Down with the Dharma – Details, episodes & analysis

This is the first talk and panel discussion of the Association of Buddhist Care and Counseling conference (July 25-27) 2020.

Speaker: Lourdes Argeulles 

Title: "Migration, Fear, and Compassion-Focused Practices"

Panelists: Harriet Wrye, Stephanie Mines, Elaine Dove, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde

Facilitator: John Freese

Links:

Lourdes Arguelles

https://www.cgu.edu/people/maria-de-lourdes-arguelles/

https://www.drikungkc.org/lopon-dorje-khandro

Harriet Wrye

https://www.ipa.world/IPA/en/Societies/societies_focus/los_angeles.aspx

https://www.amazon.com/Pulling-Up-Stakes-Stepping-Freedom/dp/0983925526

Stephanie Mines

http://www.tara-approach.org/

https://www.cccearth.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQOAxT8llto" (TED Talk on Guidance)

https://youtu.be/D2RxzSTusKc (Stephanie Mines on Unprecedented Leadership)

Elaine Dove

https://dovehealingarts.org/

Pamela Ayo Yetunde

https://www.unitedseminary.edu/academics/faculty/pamela-ayo-yetunde/

Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) 
https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100165976-12898971?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.springer.com%2Fgp%2Fbook%2F9783030425593%3FcountryChanged%3Dtrue

Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom (Shambhala, 2020)

https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/pamela-ayo-yetunde.html

John interviews Dr. Stephanie Mines about her work in healing shock and trauma. Topics include somatic attunement, Buddhist practice, the energy medicine of Jin Shin Jyutsu, and the groundswell of Earth consciousness in response to global warming. Dr. Mines is the founder of the TARA Approach to heal shock and trauma and is the vision holder of Climate Change and Consciousness. 

Guest host and UWest psychology student Farah Shaikh interviews people from Kranti about the importance of practicing the fourth precept of mindful speech and deep listening. Kranti is a nonprofit organization that empowers girls from Mumbai's red-light areas to become agents of social change and happiness.

https://www.kranti-india.org/

https://feminisminindia.com/2017/12/06/interview-robin-founder-kranti/

Joanna Paulino, a UWest student from John's class on Buddhist social ethics, talks about her interview with Jason Thomas. Jason is a former gang member and incarcerated person who now mentors youth to help them stay out of gangs and free from addiction to drugs. Joanna talks about Jason's story using the teachings on the five precepts and an understanding of trauma.  

John interviews longtime socialist and labor organizer Dr. Mike Slott about Marxism, his career in the labor movement, his interest in secular Buddhism, his involvement with the Secular Buddhist Network, and his Marxist Buddhist analysis of the obstacles we face in creating a more just and mindful society. 

Mike has been teaching as a Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University since 2001. In addition to Introduction to Labor Studies, Mike has taught Collective Bargaining, American Unions and Politics, and the History of Labor and Work in the United States.

Mike received a Master's in Labor and Industrial Relations and a Doctorate in the Social and Philosophical Foundation of Education at Rutgers. Mike has been an active participant in the labor movement for over 40 years. He has had experience in many areas of union activity, including negotiating contracts, presenting union grievances at arbitration hearings, organizing new members, and coordinating union educational programs.

A long-time political and labor movement activist, Mike continues to explore the intersection between secular Buddhism and socially engaged Buddhism.

He is a member and practice leader at New York Insight (NYI) in the USA and principal editor of the Secular Buddhist Network and its monthly newsletter,  ‘Reimagining Community’.

John interviews Tim about dialogue-based mindfulness, psychotherapy, and peer counseling. 

Tim Desmond is a psychotherapist, author, Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Antioch University New England, and student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center, he lives in Alstead, NH, and teaches mindfulness and self-compassion practices audiences around the world. His publications include Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy (W.W.Norton, 2015), The Self-Compassion Skills Workbook (W.W.Norton, 2017), and How to Stay Human in a Fucked Up World (HarperOne, 2019).

https://timdesmond.net/

https://peercollectivementalhealth.com

John talks with Reverend Dr. Nathan Jishin Michon about his research on the burgeoning field of Buddhist chaplaincy in Japan. Rev. Dr. Michon is a Shingon priest. He did his dissertation at the Graduate Theological University in Berkeley CA. His research involved reading the works of, interviewing, and observing Buddhist chaplains in Japan responding to the unprecedented suffering caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.