PODCAST

Opening Dharma Access

Rev. Liên Shutt, Kaira Jewel Lingo and Lama Karma Yeshe Chodron

The three hosts take turns interviewing other BIPOC teachers to hear how their practice experiences inform the way they teach the Dharma today.

religion & spirituality buddhism

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"How Am I Going to Serve My Purpose Today?" w/ Eunji Son

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/11/04

Find out a bit more about Eunji Son, Access to Zen's (A2Z) part-time admin and all-the-time SUPPORT for us all who practice or engage with any A2Z events or digital content. Hear how her own practice and spiritual journey has taken her far, wide -- and deep!GUEST:EUNJI SON is based in South Korea, evolving her relationship with ancestral land, and practicing as a photo collage and mixed media artist. She works behind the scenes at A2Z and ODA as a part-time assistant.CONTACT: You know how to reach

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Buddhism as Engaged & Political with Siddhesh Mukerji

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/10/07

Tune in to this soulful conversation between Siddhesh Mukerji and Rev. Liên on the intersections of Engaged Buddhism & Buddhist Social Work.GUEST:SIDDHESH MUKERJI (he/him) is a Zen practitioner and a scholar/researcher of engaged Buddhism and Buddhist social work. He was born in India, grew up in the United States, and currently lives in Ireland.

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Belonging to Zen, Belonging to Shin: Two Traditions,...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/09/02

Judy Yushin Nakatomi talks about her practice in the Zen and Shin traditions. She also discusses how she is practicing with her Bodhisattva vows through engaging with the current internment of minority people, while practicing awareness of her own family's history with war wounds. Judy and Rev Liên share with each other some of the nuances of having or not having access to ancestral languages and culture, and how they navigate being Asian American Buddhist practitioners in the United

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The Struggle to Construct Racial Meaning with...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/08/05

Professor Michael Omi joins Rev. Dana to help us contextualize the current climate of racial formation, namely the propagation of a far-right ideology of an oppressed white race, in a much longer history of constant changing in definitions of and associations with racial identities. In Buddhist terms, we can see the theory that Michael co-developed contains an essential Buddhist perspective, namely that of Mental Formations. Stay tuned later this month for a practice offering from Rev. Liên!Michael

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Our Heritage of Othering and Resistance w/ Historian...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/07/01

Professor Alice Yang helps us put the systematic othering we are seeing in the U.S. today into historical context. She discusses the oppression and disappearance of people, and points out how protest movements are often erased from the history Asian American and other immigrant groups in the United States, when the truth is that we can embrace and continue a deep heritage of resistance. Alice emphasizes the urgency of knowing our history to expand what we think is possible in the present, and why it

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Big Heart Resilience with Rebecca Nie

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/06/03

Rebecca Nie talks about the common misconception that China is an ethnic monolith, and how she identifies with her Huaren heritage. Although her spiritual path was discouraged in her early life, she discusses being connected to a centuries old heritage of a resilient Dharma that allows us to dream without limitations even through turbulent times.Rebecca also mentions a book-in-progress which will be a translation of Chan Zen Master poems responding to turbulent historical moments, pointing out how

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Grow Up in the Dharma with Mushim Patricia Ikeda

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/05/06

Secular & Buddhist teacher Mushim Patricia Ikeda in convo with Rev. Liên on how mature practice can help us deal with the current conditions of our world.GUESTMushim Patricia Ikeda is an internationally-known secular mindfulness and Buddhist teacher working primarily with justice activists and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) meditation practitioners and with people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. A core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, she is

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June Tanoue - Hula as Resistance

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/04/02

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Season 4 Premiere: Engaged Asian American/Asian...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/03/20

In the season 4 premiere, Rev. Liên Shutt and Rev. Dana Takagi discuss the need to continue to forward Asian American and Asian Diaspora Buddhist voices in these tumultuous times.Thank you to everyone who has listened so far, and continue to tune in!It's not too late to take our listener survey! Respond by March 21st and get access to an exclusive meditation recording by Rev. Liên: "Tenderhearted Buddhas for these Times".

