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
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.
Listen to her full interview with Rev. Liên to hear about Judy's experience with biculturality and the complexity and beauty of practicing Buddhism across traditions.
GUEST:
JUDY YUSHIN NAKATOMI (she/we) is a mother, partner, auntie, writer and community cultivator, nurturing BIPOC sangha. past work/life as tea ambassador/ importer, congressional field rep and hospice caregiver. Judy is an ordained dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, certified ministerial assistant, and descendant of ancestors incarcerated during war; dedicated to understanding the wisdom of intergenerational joy and sorrow.
Writing highlights:
https://littleawakenings.blogspot.com/
https://www.okaeri.org/okaeri-book
https://www.lionsroar.com/the-evolutionary-journey-of-mothering/
Connect with Judy:
Subtack: Judy Nakatomi
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