October 7, 2023
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
With Rev. Liên Shutt and Rev. Sarah Emerson
What does it mean to attend to our suffering in body, heart, and mind when racism has caused such intense hurt and pain; individually and collectively?
In this workshop, we’ll begin our journey on the Path of restoration from the results of white supremacy culture’s racism by examining deeply and fully individual and collective conditioning, questioning it in mindful and compassionate ways. With courageous honesty, we investigate how we may have been misled, misinformed, perhaps, even colluded in perpetuating or creating hurt and harm.
We’ll engage in practices from Rev. Liên’s book Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path which emphasizes wholeness-based interactions, or Compassionate Connections, with each other. These exercises will support and allow us to let go of old beliefs. We will learn new skills and behaviors, building confidence that we are able to heal from the hurts and harms of racism as we practice co-creating liberation for all.
To foster brave spaces, this workshop will have teachings and instructions for the full group while exercises and processing will be in BIPOC or white-identified affinity groups.
This workshop* is for anyone seeking restoration and healing from white supremacy culture.
* Attending the dharma talk by Rev. Liên Shutt at Boundless Mind Temple at 11:20am is encouraged for workshop participants.
Equitable Pricing Model
BZC is committed to offering classes, workshops, and retreats on a sliding scale in an aspiration to move towards equity within our sangha. To that end, we offer an equitable pricing model as a mindfulness practice and a mirror of our relations to histories of wealth. Please see the Equitable Pricing Model to determine your registration rate level.
If you’re unable to pay at the lowest rate, please use this form to apply for an exemption.
For weekly updates and upcoming events, request to join the BZC Community List here.
We rely on donations for all we do, and invite you to support our practice and teachers:
You can donate to BZC here or via Paypal to paypal@brooklynzen.org.
You can donate to a specific dharma teacher or practice leader here.
COVID Protocol: We ask that all participants be fully vaccinated and boosted. Masks are optional. Please see the BZC Covid Protocol for more information.
Our Location: Boundless Mind Temple is located in the Parish House of Christ Church Cobble Hill, next to 326 Clinton Street. Enter the driveway on Clinton, go past the scaffolding, and through the double doors. There are two flights of stairs leading to the center, located on the second floor. The closest subway stop is the F/G at Bergen Street.
Rev. Liên Shutt (she/they) is a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the United States, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. They are the Guiding Teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and nonprofit in the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives in Oakland, on Huichin land, with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can. Visit AccessToZen.org for ways to connect and practice together.
Sarah Dōjin Emerson’s formal practice in Soto Zen began in 1996. She lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain center and other sites of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1997-2007. She received Dharma Transmission from Abbott Konjin Gaelyn Godwin of the Houston Zen Center in 2015. She has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults. She experiences Bodhisattva Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause within convert Buddhist sanghas, and in U.S. society generally. Sarah has also worked for many years in grief support- clinically, ritually and in community- specializing in child loss. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny (who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest), their children (who are her most profound and constant teachers) and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY.