This month, we are doing a special feature of a wonderful new podcast hosted by our friend Rev. Syd Yang: The Dharma of Loneliness podcast!

Rev. Syd sits down with Rev. Liên Shutt to discuss what it means to experience loneliness as a “best friend,” exploring how the idea of best friendship and relational hierarchy can feel unclear and shifting. Rev. Liên defines loneliness as a visceral sense of not belonging or being made “other,” and they discuss their experiences with othering via bullying, racism, queerness and cultural differences. They connect Zen insights and practices to befriending difficult sensations through mindful attention, metta, and embodied pause, emphasizing agency to “re-belong.”

Joy Harjo’s poems “Cricket Song” and “Remember” frame loneliness as longing that can remind one to remember inherent connection, complexity, and living with what is.

Go to www.DharmaofLoneliness.com to listen to other episodes and learn more!

HOST

Rev. Syd Yang, MDiv (they/them), host of The Dharma of Loneliness podcast, is a mixed race/Taiwanese American queer trans/non-binary Buddhist Minister, movement chaplain, spiritual counselor and writer who engages decolonial possibilities for shared liberation through their practice, Blue Jaguar Healing Arts. Syd’s work and writing finds its resonance in the stories we each hold at the intersection of memory, body, sexuality and mental health. Syd works primarily with queer and trans BIPOC as well as regularly leads workshops and facilitates community based practice spaces for wellbeing + healing justice, body liberation and recovery.

www.bluejaguarhealingarts.com / IG @bodyliberationchaplain and @bluejaguarlove

A few recent publications: (article) https://www.lionsroar.com/how-i-reclaimed-my-body/, (book / memoir) Release: A Bulimia Story, (podcast guest) Mending with Gold / Kintsugi Therapist Collective, (chapter) Emergent Dharma, (chapter) Q + A: Voices from Queer Asian North America

GUEST

REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they), host of Opening Dharma Access podcast, 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 and to learn more about her book Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path.

Rev. Liên Shutt shares how precepts can be apply in daily life.

See the full session's video (with practice & audience participation) at: https://youtu.be/FKUagZ27uKA

Rev. Liên Shutt (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, immigrants, and those seeking a home in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder & Guiding Teacher of Access to Zen. You can learn more about her work and book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Pathat AccessToZen.org EVENTS

In this mindful dharma talk, Rahil invites us all to feel into our bodies and stay with our experience as we contemplate the 5th Precept: Non-intoxication or Clear Heart-Mind. Rahil talks about his own initial aversion to speaking on the Precepts, and the beauty of relating to this framework and tradition of guidance as a path toward deepening our presence to our lives. Rather than seeing them as strict rules that demand perfection and immediate change, Rahil encourages us to allow for authentic growth and evolution that begins in our stretch zones.

Guest

RAHIL ROJIANI, MD (they/them) is a queer, genderfluid, South Asian Ismaili Muslim, and an abolitionist trauma-focused psychiatrist at Cambridge Health Alliance / Harvard Medical School. Rahil’s contemplative practices are informed by their Muslim faith, secular mindfulness traditions, and multiple Buddhist lineages. Rahil has conducted several years of research on the neuroscience of meditation, and they have been facilitating and teaching meditation since 2014— particularly for healthcare professionals, BIPOC, and community organizers.

bruni dâvila talks about the fourth precept, not lying/honoring truths. What does that look like in practice? bruni gives some examples for the times we are living in together.

GUEST

BRUNI DÁVILA (she/they) has practiced Insight and Zen meditation since 1995. They graduated from the IMS/IRC Teacher Training Program, and has been guided and supported by various wonderful teachers and sanghas, and her ancestors of Puerto Rican heritage. bruni’s practice is grounded in the teachings of Mahasi Sayadaw and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. She teaches at IMC, in Redwood City and in the wider Bay area, in English and Spanish.

Rev. Willie discusses the 3rd Precept, not misusing sexuality, and frames it as how to be safe and not hurt with sexuality. After his talk, there is a discussion with Rev. Dana Takagi and Rev. Liên Shutt going deeper into what boundaries in sanghas and practice centers might look like, and how awareness of power is an important part of this precept.

You can also watch the talk on YouTube

REVEREND WILLIE SHOMON MUKEI (he/him) is a Zen student at The Village Zendo and novice Zen Priest where he leads the People of Color Sitting Group. He is also a psychoanalyst with a private practice and a member of both the Buddhist Council of New York and a Episcopal Priest. Willie has extensive history working the anti-racism and social justice realm.

In week 2 of Precepts for Skillful Engagement: Cultivating loving interactions in turbulent times (BIPOC Teachers, Series 1), Dana talks about the importance of deeper and creative understandings of the precept of not stealing. Drawing from her personal background as an academic, and as a priest and teacher, Dana examines the precept of not stealing when framed in terms of who believes they have expertise or the right to be heard in shared spaces and conversations.

In that spirit, here is a version of the 5 Precepts that may help to shine the light of awareness on how to share space and dialogue without taking what is not given. We hope you enjoy!

You can also watch the YouTube version which includes chanting and Q&A here.

5 Fundamental Precepts (not stealing week)
I vow to promote non-harming.
I vow to promote space-equity.
I vow to promote intimacy.
I vow to promote balanced speech.
I vow to refrain from expertise-ness.

First of 6 parts series from AccessToZen.org. For the video of this talk (& Deep Listening prompts & participants' comments, see link at end of show notes).

Week 1 of Precepts for Skillful Engagement in Turbulent Times series:

Rev. Liên gives an overview of 3 ways to practice with the precepts which she connects to how Sama has been translated as "Right," "Wise," & "Skillful" within the 8-Fold Path. Also shared are practice stories of her work with these precepts. The group practice is both the recitations (offered weekly) and the practice of Deep Listening as a form of Repentance (an aspect of precepts taking/vowing).
The affirming/positive aspect of the 5 Precepts offered today are:
I vow to realize & promote non-harming.
I vow to realize & promote mutuality.
I vow to realize & promote connections.
I vow to realize & promote honesty.
I vow to realize & promote clear heart-mind.
The traditional form & full info can be found at AccessToZen.org under the name of this offering.
May this offering be for the benefit of all beings.
Be safe. Bring safety to all.

See the full session's video at: https://youtu.be/l2SuNU85JI8

Contact Info.Access2Zen@gmail.com with questions or if your are able to support the continuation of Opening Dharma Access (ODA). Thank you!

Rev. Liên Shutt (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, immigrants, and those seeking a home in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder & Guiding Teacher of Access to Zen. You can learn more about her work and book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Pathat AccessToZen.org EVENTS

Opening Dharma Access podcast, season 4 compilation of highlights of all our fantastic guests this past season. We hope you enjoy!
Guests in order of appearance:
Rev. syd yang, Siddhesh Mukerji, Reverend/Kumu June Tanoue, Rev. Dana Takagi, Judy Nakatomi, Professor Alice Yang, Professor/Rev. Joseph Cheah, Abbess Yuko Yamada, Rev. Liên Shutt, Professor Michael Omi, Mushim Ikeda, Professor Sharon Suh, Eunji Son, Rev. Rebecca Nie.

YouTube Version.

Instagram Version. (Please share!)

If you enjoyed this and you know of funding opportunities for a project like ours, please reach out! We are also receiving donations to help us continue into season 5, which includes the time it takes to find guests, record, edit, and get the word out about the podcast! We would love to continue forwarding BIPOC voices!

Email: info.access2zen@gmail.com
IG: accesstozen