COMING SOON: The Enduring Precepts (4 classes in May)

HYBRID: Enduring Precepts: Basic Buddhist Ethics for Our Times 
with Mushim Ikeda
Hybrid, with one class Zoom only
Part of EBMC’s Core Buddhist Teachings – 7 month Curriculum

Wednesdays May 1, 8 (Zoom only), 15, 22 — 2024
6:30 – 8:30PM PST (Time Zone Converter)
Closed Captioning Provided on Zoom
The center is fragrance-free and wheelchair accessible
N95/KN95 masks required

Four years ago, pandemic-panicked people in the United States were hoarding toilet paper and steaks. Today we’re dealing with ongoing volatile ethical issues such as war, climate crisis, use of AI (artificial intelligence) in tech, and political divisiveness. Rooted in EBMC’s mindfulness-based, diversity-equity-inclusion and social justice-centered mission, this four-class series offers a path to reflect on current ethical discernment and action. Buddhist life, for both laypersons and monastics, is rooted in Five Precepts, guidelines that are paths of deep contemplative investigation resulting in behaviors and actions aligned toward non-harm, in the service of all life. The compassionate realization of our “interbeing,” and the sometimes complex relationship of intent to impact are woven into this “Living Dharma” approach. Dharma talks, discussion and Q&A. Instruction provided for beginners in meditation.

Click here to register
All registered participants will receive a link to join us via Zoom with their EventBrite confirmation email. 

CURRENTLY TEACHING: Buddhist Love, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity (Brahmaviharas)

Brahmaviharas: Buddhist Love, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity
With Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Part of EBMC’s Core Buddhist Curriculum Jan – July 2024
HYBRID on Zoom and in person at EBMC

4 Wednesdays:  March 27; & April 10, 17, 24, 2024
(No class on April 3)
6:30-8:30PM PST
Closed Captions

The Brahmaviharas (Divine Abodes), also called the Four Immeasurables, are Buddhist teachings and practices that help us to access dynamic calming, stilling, and healing mindbody states. As we cultivate the limitless qualities of loving goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, in time we harvest true happiness, spiritual strength, and awakening insight. These practices are considered complementary to insight (mindfulness) meditation. Dharma talks, discussion and Q&A. Instruction provided for beginners in meditation.

Click here to register

All registered participants will receive a link to join us via Zoom with their EventBrite confirmation email. 

Join us for "The Path of the Bodhisattva" hybrid class series starting on October 2nd!

In despair over the state of the world? Join us for "The Path of the Bodhisattva" hybrid class series, four Monday evenings both in person in downtown Oakland and online, 6:30 - 8:30 pm Pacific time. Bodhisattvas are great beings in Mahayana Buddhism who vow to do all they can, in the place that they are, with the resources and skills they have, to reduce suffering and promote joy, well-being and better conditions for living beings. East Bay Meditation Center is once again offering this autumn curriculum, consisting of class series #1 (four classes in October 2023); class series #2 (a continuation of the first class series, not a repeat, four classes in November 2023) and a final daylong retreat for people who wish to take OR witness others taking the Bodhisattva Vows and Precepts. Please join us and spread the word! Registration information: https://eastbaymeditation.org/calendar/hybrid-path-of-the-bodhisattva-1/  or https://bit.ly/46lJjEK

For information about the complete Path of the Bodhisattva curriculum (class series 1, class series 2, and final daylong / Vows and Precepts Ceremony), see https://eastbaymeditation.org/curriculum/#toggle-id-2

Sept. 2nd - Half-day Meditation and Movement event, EBMC, at Snow Park in Oakland, CA

Meditation & Movement: Creating Space in Your Body & Your Life
with Mushim Ikeda and Master John W. Ellis IV
Saturday, September 2, 2023
10:00AM – 1:00PM PT

East Bay Meditation Center at Snow Park, 19th Street & Harrison Street in Oakland
(One block from EBMC, three blocks from the 19th Street BART station)

Using practice, demonstrations, and discussions, this retreat will use meditation and movement to explore how to create and maintain greater mindfulness and spiritual balance throughout the day. Simple meditation techniques are taught for a range of practitioners, especially beginners. Movements embodying the Five Elements are taught standing, sitting and reclining, and are appropriate for people with diverse abilities. This retreat will be held at Snow Park, so bring a water bottle, a snack and a blanket to sit on. The park is highly shaded from many trees, and bathrooms are available. Because this is an outdoor event, masks are optional, but social distancing is encouraged.

