Dr. Paula Arai talks with Dana about being brought up by her Japanese mother, and how she realized the way that she embodied Buddhism in her body and mind not through intellectual study or what Westerners view as formal practice, but through the simple actions and embodied guidance of her mother.

PAULA ARAI (she/her) (Ph.D., Buddhist Studies, Harvard University) holds the Eshinni & Kakushinni Chair of Women and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. Steeped in ethnographic research, she takes an embodied approach to her work and finds poetic immersive storytelling a potent medium for conveying experiences of transformative healing.

Her publications include:

Women Living Zen (Oxford University Press)
Bringing Zen Home (University of Hawaii Press)
Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra (Shambhala Publications)
The Little Book of Zen Healing: Japanese Rituals for Beauty, Harmony, and Love (Shambhala Publications)

Explore her website to read some of Paula's poetry, stay up to date on appearances, and learn more about her.


Your host

REVEREND DANA TAKAGI (she/her) is a retired professor of Sociology and zen priest, practicing zen since 1998. She spent 33 years teaching sociology and Asian American history at UC Santa Cruz, and she is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Rev. Liên Shutt and Bo Hee Moon continue their conversation on Asian American diasporic identity, and Bo Hee reads the finished version of her poem "Meeting with my Asian Sangha Tonight."

Read the poem here!

Guest:
BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems. She previously published under a different name.

Read Bo Hee's
Order her POETRY Book, Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, at BoHeeMoon.com
Other writings also at:
Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing

Listen in to hear how Bo Hee Moon was inspired by practice in the 3-month course "Lotus Rising from Mud: A Path for Anti-Asian American Restoration.

Guest:
BO HEE MOON was adopted at three-months-old from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems. She previously published under a different name.

Connect with Bo at:
BoHeeMoon.com
Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing

Host:
REV. LIÊN SHUTT (she/they) is a recognized leader in the movement that breaks through the wall of American white-centered convert Buddhism to welcome people of all backgrounds into a contemporary, engaged Buddhism. As an ordained Zen priest, licensed social worker, and longtime educator/teacher of Buddhism, Shutt represents new leadership at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, offering a special warm welcome to Asian Americans, all BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and those seeking a “home” in the midst of North American society’s reckoning around racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Shutt is a founder of Access to Zen (2014). You can learn more about her work at AccessToZen.org. Her new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path. See all her offerings at EVENTS