October 1, 2026
Meet Dorotea, a longtime practitioner and organizer working in immigrant rights, climate justice, and international solidarity. For our Fall 2026 Membership Drive, Dorotea reflects on the sangha’s openness to engaged Buddhism, giving her a place to bring her organizing work and her practice together.
Missed the others in the series? Browse all Meet a Member stories →
Name: Dorotea Mendoza
Member Since: January 2017
Favorite BZC Program: Full Moon Ceremony, koan classes (and the invitation to write a poem in response to the koan studied), and courses on the dharma of engaged practice (e.g., Healing Rituals in Zen, Ambedkar: Caste, Liberation, and Engaged Practice)
BZC Roles: Showing up when I can and being present. Been part of conversation around having a BIPOC circle.
Fun Fact: I love watching team sports (except American football), the working together, players knowing one another instinctively, the chemistry–the NZ All Blacks, the NYC teams (Mets, Rangers, Knicks, Liberty), and the English Premier League (Liverpool FC).
Watch the video and read on to her fuller story below:
My Story:
I’ve known about Brooklyn Zen Center for a long time. And the first time I came actually was many years ago, maybe 2015 or before, for a New Year’s Eve Zazen or program where we sat after midnight and then the bell was rang 108 times. That was beautiful.
Just listening to the bell. And instead of anchoring the mind to the breath, it anchored to the sound of the bell. And it was so beautiful to be listening to it with others. It’s just a beautiful feeling of we’re all listening to the same thing.
Yeah. And I also have this memory of being with the Sangha, I think it was 2018. There was an action against gun violence and there was a whole group of Sanghas in the city that got together to be present in this march. And I remember coming to the Carroll Street Zendo and meeting up with Brooklyn Zen Center folks to join the march. And that was beautiful.
On Programs
What I really appreciate about Brooklyn Zen Center is the programming and this openness to welcome organizations or Buddhist practice outside of Soto Zen. For example, just last month we had a program by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. It was the Undoing Racism workshop, a three-day workshop. And right now there’s a course on Navayana Buddhism and with Dr. Ambedkar about caste liberation and engaged practice. There was a workshop that we did on healing and zen and creating your own healing rituals. So it’s kind of amazing to feel that with the little bit of membership fee that I give, these programs are possible.
Programs cost money. People’s transportation from one part of the world to another costs money. Zoom costs money. So I’m just happy that I can contribute in any way. That’s one thing about membership: I have a very real contribution to offer.
I do a lot of organizing for immigrant rights, for climate, for international solidarity with the Philippines, et cetera, et cetera. And I feel like I can bring all of this to the Sangha, to the teachers, and they’ll support it. So I’ll feel supported and they’ll ask questions that will kind of clarify what I’m doing, where I’m at. So yeah, I really, really appreciate that kind of openness, sincere support of communities and engagements outside of the walls of the Sangha, beyond the walls of Buddhist practice spaces, that.
“Effort without expectation”
I want to say there’s a thing from Dogen that’s popping up right now in my head. It’s a poem by Dogen and one of the lines says, “Effort without expectation.” I’m just thinking now of the effort that’s being made by the community, by the senior students, by the teachers and board members, just this kind of sincere effort to keep working on the work of relationality, keep working on building sangha, building community. And there’s always this feeling that members are welcome to kind of help shape what the sangha looks like as opposed to depending on the teachers or the board members to shape what it looks like. And I appreciate that it’s welcoming that way, that I can have a hand in the shaping of what Brooklyn Zen Center can look like.
On repair and rebuilding community
Let’s see how my practice can deepen through this and also how I can help. If I can, I don’t know. And also, I really resonate with the effort of repair, and also that feeling of having a hand in how the repair or the healing or the building, rebuilding of the community can look like, the process.
Join the campaign by becoming a member, renewing, or upgrading your membership!
Special thanks to filmmaker and BZC member Sara Lamm for help with the interviews! Meet Sara here.