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members, SIMS splits its classes
and meditation groups between
church buildings, yoga and art
studios, and members’ homes.
While the organization doesn’t
break down its membership numbers, it’s leadership admits it’s almost entirely made up of white Seattleites who skew in age toward 50
and above. Of 10 teachers listed on
the SIMS website, only one besides
Sala is not white. The situation has
not changed much since her first
time in the meditation hall 11 years
ago, but her belief in the practice
has grown. Over the last two years,
Sala joined together with Bonnie
Duran, a Native American Buddhist, the other non-white teacher
at SIMS, with a lofty goal: to bring
more minorities to the wider meditation community, but to draw
them in on their own first.
“We need to bring the dharma
beyond where it’s been. We need
to be able to teach the unusual
practitioner, the outcast practitioner,” Sala says. “You can’t
get to those deep places without
someone there to guide you, to
hold your truth while you take a
chance with yourself.”
Born in South Seattle in a largely black neighborhood, Sala grew
up in public housing projects. Her
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younger years, she says, were full
of violence. She was raped. She
was abused by an ex-husband. As
an adult, she was nearly always in
financial ruin. Raised as a Missionary Baptist, she instantly turned
to faith to cope with pent-up anger and emotional distress. For 15
years of her adult life living in Kan-
“W E WALKED INTO THIS ROOM AND
THERE WERE 60 WHITE PEOPLE.
NO BLACK PEOPLE. NO PEOPLE OF
COLOR. I DID NOT WANT TO STAY.”
sas City and Seattle, she hopped
between Baptist, Presbyterian and
Catholic churches.
Sala’s Buddhist journey began
with her own suffering and a resolve to improve her life, a path
similar to that of many other Buddhists. She’s practiced meditation
for 20 years, and credits it for freeing her from emotional turmoil.
Her life’s goal, she says, is to bring
Buddhist practice to those who are
suffering. On weekends, she teaches Buddhism to prisoners, and has
found herself spending vacation
days from her day job as a criminal
prosecutor to attend Buddhist retreats to be certified as a “commu-