Our Mission

To organize and inspire compassionate Buddhist initiatives in advancing social, economic, and environmental justice for the benefit of all beings, undertaken through advocacy and nonviolent direct action.

Core Values

These are the foundational values that will serve as the context within which we will engage in all of our internal and external work.

• DISCERNMENT: Clear insight into the harmful forces at work in today’s world and a vision of more just and compassionate alternatives.

• SOLIDARITY: Sharing the aspirations for well-being of all people everywhere, rooted in a recognition of the essential unity and interconnectedness of all sentient beings.

• LOVING-KINDNESS & COMPASSION: Acting to promote the welfare and happiness of all beings and to alleviate their suffering.

• JUSTICE: Social, economic, political, legal, gender, and environmental justice: endeavoring  to ensure that all people are treated fairly and are free to shape the policies, systems, and institutions that impact their lives.

• EQUITY: All people are entitled to an adequate share of the material resources they need to thrive, as well as healthcare, education, safe housing, and a clean environment.

• RESPECT: Acknowledging the inherent dignity of every person, treating them as they see, choose, and feel is authentic for themselves.

• NON-VIOLENCE: Unequivocally rejecting individual, communal, and systemic violence in all forms.

• ENGAGEMENT: In gratitude for what our ancestors have given to us, and acknowledging our responsibility for the future, we act on behalf of all beings, including generations yet to be born, and on behalf of a living planet.

Ways we work

These are the ways in which core values will materialize in internal and external BAC interactions.

• CULTURAL COMPETENCE: A commitment to continual education about the issues and people we engage with, pursued within an intersectional framework.

• EMPOWERMENT: Empowering those from marginalized and racialized identities--whether historically or currently--by elevating their voices and by promoting their leadership on issues that impact their lives.

• TRANSPARENCY: Leadership will remain in good communication with members and collaborators about activities, decisions, finances, and other developments related to our work.

• MAXIMIZING PARTICIPATION: Identifying obstacles to full participation of Coalition members and communities/organizations with whom we collaborate and enlisting processes that will enable maximum participation and engagement.  

• RECOGNIZING AND ELIMINATING SYSTEMS THAT PERPETUATE MARGINALIZATION: We stand against all systems of oppression based on, including, but not limited to, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Aware that anti-colorism, anti-blackness, white supremacy, sexism, ableism, and all other structures of domination can be internalized and become the default operating position, we commit to acknowledging, interrogating, and dismantling our biases as they arise in our collective work.

• COURAGE: To risk embarking on revolutionary and unpopular causes and actions.

• SELF-CORRECTION: To also resolve to honestly hear and see with humility, examine and correct missteps in ourselves and processes.

• TRUST: Not moving faster than the speed of trust, aware that it is only by listening, respecting and hearing each other that we can move forward together.

• COLLABORATION: Listening to individual and community needs and preferences for achieving their goals as we journey forward with them toward a shared beloved community.

• OPENNESS, DEEP LISTENING, AND COMPASSIONATE DIALOGUE: Creating true community, fostering collective wisdom, and working to transform anger within ourselves and others through acceptance, open-mindedness, kind speech/communication, and non-attachment to one's own views, aware that dogmatism, fanaticism, and intolerance create suffering.

• EQUANIMITY: Maintaining calmness and clarity of purpose when dealing with those who are either favorable or hostile to our intentions.

what we do

Our values in action.

• Speak with a strong moral voice about the need to address abuses of social and racial justice; to resist widening economic inequality; to protect vulnerable peoples; to halt the escalating climate crisis; and to advocate for policies that will protect the natural environment.

• Serve as a regional Buddhist reference point for Buddhist organizations, centers, and individuals in the greater New York area seeking common ground and opportunities to engage in collective action on the issues stated above

• Provide the media with Buddhist perspectives on public policy issues and information about Buddhist activities in relation to those issues

• Highlight worthy local campaigns in order (1) to direct attention and resources from the national Buddhist community to such local efforts; and (2) to identify the broader implications of these efforts when viewed from a national perspective.

• Affirm and demonstrate that activism, direct political action, and strong resistance are altogether appropriate within the framework of the Buddha’s teaching.

• Reflect and highlight nationally the concerns of a broad array of Buddhist activists already working on intersecting issues at local and regional levels.

• Advocate for and against specific issues to engage and influence local, regional, and national legislation.

• Articulate a critical analysis of social and political systems, identifying larger patterns of events at the national and local levels, and to get behind individual events to uncover forces and interests at work.

• Promote peaceful solutions to communal, national, and global problems: advocating demilitarization, negotiations over differences, and collaboration in seeking shared objectives.