How does a Women’s Spirituality framework—rooted in sacred embodiment, reclamation of the Divine Feminine, and honoring of Earth’s interconnectedness—allow us to open our hearts and practice compassionate action in times of global upheaval and uncertainty? This session engages a diverse group (Black, South Asian, and Jewish) of Women’s Spirituality scholars in exploring these and related questions. It includes a brief ritual and sharing of art/poetry in addition to individual panelists’ reflections on how their spiritual practice and scholarship inform their responses to these times, amidst social upheavals and ever-growing concentrations of power. Themes addressed include the reclamation of ancestral practices, spiritual activism, navigating difference, imagination, resistance, paradox, community, and joy.

Panelists: Dr. Alka Arora, Dr. Monica Mody, Kimberly J. Davis, and Kris Malone Grossman

“I am a drop in the ocean, but I’m also the ocean. I’m a drop in America, but I’m also America. Every pain, every confusion, every good and every bad and ugly of America is in me. And as I transform myself and heal and take care of myself, I’m very conscious that I’m healing and transforming and taking care of America. I say this for American cynics, but this is also true globally. It’s for real.” So says Zen Buddhist teacher Dr. Larry Ward

Shot at by police as an 11-year-old child for playing baseball in the wrong spot, as an adult Dr. Ward continued to experience racialized trauma when his home was firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France, he found a way to heal with his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh.

Dr. Ward’s work examines the causes and conditions that have led us to our current state, and he finds, hidden in the crisis, a profound opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a human being. This is an invitation to transform America’s racial karma. In Dr. Ward's latest book, America's Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal, he offers his insights on the effects of racial constructs and answers the question: how do we free ourselves from repeated cycles of anger, denial, bitterness, pain, fear, and violence?

Join CIIS Professor of Women's Spirituality at CIIS Alka Arora for a conversation with Dr. Ward as he shares what he has learned through his own life and work and invites us to transform our society and heal our racial karma.

The Divine Feminist: Integrating Spirituality and Social Justice

Panelists:

Dr. Alka Arora is chair of the Women’s Spirituality program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She holds a PhD in Women Studies from the University of Washington, where her dissertation examined spiritual discourses among third-wave feminists in Seattle. Her teaching interests focus on multicultural feminist spirituality, integral pedagogy, and animal rights. Some of the courses that Alka teaches include “Spiritual Activism and Transformative Social Change,” “Liberation Dharma: Gender, Buddhism, and Social Justice,” and “Sacred Lineages: Goddesses, Foremothers, and Activists.” She is currently doing research for a co-authored book on feminist spiritual activism

Eri Guajardo Johnson, is a second year student in the Women’s Spirituality MA Program. Growing up biracial in the highly segregated Midwest, the topics of identity, privilege, and disadvantage have been major sources of struggle and learning for her. It wasn’t until she came to the Bay Area that the deepening of her spiritual and political practice expanded. Having one foot in community work led by folks of color and the other in a predominantly white spiritual space, Eri realized the contradictory yet very real reality that spirituality and social justice are often held as two separate realms. Wanting to create a bridge for bringing anti-oppression analysis into white spiritual spaces, Eri has focused much of her Master’s work on exploring these intersections and ways in which we can spiritualize activism.

Arisika Razak, MPH, is the current Director of Diversity and the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her teachings incorporate diverse spiritual traditions, women’s health and healing, and multicultural feminisms, with a special emphasis on the spiritualities and cultures of women of the African Diaspora. An inner-city midwife of over twenty years, Arisika has led healing workshops and ritual celebrations for women for over three decades. In addition, she has facilitated embodied spiritual workshops for women and men at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and East Bay Meditation Center. Her writings on womanism have been included in several books and journals, and her film credits include Alice Walker, Beauty in Truth; Fire Eyes, the first full length feature film by an African woman on female genital cutting; and Who Lives Who Dies a PBS special on health care services to underserved populations.

Panel Moderator:

Kimberly Gibbons is a former teacher, an empowering leader and a dynamic speaker who is currently working on her PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Women’s Spirituality at CIIS. She holds a BA in Classical Civilizations from UC Irvine and a master’s degree in Women’s Spirituality from Sofia University. She believes strongly that it is our responsibility as engaged humans and future leaders and scholars to connect with the next generation, helping them to discover the power and beauty of what it means to be a conscious, empowered, and responsible human being.