Nashville POC Sangha, 3123 Gallatin Pike (2026)

03/02/2026

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!

29/01/2026

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

24/01/2026

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!

07/01/2026

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

21/10/2025

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!

14/10/2025

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

27/07/2025

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)

08/06/2025

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!

15/05/2025

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

19/04/2025

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.

25/03/2025

Dear Sangha,
In our first Thursday gathering this month, we talked about the foundational teachings of the Four Noble Truths, aka Buddhism 101. These are the teachings that encompass all of the other teachings in some way, bringing them back to the causes of suffering and the path to ending suffering. Feels timely for what’s going on in our world right now.

To super-summarize, the Four Noble Truths go like this:
1) Suffering is a part of life (you’re not doing life wrong if you’re suffering!)
2) The cause of suffering is craving, either for something, against something, or to ignore something
3) There is a way out of suffering (yay!)
4) The path out of suffering, practiced through the Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path goes like this (again, super-summarized):
Right View - understanding the Four Noble Truths, the law of karma, impermanence
Right Resolve / Intention - are your intentions to decrease suffering and avoid ill will and harm?
Right Speech - are your words (to yourself and others) false, divisive, harsh, or idle?
Right Action - do your actions lead to non-harm and waking up to the causes of suffering?
Right Livelihood - does your livelihood cause harm?
Right Effort - are you making a diligent effort to practice and cultivate wholesome qualities, in a way that is not too tight and not too loose?
Right Mindfulness - are you working with your mind to be right here right now?
Right Concentration - are you developing a focused mind to support stability and insight, and therefore feeding into the rest of the path?

As we discussed, these are not commandments or laws. They are experiences to practice with and teachings to explore (there’s a lot more out there on them…they go deep). After all, the Buddha told us not to take his word for anything, to practice and go with what our direct experience tells us. The words “right” and “wholesome” are not binary or categorical - they come back to whether things lead to suffering or the cessation of suffering, similar to the word “skillful” that is often found in the teachings.

12/02/2025

Join us for our Feb 22 in-person half-day retreat, where we’ll meditate and be in community together, engaging in the practice of forgiveness as a way to cultivate liberation in our own hearts. 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 POC, no meditation experience needed. Link to register in our bio. The retreat is free of charge (donation-based)

Nashville POC Sangha