We understand that many of us reside on lands that did not belong to our ancestors. We recognize the harm that was done and we honor those who stewarded the lands that we so gratefully live on. We express gratitude for their hearts, their souls, and their resilience. We vow to treat the land we live on with care, respect, and wisdom while honoring the souls before us. We understand that we live in a society where due to human greed, aversion, and ignorance, BIPOC communities have experienced systemic harm and violence. Our hearts and our practice stands with our BIPOC members, as we recognize their collective strength, the wisdom gained, and the traditions cultivated. We make a conscious intention that as long as we are walking on this path, we vow to understand the causes of suffering for BIPOC communities created by societal structures and delusion and to bring awareness, wisdom, and compassion into our sangha to foster healing. 

We recognize that due to attachment to a sense of self, division, greed, envy, pride, and misunderstandings, our society has various oppressions, such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, religious oppression, and colonialism. We honor all those that have received harm, and we dedicate our practice to deepen our awareness, to broaden our hearts and minds to the breadth and depth of human suffering and the causes of these sorrows, and to inspire a courageous heart that vows to liberate all beings from all forms of suffering, and we vow to attain collective liberation, healing, and true happiness within oneness and unity. 

“And so, this spiritual life is not lived for the sake of possessions, honor, and popularity, or for

accomplishment in ethics, or for accomplishment in concentration, or for knowledge and vision.

Rather, the goal, the core, and final end of the spiritual life is the unshakable freedom of heart.”

~ Buddha 1

Resources

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1 Paraphrased from The Longer Simile of the Heartwood : Mahāsāropamasutta MN: 29