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White supremacy, the system of power behind the suspicion and exclusion of Asian and Asian-American Buddhists, is the same system that justified the founding and building of the U.S. through the genocide of indigenous peoples and the labor of enslaved Africans. Undeniably, America has been created by excluding people whose differences were deemed inferior—a process known as racial othering—so as to establish a seemingly natural superiority of white people. White supremacy has systematically...

Love's Cry is a powerful poem on domestic violence. The poem video is even more powerful. This Wednesday, March 8th, is International Women's Day. Please click "read more" to view the Love's Cry video. If Love's Cry speaks to you, please share the video on your social media sites. Please let me know your ideas on how Love's Cry can be shared with domestic violence and women's organizations, the media as a psa, and more. Together we can make a positive difference. Thank you! Diane Kaufman, MD...

The days of privileging creativity over science in design thinking are over. The rise of behavioral science and impact evaluation has created a new way for engineering programs and human interactions—a methodology called behavioral design. Advances in two academic fields afford this opportunity. The first is behavioral science, which gives us empirical insights into how people interact with their environment and each other under different conditions. Behavioral science encompasses decades of...

When a loved one or community member dies by suicide, the entire community of survivors is powerfully affected. Children, as part of this community, may be deeply impacted and need adult guidance. It is normal to feel nervous and uncomfortable when broaching the topic of suicide loss with children. How could it not be? Suicide is a complicated topic that brings feeling of sadness, regret and many unanswered questions. To read the ten guidelines written by Sarah Montgomery and Susan Coale,...

In 1992, Zindel Segal, John Teasdale, and Mark Williams collaborated to create an eight-week program modeled on MBSR. Jon Kabat-Zinn —who developed MBSR—had some initial misgivings about the program, fearing the curriculum might insufficiently emphasize how important it is for instructors to have a deep personal relationship with mindfulness practice. Once he got to know the founders better, he became a champion for the program. In 2002, the three published Mindfulness-Based Cognitive...

Research suggests that we turn towards pain and discomfort, we can experience less of it. Plus — a guided meditation for being mindful when things get tough . Research into mindfulness has shown the benefits of staying present, and of gently turning towards difficulty. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) trains people with addictive habits to manage their cravings mindfully by staying present to the sensations of craving, rather than trying to distract from them, avoid them or defeat...

Here is the final schedule for Echo's conference. It is brimming with powerful and timely workshops for the world we find ourselves in today and full of deep reflection on how we got here. Come hear the voices that have so long been silenced. Add your voice to the long tradition of nonviolent resistance to injustice. None of us can afford to stand by. Please contact us if you need a partial scholarship - we want to fill the halls of The California Endowment with those who are passionate...

Bruce Perry, Gabor Mate, Janina Fisher and many other of the world’s leading master therapists, thought leaders and game-changers who specialize in PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma and complex trauma and related fields, join Guy Macpherson, PhD at westcoasttraumaproject.com for inspiring interviews about the demanding field of trauma therapy, the crucial mistakes they’ve made and what they’ve learned, and advice they have for aspiring trauma therapists. ...

Prescribed narcotic painkillers continue to fuel a nationwide opioid epidemic—nearly half of fatal overdoses in the United States involve opioids prescribed by a doctor. But people don't seem to be avoiding the medications, despite the well-documented risks. In the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics poll , over half of people surveyed, or 57 percent, said they had been prescribed a narcotic painkiller like Percocet, Vicodin or morphine at some point. That's an increase of 3 percent since we...

DMC (disproportionate minority contact) is no longer simply about the over-representation of black and brown youth in the juvenile justice system. In recent years, it has come to mean something far broader and deeper to those in the reform trenches. As part of their DMC reduction efforts, practitioners and reformers are now paying much closer attention to the special needs of other groups who are minorities in the general youth population — like LGBT youth, young people with behavioral and...

You’re 16, homeless and sleeping on a park bench when police grab you at 3 in the morning. Vagrancy, trespassing or a host of minor offenses send you tumbling into the juvenile justice system. Or you’re 16, do something stupid with marijuana, get caught trespassing, missing curfews or skipping school. You have a home but no true family support system, and suddenly, with a criminal record, nobody’s hiring, school expelled you and your family tossed you out of the house. You too wind up...

In his book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, author Bessel van der Kolk describes what makes the most difference in determining those children and eventually those adults who perpetuate self-destructive behaviors. This means while they continue to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors that are self-injurious, they can be healed through therapy, so they no longer pursue self-harming behaviors. Most parents have heard about children and...