Nashville POC Sangha

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Nashville POC Sangha

Meditation group for people of color. Meets 1st tuesdays at 7pm CT and for quarterly retreats

03/18/2026

The Walk for Peace was a monthlong event that inspired thousands of people in the US and around the world (and that our facilitators Freedom and Francie got to participate in IRL!). Join us in this online event hosted by a group of dharma leaders from around the world to collectively reflect on what the Walk meant to us as individuals, and what we saw, felt, heard from our communities. The event will be grounded by a dharma talk by Nashville POC Sangha friend Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda of Sangha House New Orleans!

02/26/2026

Dear Sangha,
We are not alone. This month, 19 Buddhist monks and a dog named Aloka completed their 3-month, 2300-mile walk from Fort Worth, TX to Washington DC to raise awareness of inner peace and mindfulness across America and the world. Braving the elements, some barefoot, they engaged in a deep metta practice through silence, chanting, devotional practice, and community gatherings. Thousands upon thousands of people came out to meet them, make offerings, ask for prayers, and walk with them. The sheer number of people that stretched their hearts and their bodies to be in their presence seems to have exceeded even the monks’ expectations. The yearning for peace, solidarity, and inspiration, was palpable in so many of the photos and videos shared. There truly is suffering everywhere. And there are tender hearts.

While the monks were walking, we too were practicing. The monks encouraged us to look inside of ourselves first and foremost for inner peace. In our half-day retreat on February 14 (love day) and in our first and third Tuesday gatherings, we explored the brahma viharas, or heart practices, taught by the Buddha to help us awaken our hearts so that they can encompass all situations and all beings. We do this as a practice of unburdening, so that we can meet the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows of this world from a place of freedom, the best and truest version of ourselves.

Photos from .usa

02/03/2026

Meet Freedom Maitreya, our meditation facilitator tonight at 7pm @ Wild Heart Nashville.

Freedom is an ordained spiritual counselor and heart-reader who enjoys participating in psychologically enriching cultures that yield compassionate interconnectedness. Currently, he is a Bartlett Scholar at Drew University, where his research in Contemplative Practice and Comparative Religious Studies have afforded him opportunities to teach and research on six of seven continents. He is also engaging post-doctoral research at the Upaya Zen Center, where his practice in the Zen Buddhist tradition is preparing him to become an endorsed, Buddhist Chaplain of the Prajna Mountain Buddhist Order.

Freedom’s advocacy work with The Courage Collective, and his certified training in energy medicine, have nurtured his holistic approach to trauma informed counseling and facilitation.

See you tonight!

01/29/2026

We are in tough times, all around. In this half-day retreat, we’ll first and foremost rest together in community, and explore the gathering and heart-opening practice of the brahma viharas (heart practices) can actually provide grounding and capacity-building for us as we move through the world. We’ll sit in meditation together, both guided and silent, and there will be a talk as well as group sharing. Open to all self-identified people of color, no meditation experience needed. Free of charge, donation-based. Link in bio

01/24/2026

We’re excited to announce that starting in Feb, Nashville POC Sangha is welcoming two new facilitators and one more night per month - we’ll now be meeting the first AND third Tuesdays of the month! Francie Hunt and Freedom Maitreya are both dedicated practitioners of the dharma, and bring with them their own very unique experiences and approaches to their spiritual paths and how they take their practice off the cushion into the world around them to cultivate liberation all around. I can’t wait for you to meet them and get to know them!

01/07/2026

Save the dates for this year’s half day retreats! More info and registration to come. Happy new year!

10/21/2025

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Eduardo Duran as a guest speaker for our Nov 4 sangha gathering. And yes that means we will be online! DM or sign up for our newsletter (link in bio) for the zoom details!

10/14/2025

A beautiful intimate Indigenous Peoples Day celebration, hosted by and . The sense of community and honoring of ancestors was strong, very grateful to have been a part of it, and to for his proclamation

07/27/2025

Join us for our next half-day retreat, where we’ll meditate together and explore how tough love intersects with our compassion practice. More info and link to register in our bio. Open to all self-identified people of color, no meditation experience needed. Free of charge (donation-based)

06/08/2025

Dear Sangha,
This past Thursday, we met on zoom since I was out of town. We used the online opportunity to really dig into practice, exploring in our conversation the depths of the seemingly simple practice of coming back over and over to the breath.

While the instructions for this practice, referred to as mindfulness of breath or concentration practice, are very simple (bring the attention to the breath and when the mind wanders, gently bring it back), it isn’t necessarily easy. I won’t go through the whole instruction here (please come to a first Thursday sangha to experience it IRL!), but for those of you who have experienced the practice on your own, in sangha, or with an app, you might have observed your mind jumping from thing to thing and not always staying with the breath when you want it to. Does this sound familiar? The good news is that every time your mind wanders, as soon you notice it and bring it back, you are practicing! You are strengthening the muscle of bringing the mind back to where you are choosing for it to be. This actually takes some discipline - not rigid and imposed discipline - but a level of effort that you can offer yourself as a gift.

Why would this be a gift? If we can train ourselves to meet each thought, emotion, or storyline with a kind awareness before we launch into our automatic reactions, then we can give ourselves the freedom to respond with intention and care. When we sit in meditation and make a commitment to come back to the breath from whatever thoughts, emotions, and storylines come up during our practice, we are building that mental habit.

So know that as you practice your basic breath meditation, you are doing more than engaging in healing and grounding (which is valuable in itself), you are also cultivating power and freedom. Play with it, practice it, and see you at our in-person gathering at Wild Heart on July 3!

05/15/2025

Join us for our quarterly half-day retreat Sat May 24, where we’ll practice and explore ways to create grounding and care through these uncertain times. Open to all self-identified people of color, no meditation experience needed! Link to sign up in our bio

04/19/2025

Dear Sangha,
In this month’s gathering, we talked about equanimity - what it is, what it’s not, and how to cultivate it, not in a top-down toxic positivity (everything’s ok when it’s not) kind of way, but in a way that reflects insight and wisdom into the way things are in this life and in this time.

Let’s start with what it’s not. Equanimity, as the Buddha taught it, is not indifference. It’s not cold or detached. And it isn’t imposed, either by ourselves or by others. The Buddha actually taught equanimity (upekkha in Pali) as a heart practice. Rather than trying to stay detached or limiting how much we care, the practice is to care about everything without bias, in a way that we don’t lose ourselves in one particular lane of caring. It is a container that helps us open our hearts without getting sucked into clinging. In a way, we’re practicing equanimity every time we sit down to do our breath (concentration) meditation or our insight meditation - in both practices, we pay attention to the breath or whatever is happening in the present moment without trying to change it and without judgement. And we do this no matter what is going on in our minds or in the world.

The Sufi poet Rumi described equanimity as a tree with deep roots whose branches still wave with the wind. Equanimity allows us to be like that tree, stable and rooted, but also fully feeling the winds that blow into and out of our lives. The Dalai Lama said “with equanimity, you can deal with situations with calm and reason while keeping your inner happiness.”

The way we can practice equanimity as a heart practice is to start with how things are right now, accepting the present moment as it is (we can’t change it anyway). You can use the phrase “this is how it is right now, as much as I may wish for it to be otherwise, this is how it is.” This practice helps us ground in this moment, which can then give us the peace and energy to approach the next moment with an open heart and mind.

Address

3123 Gallatin Pike
Nashville, TN
37216

Website

http://linktr.ee/nashvillepocsangha

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