What Practices Prevent the Ox from Offloading to the Cow?
Dharma Talk with Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Dear friends,
This October, we are delighted to welcome Pamela Ayo Yetunde as our guest teacher for the monthly Dharma talk.
“We the people” are in a precarious situation that we co-created and now largely regret. If we believe, as radical poet Audre Lorde wrote, that “the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house”, then what does Buddhism-inspired political and social engagement look like in the face of acute U.S. democratic fascism?
To help us explore this question, Pamela will guide us through the first and thirteenth mindfulness trainings in Plum Village’s 14 Mindfulness Trainings, respectively titled Openness and Generosity. (You can read both trainings in full at the bottom of this page.)
With these two trainings in mind, how are we to understand our role in minimizing the suffering caused by the fanaticism, idolatry, and exploitation protected in the 2024 Supreme Court case Trump v. United States?
Let's discover together an engaged Buddhism that is informed by the rule of law (just and unjust), promotes compassion, strength, moral imagination, and the will to make change so that we prevent offloading our ox nature to the cow, and vice versa.
Wednesday, October 21
7:00–8:30 pm ET / 4:00–5:30 pm PT
Online & Recorded
Notes:
Event is recorded and emailed to you within 48 hours.
If you’re a Lotus member, you are already registered and we’ll email you the Zoom link the day before.
Offered at a sliding scale. For the most value, consider purchasing a membership for as little as $15/month to join five monthly events and receive exclusive content and more.
Your purchase includes access to the live event with a guided meditation, dharma talk, and time for questions and reflections, plus a recording delivered by email two days later.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
7:00–8:30 pm ET / 4:00–5:30 pm PT
Teacher Bio
Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Pamela Ayo Yetunde is a pastoral counselor, writer, and scholar. She was introduced to Buddhism through Thich Nhat Hanh's book Touching Peace and her first practice communities were in the Community of Mindful Living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, Ayo has incorporated Plum Village teachings in her spiritual care books, including Casting Indra's Net (Shambhala Publications, 2023) and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Her website is pamelaayoyetunde.com.
The First Mindfulness Training: Openness
Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as a guiding means that help us learn to look deeply and develop understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic or discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world.
The Thirteenth Mindfulness Training: Generosity
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, we are committed to cultivating generosity in our way of thinking, speaking, and acting. We will practice loving kindness by working for the happiness of people, animals, plants, and minerals, and sharing our time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. We are determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. We will respect the property of others, but will try to prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other beings.