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 description: Hosted by Rev. Liên & 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 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 is a wisdom mirror for organized Buddhism in the West.
Thank you to the Hemera Foundation for their generous support of Season 3!
Contact us at: Info.Access2Zen@gmail.com
Further Info at: AccessToZen.org
Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners
O'kagesama-de (All thanks are due to you...) with Reverend Jean Paul Contreras deGuzman
Rev. Dr. Jean-Paul Contreras deGuzman talks about how he came to Jodo Shinshu Pureland Buddhist practice coming from a Catholic family and after moving forward from a traditional path as an academic. He and Dana Takagi have an enlivened discussion about the importance and power of cultural gatherings like Mochi-tsuki for sangha and the wider community, and the role of pop culture references in Rev JP's talks in the San Fernando Valley.
REV. DR. JP DEGUZMAN (he/him) is minister’s assistant at the 103-year-old San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple and received tokudo ordination at Nishi Hongwanji in Kyoto, Japan in 2023. He teaches history and Ethnic Studies at Windward School and UCLA where he earned the University Distinguished Teaching Award.
His publications include:
Lions Roar: "The Pure Land is in the West"
Everyday Buddhist: "The Dharma of a Turkey Sandwich"
Wheel of Dharma: "Mindful Action in Mindless TImes: A Buddhist Response to Injustice"
Young Buddhist Editorial: "Gratitude For My Mom"
Explore his website to learn more about his academic publications as well.
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.
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