Event information:

Open to all. The event is online-only via Zoom.

Saturday, May 11, 2024
3:30 pm- 5:00 pm Eastern Time (Click here for a time converter.)

The Soto Zen Buddhist Association relies on the generosity of its supporters to offer programming. All fees offered through registration will be shared with speakers and panelists. We suggest a sliding scale registration fee of $10-15 for online participation. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Many Communities, One Sangha

Exploring the Reality of Equity & Inclusion

A guided, digital course for Buddhist communities with instruction by Mushim Ikeda, Rhonda Magee, and Crystal Johnson

Many Communities, One Sangha is a five-part, online self-facilitated community inquiry to support and energize sanghas and dharma practitioners seeking to create more equitable, inclusive communities. It is designed to be used by groups of five or more people, and guides participants through five sessions of inquiry and practice:

• Session One:  Introduction and Values

• Session Two: Safety, Dignity and Belonging

• Session Three: Right Relationship to Authority and Power

• Session Four: Visioning

• Session Five: Moving Forward Together

When you register, you will receive:

• Access to more than 6 hours of video instruction and talks by Mushim Ikea, Rhonda Magee, and Crystal Johnson.

• A guide for course facilitators and participants that includes facilitation instructions, supplemental materials, resources, and a recommended schedule.

• Online support from SZBA staff if questions arise as you implement the course in your sangha

Click here to contact SZBA with questions or to purchase this course. Proceeds from this course will support the East Bay Meditation Center and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association BIPOC Scholarship Fund.

Having trouble reading this page? Click here for a PDF copy of this information.

About the instructors:

Mushim Patricia Ikeda is a socially-engaged Buddhist teacher, community activist, diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, parent and author based in Oakland, California. She has a background in both monastic and lay Buddhist practice and is a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center.

Mushim is well known for her down-to-earth, humorous, and penetrating approach to Dharma and social transformation. She has taught residential meditation retreats for people of color, social justice activists, and women nationally, and her work is based in values of cultural humility, acknowledging the wisdom that is ever-present in individuals and collectives, and the need for expression, empowerment, and co-creative self-determination in marginalized communities. She has been featured in the award-winning documentary film Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry and as one of three subjects in the documentary Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America, distributed by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

As a writer, Mushim is the recipient of multiple awards, including the 2014 Gil A. Lopez Peacemaker Award from the Association for Dispute Resolution of Northern California, recognizing her innovative one-year program, Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA), mindfulness training for social justice activists, at East Bay Meditation Center. In September 2015 she received an honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology (sacrae theologiae) degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry.

Rhonda Myozen V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and a leading innovator in the integration of mindfulness practices, multicultural education and social justice advocacy. She has spent more than twenty years exploring the intersections of anti-racist education, social justice, and contemplative practices. She is an internationally sought-after public speaker, mindfulness teacher, practice innovator, storyteller, and thought leader on integrating Mindfulness into Higher Education, Law and Social Justice. A practitioner and lay teacher of Zen Buddhism, she is a student of Buddhist teachers Roshi Joan Halifax, Norman Fischer and Venerable Bhikkhu Analayo, and of a range of traditions.

Rhonda is a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where she has served as an advisor, and has likewise advised a range of leading mindfulness-based professional development organizations, including the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, and the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. Rhonda’s award-winning book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Penguin RandomHouse TarcherPerigee: 2019), was named one of the top ten books released for the year by the Greater Good Science Center, and received similar recognition by Psychology Today and the editors of Mindful.org.

Rhonda’s teaching and writing support compassionate conflict engagement and management; holistic problem-solving to alleviate the suffering of the vulnerable and injured; presence-based leadership in a diverse world, and humanizing approaches to education. She sees embodied mindfulness meditation and the allied disciplines of study and community engagement as keys to personal, interpersonal, and collective transformation in the face of the challenges and opportunities of our time.

Rhonda has served as a guest teacher in a broad range and variety of mindfulness teacher training programs -- from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness and Research Center to Spirit Rock -- and is the author of numerous articles on Buddhism as a support for the problems of our time.

Crystal A. Johnson, Ph.D. is a retired clinical psychologist and a Community Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, CA, where she also serves on the Leadership Sangha (Board) and as a member of the Radical Inclusivity Committee. She completed the year long Commit2Dharma training at EBMC, as well as the 2-year Dedicated Practitioner Program and the 2-year Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In her teaching, she focuses on creating/co-creating programs for white dharma practitioners seeking to build awareness, knowledge and skills to challenge the dynamics of white privilege and race-based oppression, and create truly inclusive sangha. Her courses include White and Awakening in Sangha at EBMC, Unpacking Whiteness: Reflection and Action at the San Francisco Zen Center, White and Awakening Together at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Unpacking Whiteness for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and Unpacking the Whiteness of Leadership for Branching Streams. She offers consultation to individuals and organizations seeking to disrupt the practices of white supremacy culture and support change toward racial equity.

