About
Lisa Fujie Parks is a meditation teacher in the Plum Village tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She is based in Oakland, California and is affiliated with East Bay Meditation Center, where she completed the inaugural Spiritual Teacher and Leadership training program. Parks also completed the Commit2Dharma program and Practice in Transformative Action program. She works in public health as a facilitator and coach, and serves as Board Co-Chair of Our Family Coalition, an organization focused on LGBTQ+ families and children.
Teaching focus
Lisa Fujie Parks's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. Several threads come up: dharma for LGBTQ practitioners; dharma for parents and householders;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Lisa Fujie Parks works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include LGBTQ+. The bigger move Lisa Fujie Parks keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Lisa Fujie Parks's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Lisa Fujie Parks's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Lisa Fujie Parks teaches in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Lisa Fujie Parks is a multiracial Japanese and white queer woman who grew up part of her childhood in Japan and makes a home in Oakland, California, the lands of the Ohlone people. Lisa practices the dharma in the Plum Village tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and in other traditions, in service to wholeness and solidarity. Lisa graduated from East Bay Meditation Center's (EBMC) inaugural Spiritual Teacher and Leadership (STL) training, and also completed the Commit2Dharma program and Practice in meaningful Action program. Lisa is a parent to a young adult in a two-home blended family and works in public health as a facilitator, coach, and advocate. Lisa also serves as the Board Co-Chair of Our Family Coalition, a community organization advancing equity for the full and expanding spectrum of LGBTQ+ families and children. Lisa's favorite ritual is to go outside to give gratitude to our human and more-than-human relatives and ancestors and listen for guidance. If you would like to support Lisa's teachings, please do so via Venmo: @Lisa-Parks-12 or PayPal: [email protected]. In a Zen container, what Lisa Fujie Parks offers is steady, mostly silent practice with short pointed teachings. The form is the teaching as much as the words are. Sitting, walking, work practice, and the relationship with a teacher all carry weight. Lisa Fujie Parks's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Lisa Fujie Parks's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Lisa Fujie Parks's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Lisa Fujie Parks's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Lisa Fujie Parks's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Lisa Fujie Parks teaches as a lay teacher in the Zen and Mahayana traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Zen lineage frame here, where stated, is what authorizes a teacher to lead practice, and the source page usually names the dharma teacher or root teacher when relevant.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Lisa Fujie Parks, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
