*Jan 7: Trauma & Transformation - Retreat for People of Color with Arisika Razak

Open to self identified people of color

Saturday, January 7, 2017
10:00 am – 4:00 pm

If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice? - Maha Ghosananda

Memory is the selection of images; some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. . . . But truth changes color depending on the light. And tomorrow can be clearer than today. - Kasi Lemon, from the film Eve’s Bayou

Our experiences of grief and trauma may be invitations to deepen our self-awareness, healing, compassion and transformation. Using Buddhist teachings, guided meditation, movement, writing, embodied exercises and trauma studies, we will explore the gifts and challenges found in these difficult and provocative experiences.

Please bring something for the altar.

Arisika Razak, RN, NM, MPH is the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her teachings incorporate diverse spiritual traditions, women's health and healing, multicultural feminisms, queer theory, and contemporary diversity theory. Arisika has led national and international spiritual and healing workshops and ritual celebrations for women for over three decades, as well as embodied spiritual workshops for women and men, including several daylong workshops at EBMC. She has also co-facilitated workshops with Marlene Jones at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

The East Bay Meditation Center operates using a generosity-based, gift economics model. This means we charge no set registration fees to attend our events and instead rely on the generous giving of our community. All classes at the Center do come with a financial cost. Class participants are offered an opportunity to make a voluntary gift to EBMC during the registration process or at an event itself.

Please note that no one will be turned away for lack of funds. If you would like to explore any EBMC volunteer positions, please send an email expressing your interest to admin@eastbaymeditation.org

EBMC TEACHERS ARE NOT PAID BY THE CENTER and and you can offer a voluntary financial gift to them at the class.

In order to protect the health of community members with environmental illness, please do not wear fragranced products (including natural fragrances) or clothes laundered in fragranced products to EBMC.