Receiving & Understanding: An Interview with Margarita Loinaz

Margarita Loinaz and Rev. Liên talks about how practice and teachings to & from BIPOCs was challenging, shifted and transformed in the SF Bay Area since they first met at the Women of Color group in 1996.

Margarita Loinaz, MD has trained in the Tibetan and Theravada traditions. She met her root teacher Kalu Rimpoche in 1977 and is a Dzogchen student of Lama Drimed Norbu. She is a graduate of the first Community Dharma Leader’s Program at SRMC and began teaching in l997 leading the Women of Color Sitting Group in Marin City with Marlene Jones and co-organizing the first People of Color Retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 1999. Her current teaching integrates Dzogchen practice with social justice and environmental awareness. As a physician, she served Day Laborers, the Latinx and Homeless communities in San Francisco. She is a grandmother and originally from the Dominican Republic.

Talks and Videos present on Youtube, Vimeo and Dharma Seed, EBMC POC Sangha recordings, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center recordings on programs such as BIPOC Voices, day-longs and BIPOC retreats.

She can be reached at: greatmotherinquiry@gmail.com

Comfortable with the Fluidity: East-West, Tradition-Modernity

DUNGSE JAMPAL NORBU is son and Dharma Heir of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in the Mangala Shri Bhuti community. His mother is Dharma teacher Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel.

Dungse la has lived and traveled extensively in Asia, but spent much of his youth in Colorado. If you were to ask Dungse la how long he has been studying the Buddhist path, he would say, “Since I was born.”

When Dungse la was still an infant, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche instructed Kongtrul Rinpoche to train Dungse la to uphold and continue Kongtrul Rinpoche’s lineage, particularly that of Mangala Shri Bhuti.

With the foundation of his life-long guidance and education from Kongtrul Rinpoche, Dungse la also teaches widely and engages in an annual 100-day retreat at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling. Dungse la’s anecdotal style and first-hand curiosity about how Buddhism relates to actual experience imbue his teaching with a fresh perspective, and reveal a natural wisdom and humor

Check out Dungse-la’s Dharma talks on the EveryBodhi Podcast.

You Can't Touch This: A Journey towards Self-Love with La Sarmiento

So many of us struggle to truly accept and understand ourselves, to find our own place of belonging and feeling at home in ourselves. In this intimate conversation between friends, La shares their powerful journey to fully loving and honoring themselves as a trans, immigrant, Filipinx, ukelele-playing dharma teacher and how they practice to transmit this dharma of radical self-acceptance, and resistance to oppression, to other BIPOC practitioners in the dharma world.

To connect with La: www.lasarmiento.com, Instagram: @bodhila, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodhiLa

Photo Credit: Suzanne Kulperger

Mind to Mind Connection with Venerable Thuần Tuệ

Venerable Thuần Tuệ, Abbess of Diệu Nhân Zen Monastery in Rescue, CA, is interviewed by Rev. Liên Shutt. They first met when Rev. Liên practiced at Trúc Lâm Zen Monastery in Đà Lạt, Vietnam in 2006-2007.

Born in Vietnam, Venerable Thuần Tuệ was ordained in 1979 by Venerable Zen Master Thích Thanh Từ, Founder of the Trúc Lâm (Bamboo Forest) Zen lineage. She practiced at Bát Nhã Zen Monastery, Viên Chiếu Zen Monastery and Trúc Lâm Zen Monastery in Vietnam. Since 2012, she has traveled to England, Belgium, France, Germany, Canada, and many states in the U.S. to give Dharma talks and lead Zen retreats in mostly Vietnamese communities.

Her books include Keys to Buddhism (Vietnamese & English. Translation with Huyen Bach & Rev. Thuy Liên Shutt - Publication 2011), Tâm Bình Thường (Publication 2016- in Vietnamese) and Từ Một Tâm Trong Lặng (Publication 2019 - in Vietnamese)

For more info go to dieunhan.net

Thank you to Sister Phương Thiền and lay person Thanh Ngữ for their translation support.

May this be for the benefit of all beings.

Venerable Thuần Tuệ, Abbess of Diệu Nhân Zen Monastery, shares a short meditation from a visit at Folsom Prison.