Resources for new subscribers

How to understand our community?

Rites of passage in our community (Boundless in Motion Sangha)

Welcome to many new people who have joined our email list in the last two months. You might want to look at our community's rites of passage to see if any of our offerings might be right for you to engage in.  We will be adding more offerings in the next few months to our rites of passage to integrate our Buddhist training modules with Ecodharma/Polycrisis related healing and reindigenizing modules. 

Four kinds of meditation

(From Kritee Kanko) I often find that there is a tremendous amount of confusion among practitioners about how many different kinds of meditation techniques exist and which one is suitable for them at a given point in their meditation practice. I created a short 12 minute video to explain these different types of meditation. Please see on Instagram or Facebook: you don’t need an account to see the videos. Here is a blog post on this topic.

Needless to say, we cannot create radical political changes we need in our society without inner healing. People cause harm and trauma when they haven't learnt to love themselves. The path is not linear. The path is unending. It is sweet and also full of pitfalls. Some people start with compassion practices and achieve deep states of mind quickly. Many people start out with narrow focus practices and over time learn to embrace themselves. Unfortunately, some people in a teacher's role learn to access deep and unconscious layers of mind but still have a lot of grief and trauma and perpetuate trauma. 

  1. If you are ready to try silent narrow focus concentration techniques, try our donation-based Introduction to Zen module numbers 1 (and preferably 2) and then attend Wednesday evening sangha (Zoom or in-person) where we have two 25 minutes periods of silent meditation.

  2. If you are ready to go deep, we have half a day of meditation every alternate Sunday to truly hear the sound of deepest buried pain in our own body. Please do donation-based Introduction to Zen module numbers 1, 2 and 7 before joining on Sundays. The path isn't rosy but it is easier with a loving and wise community.

  3. If you are ready to attend a silent Zen retreat, the next one in 2025 is from May 12-18 in Colorado and will include a day of silence and kinning in the wilderness. We always have scholarships. You must complete several online introduction modules before joining this retreat.

  4. If you want to deepen a compassionate attitude towards your own body and mind in the midst of a human community, you can start with our online offerings on Monday night (only for BIPOC) or Saturday mornings where we offer guided meditations for relaxation and contemplation. Or consider our Annual BIPOC Retreat in August 2025 or Returning to the Source Retreat from May 19-25 2025. 

I look forward to serving you in these times of polycrisis. 

"Introduction to Zen training" modules

We are continuing to offer online "Introduction to Zen training in BIM sangha" sessions. The sessions are video-recorded and available for anyone to view upon registration (which is available at sliding scale donation). Please let me know if you would like to be included in the email list for these topics and please feel free to invite your friends who might have interest in meditation or are curious about joining . You can view the topics of these introduction modules on this webpage.

Podcasts, Interviews and Blogs

In addition to longer articles and interviews archived here, I am continuing to add short teachings on my personal website's blog. Touko Kuusi also continues to lovingly work behind the scenes to add a new dharma talk to the podcast every month (podcast links in the footer of this website). Here are a few good recent ones.

We must “Reindigenize” Buddhism

Shamanic and animistic roots of Asian Buddhhism

I wanted to send a recent article I wrote that was picked up for publication by Tricycle. This article explains ways Asian Buddhism was different from the kind of Buddhism that has come to the European and American communities. It speaks about how leaving out shamanic practices makes Buddhism less relevant in these times of polycrisis.  The version on my website is slightly longer because of examples and has more hyperlinks. Tricycle requires subscription.

Climate Consciousness Summit

What if Climate movement allowed itself to feel?
Can descendants of colonizers & colonized be allies?

I was recently interviewed by Matthew Green who lives in the UK for the Climate consciousness summit. We had a great conversation -- touching on our trauma as descendants of colonizer (Matthew's great-grandfather was in the British Army and went to India) and colonized (My grandfather was an Indian freedom fighter). You can see a good lineup of speakers on collective trauma here. Here is a newsletter Matthew wrote after that interview that highlights importance of feelings within the Climate and justice movement

One Earth Sangha and Denver Post articles on Kritee’s work

Denver Post published an article on Ecodharma Center earlier this year. They interviewed me for this article and mentioned some of the retreats organized by our BIM sangha and our collaborators. Here is the link. Tricycle magazine invited me to write an opinion piece on the importance of grief and rage ceremonies. This opinion piece accompanies a beautiful article written by climate activist Nikayla Jefferson, one of our regular people of color retreat attendees, which explains her deep experience of undergoing a grief ceremony. This has been republished by One Earth Sangha.

Reminder: A good video interview: Finding Courage and the medicine of Kali

Last month, I had recorded a great conversation with Matthew Green where addressed the trauma we are all feeling, ongoing polycrisis, Kali, justice and Reindigenzing in the coming week for two different hosts/organizations. Here is the link to the video interview. Here is a summary of the discussion but I recommend the full conversation. During many parts of this interview, I felt I was being carried/held by Kali energy. Matthew brought out many things I have not heard myself speak about on public platforms before. 

Let us please take refuge in Kali energy: Raw, naked, unfiltered, authentic, completely unafraid of fear and lion-hearted warrior energy within ourselves. In the end, Kali is a loving mother. When I evoke her, I am evoking freedom to love all life at every point of time.

Resources for engaging with the world

Post U.S. 2024 election Resources 

If you live on Turtle Island (otherwise known as the United States), you might be worried like me about what the new administration can do in the United States for hearts and minds. A dear Ecodharma friend Lama Willa sent this quote by Albert Camus today on the spiritual work needed:  "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your existence is an act of rebellion". But this inner work in isolation, especially by financially, racially or otherwise privileged communities, will not mean much. We must combine inner work with really actually nourishing communities that will be targeted by the white supremacist government.

  • Waging Nonviolence continues to put out great articles for these times in terms of needing multiple strategies.

  • Article by Bhikkhu Bodhi after elections. He is the foremost translator of ancient Buddhist Pali texts and he speaks very clearly about what we need to do in the times to come! Lion's Road has articles by other teachers as well.

  • Waging Nonviolence's article by Daniel Hunter. It goes into individual level spiritual work needed at this time and also what will be effective (or useless) in terms of collective actions. Please find a community to work with. Don't be alone.

Who to follow on social media (Instagram links)
You can follow websites by the same groups as well. Some of them will be holding training sessions in the times to come.

Grieving & supporting "Pal" life

Sacred Mountain Sangha (SMS) led by Thanissara and Sacred Justice Coalition had released a 64 page webzine (online magazine) in early 2024. This zine contains articles by several young Buddhists who are of Arab descent and live in the US/UK. Then we gathered to have a follow-up conversation with Buddhist leaders from different lineages on June 9th to discuss how do we face these times of polycrisis (genocide and climate crisis) as dharma practitioners. Here is the full video of the June gathering. SMS organized another powerful event on December 14: see details here. 

Thich Naht Hanh's letter: Relationship with our animal kins

Beloved and Venerable Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a letter written in 2007 (actual letter starts with the words "UNESCO reported"). It is beautiful and complex. He layed out a complex argument about human ability to be compassionate towards animals, land, waters and climate.  Animals have deep intelligence, feelings and sentience: How do they feel when they are limited to a cage or taken away from their families?