Idris' Journey to Heal and Build Beloved Community

Dear Beloved Community, Family, and Friends,

For those of you who do not know me personally, my name is Idris :)

Deep bows to everyone practicing love and awareness!

I am working to heal and transform the wounds of Islamophobia in myself, my communities, my countries, and the world through mindfulness, love in action, and nonviolence. To do this, I am practicing to expand the window of welcome of Plum Village mindfulness communities to include my beloveds, my blood-spiritual community, folks with Muslim heritage, and many others who find themselves without access to the refuge of this community. I am also cultivating beautiful flowers of peace, love, unity, and beauty that I have found hidden in my Muslim heritage.

Please support me on this path!

On my journey, I have found that as I heal my wounds with my ancestors, I have been able to support people from many races and backgrounds on their own journeys. One mentee of mine recently said to me, “It is so helpful to talk to someone about racism. It is so hard to have these conversations. And to talk to someone who has such helpful insights as you makes a big difference.”

In the long term I am dreaming with others of building an inclusive residential practice center in the Plum Village tradition, centering BIPOC, queer, neurodivergent, disabled, and other usually-marginalized folks. I sense that I can make these dreams possible through relying on my experiences in starting/co-leading communities, starting/supporting non-profits for the poor & marginalized, and teaching nonviolent communication (NVC) around the world.

For the last few years, I have been living at, practicing with, and supporting Deer Park Monastery. As I transition from living for years in a Zen monastery to supporting healing and transformation in the world, I am asking for your support.

As I journey forth, your support will help me to practice with incredible teachers that I have long studied in the Plum Village and Sufi traditions + help me continue to build community via two retreats. I believe these powerful meetings will help me deepen my insight and clarify my path as I co-build the communities that will help us transform the suffering of our times.

Your support will help me with travel, retreat costs, and living expenses, as I set out from the monastery.

Below are some more details about the retreats!

The first is a special mindfulness retreat held by three incredible spiritual activists: Kaira Jewel Lingo, Marisella Gomez, and Joe Reilly. Each are dharma teachers in the Plum Village tradition, started by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Defiance as an Act of Love Healing and Transforming. On this retreat, I am hoping to reconnect with these BIPOC elders who have centered a nonviolent, inclusive, and healing form of activism in their lives and teachings.

The second is a special Sufi retreat held by five Sufi teachers with deep wisdom in healing between cultures. This includes healing between Christian and Muslim, men and women, cis and other genders, East and West, and many other dimensions of our complex and beautiful human family. They have deep connections to ancient world-renowned teachers like Rumi, Shams, Hafiz, and Ibn Arabi, grounded in language and regular pilgrimage to their homelands. Their teachings are helping me heal my way home to my own family’s roots in Islam. And I have seen again and again that as I heal, I help others heal. If you are curious about Sufi teachings, a wonderful place to start might be with the poetry of Rumi as taught by Omid Safi.