Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community - Softcover

Larry Yang

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614293511 ISBN 13: 9781614293514

Publisher: Wisdom Publications, 2017

Synopsis

"Part personal reflection, part guidebook, part manifesto, and part analysis of what ails our country and our Dharma communities, Awakening Together is a treasure-trove of insight and hands-on advice, gleaned from years of experience and offered with clarity, gentleness and--most of all--with love."
--from the foreword by Jan Willis

For every center, organization, or individual who wishes to create a welcoming community for all, this book is a must-read.

How can we connect our personal spiritual journeys with the larger course of our shared human experience? How do we compassionately and wisely navigate belonging and exclusion in our own hearts? And how can we embrace diverse identities and experiences within our spiritual communities, building sanghas that make good on the promise of liberation for everyone?

If you aren't sure how to start this work, Awakening Together is for you. If you've begun but aren't sure what the next steps are, this book is for you. If you're already engaged in this work, this book will remind you none of us do this work alone. Whether you find yourself at the center or at the margins of your community, whether you're a community member or a community leader, this book is for you.

From the foreword by Jan Willis:

"Especially in times like these, fraught on every side with threats from racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and anti-queer bias, a welcoming and safe space for meditation practice is the most kind and compassionate thing we can create for each other. And yet, in Dharma settings, people [with marginalized identifies] feel, in Larry's words, 'unattended, unloved, unseen, and even harmed.'

Awakening Together provides us with a detailed, step-by-step blueprint of the hard work involved in creating and maintaining a diverse community and, in doing so, shows us how we can begin and continue to build an inclusive sangha.

If you are ready to commit to the idea that we, as a diverse group of Buddhists, ought to be able to awaken together, and to honor and share all of what and who we are in the process, then take up this book, Larry's loving clarion call. Consciously, mindfully, read Awakening Together with openness and with joy."

About this title

About the Author

Larry Yang teaches meditation retreats nationally and has a special interest in creating access to the Dharma for diverse multicultural communities. Larry has practiced extensively in Burma and Thailand, with a six month period of ordination as a Buddhist monk under the guidance of meditation master Ajahn Tong. Larry is one of the core teachers and leaders of the East Bay Meditation Center and is on the Spirit Rock Teachers Council. He is one of the coordinating teachers of the Spirit Rock Teacher Training program and their Community Dharma Leader program. He lives in San Francisco.

Jan Willis is the author of Dreaming of Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist--One Woman's Spiritual Journey. She teaches at Wesleyan University, and lives in Connecticut.

Sylvia Boorstein is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and is the author of It's Easier than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness, as well as several other books

Edition details

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1614293511
• ISBN 13: 9781614293514
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 255