How
can we connect our personal spiritual journeys with the larger course
of our shared human experience? How do we compassionately and wisely
navigate belonging and exclusion in our own hearts? And how can we
embrace diverse identities and experiences within our spiritual
communities, building sanghas that make good on the promise of
liberation for everyone?
If you aren’t sure how to start this work, Awakening Together
is for you. If you’ve begun but aren’t sure what the next steps are,
this book is for you. If you’re already engaged in this work, this book
will remind you none of us do this work alone. Whether you find yourself
at the center or at the margins of your community, whether you’re a
community member or a community leader, this book is for you.
From the foreword by Jan Willis:
“Especially in times like these, fraught on every
side with threats from racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and anti-queer
bias, a welcoming and safe space for meditation practice is the most
kind and compassionate thing we can create for each other. And yet, in
Dharma settings, people [with marginalized identifies] feel, in Larry’s
words, ‘unattended, unloved, unseen, and even harmed.’
Awakening Together provides us with a
detailed, step-by-step blueprint of the hard work involved in creating
and maintaining a diverse community and, in doing so, shows us how we
can begin and continue to build an inclusive sangha.
If you are ready to commit to the idea that we, as
a diverse group of Buddhists, ought to be able to awaken together, and
to honor and share all of what and who we are in the process, then take
up this book, Larry’s loving clarion call. Consciously, mindfully, read Awakening Together with openness and with joy.”
247 pages. Paperback.