Equity Diversity and Inclusion Council Annual Update

Dear Tara Mandala Community,

Through the commitment to ongoing practice, humility, and community, Tara Mandala is dedicated to improving how we manifest as a diverse and inclusive organization in the world. The past year brought changes and new energy into this effort, as led by the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council (EDI).

The highlight in this past year of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts involved working with Equity in the Center. Equity in the Center (EiC) works with organizations to shift mindsets, practices, and systems in order to help them adopt a more race equity culture. Our purpose for engaging with EiC was to get their help to explore the key levers that drive change and the stages that can mark transformation using their proprietary offerings, Race Equity Cycle and Awake to Woke to Work.

With their support, we are developing a broader understanding of how to be effective in our EDI work by approaching it from a structural, organization-impacting perspective. Already we see a widening of our awareness about the practices, tools, and methods that can help us shift toward a more race equity culture.

In 2022, the entire Tara Mandala organization, including staff, board, and teachers, participated in two training sessions with the EiC team. These sessions introduced a new language and framework for our work to overcome the barriers of integrating a more inclusive approach to Dharma and community. There were also follow-up sessions with the EiC leadership team that resulted in a renewed clarity of how to focus our internal processes and are supporting serious and timely ongoing conversations about how our work can provide a positive impact at a system-wide level.

We also welcomed the transition and leadership of Robert Thomas, the new Executive Director (ED) of the organization as co-Chair of the EDI Council. Robert has been a champion of equity and inclusion over the past 30 years in various leadership roles at other Buddhist organizations. Already in his time as Tara Mandala ED, he has been a vocal and present supporter of creating a more diverse, welcoming, and inclusive environment.

Robert is already actively engaged in creatively exploring opportunities to increase diversity in all facets of the organization, while also instilling the importance of ongoing staff learning, growth, and capacity development. He is supporting frank and open discussions about ways that we can positively change and evolve as an organization to create a more safe, welcoming, and equitable environment for all persons who wish to work, study and practice together in the Tara Mandala community.

In addition, throughout the year we had important discussions around topics like sexual misconduct in the Vajrayana lineage, the ethics and implementation of transgender housing and accessibility at Tara Mandala’s retreat center, the tensions of civility and aversion when having hard conversations within the council and with others at Tara Mandala who are involved in EDI work. Each of these moments involved thoughtful, exciting, and sometimes challenging, conversations about Tara Mandala’s current place in its evolution as a global sangha that values and welcomes people of diverse races, genders, sexual orientations, economic statuses, and relationships to power.

Here are some ways we look forward to deepening and making our work more effective to generate more Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in 2023:

Continuing to work with the Equity in the Center Race Equity Framework

The initial trainings and consultations with EiC, focused us at a structural level, with new language and frameworks that will enable us to work for change across the organization. These introductory trainings and the materials that we received from EiC are now informing our next steps and helping us craft a plan for our work in 2023 and beyond. We will continue to consult with the EiC team at key points as we develop, iterate, and begin to implement our plan.

Ongoing integration and expansion of EDI voices

• Our monthly EDI Council meetings now also include quarterly meetings with a larger group of council advisors. These include members from our international Sangha and serves to acknowledge and integrate the ongoing inclusion of wider views, issues, and inputs. We look forward to continuing to learn from different perspectives within our community and are encouraged by our work as a council which is continuing to evolve and unfold in a responsive and organic way.

• We welcomed new EDI Council member Pamela Ambrose, a wonderful addition from our wider Tara Mandala Sangha. Pamela is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and brings a seasoned Dharma practice and many years of experience supporting the Bay Area Sangha. In 2023, we anticipate benefiting greatly from Pamela’s thoughtful and deeply-intentional perspective as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and working with her to explore new ways to support our LGBTQIA+ Sangha members.

Integrating our EDI work with Tara Mandala’s Dharma practice

• With a program development grant from Tara Mandala, Senior Teacher and EDI Council co-Chair, Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer, is developing an online EDI Training course. These trainings will go deeper into the interpersonal issues around race and equity, identifying and understanding microaggressions, learning how to address racism individually and in the sangha, viewing situations through an equity lens, as well as building cultural literacy and genuine respect for diversity. We are excited about the potential of her course to bridge the gap between the principles and practices of Vajrayana Buddhism and our EDI work toward race equity. She is crafting a unique, immersive, 8-week experience that we will first offer internally to the Tara Mandala staff. We will then share it more broadly, as a program available to the entire Tara Mandala Sangha in order to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion across our global community.

• Launching the LGBTQIA+ Sangha. We are discussing and working on a structure and schedule for these meetings which will begin this spring – stay tuned for more information.

• The BBAIPOC meditation group is an ongoing resource and sangha community for people of color who meet monthly under the direction of Lopön Karla Jackson-Brewer. To learn more about this sangha and to join their monthly meetings, contact Karla (click here) or email ny*@ta*********.org for more information.

• Severing Attachment to White Supremacy (SAWS 1): Stay tuned: We are exploring ways to make the teachings of SAWS 1 accessible and supportive for community building. This will hopefully also support Lopön Karla’s EDI training course that we will offer in 2024. We will announce more details as they become available. This will be offered via the Tara Mandala Network where members can continue to dialogue, foster new ideas, share resources, and continue studying and practicing together.

In all of these efforts, we recognize that our commitment to EDI involves immediate activity together with longer-term intentionality. Countering centuries of conditioning and unconscious biases doesn’t happen overnight, nor should we “wait and see” what other organizations plan to do. We appreciate our community’s support in these efforts as we strive to learn and grow as individuals and as an organization with international reach.

We welcome your ideas and input regarding EDI issues in the Dharma and at Tara Mandala. We thank you for your continuous practice and your support of these efforts. May our practice and commitment to be of benefit to all beings remain firm and our heart of compassion be radiant as we navigate the waters of bringing more equity, diversity, and inclusion into our community.

With extraordinary respect,

Tara Mandala EDI Council Members & Advisors