The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Jennifer Berezan reflects on the necessity for courage, compassion, and the power of community in uncertain times. Even to simply stop and sit with what is requires bravery—especially amid aging, societal unrest, and personal struggles. She emphasizes meeting the moment with “loving awareness,” as Jack Kornfield taught, and encourages us to find refuge in practice, even when the world feels heavy.

In her signature style, Jennifer weaves music and story into the dharma, sharing mantras and songs that uplift and reconnect. She honors her late teacher Joanna Macy, an eco-philosopher and Buddhist scholar, recounting their journey to witness environmental devastation in Alberta and Macy’s profound teaching: “The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe,” which embodies the bodhisattva Tara and her mantra as a call to compassionate action. Jennifer closes with a poem by Andrea Gibson and a song by Carrie Newcomer, reminding us that joy, beauty, and connection are radical acts of healing.

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Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing. Find her at https://jenniferberezan.com/

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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

When seen with clarity, the dharma sheds light on nearly every aspect of our daily lives. 

In this highly engaging talk, Eve Decker explores in plain language how Buddhist teachings can help us deal with our daily struggles. By highlighting the intersection of Buddhist wisdom and neuroscience, she shows how ancient teachings align with modern psychological frameworks.

Eve emphasizes that the Buddha was, in many ways, a master psychologist—offering insights into suffering, habit formation, and emotional regulation that contemporary science continues to affirm. Eve draws on the work of Dr. Rick Hanson and Dr. Daniel Siegel to illustrate how mindfulness and compassion practices can rewire the brain, and she highlights how Buddhist teachings on awareness, intention, and ethical living are echoed in therapeutic models like Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Polyvagal Theory.

Eve also breaks down several key concepts that bridge Dharma and psychology:

1. Neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to change through repeated practice, supporting the Buddhist emphasis on intentional cultivation.
2. Negativity bias – our tendency to focus on threats, which mindfulness helps balance by training attention toward wholesome states.
3. Self-directed neuroplasticity – consciously reinforcing positive traits like gratitude and kindness, a core aim of both Dharma and CBT.
4. Internal Family Systems (IFS) – recognizing and compassionately working with different “parts” of ourselves, much like Buddhist teachings on non-self and multiplicity of mind.
5. Polyvagal Theory – understanding how safety and connection regulate our nervous system, aligning with the Buddhist emphasis on compassion and relational presence.
6. The role of repetition – how consistent practice strengthens beneficial traits, whether through meditation or therapeutic exercises.

Throughout the talk, Eve reminds us that transformation is possible—not through force, but through gentle, repeated attention. With warmth and clarity, she shows how both science and spirituality point toward the same truth: we can train the mind toward freedom.

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Eve Decker has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1991, and has taught groups, daylongs, and short retreats since 2006, particularly at Spirit Rock, the East Bay Meditation Center, and elsewhere in the Bay Area. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and of Spirit Rock’s Path of Engagement and Community Dharma Leader training programs, and has been trained in the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Eve is also a singer/songwriter who has combined the power of music and dharma practice. Her most recent CDs are “In: Chants of Mindfulness & Compassion,” and “Awakening Joy - The Music.”
Find her at EveDecker.com

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Renunciation is sometimes misunderstood as involving dramatic sacrifices or rejecting the world.

In this talk, Danadasa emphasizes that it’s actually about creating spaciousness in the heart and mind for deeper clarity and connection. It’s less about deprivation and more about redirecting our energy toward something more meaningful and peaceful.

He shares how, in the Buddhist path, renunciation helps loosen the grip of craving and habit energy, making space for genuine freedom. He describes how we often live on autopilot, and renunciation can be as simple as saying no to distractions or addictive tendencies that clutter our awareness. He offers personal reflections and encourages listeners to explore this not as a moral duty, but as a source of joy and liberation.

Danadasa also outlines three key insights related to renunciation:

1. Letting go is natural – Just like a child eventually lets go of toys they outgrow, our inner life can outgrow certain attachments too.
2. Renunciation reveals what’s already here – When we drop constant seeking, we begin to sense a quiet contentment that was hidden beneath our cravings.
3. It's supported by mindfulness – The more present we are, the more we see what’s wholesome to keep and what’s wise to release.

He encourages us to reflect without pressure, and to trust the unfolding of our own path.

