Your little corner of the universe
February's rad reads and "bad for business" guided meditations
Join us for the Intro to Socially Engaged Buddhism workshop this Sunday, February 23rd, from 3:00-5:00pm ET. We’ll meditate, check in with one another, and hopefully feel a bit more whole and human. I’ll offer a presentation exploring the history of engaged Buddhism in Asian liberation movements, its core principles, and how it has manifested in the West. We’ll also dive into why understanding this history is crucial to resist colonialism from inadvertently shaping our own engaged Buddhist practice. We’ll end with a discussion on how to bring the dharma into our current political moment. Paid subscribers can find the registration link at the end of this email.
Dear friends,
There are two primary topics on my heart this week: childcare and ways to be of service.
As I’ve shared with some of you quietly, behind the scenes of this newsletter, my three-year-old has had a tough time adjusting to preschool here in Pennsylvania.
We anticipated this might be a challenge—making a big move away from the suburban comforts we had in New Jersey—only to find ourselves with limited childcare choices within a 30-minute drive of my parents' home in rural PA.1
Every morning, for the past four months, my toddler has cried on his way to school. Once there, he refuses to use the bathroom even though he comfortably uses the potty everywhere else. The last couple of weeks, he has gone so far as not eating his lunch or snacks.
Big sigh.
It’s been emotionally exhausting. Most mornings, I’ve needed another 30-mins just to help my nervous system come down from getting him out the door.
This week, after many conversations with other parents, friends, and specialists, we made the decision to transition him out of his loving but seemingly not-the-right-fit-preschool.
The larger world around us is on fire and this is the issue tearing at my heart. The one that has kept me up at night, that I send incoherent texts to friends about, that I feel a deep achey fear and doubt that I can’t shake off.
Do you have something going on in your corner of the universe that is large to you, but relatively small to the onslaught of global crises?
Is your heart heavy over a strained friendship or family relationship?
Do you feel disoriented or overwhelmed by work?
Or are you just damn tired?
I often find that when the world feels especially in disarray, I have an old conditioned habit of belittling my own suffering. Subconsciously, I place my pain on an unhelpful totem pole, measuring it against the struggles of others.
When I do this, I find loving-kindness meditation helps.
I visualize myself as a child, and in my mind, my adult-self gives her a good, long hug. I then offer myself the seemingly rote phrases of “May I be happy, healthy, safe, and free.”
I intellectually know and want this for myself, but it’s through the integration of practice—study and meditation—that this belief comes alive, feels real, impacts my day-to-day.
As I write this, I realize how little I’ve actually shared about meditation through this newsletter. After some reflection, I’ve come to understand that my hesitation comes from my aversion to the common perception of meditation as merely a feel-good technique.
I’m trying to distance myself from that type of approach.
You might be wondering, "Adriana, why is that such a bad thing?"
On the surface, it’s not! We all long for peace and comfort.
But here’s the issue: Many meditation resources online are presented in a service-based way—"Here’s a meditation for creativity, better relationships, stress relief," with the expectation that you’ll get the promised results.2
From a marketing perspective, this makes sense.
It fits perfectly into our consumer-driven culture, where clear results are a priority. But this very mindset is what Buddhist meditation aims to free us from. It’s not about quick fixes or immediate rewards; it’s about deep, often slow, transformative change.
As a meditation teacher, I’m not interested in promising you results.
I want to offer you crystal clear, compassionate instruction in specific techniques and support you in cultivating strength and agency in your practice.
Guided meditations can be useful when you're just starting out or need a refresher, but the kind of lasting confidence and strength that truly supports you—especially in moments of chaos or stress—comes from a deep well of insight and discernment built through consistent, individual meditation.3
Don’t get me wrong—relaxation-focused practices can be incredibly helpful, especially when someone's nervous system is dysregulated (like I’ve experienced most mornings with my little one over the past four months).
That said, body scans and deep breathing exercises alone do not address our deeply ingrained conditioning or lead to liberation.
With that in mind, I’ve been reflecting on how I can share Buddhist meditation with all of you from an explicitly anti-capitalist, non-individualistic, non-consumeristic, and socially engaged perspective.
What does that mean?
Buddhist meditation practices that go beyond the self-help and surface-level wellness trends that our capitalist culture loves and easily co-opts.
Practices that help you wake up to the illusion of a separate self, honor the seemingly small struggles in your daily life, and challenge the systems that keep us trapped in these illusions to begin with.4
Behind the scenes, I’ve been developing curriculum for mentorship students on various Buddhist meditation practices. If there’s enough interest from paid subscribers, I’ll slowly share the same guided meditations and teachings through the paid community. I’d also consider hosting live sessions if there’s demand for it.
Would this be helpful to you? If at least 10 paid subscribers express interest, I’ll consider adding it as a feature. If you're not yet a paid subscriber but would be if this type of offering were regularly available, I encourage you to let me know and upgrade your subscription.
My goal isn’t to overwhelm you with content to consume, but to share Buddhist meditation techniques in a way that empowers you to deepen both your understanding and practice in a progressive way.
Feel free to respond back to this email or comment below. Hearing from you helps me determine how to best be of service.
Lastly, below you can find February’s rad reads along with the registration link for this Sunday’s Intro to Socially Engaged Buddhism Workshop.
