Community Conversation: Diversity and Inclusion

By Mark Douglass

Twelve people attended our conversation on diversity and inclusion. We began by listening to one another’s stories of marginalization and exclusion, then discussed in small groups the categories of people who are not at the Portland Shambhala Center. 

We identified categories of race, age (young people), socioeconomic status (people in poverty), differently abled (physical and neurodiverse), as well as those who either feel harmed by the Sakyong or identify as students of Chogyam Trungpa.

We discussed changes we could make, as individuals and a community, to encourage greater diversity in our relationships. Reflections fell into four main areas:

1. All of us have experienced being marginalized, but some experience it more consistently. It is important for us as Shambhala Buddhists to practice recognizing and changing our behavior, to step out of our cocoons in order to avoid inadvertently harming others
2. Community culture can provide a sense of safety but also exclusion depending on our background and comfort. Changing our culture to welcome others – by adding inclusivity warriors, by participating in diversity/inclusion trainings, by adopting a code of ethics – may sometimes be threatening to those on the “inside” but can also open us up to those on the “outside.”
3. It is important to go beyond our own walls and experience being a minority in other situations. We can visit the Young Meditators Group or Queer Dharma Group at our own center. We can share meditation or conversation with other communities of color, different ethnic or religious backgrounds, people who are poor, by arranging to show up where people gather.
4. Lastly, it is important to recognize that other groups have their own integrity, including our own. We don’t have to expect “perfect” diversity in our sangha, nor do we need to assume that it’s somehow “wrong” to seek safety with people who are like us. Diversity is always a work in progress.