Register here: https://eastbaymeditation.org/ebmcreg/?event=mindful-mvmt

Sept. 9th - BIPOC Grief: Naming the Unnameable with Mushim Ikeda and Damali Robertson

Online daylong for self-identified BIPOC
Saturday, September 9, 2023
10 am - 4:00 pm Pacific time
On Zoom, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Sliding scale

“There is a price in not expressing one’s grief…There can be so much grief that we grow numb from the unfelt and unexpressed emotions that we carry in our bodies. Unexpressed hurt and pain injures our souls.” – Sobonfu Somé, author, teacher, and activist

During this daylong retreat for the BIPOC community, we’ll explore the many faces of grief and loss, including individual, collective, and systemic. How do we learn to be with, even embrace, grief without either bypassing or being overwhelmed by it? Participants are invited to co-create a safer container to practice meditation, engage in small and large group sharing, attend the Dharma talks, and give their grief a space to exist and be expressed. Together, bearing the unbearable and naming the unnameable.

Information:  bit.ly/3Eb30De

Registration: https://spirit-rock.secure.retreat.guru/program/bipoc-grief-naming-the-unnameable-mk1d23/?form=1&lang=en

Free broadcast: June 29, 2023 at 10 am Pacific, "The Infinite Everyday: Zen and 'Oneness'" with Mushim Ikeda, part of the Shift Network's Mystics Summit

According to Mushim Patricia Ikeda, the old Zen Buddhist practice description, “chop wood, carry water,” updated, could be “do email, microwave leftovers.” What if we can’t afford to go on meditation retreats or meet with enlightened teachers on mountaintops? Shifting from a search for transcendence to knowledge of the accessibility of immanence, we can trust that we have everything we need to experience and be transformed by the extraordinary within the ordinary through the opening and dropping down into “timeless time". This 45 minute series of musings on THE INFINITE EVERYDAY: ZEN AND “ONENESS” by Mushim Patricia Ikeda will be aired for free on Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 10 am Pacific time. To hear the recording at any other time, you need to purchase the upgrade package. The Shift Network's Mystics Summit. Register to see the sessions free when they are aired by clicking here: www.mysticssummit.com

[Photo by Fabrizio Chiagano on Unsplash]

[Photo by Fabrizio Chiagano on Unsplash]

4 Noble Truths for BIPOC classes starting June 28

Getting ready for classes starting June 28 (Wed evening) at East Bay Meditation Center! HYBRID: Liberation from Suffering: Buddha’s Four Noble Truths for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color). See info here to register: https://eastbaymeditation.org/.../hybrid.../2023-06-28/

with Mushim Ikeda

Wednesdays June 28th and July 5th, 12th, 19th 2023

6:30 – 8:30PM PST (Time Zone Converter) Closed Captioning Provided

What do the basic teachings of Buddhism have to offer BIPOC? The Buddha’s first teaching after his Enlightenment is called the Four Truths for Noble Ones. Together we’ll explore how “The Four Noble Truths” have been and continue to be a deep and empowering way for Black, Indigenous and People of Color and multiracial persons to understand human suffering and oppression, analyze their root causes, and engage as individuals and collectives in moving towards profound spiritual liberation, ease and joy. Dharma talks, mindful journaling, meditation, community building and optional readings.

This class is suitable for both new and experienced meditators and open to self-identified People of Color.

Shift Network Mystics Summit 2023 starts June 26, 2023

https://mysticssummit.com/

"The Infinite Everyday: Zen and 'Oneness'" is my contribution to the Shift Network's 2023 Mystics Summit. Join me! June 26-30.

