A Heart So Big, It Can Welcome Everything
Dear Ryusho,
A dharma friend of mine is working with khanti or ksanti (depending on
whether you prefer the Pali or Sanskrit spelling). This is the paramita,
or perfection of the heart, that is most often translated as patience.
"In the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition," she told me, "they instead translate
khanti as inclusiveness. It is a practice of continually making your heart bigger and bigger so that it can accept and welcome everything.”
As Buddhists, how do we practice with inclusiveness, with welcoming all
experience? This May, we are thinking a lot about inclusiveness as
Buddhist political work, like including immigrant rights as a Buddhist
issue, creating accessible spaces, and including more voices in shaping
of the future of socially engaged Buddhism.
As we open our hearts big enough to welcome everything, we can no
longer, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "end up sleeping through a
revolution." We invite you to support our Spring Fundraising Drive,
"Awake for the Revolution," by making a donation today that will support Buddhist activists in forging big, inclusive hearts that can welcome everything.
It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Katie Loncke as a new staff
member at Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Welcome, Katie! If you don't yet
know Katie, you will soon find out that we are so lucky to have her join
us as our new Director of Media & Action!
With my heart full of welcome,
Dawn
Director of Training & Development
Spring is almost here. Let's keep planting and sprouting seeds of liberation!
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Reflect with us about Buddhist and spiritual perspectives on May Day and marching for immigrant rights
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Join us in Oakland, CA on May 20th for an event with Alka Arora, David Loy, Donald Rothberg, Jen-Mei Wu, Kenji Liu, and Katie Loncke
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Welcome Katie Loncke as a new staff member
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Donate and support the ongoing work of Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Turning Wheel Media
Click to watch the May Day Dharma video,
where Dawn and Katie reflect on their experiences marching in Oakland.
Like what you hear? Got wisdom to add? Join the conversation by
commenting on Turning Wheel or posting on BPF's Facebook page!
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What's Up With Engaged Buddhism?
Part 1: Who Gets To Speak?
(Map, Accessibility Info, and More!)
Coming up May 20th!
an evening of dialogue with
David Loy ✺ Donald Rothberg ✺ Alka Arora ✺ Katie Loncke
moderated by Jen-Mei Wu
and featuring visual artist Kenji Liu
7–9pm
111 Fairmount, Oakland, CA
more info
Fragrance Free:
To create a safer environment, especially for those with Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity and chemical injury, we need everyone's help!
Please arrive free of scented products. Not sure how? Peep the
resources, some via our friends and leaders at the East Bay Meditation
Center:
On our
end, we will provide scent-free soaps for everyone's use in the
restrooms, and are working with the site managers to try to transition
to non-toxic cleaning products in the week prior to the event. We
apologize that we are unable to offer an air filter for this event. For
more info, or to make requests or offer suggestions, please email Katie
at kloncke.bpf@gmail.com
Wheelchair Access:
Unfortunately, while the doors to the Fellowship Hall are wheelchair
accessible, the only restroom is up 5 stairs. We regret that this means
the facility will be inaccessible for some members of our community.
Sliding Scale for Future Access: First off, this is a dana-
or donation-based event, and no one will be turned away for lack of
funds! If you would like to generously contribute as a volunteer for
the event, we would much appreciate it! Contact Katie at kloncke.bpf@gmail.com.
For those who can give financially to support our work, $5 is the
suggested donation to cover the costs of the event. If you can give $10,
$15, or more, please do! For any proceeds raised above the
costs of hosting the event, we will give 25% toward installing
wheelchair-accessible restrooms in the Oakland Peace Center.
The floor plans already include space for such bathrooms, but as a new
organization (in an old building) they are still raising the money to
construct them. This fundraising model, adapted from one used by
fly-as-hell engaged dharma practitioner Manish Vaidya of the Peacock
Rebellion project, will allow us to leave the Oakland Peace Center
better and more accessible than we found it, thus supporting many beings
in the community.
Getting There:
The Oakland Peace Center is located at 111 Fairmount, Oakland, CA.
The nearest BART station is 19th Street, and AC Transit runs along
Broadway, with the 51A stopping about 3–4 blocks away. Street parking
and limited parking lot space will be available.
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Welcome, Katie!
Please welcome our new Director of Action and Media, Katie Loncke!
Hey, y'all!
I am psyched to jump on board with BPF and Turning Wheel, to keep
building connections among Buddhists and spiritual activists committed
to social justice. So sorely needed!
A little about me:
In 2010 I worked with Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Clear View Project
to fight against the Sit-Lie law in San Francisco, which made it a crime to sit on sidewalks.
I'm one of a few named plaintiffs in a class action suit against the Oakland Police Department for an illegal mass arrest related to the Justice For Oscar Grant movement. At the time of our arrest, I wrote about my experience from a Buddhist perspective.
Right now I'm organizing with workers and tenants in the East Bay Solidarity Network, where our latest work involves fighting foreclosures and evictions in Oakland.
I am grateful to the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, the East Bay Meditation Center, and Vipassana centers in Spain and North Fork, California, for guiding me in my dhamma practice.
And oh how I love a sunny bike ride, a raspberry rhubarb pie, and a
surprise party that winds up at a Temptations Review concert.
Overall, I'm pumped to work with y'all to bring the political to
the spiritual, and the spiritual to the political, for the benefit of
all beings. Don't be a stranger!
Love,
Katie
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Awake for the Revolution
"One
of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find
themselves living amid a great period of social change and yet they fail
to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses that the new
situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.,
"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution"
Mindfulness is a way of becoming awake.
Mindfulness gives us the insight and the compassion to make valuable
contributions to the movements of our time. As Buddhists working for
social change, mindfulness is one of our tools to develop new attitudes
and new responses for our new world.
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship organizes Buddhists and spiritual
activists to bring mindfulness to our political work, and social
consciousness to our spiritual practice. We seek to build a network of
people who are waking up in revolution. To do this, we:
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Spark conversation at the intersection of Buddhism & social justice
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Train a new generation of Buddhist political activists
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Mobilize people to action from a Buddhist perspective
To wake up for the revolution, we need each other. We each have a
measure of time, skills, and money that we can contribute to wake up and
help others wake up.
Please help support the sustainable growth of our work! A gift of any size helps, and is greatly appreciated.
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