Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00 PM: Dharma and Justice: Embodiment and Sensuality in Buddhist Traditions, featuring Rima Vesely-Flad, Karla Jackson-Brewer, and Leslie Booker. Watch below:

In Buddhism, the body is the seat of practice, sometimes known as the “vehicle for liberation” on the path of Dharma. What does this mean in a tradition that emphasizes liberating the mind? What do Buddhist lineages teach with regards to sensual and sexual energies? In conversation with Leslie Booker, an authorized dharma teacher in the Insight (Theravada) tradition and Karla Jackson-Brewer, a Tara Mandala authorized teacher in the Vajrayana tradition, we will explore questions of Buddhist doctrine and practices on liberation and the body.

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad MDiv `02, MIA, PhD `13 is a Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary.  She is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022) and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017).  She leads retreats and classes for dharma centers throughout the U.S.

Learn more about Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad here.

 

 

Karla Jackson-Brewer MS is a Lecturer in the Women’s & Gender Studies Department and the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers, The State University where she teaches courses on the dynamics of race, gender and class, the African diasporic experience, and how gender occurs in numerous spiritual systems.She is a Co- founder of Sine Qua Non: Allies in Healing, an Integrative Therapy Practice in New York City. She has developed and offered many workshops and trainings for organizations that focus on, race, gender, class, equity and structural oppression, Emotional Intelligence, meditation, spirituality and the Sacred Feminine.

Karla is the Co-Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council and is a senior teacher of Vajrayana Buddhism at Tara Mandala Buddhist Retreat Center. She is an initiated priest in the West African spiritual system of Ifa.

 

 

Leslie Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care. She shares her offering widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. In 2020 she was a Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary, and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her partner and pup, and serves as the Guiding Teacher of New York Insight.
More of her teachings can be found at https://www.lesliebooker.com/.