asian Diasporic Buddhists as a wisdom mirror for organized Buddhism in the West.
Thank you to the Hemera Foundation for their generous support of Season 3 & 4!
Contact us at: Info.Access2Zen@gmail.com
Further Info at: AccessToZen.org
Episodes
114 episodes
Precepts for Skillful Engagement in Turbulent Times: 3 Ways to Practice Precepts & P1/Non-Harming with Rev Liên Shutt
First of 6 parts series from AccessToZen.org. For the video of this talk (& Deep Listening prompts & participants' comments, see link at end of show notes).Week 1 of Precepts for Skillful Engagement in Turbulent Times seri...
Season 4 Compilation of Interviews: Asian American & Asian Diaspora Buddhists Helping Define Buddhism Today!
Opening Dharma Access podcast, season 4 compilation of highlights of all our fantastic guests this past season. We hope you enjoy!Guests in order of appearance:Rev. syd yang, Siddhesh Mukerji, Reverend/Kumu June Tanoue, Rev. Dana...
Season 4 Wrap-Up: Can "What is AA & AD Buddhism" Be Answered? with Rev. Liên Shutt & Rev. Dana Takagi
Rev. Liên & Rev. Dana tries -- & about what it might be our future, too! Zen Fools! :)The Co-Host reflect on 2 Seasons forwarding Asian American (AA) & Asian Diasporic (AD) Buddhist teachers & practitioners; along with ot...
Well-Being Chant & Reflection Meditation with Rev. Liên Shutt
As our world continues to tumble, here's a Soto Zen chant for Well-being. Kannon, or Kanzeon, are the Japanese names for the Bodhisattva of Compassion. This chant is calling on her/them to support us to be with "the cries of the world."T...
Reverend Joseph Cheah: Lived Experience as the Core of Spiritual Practice
Reverend Joseph Cheah sits down with Dana to discuss his research and writings which push back against dominant understandings of Asian religions that were propagated by Western frameworks. He brings his combination of familial and cultural Bud...
All Our Ancient Twisted Karma w/ Rev. Dana Takagi
This month on Opening Dharma Access, we continue to shift from our regular schedule to focus on the ongoing ICE occupation and state-supported destruction impacting the globe. Rev. Dana Takagi reflects on her personal experience of returning to...
Ideas for Practicing Dharma in the Midst of Fascism w/ Rev. Dana Takagi
This month on Opening Dharma Access, we continue to shift from our regular schedule to focus on the ongoing ICE agency violence. Rev. Dana Takagi speaks about the many ways to respond to fascism from a Dharma perspective, whether that be peacef...
5 Ways to Respond to the Cries of the World (aka Activism from Giving) with Rev. Liên Shutt
The 5 Ways of "a superior person's gift" are (as ordered in this talk): right time, respectfully, with a generous heart, without denigration, & out of faith. Given the heart-breaking events in the US this week, ODA will present ...
Asian American Feminist Buddhist Rage, Trauma, and Self-Love: Reading Excerpt with Sharon Suh (Emergent Dharma)
A reading from Sharon's edited and author of Emergent Dharma (& go get the book!)Sharon A. Suh is Professor of Buddhism and Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship and Strategic Initiatives at Seattle University. She is author ...
Being with the Body in the Body: Excerpt Reading with Syd Yang (Emergent Dharma)
Reading an excerpt from their chapter in Emergent Dharma. Enjoy (& go get the book!)Rev. Syd Yang, MDiv (they/them), is a mixed race/Taiwanese American queer trans/non-binary Buddhist Minister, movement chaplain, spiritual...
Asian American Feminist Buddhists: Undefined! with Prof. Sharon Suh & Rev. Syd Yang
Join us for this embodied & inclusive-focused discussion! It'll leave you wanting more so go out and get Emergent Dharma: Asian American Feminist Buddhist on Practice, Identity, and Resistance!Guests:Sharon A. ...
Rev. Dana Takagi Speaks on Eiheiji's First Teaching Nun, Yuko Yamada
Rev. Dana Takagi reflects on the significance of Abbot Yuko Yamada being the first woman teacher at the founding temple of Soto Zen, Eiheiji. Dana also highlights Yamada's teaching of the Denkōroku, a text written by the ancestor Keizan who emp...
Reintroducing Contemplative Zen in Japan w/ Abbot Yuko Yamada
GUESTYUKO WAKAYAMA YAMADA is the abbot of Shogakuji in Tokyo. She currently teaches at the International department of Eiheiji. She is the first nun to teach at Eiheiji, the head monastery of Soto Zen founded by Dogen Zenji...
Water Offering with Eunji Son
You are invited to listen in a quiet space with headphones (will be louder) or speakers (will be quieter) at a constant volume. 4 minutes 15 seconds. Eunji Son is based in South Korea, evolving her relationship with ances...
"How Am I Going to Serve My Purpose Today?" with Eunji Son
Find out a bit more about Eunji Son, Access to Zen's (A2Z) part-time admin and all-the-time SUPPORT for us all who practice or engage with any A2Z events or digital content. Hear how her own practice and spiritual journey has taken her far, wid...
Life Aching for Itself: Zazen & Working with Difficult Emotions
"Practice" part of convo between Siddhesh Mukerji & Rev. Liên.GUEST:SIDDHESH MUKERJI (he/him) is a Zen practitioner and a scholar of engaged Buddhism and Buddhist social work. He was born in India, grew up in the...
Buddhism as Engaged & Political with Siddhesh Mukerji
Tune in to this soulful conversation between Siddhesh Mukerji and Rev. Liên on the intersections of Engaged Buddhism & Buddhist Social Work. GUEST:SIDDHESH MUKERJI (he/him) is a Zen practitioner and a schola...
Morning Chant, guided meditation, and Offering of Merit (Ékoku) w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi
Judy Nakatomi shares meditative offerings: Morning Chant from the Plum Village Tradition, guided meditation, and an Offering of Merit from the Shin Tradition in Japanese (Ékoku). The recording of bird sounds was made by Judy at Plum Village.&nb...
Belonging to Zen, Belonging to Shin: Two Traditions, One Engaged Heart w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi
Judy Yushin Nakatomi talks about her practice in the Zen and Shin traditions. She also discusses how she is practicing with her Bodhisattva vows through engaging with the current internment of minority people, while practicing awareness of her ...
How Thinking Drives Our Beliefs & Actions: with Rev. Liên
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 th...
The Struggle to Construct Racial Meaning with Michael Omi
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 a...
I Vow to Save All Beings: Insisting on My Own Humanity with Rev. Dana Takagi
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 dropp...
Our Heritage of Othering and Resistance with Historian Alice Yang
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 ...
"10 Vows" with Rebecca Nie
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 Sta...
Big Heart Resilience with Rebecca Nie
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 ...