I tend to be a fairly grounded and pragmatic person, AND I'm very much in touch with the reality (for me) of what the poet Paul Éluard is said to have said: Il y a assurément un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci... Œuvres complètes, vol. 1, Gallimard, 1968. Translation: There is another world, and it is in this one. After all, my original training was in poetry, and after that a short yet quantum leap to Zen practice and the monastery, and from there an improbable quantum leap to raising the energetic Associate, initially as a single mother, and from there much zig-zagging and bizarre spiritual adventures into this present moment, June 13, 2023. I was asked to participate in this Mystics Summit and thought, "Why not? I can hang out with the mystics." You're welcome to join us for a bit.

Source: https://quotepark.com/.../1750011-paul-eluard-there-is.../

Their team says: Mark your calendar for June 26-30, 2023 — and prepare to immerse yourself in the ecstatic wisdom of celebrated figures like the Middle Eastern mystic known as Yeshua… plus Clare of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, and Meister Eckhart…

… as well as modern mystic contemporaries like Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Thomas Berry, Sri Aurobindo, Father Bede Griffiths, and others.

You can give yourself more time to savor this enriching summit by locking in ongoing access to all the summit sessions — plus exclusive bonuses filled with practical teachings — in the Mystical Wisdom Collection 2023.

Mushim Teaching Online 1-Day Retreat February 26th, 2023

Feeling off balance and out of sorts? Who doesn't, with current conditions so unstable? Let's learn more about dancing with uncertainty at this online daylong meditation retreat on Equanimity, with Mushim Patricia Ikeda and the Tucson Community Meditation Center. Equanimity is one of the Four Divine Abodes (LovingKindness, Compassion, Empathetic Joy, Equanimity) that inspires wise action and a loving, compassionate, joyous heart. register: tucsonmeditation.org

Mushim Teaching Online Weekend Meditation Retreat Oct. 21 - 23, 2022

Want more unconditional loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and sturdy equanimity in your life? Please join me and the Tucson Community Meditation Center for this online weekend retreat, Oct. 21 - 23, 2022! More info and register here: https://tucsonmeditation.org/retreats/252-mushim-unconditional-love

How To Be Angry

"How to Be Angry" by Mushim. From the Ten Percent Happier weekly newsletter, July 3, 2022.

“There is a story that some people have, that people who meditate should not get angry. That because I’m a Buddhist meditation teacher, I’m supposed to remain serene if someone shouts, “Go back where you came from” or anti-Asian slurs at me. I ‘shouldn’t’ get angry, right?

This is not true.”

Read the rest here: https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/anger

Lion's Roar Medicine for Fear online course. Mushim is one of the teachers.

We are all familiar with the debilitating effects of fear. It pervades our personal lives and our society, creating tension, disconnection, and mistrust.

What if there was an antidote to fear?

Beneath our fears is a deep capacity for fearlessness—the root of awakening. By training our mind and cultivating love—toward ourselves and others—we give ourselves the opportunity to disarm fear and live in the moment with acceptance and courage.

This online course is for you if you want to learn how to:

◯ Cultivate your inner strength and wisdom

◯ Make changes in your life to foster greater healing and resilience

◯ Face your fears with presence, awareness, and love

Start the Course for Free with a 3-Day Pass

Get access to 3 free sample lessons when you sign up.

Plus, get a 30% off discount redeemable until May 31.

Get Your Free Pass >>

Medicine for Fear is a brand new online course led by Koshin Paley Ellison and Chodo Robert Campbell, guiding teachers at New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

Koshin and Chodo will guide you through an 8-part training on relating to fear and cultivating fearlessness inspired by Zen teacher Eihei Dogen's essential instructions for everyday awakening.

Plus, they’ll be joined by 4 remarkable Buddhist teachers and spiritual leaders—Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Kodo Nishimura, Mirabai Bush, and Mushim Patricia Ikeda—who each offer expert guidance and instruction for cultivating more fearlessness in your life.

The course begins on May 31, 2022. Right now, you can:

Preview the course for free with a 3-day pass

(We’ll reserve your 30% off pre-enrollment discount)

https://promo.lionsroar.com/medicine-for-fear-free-pass

OR

Get lifetime access to the entire course for 30% off

(Lock in your early enrollment savings now) https://learn.lionsroar.com/p/medicine-for-fear/

We hope you’ll join us for this brand new opportunity to cultivate a greater capacity for fearlessness and transform what holds you back into an opportunity for awakening.