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Danadasa (he/him) began meditating and practicing Buddhism in 1993 and was ordained in the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 at the San Francisco Buddhist Center. At his ordination, he received his Buddhist name Danadasa which, in Sanskrit, means “servant of generosity”. In 1995, he developed a heart connection with the archetypal Buddha Amitabha, rooted in the Japanese Pure Land tradition Jodo Shinshu (known in the Western world as Shin Buddhism), and has been practicing an Amitabha sadhana (devotional practice) since 2011. 

Danadasa is deeply passionate about teaching meditation, mindfulness and Buddhism in a somatic and embodied way, bringing the Buddha’s teachings to life in our imaginations through images and storytelling. Embodied practice is the path of getting out of our heads and into our bodies, for it is in our bodies that liberation reveals itself. 

Over the past 20 years, Danadasa has held various administrative and leadership roles within the San Francisco Buddhist Center (SFBC). And in 2023, he resigned from all of his formal SFBC roles, as well as taking a break from teaching for a period of wandering in the wilderness, free from the external responsibilities, expectations and social norms of the monastery, following in the footsteps of the great “crazy wisdom” Mahasiddhas of the past. Since then, many lineage Masters and archetypal Buddhas have provided Danadasa with guidance and inspiration, including Tilopa, Naropa, Padmasambhava, Vajrakilaya, and Machig Labdron. In 2024, Danadasa received Vajrayogini initiation and empowerment. Through Vajrayogini, the Mother of All the Buddhas, the meaning of the Buddha’s words is beginning to reveal itself.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In Part 3, René Rivera looks at how we connect intimacy with self and others to the whole of our life. He examines how we can become more aware of, and present to, the world around us.
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René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man.

René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender-based violence.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

After first exploring intimacy with ourselves in Part 1, we now look at how the dharma informs all our relationships:
Intimate, friends, family, colleagues, society, and even the natural and unseen world - ancestors, guides and deities. 

In this talk, René Rivera reminds us that we can become more grounded in our relationships using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which are awareness of:
1. The physical body
2. Feelings and sensations
3. Thoughts and consciousness
4. The dhammas - phenomena and the nature of existence
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René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man.

René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender-based violence.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Welcome to EPISODE 800!
Most Buddhist practices, such as loving-kindness and compassion, begin with ourselves. So it is with the concept of intimacy, which Daigan describes as "being authentic in the experience of the moment."
(One sangha member frames Intimacy as "In-to-me-I-see")

In this first of a series on intimacy, Daigan posits that we must become connected to ourselves if we are to appreciate and enjoy our connectedness with all things.
He asks us to explore questions such as:
What does it mean to be me in this moment?
What experience am I having and what's it like to have that experience?
Do I avoid feelings of loneliness rather than experiencing them when they arise?
How do I REALLY feel about my present experience?
What do I actually enjoy sexually?
Do I believe I like something only because I think I should?
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Rev. Daigan Gaither (he/him) began Buddhist practice in 1995 in the Vipassana (Insight) tradition, and then began to study Zen in 2003. He received Lay Ordination in 2006 where he was given the name Daigan or “Great Vow,” and received Priest Ordination in July 2011.

Daigan speaks internationally on a variety of topics, particularly around gender, sexuality, social justice, and their intersections with the Dharma. He also sits or has sat on a number of boards and committees that serve community needs and further social justice causes.

Daigan has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Buddhist Studies (with a chaplaincy certificate and a certificate in Soto Zen Buddhism) from the Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies. You can find out more via his website www.queerdharma.net. He lives in San Francisco, CA and identifies as a disabled, queer, white, cis male. 

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

•  Donate 
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CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How does joy arise in our lives? Do we notice our experience of joy or do we minimize it as merely a fleeting good feeling? 

In this talk, Alistair notes that we tend to naturally dwell on the negative, so it's important to welcome and anchor the joy we encounter in life to incline ourselves toward it more and more in each present moment.  

Recent science tells us that our brain is shaped by what we rest our attention on. This confirms what the Buddha said: "Whatever you think and ponder upon will become the inclination of the mind."

Sympathetic Joy (happiness for the good fortune of others) is one of the 7 Factors of Awakening as well as the Brahmaviharas (the Divine Abodes or Great Immeasurables). But joy is more spontaneous than happiness, which often depends on outside conditions. 

