Here it is: the second installment of our year-long curriculum for Buddhist activists. Take a look inside for: An exclusive practice offering video by Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt Political cartoons, Cultural Appropriation Bingo, and other helpful supplementary texts Our favorite pieces from April's Turning Wheel Media, with discussion questions to help us dig in more deeply An introduction to the audio recording ...

As you read this, I’m looking out over the coast of California at the ocean, just south of Half Moon Bay, considering all the layers of history that allow me to be here. This location, like all of California, was first American Indian—Ohlone-Costanoan territory to be specific. In the late 18th century, The Spanish began their occupation of California with the building of missions and introduction of Europea ...

By Derek Rasmussen This year, the Idle No More movement focused on Earth Day to bring attention on the links between Indigenous issues and the environmental movement. Events leading up to Earth Day included an impressive ‘Nation2Nation’ dialogue between Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg leaders like Ellen Gabriel and Leanne Simpson and Canadian activist Naomi Klein in Toronto [videos linked here and here]. Rus ...

The most inspiring promise of dhamma practice is the possibility of freedom from suffering. What goes along with this freedom, however, is a sense of ethics (the precepts) and development of interconnection with others. When I used to teach community college, I would often initiate discussions about freedom. What, I would ask, is your definition of freedom? Most of the time students would respond along the ...

Both dhamma practice and structured intellectual activity serve as decolonization practices for me. Some years back, when I was questioning the assumptions I had developed about my own dhamma practice, I entered a graduate program strongly informed by anti-colonial and post-colonial thinkers. To my surprise, the intellectual practices of these thinkers were extremely complementary to Theravadan Vipassana pr ...

Cease to do evil, then learn to do good By Derek Rasmussen (thanks to Dru Oja Jay for editing help) Indigenous people are at the front lines of some of the largest environmental battles of the current era, from tar sands in Alberta to rainforests in the Amazon. Naturally, some non-Indigenous people want to help out. The well-intentioned and progressive point of view seems often to be, "we need to understand ...

If Thich Nhat Hanh is right that "The next Buddha, the Buddha of the West, will come as the sangha" - it is my belief that East Bay Meditation Center is leading the way to our personal and collective liberation. I invite you to support East Bay Meditation Center - by attending their star-studded upcoming event (see details below) or by making a direct donation to support EBMC's continued flourishing. Someti ...

[Protesters set fire to a mock model of the USS Guardian during a rally near the U.S. Embassy in Manila to demand U.S. troops pull out from the country, Jan. 21, 2013.  The USS Guardian is a U.S. Navy minesweeper that ran aground off Tubbataha Reef in southwestern Philippines. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)] When Dawn and I emailed some trusted editor-friends with a draft of the Introduction to Volume 1 of The S ...

Since BPF's inception in 1978, the mandala of socially engaged Buddhism has blossomed. Today's landscape of political Buddhism is rich and varied: Buddhists are working on global warming, mindfulness in prisons, organizing for freedom against colonial powers, ending global hunger, building an inclusive, social justice-oriented sangha, and accompanying Peace Communities in war-torn Colombia, among so many ot ...

Yesterday, the two 16-year-old football players accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, OH were found guilty. As the blogger Black Girl Dangerous (BGD) has noted, the mainstream media has reacted to this by sympathizing with the rapists and bemoaning how this has ruined the rapists' lives, at the girl's expense. BGD writes, Elevating the experience of these boys above the experience of their v ...