Dear people of color community of San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara,
San Francisco Zen Center is exploring how to build awareness and equity in dharma practice, and in the workings of all our centers—City Center, Green Gulch and Tassajara. As part of this intention, a team at Zen Center has undertaken an assessment to build understanding of how to support this vision. Members of this team include Central Abbess Linda Cutts, City Center Abbot Ed Sattizahn, Vice President Tova Green, SFZC Cultural Awareness Advocate Lee Lipp, City Center Director Shundo David Haye, Zen Center Board member Bruce Fortin and consultant Arinna Weisman.
You are an important voice in this process and we invite you to a meeting to hear your experiences in regard to these challenges. The facilitator will be Phil Hutchings. Phil has lived in the Bay Area since 1977 and has been an active meditator since 2000. As an African American, his meditative experiences and practices have been within a “peoples of color” context although he often attends lectures and retreats of Buddhist teachers from different traditions from around the world. His main Buddhist “home” is the East Bay Meditation Center, located in downtown Oakland. He was the co-founder of Creative Alliances in the Bay Area specializing in multi-racial partnerships, organizational development and strategic planning.
The meeting is on Wednesday, September 17, from 5:30 – 7 pm at the Conference Center, 308 Page Street, San Francisco. We hope you will respond to this invitation; please email Shundo at ccdirector@sfzc.org, or call 415-354-0383 to indicate your attendance.
Thank you,
The Team and Phil Hutchings