Yours truly,

The Lion's Roar Team

EXPLORING BUDDHISM AT EAST BAY MEDITATION CENTER

Exploring Buddhism At East Bay Meditation Center - January through May 2022

Are you new to meditation? Curious about Buddhism? Looking for a spiritual home?

EBMC offers a five-month suggested Core Curriculum for those seeking an introduction to the Buddha’s basic teachings. The curriculum also supports those looking to refresh their practice. It is not required that you take all of the class series offered below.

You may register for any of the class series that interest you when registration opens for those programs. However, if you register for a class series, please commit to attending all of the classes in that class series.

Registration for each class series opens around 4 to 6 weeks before the first class in a class series.

This five-month Core Curriculum will focus on the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions, while integrating aspects of other Buddhist lineages, and also embedding the teachings in a social justice perspective aligned with EBMC’s vision.

When you register, please keep in mind the overall intention of the half-year curriculum, since each program in this curriculum is intended to build on the previous programs in the curriculum. If you have questions, please email admin@eastbaymeditation.org. A list of recommended Buddhist reading appears here.

The classes in the five-month curriculum are on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM Pacific Time, and are as follows:

·      January 2022: Beginning a Meditation Practice – January 5, 12, 19 and 26 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM  

· February 2022: Buddha’s 4 Big Truths (4 Noble Truths) – February 2, 9, 16 and 23 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM

·      March 2022: Buddha’s “How to” Guide to a Life of Happiness and Well-being (Eightfold Path) -March 2, 9, 16, and 23 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM

·      March & April 2022: Buddhist Love, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity (Brahmaviharas) – March 30 & April 6, 13, and 20 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM

·      April & May 2022: Five Precepts: Buddhist Ethics – April 27 & May 4, 11, and 18 – Wednesdays 6:30-8:30PM

·      May 2022: Buddhist Curriculum Q&A – May 25 – Wednesday 6:30-8:30PM

Classes and Events
In addition to the Core Curriculum, EBMC regularly offers a wide range of classes appropriate for those new to meditation. Sign up for EBMC’s email updates to get our latest class listings.

For further information as registration opens up for each class series, you can click "Contact Us" at www.eastbaymeditation.org to ask any questions.

(On Patheos.com) Mushim's Buddhist Word Of The Day Is...

One of the people I consistently follow on Facebook is Mushim Patricia Ikeda. She’s a teacher with the East Bay Meditation Center and just an all around interesting and wonderful human.

One of the things [Mushim] does on her Facebook page is list a “Buddhist word of the day.” Today, she posted “mudita.” Which, interestingly, my spell check wants to make “nudity.” But, it is mudita from both the Pali and Sanskrit and literally means, if I understand correctly, “joy.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Dan Harris has a in-depth interview with Mushim on the Ten Percent Happier podcast

It’s live! Take a listen to Dan and Mushim talk about Buddhism and anger on the Ten Percent podcast here.

Show description:
When somebody wrongs you, what is the wise way to handle your anger? Is forgiveness possible? What about friendliness? My guest today has a lot of thoughts about how to handle anger and how to respond to people who mean you harm.

It might surprise you to hear from a Buddhist teacher who actually isn’t utterly disparaging of anger. In fact, she is proud (somewhat facetiously) of having been called “the original Angry Asian Buddhist.” Her name is Mushim Patricia Ikeda, and she is my kind of Buddhist. She self-describes as “snarky,” and, as you will hear, she loves to laugh. She has doable, down-to-earth strategies, and she makes a compelling, if counterintuitive, case for the pragmatism of sending goodwill to people who want to harm you. 

Mushim is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. She is a writer, activist, and diversity consultant. She has trained for decades as both a lay and monastic Buddhist. Aside from anger, we also discuss how to handle uncertainty, and what Mushim calls a “pandemic of self-loathing” in our culture. But we begin with some candid talk about the trauma of being an Asian-American during a time of rising violence against the AAPI community. 

