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Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners

Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners

By: Rev. Liên Shutt & Rev. Dana Takagi
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About this listen

Welcome to "Opening Dharma Access," a podcast where we hear stories from BIPOC teachers & practitioners about their Dharma experiences and practice, and how those inform the ways they are sharing & practicing the Dharma today.

Season 3 description: Hosted by Rev. Liên & Rev. Dana Takagi
This season, we will have a new focus: Uplifting and Forwarding Asian American/Asian Diasporic Buddhist Experiences in the West.

With our guests and audience, we will explore the specificities of Asian American/Asian Diasporic experiences. We take as given that there are generational differences (hence the historical moment matters!) and we hope to also delve into Asian family norms and values, our inchoate understanding of ancestor worship, issues of identity, representation, stereotypes about sexuality and sexual identity, and Asian American depression.

A theme we'll be using to help guide our conversations is The Disquiet - a term we are adapting from writer/poet Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet) -- which, in our view, signals a complex recognition of self, mind, and body. The evidence for the foregoing includes scholarly research indexed in aggregate statistics on depression, youth suicide, and other issues in immigrant or first-generation families. While Asian Americans are not alone in experiencing trauma, the racial languages and discourses of othering are different for us than for other groups.


What do we hope is the outcome of this podcast? Our first aim is to give voice to the range and depth of Buddhism in Asian and Asian American generations. We hope, in doing so, we help to shine a light on the limited or myopic envisioning of race in primarily white sanghas. Asian and Asian American diasporic truths about practice are a teaching for contemporary dharma organizations and centers. We recognize the depth and range of Asian and Asian Diasporic Buddhists is a wisdom mirror for organized Buddhism in the West.

Thank you to the Hemera Foundation for their generous support of Season 3!

Contact us at: Info.Access2Zen@gmail.com
Further Info at: AccessToZen.org

© 2025 Opening Dharma Access: Listening to BIPOC Teachers & Practitioners Spirituality
Episodes
  • Morning Chant, guided meditation, and Offering of Merit (Ékoku) w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi

    Morning Chant, guided meditation, and Offering of Merit (Ékoku) w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi
    Sep 16 2025

    Judy Nakatomi shares meditative offerings: Morning Chant from the Plum Village Tradition, guided meditation, and an Offering of Merit from the Shin Tradition in Japanese (Ékoku). The recording of bird sounds was made by Judy at Plum Village.


    Listen to her full interview with Rev. Liên to hear about Judy's experience with biculturality and the complexity and beauty of practicing Buddhism across traditions.


    GUEST:

    JUDY YUSHIN NAKATOMI (she/we) is a mother, partner, auntie, writer and community cultivator, nurturing BIPOC sangha. past work/life as tea ambassador/ importer, congressional field rep and hospice caregiver. Judy is an ordained dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, certified ministerial assistant, and descendant of ancestors incarcerated during war; dedicated to understanding the wisdom of intergenerational joy and sorrow.

    Writing highlights:

    https://littleawakenings.blogspot.com/

    https://www.okaeri.org/okaeri-book

    https://www.lionsroar.com/the-evolutionary-journey-of-mothering/

    Connect with Judy:

    IG: judy_yushin_nakatomi

    Subtack: Judy Nakatomi
    Show More Show Less
    12 mins
  • Belonging to Zen, Belonging to Shin: Two Traditions, One Engaged Heart w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi

    Belonging to Zen, Belonging to Shin: Two Traditions, One Engaged Heart w/ Judy Yushin Nakatomi
    Sep 2 2025

    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 States.


    People/Organizations mentioned in the episode:

    Dr. Satsuki Ina

    Dr. Duncan Ryūken Williams

    Bishop Marvin Harada

    Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

    Tsuru for Solidarity

    Vista Buddhist Temple


    GUEST:

    JUDY YUSHIN NAKATOMI (she/we) is a mother, partner, auntie, writer and community cultivator, nurturing BIPOC sangha. past work/life as tea ambassador/ importer, congressional field rep and hospice caregiver. Judy is an ordained dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, certified ministerial assistant, and descendant of ancestors incarcerated during war; dedicated to understanding the wisdom of intergenerational joy and sorrow.

    Writing highlights:

    https://littleawakenings.blogspot.com/

    https://www.okaeri.org/okaeri-book

    https://www.lionsroar.com/the-evolutionary-journey-of-mothering/

    Connect with Judy:

    IG: judy_yushin_nakatomi

    Subtack: Judy Nakatomi


    HOST:

    REV LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and those seeking a “home” in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder of Access to Zen (2014). You can learn more about her work at AccessToZen.org. Her new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path. See all her offerings at EVENTS
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • How Thinking Drives Our Beliefs & Actions: with Rev. Liên

    How Thinking Drives Our Beliefs & Actions: with Rev. Liên
    Aug 19 2025

    Buddhist teachings on how we have been conditioned to interpret raw data; which then drives us to behave. -- An excerpt from Rev. Liên's book, Home is Here, to accompany Professor Michael Omi's in-depth interview on racial formation this month.

    REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and those seeking a “home” in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder of Access to Zen (2014). You can learn more about her work at AccessToZen.org. Her new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path. See all her offerings at EVENTS
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
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