Teachers Archives: Larry Yang

Larry Yang

Larry Yang teaches meditation retreats nationally and has a special interest in creating access to the Dharma for diverse multicultural communities. Larry has practiced extensively in Burma and Thailand, with a six month period of ordination as a Buddhist monk under the guidance of Ajahn Tong.  Larry is on the Teacher’s Council and the Board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, is one of the core teachers of East Bay Meditation Center (Oakland), and is the Guiding Teacher and on the Board of the Insight Community of the Desert (Palm Springs). He is part of the coordinating team developing future community dharma teachers in Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership Program. His Huffington Post blog is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-yang/.  In addition, Larry is trained as a psychotherapist and a consultant in cultural competency—giving workshops and presentations in diversity and multicultural issues.

Larry’s article, “Directing the Mind Towards Practices in Diversity” was included in Friends on the Path: Living Spiritual Communities, by Thich Nhat Hanh; this article is also being used by different groups based in Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. His essay “Family Tree Practice” addresses how meditation and contemplative practice has directly influenced his experiences with racism, heterosexism, and oppression. Larry is a co-editor of Making the Invisible Visible: Healing Racism in Our Buddhist Communities, a booklet developed for building inclusive communities within spiritual practice. He has contributed to the groundbreaking anthology, Dharma, Color, and Culture, by Hilda Gutiérrez Baldoquín—a volume that provides a unique perspective from practitioners of color across the spectrum of Buddhist traditions.