Previous Courses:

A 4-part conversation presented by the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. Registration is open to priests, practice leaders and board members.

General Information:

Closed captioning will be available and this event will be recorded. If you have additional access needs, please let the event organizer know when prompted in the registration form, or contact info@szba.org with any questions or concerns.

Schedule:

What You Think You Know About Ethics Might Be Wrong with Dr. Joe Wiinikka-Lydon
June 12, 3-4:30 pm EST

As Soto Zen teachers, many of us feel that we understand what is and what is not ethics. This session will give us the chance to quiz ourselves and increase our understanding. We invite you to join us in a deeper dive into ethics as we explore the intersection between the Bodhisattva precepts as a guideline for living an ethical life and the way the discipline of ethics is understood in modern American society. Please bring your ideas, your questions, and your open-hearted curiosity.

Having a Clear Ethics Policy: Why the 16 Precepts are Not Enough with Carol Merchasin, Esq.
June 26, 3-4:30 pm EST

In this session, we will explore the reasons why spiritual communities need a clear and comprehensive ethics policy and the questions that arise when we begin to put one into effect. What are the legal reasons to have a policy? What responsibilities do lay people have to hold teachers and leaders accountable for their actions? What are the legal problems that can arise when teachers cross ethical boundaries with students? What duties and responsibilities do boards of directors have to hold teachers accountable? And, what are the most effective ways to hold teachers accountable and also limit harm to all concerned?

The Ethics of Belonging Together with Dr. Cedar Barstow
July 10, 3-4:30 pm EST

Right use of power is the heart of ethics. We often think of ethics as the discipline of right and wrong, with a focus on punishing “wrong,” but ethics is so much more complex! In this discussion, we will approach ethics as a set of interconnected values, attitudes, and skills intended to work together to help us be of benefit and not cause harm. As Soto Zen practitioners, we have some common understanding of shared moral values based on the Bodhisattva precepts. How can we complement the Precepts with the professional behavioral guidelines expected of us by the Zen communities we serve, as informed by the ever-evolving society in which we live? How can we approach the ethical decision-making process with a focus on compassion, accountability, and community?

For example, some SZBA members raised concerns about teachers and students shifting to an intimate partner relationship. Whose responsibility is it is to hold Zen teachers accountable? How open to interpretation should a Code of Ethics should be? We invite all SZBA members, as well as temple boards of directors and other leaders, to join this valuable conversation. As Br. David Steindl-Rast once said, “Ethics is how we behave when we decide we belong together.”

Grassroot Responses to Sexual Violation in American Buddhism with Dr. Ann Gleig and Dr. Amy Langenberg
July 24, 3-4:30 pm EST

How have American Buddhist communities responded to reoccurring issues of sexual misconduct and abuse? In the absence of institutional accountability and a centralizing American Buddhist authority, efforts to respond to sexual violations have fallen largely to individual or collective grassroot efforts. In this presentation, we consider these efforts including community reform through revised grievance procedures and ethics statements, survivor advocacy through in person and online networks, preventative trainings, and legal interventions.

About the organizers:

Dr. Joe Wiinikka-Lydon

Joe Wiinikka-Lydon currently works at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where he is currently a senior research analyst. He has taught ethics and religion at Denison University, The University of the South, Birmingham-Southern College, and Guilford College. He has also taught ethics in the Engineering Department at Wake Forest University and was a founding instructor and research fellow at a European Union-funded Center for Ethics outside of Prague. He is the author of Moral Injury and the Promise of Virtue and co-author of Trauma and Moral Injury: A Guiding Framework for Chaplains, an ebook resource for chaplains dealing with trauma and moral injury, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carol Merchasin, Esq.

Carol Merchasin is a lawyer and former partner in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. She is an experienced investigator into workplace sexual misconduct issues, having conducted dozens of workplace investigations, including those involving allegations against senior executives.

In addition, she has developed and taught courses on conducting investigations and investigative techniques to human resource professionals at many Fortune 50 companies. She was the lead author of the book Case Dismissed: Taking Your Harassment Training to Trial, published by the American Bar Association.

Most recently, Carol has conducted credibility assessments and preliminary investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct against a variety of spiritual leaders. She has been interviewed and quoted by the New York Times and a wide variety of media outlets on the need to bring sexual misconduct within spiritual communities to light.

Dr. Ann Gleig

Ann Gleig is an Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. She is author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019)

Dr. Amy Langenberg

Amy Paris Langenberg is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College. She is the author of Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (Routledge, 2017).

Dr. Cedar Barstow

Cedar is the Founder and Director of the Right Use of Power Institute. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and teaches, consults, and is the author of Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics (first edition 2005) and its accompanying training programs. She is passionate about issues of power and supporting people in learning about power dynamics and saying "yes" to using their power with wisdom, compassion and skill.

We are grateful for the generous support of this work by the Hemera Foundation's Healthy Buddhist Communities grant.