San Francisco State University College of Business Professor Ron Purser has been invited to lead a workshop titled “Secular Mindfulness: Benefits, Concerns, and an Engaged Buddhist Path Forward” at the International Buddhist Peace Fellowship Gathering. The gathering will be held August 29 through August 31, 2014 in Oakland, California at the East Bay Meditation Center.
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship was founded in 1978 with the mission to serve as a catalyst for socially engaged Buddhism. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s programs, publications, and practice groups link Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion with progressive social change.
This workshop intends to bring together people active in the conversation on mindfulness to discuss the benefits and concerns of secular mindfulness. The intention is to present a diversity of thoughts on the issues and to frame the conversation around the following questions: What are our highest aspirations for the practice of mindfulness, as people committed to social justice and dharma? What is the role of ethics, morality, and social justice convictions in connection with the trends of secular mindfulness? Should and can mindfulness be ethically neutral? Should and can we challenge the notion of ethical neutrality?
This session intends to provide space for a collective discussion of how to move forward with openness, care and an honest consideration of the concerns and ideas brought forth in the conversation. Purser will hold this workshop with Mushim Patricia Ikeda, a Dharma teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. This is the first time since 2006 that the Buddhist Peace Fellowship will host a national Gathering.
The program will offer hands-on training in nonviolent direct action, Dharma practice and collective healing strategies, dialogues on climate justice, anti-racist organizing and economic inequality