This is the second in a two-part series on the uptick in anti-Asian violence -- a trend that should be particularly worrisome for this audience, given the Asian roots of meditation and many of the other happiness-producing modalities we talk about on this show. If you missed it, go check out Monday’s episode, where we explore the history of anti-Buddhist and anti-Asian violence in America (which started decades before the pandemic), and the hurt felt by many Asian-American Buddhists about how they can be overlooked by other American Buddhists, including, sometimes, me.

Mushim interviewed by Dan Harris!

On May 5th, Mushim is a featured guest on Dan Harris’ Ten Percent Happier podcast.

The podcast link will be here once it’s live!

Meditating and Healing in a Traumatized World

[Mushim] recently worked with Center for Healthy Minds collaborator Helen Weng and Center faculty member Larissa Duncan on a project to expand diversity throughout a neuroscience study on meditation. In this Q&A, Ikeda shares how mindfulness meditation can be both inclusive and exclusive, both healing and traumatizing – all depending on people’s lived experiences and how they’re met with care during meditation practice or in their community.

How might people's identities and life experiences affect their meditation practice and their well-being? 

Ikeda: It’s important to note that there are hundreds of kinds of meditations, which are techniques and activities we are doing with bodies and minds. Here I’ll talk about mindfulness meditation, which is the same as insight meditation and vipassana meditation in the Buddhist tradition. The specific technique of mindfulness meditation is a thoroughly embodied practice. And by that, I mean that we understand that mind and body are not a binary… And often, this practice is learned by the directed activity of another human being (a teacher), and therefore in terms of diversity, the instructional language that is used is very important if someone is starting out.

Read the rest of this wonderful Q&A here.

Path of the Bodhisattva, Fall Buddhist Core Curriculum online, East Bay Meditation Center

(ASL interpretation provided!) Are you fed up with this bullshit federal government? Looking for a spiritual foundation for a path of action? If you like, you can explore the Buddhist Path of the Bodhisattva with me, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, in this class series on four Wednesday evenings in October. After that, there's a second four class series in November (different material, not a repeat of the first class series). And if you get truly carried away, come witness (no commitment required) OR apply to receive the Bodhisattva vows and precepts (big commitment but we take it easy!) at East Bay Meditation Center at a special daylong retreat and celebration in December 2020! All safely on Zoom, of course. For more information and registration, click HERE.

[graphic design by Candi Martinez-Carthen]

Mushim interviewed by David Treleaven on The Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Podcast

In this episode, David interviews Mushim Patricia Ikeda—a Buddhist teacher and social change activist based out of Oakland, California. In their conversation, David and Mushim talk about her inclusivity work at EBMC, the pandemic, and the relevance of trauma-informed practice within mindfulness and social change work.

David writes, “This month I was lucky to interview Mushim Patricia Ikeda—a poet, Buddhist teacher, and social change activist. Mushim teaches at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California, where she leads an award-winning yearlong mindfulness program called Practice in Transformative Action.

“Mushim is known for her down-to-earth, humorous, and penetrative approach to contemplative practice. In this conversation we talk about her inclusivity work at EBMC, the pandemic, and the relevance of trauma-informed practice within mindfulness and social change work.”

In this episode, David interviews Mushim Patricia Ikeda—a poet, Buddhist teacher, and social change activist. Mushim teaches at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California, where she leads an award-winning yearlong mindfulness program called Practice in Transformative Action. In their conversation, David and Mushim talk about her inclusivity work at EBMC, the pandemic, and the relevance of trauma-informed practice within mindfulness and social change work.

Omitting None: The Deep Practice of Community

Mushim was recently published in Lion’s Roar. You can read her words online here.

The practice of community, says Mushim Patricia Ikeda, is more than including beyond all people, even all beings. It mean including all thoughts, all emotions, all realities — the bad as well as the good.

I’ve spent my adult life in communities and helping to build communities. I’ve been part of artistic, spiritual, social justice, Buddhist, and public school communities, among others.

In a practical sense, I know a little about the patience, persistence, relationship building, and maintenance that are needed to create community, and the diversity and inclusivity tensions always present in community life. And then there is community in the broadest sense…

Read the rest of the post on Lion’s Roar here.