The Symposium
While many may be familiar with the field of somatics and the growing interest in embodied practices within our movements for justice and liberation, there may be less collective awareness in these spaces of the vast and various transformative lineages of movement-based physical and energetic practice systems that exist within various spiritual, wisdom, and martial traditions. Such transformative practices allow one to be utterly present and responsive to the moment and any arising condition or set of circumstances with vigor, potent capacity, enthusiasm, presence, love, and full commitment to the liberation of everyone and everything.
This symposium, hosted by Drs. Brooke Lavelle of Courage of Care and Sheryl Petty of Ocha Dharma, brought together wise and experienced practitioners and contributors to our special journal issue—many of whom are themselves grounded in movements for justice and equity—to make these lineages of practice more visible and accessible.
We are offering recordings of the symposium from November, 2025. You will receive a digital copy of this special issue of The Arrow Journal with your purchase.
Session One
On Easefulness, Openness, and Embodied Courage
with Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook & Brooke Lavelle
“In a timeplace of accelerating deconstruction, how do we meet the moment?” asks Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi, strategist and former state legislator, in their moving essay in our forthcoming special issue. Drawing on her long history of Zen and martial arts practice, she offers reflections for how we might embody courage in these chaotic times. In this conversation, Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook, a Wing Chun Kung Fu practitioner, and Brooke Lavelle, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai practitioner, will reflect on ways in which their lineage practices have shaped and informed their approaches to social and political transformation, with a lens toward (re)orienting communities of practice to their liberatory capacities and gifts.
Following this conversation, Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook will lead a practice-based breakout session.
Session Two
On Subtle Physical Practices and the Path of Liberation
with Lama Ying-rig Dorjé & Dr. James Bae
This conversation will explore physical practice both as a path of healing and also as an accelerator for spiritual practice. Dr. James Bae, a long-time Chinese Medicine practitioner and teacher of tsalung trulkhor yogic lineages of Vajrayana Buddhism has striven—along with his teachers—to make these sacred lineages more accessible to a range of people, types of bodies, and interest levels, demonstrating that this “medicine” can meet any person with interest wherever we are. Lama Ying-rig Dorjé, studies and holds the treasures of Ling Gésar—the epitome of spiritual warriorship and sovereignty in the Vajrayana, and aims to introduce practitioners to the physical, verbal, and energetic martial practices that enable people to “dance with opposition.”
Both presenters have offered beautiful contributions on their work to our special issue. Following their conversation, James Bae will offer a practice-based breakout session.
Session Three
Sovereignty and Seatedness: Wielding Fierce Compassion
with Jesse Luckett & Dr. Sheryl Petty
How can physical practices help us hold our seat and remain conncted to our our primordial, indestructible goodness? How do we learn to move and wield energy from these seatedness in ways that are service to the highest good? And how can physical practices ready us for intense periods of social and political challenge? Join Jesse Luckett and Dr. Sheryl Petty for a conversation on these questions, and an exploration on the varieties of subtle physical practices (including calligraphy, dance, and more), as they share from their own practice traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism and African-based Lucumi.
Following the conversation, both Jesse and Sheryl will offer separate practice-based breakout sessions.