Alistair also explores joy's connection with delight and gratitude, which can often give rise to joy. In much the same way, moments of awe and wonder, such as in nature,  can result in spontaneous feelings of joy.  
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Alistair Shanks is the Volunteer Program Manager at Zen Caregiving Project where he has worked since 2004, first as a hospice volunteer and training facilitator, and in his current position since 2016. He completed his clinical residency, (CPE), at UCSF and currently serves as a chaplain at both the Parnassus and Mission Bay campuses. He has a Master’s degree from the Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union and has presented at the Association of Professional Chaplains conference and Harvard Divinity School. 

Alistair has been a dedicated practitioner and teacher of the Daoist Internal Martial Arts of Tai Chi, Qigong, and Ba Gua for 27 years, something that has given him a deep appreciation for the wisdom and power of somatic practices to regulate and heal both body and mind. Past volunteer work includes leading mindfulness meditation sessions in the San Francisco County Jail and serving as a volunteer chaplain at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He has played and toured internationally with several Bay Area bands for the past four decades.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

•  Donate 
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•  Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995

CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In this talk, John Martin shares that our practice can lead us to a peace that is not dependent on the conditions of the outside world. It is cultivated by our internal practice and inner peace means freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts and emotions.

Peace arises in those times when we are not fixated on the past or the future but on the current moment. Accepting the present moment allows us to make peace with this moment and thereby with the entire world, just as it is.

"World peace develops from inner peace." ~ The Dalai Lama

Through practice, we begin to see that the cause of our mental suffering is wanting things to be different than they are. Yes, we have preferences and we work for change, but in each moment we must accept it as it is just now. 

A great mystery and openness arises within us when we let go of our preferences. By doing this, we can meet each moment with compassion, which leads to peace.

He speaks of the pali term Nibudi - a peaceful and relaxed mind.

The Buddha taught that we can find peace in the midst of suffering by recognizing that resistance of the mind to dukkha creates its own suffering which is unnecessary.

John shares how his relationship to physical pain changed once he accepted it as just another form of sensation, without judging it. This led him to a direct knowing of the First Noble Truth, that there IS suffering in our life and the world. When we accept this fact, we realize that it's not us -- it is life itself, and there is nothing wrong with us just because we experience dissatisfaction.
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John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.
Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

•  Donate 
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•  Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995

CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In this interactive talk, Prasadachitta reflects on the practice of chanting and then leads the sangha in a few chants. In the Triratna tradition, chanting engages the imagination, which helps counterbalance the more cognitive aspects of the dharma teachings that engage the rational mind.

He describes how chanting and imagery can help us open up to all aspects of the present moment, the vast world around us, and our own being.

In one, he introduces the figure of Green Tara from the South Indian tradition, who rose from the lake of tears shed by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
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Prasadachitta was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2011 and he became the Chair of the San Francisco Buddhist Center in April 2022. He was born on a “back to the land” commune in rural Northern California and that background has inspired his engagement with others in building the SFBC’s rural meditation center called Dharmadhara. He also helped to establish a community of sangha members who support the retreats there. He supports himself as a documentary filmmaker and photographer but his real life’s work is training others who want to practice Buddhism within the Triratna Buddhist Community.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

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•  Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995

CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How do we respond when we witness suffering?
In this talk, Devin Berry reflects on passages from the Dhammapada related to compassion for others and ourselves in the face of dukkha.

He shares that the Buddha described compassion as "the trembling of the heart in response to suffering."

Especially in marginalized communities, we practice to create a refuge of belonging, which requires opening our heart. However, the habit of seeing those we encounter as 'other' can constrain our willingness to actively respond with care. Compassion requires a willingness to lean into suffering and be touched.
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Devin Berry is an Insight Meditation Society guiding teacher. A meditator since 1999, his practice is primarily informed by the metta and vipassana teachings of the Insight Meditation tradition. He has undertaken many periods of silent long-term retreat practice. Devin is committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that through the integration of reflection and insight, clarity and wisdom give rise to wise action. Devin was mentored by Larry Yang, Lyn Fine, Joseph Goldstein, Carol Wilson and Andrea Fella. He lives in New England and the Bay Area and teaches nationally. 

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:  

•  Donate 
•  Learn how to participate live 
•  Find our schedule of upcoming speakers 
•  Join our mailing list or discussion forum
•  Enjoy over 900 recorded talks dating back to 1995

CREDITS
Audio Production: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter