Insight Myanmar6 Jan 2021

Detached Engagement: Racial Equity Training in the Vipassana organization of S.N. Goenka

What place does engagement in social justice issues have, if any, within vipassana meditation centers in the tradition of S.N. Goenka? That is question Clyde Ford is asking, and is at the heart of a training session he led for teachers and students at Dhamma Kunja, a vipassana center in Washington state.

In addition to being a corporate trainer on racial justice, Clyde is himself a dedicated vipassana meditator in the Goenka tradition. He is also a software engineer, a chiropractor, a psychotherapist, an environmentalist, a 12-time, award-winning author, and currently a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. He has appeared on Oprah and NPR, among other shows, to share his expertise.

In this episode, Clyde shares what led to his ground-breaking training at Dhamma Kunja, and what topics he covered in the session. We talk about spiritual bypass, past attempts at targeting courses for African American communities being blocked by the US leadership, proactive outreach opportunities to communities of color, ensuring that vipassana centers are more inclusive, the appointment of Black teachers, and finding a balance between spiritual practice and worldly affairs.

This fascinating discussion provides an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at how one North American vipassana center in the tradition of S.N. Goenka is exploring ways to transition into greater sensitivity in the second decade of the 21st century.

If you would like to support our mission, we welcome your contribution. You may give by searching “Insight Myanmar” on PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, Go Fund Me, and Patreon, as well as via Credit Card at www.insightmyanmar.org/donation.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(619)

Straight Outta Yangon

Episode #604: “I chose hip hop.” Born in Yangon in 1979 to parents who were nationally known singers, Anegga grew up in a household where art was both celebrated and watched. His father had helped int...

10 Sep 2h 34min

The Sum of Small Cuts

Episode #603: Saw Poe Wah assists the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) and speaks from a life shaped by the Thai–Myanmar border camps where he studied, lived, and later worked with community-based organi...

8 Sep 59min

Bearing Down on Practice

Episode #602: “The things that I was devoted to for liberation became the weapons that were used to harm me. The community that was a refuge became the thing that exiled me.” Amma Thanasanti, a medita...

7 Sep 2h 9min

An Unfound Door and All the Forgotten Faces

Episode #601: Chalida Tajaroensuk, chairperson and founder of the Thailand-based People Empowerment Foundation, argues that responses to Myanmar’s post-coup crisis must be grounded in the experiences ...

4 Sep 1h 27min

The People’s Credentials

Episode #600: “I won’t be disappointing the people.” Before Kyaw Moe Tun took the UN General Assembly floor on February 26, 2021, that was as much as he had disclosed about the position he intended to...

3 Sep 2h 12min

The Cure Within

Episode #599: “I've been blessed to be on a spiritual journey for well over the last 50 years,” says psychiatrist Raman Khosla, reflecting on the lifelong search that eventually led him to S.N. Goenka...

1 Sep 1h 34min

Price of Raw Power

Episode #598: Rare earth mining has drawn Kachin State into a global struggle over minerals essential to electronics, green technologies, automobiles, and defense, while communities near the mines bea...

31 Aug 1h 35min

No Direction Home

Episode #597: Victor Chan’s life began not with a spiritual calling but with motion. Born in Hong Kong and trained in physics, he left without a fixed destination and spent the early 1970s moving acro...

28 Aug 1h 39min