Monday, December 8, we will meet online.
Dear friends,
This week, we will meet Monday evening, December 8, from 7-8:30PM ET online; Wednesday morning, December 10, from 7-8AM ET in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); and Friday, December 12, 12-1PM ET online.
On Monday night, OHMC’s Engaged Mindfulness Circle will host the Oak Flat Buddhist Working Group, made up of Plum Village practitioners who are working with the Apache Stronghold in an effort to protect their sacred land.
Oak Flat is a sacred site in Arizona's Tonto National Forest that is vital for Apache religious ceremonies but is slated for destruction by a copper mine. The site is also a popular recreational area for activities like camping, hiking, and rock climbing. A 2014 defense bill authorized the transfer of the land to the international mining company Resolution Copper, leading to a legal battle by groups like Apache Stronghold to protect it.
Oak Flat Buddhist Working Group members Limei Kat Chen, Cathy Cockrell, and Joanne Connelly (bios are below) will be guests at our sangha and will share their experiences of supporting Apache Stronghold over the last year. Known in Apache as Chi’chil Bildagoteel, Oak Flat is a sacred site cared for by the Western Apache from time immemorial. This holy land is in danger of being destroyed by Resolution Copper.
The evening will begin with a guided meditation inviting us all into deeper connection with Mother Earth. Afterwards, Limei will facilitate a conversation about their engaged mindfulness practice of supporting Indigenous land protectors. Cathy and Joanne will share their experience as members of the first Buddhist delegation to the February 2025 Oak Flat Prayer Run and March. A special guest will also join us to share about being in prayerful accompaniment at the Sunrise Ceremony at Oak Flat this October.
Cathy and Joanne will also discuss the creation of the Buddhist Working Group, their collaboration with the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, the Prayer Vigils they co-host, and the impact this journey of solidarity is having on their own mindfulness practice and healing.
There will be time for community sharing and to learn ways to support Oak Flat and sacred lands.
We hope you will join us for this special evening.
Magda
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Limei Kat Chen is a queer Chinese diasporic community organizer, researcher, and mindfulness teacher based in the Bay Area, CA. She is a multi-lineage practitioner, receiving the wisdom transmitted through the Plum Village tradition, Tantric Buddhism, Daoism, and Mother Earth. She was called to join in solidarity with the Apache peoples through the Buddhist Coalition for Oak Flat after hearing Wendsler Nosie speak powerfully about how "we are all indigenous" -- especially as someone who was recently uprooted from her own ancestral lands. Limei also organizes in the Bay Area with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and 18 Million Rising. She is passionate about supporting survivors of violence, art and music as healing medicine, and creating cozy spaces where we can connect beyond words.
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Cathy Cockrell practices in the Plum Village tradition and is a longtime member of the Potluck and the Deepening White Awareness sanghas. She traveled from Oakland to Arizona in early 2025 with her partner, Joanne Connelly, to support the annual Apache prayer run to sacred land known in English as Oak Flat. In the months since she has joined other Buddhists and people of faith in a heartfelt collective effort to protect this place from a proposed mining operation of vast proportions and the devastation it would bring to the Apache people and the land.
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Joanne Connelly is an eldering practitioner in the Plum Village tradition, and a grateful longtime member of the Potluck Sangha. She is a descendant of Irish, German, and English settlers and has lived for many years in the homeland of the Lisjan Ohlone (Oakland, California) with her partner Cathy Cockrell. Joanne felt called to join in solidarity with Apache Stronghold through the activism of a Mennonite friend. She is also a 2019 graduate of the Sati Buddhist Chaplaincy program and a Lifecycle Celebrant.