Including Everyone
Our goal at Dharma Gates is to make sure deep meditation practice is accessible to any young person who is called towards it.
We welcome people of all cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. We welcome people of any racial identity, ethnic identity, ability, neurodiversity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, education, country of origin, veteran’s status, religion, and level or lineage of practice. We encourage you to reach out to us for any accommodations that would be beneficial for you.
Dharma Gates retreats, events, and advising are offered freely on a donation-basis. In line with the ancient Buddhist principle of Dana (generosity), we aspire to make deep meditation practice available on a donation-basis. We believe that these practices are meant to be offered as broadly as possible, regardless of a person’s financial resources. We are proud to offer all of our programming freely, never requiring or suggesting a donation amount, but leaving open the opportunity of giving to those who feel inspired.
Ride-sharing and financial transportation assistance is offered to all of our in-person retreats. We recognize that private transportation may not be accessible for all participants, and we seek to eliminate this barrier to practice by arranging car pools or connecting folks with public transportation options to our retreats. We also offer limited financial assistance for transport to some individuals to help them get to our retreats, if this is an issue for them. This can be helping to pay for a bus ticket, or pitching in for gas for a carpool.
Offering events at convenient locations and online offerings. We offer events each year on college campuses, in cities, and near urban centers so that participants can arrive without significant travel and/or via public transportation. When our events are hosted at less accessible-locations—the forests and mountains can be greatly conducive to meditation—we take great care to organize rideshares and to proactively help minimize logistical and financial barriers.
At venues where Dharma Gates offers meals, we serve vegan food so that we can practice care for animals and the environment. We recognize that a solution to the current climate catastrophe must include a large-scale shift to plant-based eating. We likewise recognize the horrors of animal agriculture. Because of this, we have made sure that for any event where we have the control over what food is served, that this food will be vegan. Similarly, any non-food products Dharma Gates purchases for our retreats—such as meditation cushions, cleaning supplies, etc.— will also be vegan, free from animal testing and animal byproducts. This policy enables our offerings to be accessible to those passionate about environmental justice and non-human animal rights. We are proud to be a vegan organization.
We are against racism and discrimination of any kind. We are committed to building a community inclusive of people of all races, cultures and ethnicities. As an organization, we look out for ways we can be more inclusive to people from all economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds. We do not tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind.
We recognize that we are an organization made up of fallible human beings. We are always seeking ways to grow, learn, and to better serve our community—and we actively welcome feedback on this journey. Please reach out to us via email at team@dharma-gates.org if you think of a way in which we can be more inclusive to any identity and/or community.
Thank you for reading and for being a part of our commitment to make Dharma Gates programming accessible to and inclusive of all!