Expansive Transformation: Mindfulness and Social Justice

This event will host and gather social justice researchers and community change agents to weave the transformative power of Mindfulness with the needs and urgencies of social and cultural justice.

The East Bay Meditation Center
& The Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society
Led by john a. powell and Larry Yang

The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley and the East Bay Meditation Center will host and gather social justice researchers and community change agents to weave the transformative power of Mindfulness with the needs and urgencies of social and cultural justice. Mindfulness and contemplative tools are invaluable in the longitudinal sustenance ofour work across what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has called the long “moral arc of the universe” as we bend it towards justice.

Our convening will be led by Professor John A. Powell, internationally recognized expert and scholar in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley, and Larry Yang, Buddhist meditation teacher at East Bay Meditation Center and Spirit Rock dedicated to creating access for multicultural communities. Participants will engage with experiential mindfulness practices and explore how they can be placed into social justice practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own stories and experiences, and a public event will follow at the end of the program in the evening. The daylong event will be by invitation only. Please try to attend as much of the day as possible.

John A. Powell is an internationally recognized expert and scholar in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and a wide range of issues including race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty, and democracy. In addition
to being a Professor of Law, African American Studies, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor powell holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, and serves as the Director
of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. In addition to having founded and directed various Institutes across the nation, Professor powell has taught at numerous law schools, including Harvard and Columbia University, and has authored of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.

Larry Yang teaches meditation nationally, and has spent much energy to deepen Dharma teachings within mul- ticultural communities. Larry is a core teacher of EBMC. He is on the Teachers’ Council and the Board at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and is the Guiding Teacher of Insight Community of the Desert in Palm Springs, CA. Larry is trained as a psychotherapist and has spent six months as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He considers retreat practice, family practice, livelihood practice, and householder practice all integral to a spiritual path towards Freedom. He is one of the teachers who coordinate the Community Dharma Leadership training program cultivating future leader- ship in the dharma.
EBMC is wheelchair accessible.