Property:Othercommunitywork
From Tsadra Foundation Advanced Contemplative Scholarships
This is a property of type Text.
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When I lived in the UK, I used to be one of the main drivers to pick up and drop lamas and teachers to and from our Buddhist centre Palpung Changchub Dargye Ling in Wales. +
mostly doing volunteering work for different Buddhist centers. +
Having been very active in community organizing and fundraising work in my life in New Orleans, after moving to Katog Rit’hrod I really focused my energy on Khentrul Rinpoche’s activity. Most of the work I did outside of the Katog Rit’hrod land was helping with the retreat cabins and homes of the Dharma community surrounding it. +
I worked as a support worker with foster kids and adults with special needs for several years. I have volunteered with several homelessness charities, including being a live-in volunteer at a Catholic Worker community for about three months. +
I have volunteered for various cancer organizations (as a survivor myself), and teaching English while I was young in Beijing, and again in Panama now where I currently live. I have worked together with the Panamanian government in several different political and state capacities. In Panama, for a lack of centers, I find myself as a natural leader in discussing Buddhism, but have only felt qualified enough to hold an egalitarian reading group to discuss general topics. +
Presently, I am a Practicing Psychotherapist/Somatic Therapist, where I serve a portion of the community who have an interest in Buddhist practice and meditation. +
My entire adult career in a professional capacity has been working with people with disabilities in the communities in which I have lived.
In my early teenage years, after a mind-expanding experience, I organized a Walk for Development to help disadvantaged people find housing in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I organized multiple high school districts to work together to combat pollution (air, water, trash) in the Shenandoah Valley. In my home town, I organized a clean-up of a creek that ran through town that was an open-air garbage dump. As a result of my environmental work, I attended the White House Conference on Youth as an Environmental Activist in 1970. I am a vegetarian for most of my adult life and helped to start some of the very first "health food stores" in San Francisco....which evolved from my commune who was part of the Food Conspiracy network of communes in the Bay Area. +
I was living in Denmark and stayed at the Gomde Buddhist Centre and helped them out for two months. I was the cook for my time there. I have also volunteered in various second hand shops in my home town near Manchester. +
I take care of guests and students visiting Ser Cho Ling visiting from all over the world. We have a beautiful temple which is also under my care. Before I moved to United States, I have served my sangha at Benchen Poland Retreat Center. We organized annual visits of Tibetan teachers including Tenga Rinpoche, Khandro Rinpoche and Sangye Nyempa Rinpoche. +
I have also published translations on various topics with outfits like Lotsawa House, Samye Translations, and Khyentse Vision Project. +
In 2014, I volunteered for one year at NZRDA, an institution that provides equine therapy for people with physical disabilities.
In 2017, I volunteered for one month at Thosamling Nunnery (Dharamsala, India), working as a cook and babysitter for young nuns.
From 2019 to 2023, I volunteered with Coletivo Grãos de Luz, a group focused on the study of medicinal plants and native Brazilian knowledge. The collective distributes herbal medicine and basic food baskets to under-resourced individuals and communities. +
Since 2012, I have been trying to bridge my scientific work and my interest in Dharma. I have conducted several research studies on the topics of mindfulness and Buddhism, and have also put together a few conference presentations on how social science can integrate the principles of Buddha Dharma.
In 2020 I have acted as an Editor of the Russian translation of the book: https://wisdomexperience.org/product/buddhist-response-climate-emergency/
(Russian: https://www.ganga.ru/book/buddiyskiy-otvet-na-klimaticheskiy-krizis)
In May 2025, I was authorised by the International Dzogchen Community and International Atiyoga Foundation as an instructor of the Eight Movements (Lungsang) and the pranayama of rhythmic breathing of Yantra Yoga, and I am now starting to teach these.
As an environmental social scientist, I am engaged in environmental and animal welfare activism.
I also occasionally volunteer for an animal shelter. +
Volunteering at local animal shelter (Nantucket Safe Harbor for Animals) (Nantucket, MA - 2019-2020)
Dreamland Stage Company - Youth Mentor, Stage Assistant, Photographer and Filmmaker (Nantucket, MA - 2019-2020)
Residence Caretaker and Kitchen Service - Vipassana Meditation Center (Various locations - 2018 - 2019)
Event Preparation - Nantucket Unitarian Universalist Church (Nantucket, MA - 2020)
YMCA Youth Leader (Taunton, MA - 2021 [employed])
Service worker at Nantucket Food Pantry (I volunteered for 2 years before being hired) (Nantucket, MA - 2019-2020) +
No other community work. +
I currently teach folks how to be spiritual companions/spiritual directors in which we deeply listen to others and their connection to higher power. I support leaders around the country in applying Joanna Macy's The Work That Reconnects in their community contexts to engage gratitude, grief, imagination and creativity and to be sent to do the work that is theirs. I guide forest bathing walks in my local community to help people connect to their senses, the land and community.
I have volunteered as a neighborhood chaplain and engaged in community organizing to support local people in naming their needs for non-profit support. +
I offered community work multiple times when I was a medical student in Viçosa/MG, Brazil: advocacy for public health policies, support groups for mental health, health fairs, educational materials and events. +
i have been leading a dharma and recovery group for 8 years for those in 12 step recovery from addiction.
I have been bringing meditation and support to Mental health institutions in the northern California for those in need of support for addiction and recovery, those interested in mediation. +
South Garden Project - Baton Rouge, LA 2008-2010
Additionally I have often volunteered with different food serving groups targeted at combating food insecurity and bringing aid to unhoused people. +
I have been participating to different student projects promoting nature and literature during my College years. I also participated in the foundation of a new alternative high school in Brussels in 2017-2018, le Lycée Intégral Roger Lallemand. If I was paid, it was also a community work in which I gave myself fully and intensely, much more than one would do for a normal job. We were creating a very new way of teaching, and it was a beautiful year. The school has been growing since and has currently over 700 students, who have the opportunity to learn and study in an environment that promotes openness, kindness and sharing. +