I’m holding space in my heart for the seemingly small struggles unfolding in your corner of the universe.
With love,
Adriana
Help me reach my $2k goal for two mutual aid projects in Palestine
Thank you so much to the folks that contributed the first handful of donations. I am so grateful. My personal goal (as a part of a larger interfaith coalition raising $36k) is to fundraise $2k by April 9th. You can read more about my initial fundraising ask here.
Any amount that you can offer is incredibly appreciated. We’ve raised $540 so far, and I’d love for us to get to $800 by the end of this week. That means we need just $260 in the next few days. Can you offer a donation? Every little bit counts. You can Venmo me @adriana-difazio or donate directly and put down my initials (AD) so I can track them towards my goal.
Here are the two organizations donations are being distributed to:
Dahnoun Mutual Aid: Supports Palestinians in Gaza with water, food, transportation, shelter, warm clothes, diapers, milk, and cash assistance
Roots of Resilience: Supports Palestinian farmers in the West Bank so they can continue to farm and keep their land under constant threat of settler violence and maintain food sovereignty despite blockades and sieges
If you’re unable to personally give, consider sharing this fundraiser with people in your network that might be able to. Thank you again.
February rad reads
Articles, resources, and programs at the intersection of Buddhism and radical social change
Seeking Buddha in Gaza by Linda Hess
A powerful essay by religious scholar, Linda Hess, on the connection between her Zen practice and witnessing the Gazan genocide.
It's Now Up To Us by Thanissara
“The veils are lifting, and the bandages are being ripped away from the decaying flesh of the empire. It’s excruciating. The Hollywood sign may have escaped the LA fires, but it has already burned symbolically. We’ve been dreaming of a world built on myths, but the dream–romancing cotton candy stained with the blood of innocents–lasted too long.”
"There is So Much Now that Needs Protection” by Kaira Jewel Lingo
“If we are not working to look at and take care of the vulnerable places in us we won’t be able to accept and be with them in others, and if we hate these parts of ourselves, we will hate what we perceive as weakness in others, even if we are part of creating that weakness.”
This Demands a Response: A Call to Spiritual Defiance by Adam Bucko
I loved this essay by Episcopal priest, Adam Bucko. He offers a very practical breakdown of what’s needed in this political moment from both a spiritual and movement strategy perspective.
Kritee Kanko is a justice-informed dharma teacher and climate scientist based out in Colorado. She sends out a very comprehensive, awesome newsletter directly via email so I can’t link. BUT go sign up for her newsletter and see all the awesome programming she’s doing through her sangha, Boundless in Motion.
safe enough by Jessica Angima
I appreciated this reflection on sangha and solidarity across differences. “How can we build solidarity when we are not all on the same page? How do we have relationships across injury? How do we build systems of safety when a person doesn’t feel safe within themselves?”
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now which probably won't magically catalyze a mass movement against Trump but that are still wildly important by Garrett Bucks
I thought this was a lovely, honest, practical yet heart-stretching list.
The New Bodhisattva Path – How to Live in Dangerous Times with David Loy
David’s books played a huge role in my own radicalization as an engaged dharma practitioner. He’s teaching online over at New York Insight on Thursday, March 13th 7:00-9:00pm ET.
Study and Action for Palestine hosted by Comrades Education (formerly White Awake) | March 16-May 4th 4:30-6:30pm ET
I shared this program the last time it was offered and recommend it again for folks that are looking for embodied, spiritually informed political education on Palestine.
And one last reminder... !
Engaged Buddhist Studies Seminars
Introduction to Socially Engaged Buddhism
this Sunday, February 23rd 3:00-5:00pm ET
Connect the dharma to our modern world and challenges
The first of five workshops I’ll be offering this year at the intersection Buddhist studies and critical theory. We’ll meditate together, check in with one another, and hopefully feel a bit more whole and human. I’ll offer a presentation exploring the history of engaged Buddhism in Asian liberation movements, its core principles, and how it has manifested in the West. We’ll also dive into why understanding this history is crucial to resist colonialism from inadvertently shaping our own engaged Buddhist practice. We’ll end with a discussion on how to bring the dharma into our current political moment.
Paid subscribers can find the registration link at the end of this email.
TLDR: we moved in with my parents four months ago so I could build a livelihood writing and teaching about radically engaged Buddhism! This newsletter… me writing publicly… all very new things! If you’d like to support my work, you can also buy me a coffee.
Practice can cultivate a spaciousness of mind that fosters creativity and ease, but it (1) takes time and (2) is through a mindset rooted in harmlessness, goodwill, and, most importantly, renunciation.
I would consider myself a successful meditation teacher if my students actually DID NOT feel the need to come back to my recorded meditations. I recognize that this is bad for my replay count and business lol
For clarification: Buddhist meditation practices already do this on their own. I’m not remaking the wheel or the Buddha’s teachings; I’m presenting them with a critical social awareness of Western culture.
An additional end-note:
It feels important to acknowledge that a little “dharma talk” is often offered before guided meditation instruction. This is very helpful in terms of setting a “view” for practice. I perceive this similar to how a pastor offers a sermon before prayer in a church service. It imbues the ritual practice with further meaning and relevance. And (some folks may disagree with me on this one) we must develop strength to internalize this worldview for ourselves without a teacher doing it for us always. Chanting and study are helpful for this.