JD Doyle serves as a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center and has held many roles there, including Board member and co-founder of the LGBTQIA2+ meditation group. JD is in the Spirit Rock teacher-training program and has participated in the Dedicated Practitioner Program (DPP2) and the Community Dharma Leader Program (CDL4). JD has practiced Theravada Buddhism since 1995 in the U.S., Thailand, and Burma. For over twenty-five years, they worked as a public school teacher focusing on issues of equity and access. JD has taught a wide variety of groups from children to adults. JD holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Cornell University and a Master’s degree in Language and Literacy and Sociocultural Studies from the University of New Mexico. JD identifies as genderqueer. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, addressing the impact of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways that honor the sacredness of the Earth.
Overview of how Mudita (Unselfish Joy/ Appreciative Joy) can be a wellspring for our practice, followed by a guided meditation that begins with gratitude and continues to offering joy to a dear one, self, and all beings.
Practicing with doubt is at the heart of honoring ourselves and the diversity of our individual experiences. Explores doubt as a hindrance, as well as questioning doubt that can lead to faith and wisdom.
A weekly drop-in group that focuses on bringing our Buddhist practice fully into our lives. We will meditate together, listen to Dharma teaching, and share the lived experience of our practice. We aim to create a radically inclusive space where all are welcome (especially those who might have experienced marginalization such as LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, and economically impacted people). All levels of experience are invited to attend. All are welcome.
A weekly drop-in group that focuses on bringing our Buddhist practice fully into our lives. We will meditate together, listen to Dharma teaching, and share the lived experience of our practice. We aim to create a radically inclusive space where all are welcome (especially those who might have experienced marginalization such as LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, and economically impacted people). All levels of experience are invited to attend. All are welcome.
Exploring the inescapable realities of the human condition as a path to orient ourselves to away from linearity and into complexity and mystery to support awakening
The Buddhist teachings on the 7 factors of awakening guide us on the our path. The awakening factors of mindfulness, curiosity, energy, joy, tranquility, gathered mind, and equanimity are supports for the gradual training of the heartmind. Developing the sense of trust in the path and the support of discernment in meeting each moment with kindness and wisdom.
Sharing the Buddha's aspiration to teach out of compassion for the world, you are invited to bring that inspiration into your compassion practice. This guided meditation starts with an overview of compassion and then the guided meditation focuses on an easy being and then opens to all beings.
Exploring Anatta, with an invitation to curiosity and intimacy with the not knowing, beyond the conceptual mind of the constructs of the self. As we investigate the constructions of self, we begin to untangle the sense of self that we are familiar with and open to the possibility of the fullness of Anatta.
Guided Metta meditation that begins with an overview of working with difficult or challenging people. Meditation explores the cultivation of Metta, starting with easy beings, moving to difficult beings and ending with all beings.
This meditation starts with a short introduction to practicing with Vedana (or feeling tone) and then continues with a guided meditation that invites you to bring your awareness to different parts of the body and different senses to recognize Vedana as it arises.
An exploration of how the three refuges can be used during retreat to support practice. Recognizing the lineage and Buddha nature, the Dharma of our bodies, and the Sangha as a network as support systems that undergird our practice. Includes working with perceptions and using the natural world as part of practice.
During this half-day, we will gather as a community of white people to investigate the impacts of racism and white supremacy culture in our hearts, minds, and communities. The Buddha’s teachings form a liberatory framework that helps us to explore racial conditioning. Using the Buddhist teachings, we will gain insight into how conditioning causes suffering both individually and collectively. With curiosity, compassion, and humility, we will learn together to uproot the delusions of separation and to nurture communities that foster liberation for all beings.
The Buddha’s teaching of the three jewels offers a way to radiate beauty in your life and in your community. The three jewels of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are also referred to as refuges, as they offer us protection from the dangers of the world. These three interrelated jewels help orient us to live in harmony with each other and support us on the path to liberation. Practicing with these jewels, will sparkle and radiate goodwill and kindheartedness in all directions.
This day of practice will include periods of meditation, chanting, dhamma reflections, small group discussions, and Q&A.
All are welcome!
