Starting this week, I will be hosting a weekly meditation and discussion group for politically engaged people who want to learn about meditation, or who want to discuss how meditation (and Buddhist philosophy in general) can inform our organizing.

I'm calling it Leftsit.

It will be every Wednesday at 7:00 am, although I am willing to shift this time if nobody is able to hop on that early. I'll be sending out an email every Tuesday as a reminder.

If you're interested you can sign up here. Feel free to forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested.

The Context

Two weeks ago, I attended a workshop called "Using Buddhist Philosophy to Improve Anarchist Organizing" in a small book store in San Francisco.

While I wouldn't self-describe as an Anarchist, it was a lovely event, and the discussions we had were incredibly interesting. I was introduced to the work of Gary Snyder, who wrote (among many other things) an essay titled "Buddhism and the Coming Revolution" which was originally published in his 1969 book Earth House Hold.

I walked away from this event having learned two things:

1. The connection between Buddhism and Leftist Politics has been obvious to many for decades, even though it remains largely untouched in broader Leftist discourse.
2. There is a growing appetite for these discussions in Leftist organizing spaces.

A lot of people from that workshop expressed interest in a weekly meetup, and hopefully they will join. Hopefully you will too.

Warmest regards,

Joshua