Shambhala Online Weekly Dharma Gathering
“The Personal Path of Unraveling Social Conditioning”
with Alexandra Vlasic
Hosted by Ashley Dinges
All are welcome to join these weekly events, which include guided meditation and a talk and discussion with a featured guest teacher.
On March 6, we will welcome Alex Vlasic for her talk “The Personal Path of Unraveling Social Conditioning.” We've all been socialized, or conditioned by the culture, people, and institutions around us, so when we sit to meditate, we are not just sitting with our own minds, but also with society and the messages that we have absorbed over our lifetime(s). Together we will explore how we can engage our innate awareness to expose, unravel, and de-bunk the untruths that we hold in our minds and bodies, particularly the biases, privilege, and internalized oppressions around race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability, that live within us whether we actively believe them or not. The path of practicing social justice can begin with our own minds and hearts.
This tradition began at Shambhala New York in the early 1990s as a way to welcome the greater community into the Shambhala center. Today, many Shambhala centers around the world continue to host these events for members and friends of the Shambhala community. We hope that these events will allow us to collectively examine the issues facing our sangha and larger society by spotlighting new and fresh voices across our mandala.
The Shambhala Online Weekly Dharma Gathering series is hosted and curated by Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls. Dr. Smalls is a teacher in the Shambhala lineage and student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. They are assistant professor of Black Culture and Literature, as well as as a performer and performance studies scholar. Dr. Smalls has published work on hip hop, film, queer performance, and a host of other scholarly topics. Connect with Shanté on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Join live or watch later. When you register for a talk, you’ll receive:
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A link to view the event live
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Access to view the archived video after the live event concludes
The cost is $10 for the General Public and $20 for Patrons who wish to pay-it-forward. Cost for Centers is $60, and $40 for Groups.
Because we are committed to making these programs accessible to all, there is also a 25% discount option that one can select for each talk (Click on the "Request a discount" link below). To request a further discount or scholarship, write to [email protected].
Schedule
7:00pm ET - Welcome & guided meditation
7:25pm ET - Dharma talk
7:55pm ET - Q&A with teacher
8:10pm ET - Announcements
About the Teacher
Alex Vlasic has been practicing meditation and studying dharma within the Shambhala Buddhist lineage for 8 years as a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. She is a facilitator, writer, emerging Shambhala teacher, and assistant teacher to the UnTraining White Liberal Racism program. She lives in Plainfield, VT.
