Awakening White Awareness: An Insight Dialogue and Race Equity Program

Watch the Program Video and Hear from the Teachers

This eight-week series for white-bodied people integrates the transformative Buddhist practice of Insight Dialogue (relational mindfulness) with anti-racism education. We will explore and co-create anti-racist culture within a dedicated, compassionate community of study and practice. Through present-moment awareness we may better understand, without judgment, the impact of racism and our own cultural conditioning. In addition to being conditioned by culture, history, and power relations, from a Buddhist perspective racism is rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion. Racism is both historical and contemporary. Unless examined, it will continue to cause harm. This program arises out of our fervent wish to lessen that suffering.

How might our uninvestigated cultural conditioning as white-bodied people contribute to harm for ourselves and others? With curiosity and kind awareness, we will inquire into what it means to be white. We will explore how the Brahmaviharas – lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity – may serve as antidotes to racialized perception and suffering. These qualities expand and connect our individual awareness to collective awakening. The Brahmaviharas can become available as resources for our ongoing resilience as we take wholesome action in meeting racism in ourselves and the world.

Program Format: The program opens with a Retreat Day on Saturday, January 31, which will include orientation and an introduction to Insight Dialogue Guidelines. Then, each two-hour session on Thursdays will include an introduction, dharma talk, guided meditation, focus on an Insight Dialogue guideline, and breakout/large-group practice to harvest insights. Between sessions participants will engage with weekly home study materials which may include articles, audio recordings, and/or videos, and meet with an assigned practice partner at a mutually agreeable time.

For Whom: All levels of practice and racial awareness are welcome, whether new or experienced in anti-racism study or the practice of Insight Dialogue. Awakening White Awareness is a way to begin again, to step into something bigger than oneself: into collective transformation.

Together let us hold an intention for cultivating respect and kindness towards all beings in order to live connected, wakeful lives. Let’s invest in becoming a community rooted in peace, resting in wisdom, and opening wide our hearts towards freedom. We look forward to learning together.

PLEASE NOTE: An interview is REQUIRED for acceptance into the program.

Within one week of registering, you will be contacted by a member of the Awakening White Awareness team to schedule an interview. If you are not accepted, you will be given a full refund of the amount you paid.