Open Letter: Why support East Meditation Center?

Dear Dharma Friends,

Although we in the SF Bay Area are blessed with opportunities to practice the Dharma, some of us have long recognized that many of our Sanghas do not fully represent the diverse communities in which we live. For the last three years, East Bay Meditation Center in downtown Oakland has been creating a model multicultural, Dharma community—a center that internationally known Buddhist teacher and author Jack Kornfield describes as "the most diverse Sangha on the planet."

EBMC opened in January, 2007, with the express purpose of welcoming populations who may not feel fully welcomed and included in other Bay Area sanghas, namely, people of color,
LGBTQI/same-gender loving communities, lower income people, those with disabilities, and youth. All programs are offered on a donation basis and the center operates almost entirely by the generosity of a devoted group of volunteers and financial supporters.

Alice Walker and Jack Kornfield are enthusiastic supporters of EBMC and both have presented daylong and evening benefit events. You can learn more about this unique urban center in a moving 12-minute video featuring Alice, Jack, and EBMC teachers and community members on the EBMC website. In only three years, it has become clear that EBMC is meeting a need within its target communities:

Participants at EBMC classes and events are 52% people of color and 43% are self- identified as LGBTQI/same-gender-loving; 49% of participants earn less than $35,000/year, 25% earn less than $20,000/year.
Over half of EBMC events fill up and have waiting lists.
In 2009, total attendance at all sitting groups and at the more than 60 classes and one-day retreats was over 5,000.

Due to this success, EBMC needs to move to a larger facility in order to continue meeting the needs of its growing community. To help meet this goal, Joseph Goldstein—prominent teacher, author, and co-founder of Insight Meditation Society—generously offered an evening of dharma discussion in Berkeley in August 2010. All proceeds benefited EBMC’s campaign to move to a larger facility.

If you are moved by this exciting and unique multicultural community, you may register for the evening with Joseph or donate online on the EBMC website. You will also find an option to join the Friends of EBMC monthly-giving program, which sustains the Center’s growth as a spiritual home available to all regardless of socioeconomic status. EBMC is deeply grateful for your generosity.

In behalf of the EBMC Leadership Sangha,

David Foecke and Mushim (Leadership Sangha members)