Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Grant(s) Awarded

In 2019, A grant in the amount of $12,500 was awarded to support “The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Gathering of Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent”. This was a seven-day retreat for taking refuge at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, developing community, and sharing the experience of being both black and Buddhist in America. The retreat had three focus areas: 1) providing mutual support, sharing pedagogy and establishing a new-cross lineage sangha; 2) centering the needs of the black community and the role that Buddhist teachers of African descent can play in the pursuit of a collective healing and liberation; and 3) celebrating shared rich black heritages.

In 2005, a grant in the amount of $15,000 was awarded to benefit the “Path of Engagement” program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, located in Northern California. The two-year training program was designed to cultivate greater wisdom and compassion in community and business leaders, service providers and activists, in an effort to help them develop the capacity to sustain momentum and involvement in the important issues of the day. Structured around a series of silent meditation retreats, the program worked to illuminate the connection between individual, relational and social transformation and provided a bridge between the secular perspective on outer change and more traditional Buddhist teachings focusing on inner change. Emphasis has been on developing an approach to and understanding of the world’s problems in a manner that maintains connection rather than the belief that we are alone in our efforts.