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
Season 3 Compilation - A Beautiful Web of Asian Heritage Buddhists
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 American/Asian Diaspora forwarding conversations and offerings in season 4.
Full list of guests, and their featured episodes, in order:
Co-hosts Rev. Liên Shutt and Rev. Dana Takagi - Forwarding Asian American & Asian Diasporic Buddhist Experiences with Rev. Liên Shutt & Rev. Dana Takagi
Chenxing Han - Reflections with the 2024 May We Gather Co-Organizers
Mihiri Tillakaratne - Bodhi Leaves: The Asian American Buddhist Monthly Co-Associate Editors
Rev. Jean Paul (JP) de Guzman - O'kagesama-de (All thanks are due to you...)
Paula Arai - There is No Buddhism Without Women
Sharon Suh - Silence is Not the Way
Funie Hsu - Reflections with the 2024 May We Gather Co-Organizers
Bo Hee Moon - Meeting with My Asian Sangha Tonight
Ryan Lee Wong - Zen Practice As Community Building
Ram Appalaraju - Eco-Dharma Care
Yenkuei Chuang - Insight Dialogue & Further Relationality
Rev. Duncan Ryūken Williams - Reflections with the 2024 May We Gather Co-Organizers
Lisa Nakamura - Platforms for Zazen: The Cushion to the Computer
Noel Alumit - Bodhi Leaves: The Asian American Buddhist Monthly Co-Associate Editors
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