Podcast-Boosted-FB-2-angel-kyodo-williams

The newest episode of our university podcast, ‘MindfulU at Naropa University,’ is out on iTunes, Stitcher and Fireside now! We are very excited to announce this week’s episode features a very special guest, Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei.

williams was Naropa’s 2015 Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Distinguished Guest Lecturer and has taught in Naropa’s MA Resilient Leadership program as well as the Authentic Leadership Center’s Mindful at Work program.

Episode 19 – Rev. angel Kyodo williams: Liberation Through Radical Dharma

“Radical dharma and mindfulness – everybody is going to get a little taste of some meditation, and its great – whatever door you use to enter into practice is great. But the conflation of mindfulness with a depthful practice that includes an ethic view is a problem. When mindfulness becomes yet another thing that we can modify, and we think [mindfulness] is something that is there so that we can consume it, then it’s actually serving our ego. It’s serving our ideas of who we are and who we would like to be seen as, in our performance as ourselves. In that way, it can become a factor in our incarceration rather than our liberation.”

“Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei, is an author, maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically-acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace. Her book was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker and “a classic” by Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. Her new book, Radical Dharma, explores racial injustice as a barrier to collective awakening.

Ordained as a Zen priest, she is also a Sensei, the second of only four black women recognized as teachers in the Japanese Zen lineage. She is a social visionary that applies wisdom teachings and practice to social issues, and sees Transformative Social Change as America’s next great movement.  She is an early shaper and leading voice in that work and coined the name for the field. In recognition of her work, Rev. angel received the first Creating Enlightened Society Award from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the leader of the international Shambhala Community.

For over 20 years, she has deeply invested her time and energy to putting into practice her unwavering belief that the key to transforming society is transforming our inner lives. She has developed comprehensive systems for illuminating both practical personal change and the profoundly liberating potential of mindfulness, yoga, and somatic practices coupled with wisdom teachings. Calling for a paradigm shift that “changes the way change is done,” angel envisions the building of a presence-centered social justice movement as the foundation for personal freedom, a just society and the healing of divisions of race, class, faith and politic.

Both fierce and grounded, she is known for her unflinching willingness to both sit with and speak uncomfortable truths with love. Her work has been widely covered by such publications as New York TimesBoston GlobeMs., Essence, BuddhadharmaVillage Voice, and on the Oxygen Channel. angel notes, “Love and justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.” Whether in writing, teaching or speaking, her voice is unique.”

(Via http://angelkyodowilliams.com)

If you’re interested in continuing to grow in your humility and compassion, check out our Master of Arts degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy & Buddhist Psychology.

Learn more about MindfulU at Naropa.