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Season 3 Compilation - A Beautiful Web of Asian...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/03/05

On season 3, we co-created and witnessed an amazing example of how the Net of Indra weaves and connects. We heard from 13 Buddhist practitioners and teachers of Asian American or Asian Diaspora heritage, and in their own words, spoke to what the AA/AD Buddhist experience is for them.Season 3 is officially a wrap! Thank you to everyone who listened with us, and we hope you join us for more Asian American/Asian Diaspora forwarding conversations and offerings in season 4.Full list of guests, and their

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Widening Our View and Practicing Seeing Perfection w/...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/02/18

Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United States a whole bunch of difficult circumstances: the L.A. fires; the current administration.This dharma talk is from co-host Rev. Dana Takagi. Dana speaks on what wisdom could look like in times like these, and how to expand our vision as well as awareness about our current national systems work, and

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Talk: Healing in Time & Space with Rev. Liên Shutt

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/02/05

Hello, listeners of Opening Dharma Access, for February, we're doing things a little bit different by offering you some meditations and Dharma talks on current conditions as 2025 brings to the United States a whole bunch of difficult circumstances: the L.A. fires; the inauguration.NOTE: This talk was given at a BIPOC group, addressing specific fears & issues of people of color in extremely challenging U.S. political and social justice contexts. May it be for the benefit of all beings.

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Eco-Dharma Care with Ram Appalaraju

Opening Dharma Access ·

2025/01/07

RAM APPALARAJU was brought up as a Hindu and has been on a spiritual path since the 90's, first studying Vedanta and pursuing Buddhism since 2012.After years of practice he chose to pursue a path of service and became a chaplain focused on Ecology as well as supporting marginalized people in prisons and homeless shelters.He is now on the faculty at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies’ Eco Chaplaincy program.He also serves as a board member and an advisor at several nonprofits focused on climate

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"Platforms for Zazen: From the Cushion to the...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/12/03

LISA NAKAMURA (she/her) is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Culture and Digital Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is also a core faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program, the Film, Television and Media department, and the English department at Michigan.Lisa is the author of four books on racism, sexism, and the Internet and her book “The Inattention Economy: Women of Color and the Internet” is forthcoming in Fall 2025 from University of

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"Insight Dialogue & Further Relationality" with...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/11/05

Yenkeui Chuang & Rev. Liên dialogue on some "edges" of "Diasporic Asian Americans," overseas Asian practices, and then Insight Dialogue. Yenkeui shares fascinating details of the interconnections from all the different traditions she's practiced in. Come listen!YENKUEI CHUANG was born a Taiwanese girl before she became an American woman. As a licensed psychologist, somatics and mindfulness teacher, she is passionate about helping people heal and find freedom, belonging, and power in the richness

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"There is no Buddhism without Women" (part 1) w/ Dr....

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/10/01

Dr. Paula Arai talks with Dana about being brought up by her Japanese mother, and how she realized the way that she embodied Buddhism in her body and mind not through intellectual study or what Westerners view as formal practice, but through the simple actions and embodied guidance of her mother. PAULA ARAI (she/her) (Ph.D., Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni Chair of Women and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Steeped in ethnographic

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"Meeting with my Asian Sangha Tonight" with Poet Bo...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/09/03

Listen in to hear how Bo Hee Moon was inspired by practice in the 3-month course "Lotus Rising from Mud: A Path for Anti-Asian American Restoration.Guest:BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems. She previously published under a different name.Connect with Bo at:BoHeeMoon.comAfterlives: An AGNI Portfolio

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"Zen Practice as Community Building" with Ryan Lee Wong

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/08/08

GuestRyan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Temple and is the Administrative Director of Brooklyn Zen Center.Some of Ryan's publications include:Which Side Are You On, his novel published in 2023.Every Past Life All At Once, a critical essay on the films Past Lives and Everything Everywhere All At Once on The AMP.The Buddha on TV: Nam June Paik's fraught relationship to Buddhism, on

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"Silence is Not the Way" with Professor Sharon Suh

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/06/28

A layered and engaging discussion with Prof. Sharon Suh on what "Asian American Buddhism can be defined as; including the refusal to be silenced.Guest:SHARON SUH is professor of Buddhism at Seattle University and author of Being Buddhist in a Christian World: Gender and Community (2004); Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film (2015); and Occupy This Body: A Buddhist Memoir (2019). She focuses on racialized trauma experienced by people of color and emphasizes the importance of

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O'kagesama-de (All thanks are due to you...) with...

Opening Dharma Access ·

2024/06/04

Rev. Dr. Jean-Paul Contreras deGuzman talks about how he came to Jodo Shinshu Pureland Buddhist practice coming from a Catholic family and after moving forward from a traditional path as an academic. He and Dana Takagi have an enlivened discussion about the importance and power of cultural gatherings like Mochi-tsuki for sangha and the wider community, and the role of pop culture references in Rev JP's talks in the San Fernando Valley. REV. DR. JP DEGUZMAN (he/him) is minister’s assistant at the

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