March 20-23, 2025
Queer Retreat: The Paramis as a Revolutionary Act
Leslie Booker
Assisted by Coral Short
Dear Sangha,
As we write this statement, more than 35,000 people have been killed by Israel's assault on Palestine. These numbers do not capture everyone under the rubble. Many more people continue to die of starvation. As a Dharma organization, we are called to respond to the devastation of Gaza and to add our voices to the global demand for a permanent ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to be provided to Palestine.
We learn from our tradition that “In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.” (Dhammapada 3-5) As we call for an end to the ongoing massacre, dispossession, and dehumanization of the Palestinian people, we also lament the killing of over 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of some 240 people as hostages last October 7. We have watched in distress as these Israeli deaths have been used as justification for terrible violence. Jewish ancestral trauma has been weaponized, while generations of occupation and apartheid in Palestine have been erased or minimized.
We reject Islamophobia and antisemitism; we grieve past and present wrongs rooted in colonialism, oppression, discrimination, and injustice. We wish for justice, as well as for peace and safety, for Arabs of all faiths and Jews - in the Middle East and around the world. We advocate for dialogue, deep listening, understanding and reconciliation. We call for basic human rights and dignity for all.
In these past months, we've engaged in reflective dialogues within our sangha, with those seeking refuge in community. In our BIPOC sangha, we have heard how witnessing the siege of Gaza has retraumatized those who have experienced displacement, war, and colonization. We have also heard from Jewish sangha members who are distressed by the rise in antisemitism and polarization; they seek connection, clarity, and wisdom in the face of ancestral trauma.
As a sangha, we are one body, and together we are a living expression of one of the Three Precious Jewels. We are interconnected and interdependent; we affirm the values of wisdom and compassion among all our beloved sangha groups.
We recognize that this message might feel inadequate to some or activating to others. Our intention is to speak from truth and compassion, encouraging mindfulness and skillful action, fostering empathy, healing and mutual respect. Let us continue to learn and unlearn, striving towards a world where Palestine is free, and all beings may live free from fear and oppression.
With friendship, compassion and solidarity,
True North Insight Board and Guiding Teachers
Our Commitment to Unraveling Oppression
True North Insight seeks to be a sangha where all human beings, with no exceptions, can heal, bloom, shine and experience freedom.
Vision
The Buddha taught that the Dharma is nature -- it belongs to no one and to everyone. True North Insight seeks to be a sangha where all human beings, with no exceptions, can heal, bloom, shine and experience freedom. As we speak, we are waking-up to our responsibility to build a sangha that removes all hindrances to this vision -- including in our leadership, our teaching teams, our retreat and class schedules, our communications, and in our registration processes.
True North Insight Commits
True North Insight is committed to dismantling racism and oppression. We have made a start towards building a Sangha that reflects the aspiration of a truly inclusive Sangha, but we know that we still have a long road ahead.
Here is our update on our commitments stated earlier this year:
• We have 50% BIPOC teachers on our retreat schedule.
• We are offering a weekly BIPOC sitting group and an annual BIPOC retreat.
• Our community teacher training program is comprised of 30% BIPOC students.
• Most of TNI’s white teachers, board members, staff and facilitators are working with the book Me and White Supremacy as a collective.
• We have offered two white awareness caucus groups for our sangha, one in English with TNI facilitators Coral Short and Ryan “Twinkle” Backer, and one in French facilitated by Pascal Auclair and K Laspruce.
• We are constantly seeking to update the resource list on race and will be integrating greater aspects of equity and inclusion in time. (resources are available on our Equity & Inclusion page - see link below).
We encourage all who are able to donate to our Inclusion Scholarship fund to help the teachings and retreats be more accessible to Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, as well as other marginalized groups, and to our fund to support BIPOC initiatives to flourish. As Dharma teacher Lama Rod Owens cautioned, "if we don't do our work, then we become work for other people."
Waking up to the impacts of racism and other systemic forms of oppression, and the responsibilities that come with privilege, profoundly supports sila, the ethical action upon which the Dharma rests.
We all need the presence of many voices and perspectives in an equitable and inclusive community, because we are interdependent, and the liberation of each one of us is bound together.