IMS Book Club: Sebene Selassie You Belong

You Belong 
A Call for Connection 
By Sebene Selassie 

With Yong Oh

Book club dates: February 9, 16, and 23, at 7 PM ET.

February 9: Intro, Chapters 1 & 2
February 16: Chapters 3, 4 & 5
February 23: Chapters 6 & 7

To view a list of articles and resources discussed during book club meetings click here.

About the Book

You are not separate. You never were. You never will be.

In You Belong, much-admired meditation teacher Sebene Selassie reveals that accepting our belonging is the key to facing the many challenges currently impacting our world. Using ancient philosophy, multidisciplinary research, exquisite storytelling, and razor sharp wit, she leads us in an exploration of all the ways we separate (and thus suffer) and offers a guide back to belonging.

Sebene Selassie has studied Buddhism for more than twenty-five years and received a BA from McGill University and an MA from the New School, where she focused on Buddhism, Hinduism, cultural studies, and race. She is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and of the Professional Coaching Course training program at New Ventures West. She was the Executive Director of New York Insight Meditation Center, where she currently teaches and on the board of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. A native of Ethiopia, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Yong Oh is a Dharma Council teacher at the Durango Dharma Center, teaches for the Chattanooga Insight Meditation group, and is currently on the Leadership Council for Thanissara and Kittisaro’s Sacred Mountain Sangha. Yong is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leaders program and is currently a participant in the 2017-2021 Insight Meditation Society Retreat Teacher Training program as well as the Sacred Mountain Sangha Dharmapala program. Yong is also an acupuncturist, loves the outdoors and bringing the practice of meditation into nature, and aspires to support practitioners of color in the Dharma.

Read about You Belong in IMS’s “Meet the Teacher” interview with Sebene.

About the IMS Book Club 

Each month, the IMS Book Club brings together authors and readers for a facilitated discussion on the featured dharma-book-of-the-month. Our book club offers participants a deeper experience and engagement with early Buddhist teachings and practice through the lens of the selected book.

• The IMS Book Club is entirely free of charge.
• All Book Club meetings will be held online  via Union and Zoom.
• Each monthly Book Club event will feature a new book and three group discussions of one-hour each, including at least one session with the author.
• Featured authors will lead at least one of the three group discussions. If the author/teacher does not participate in all three sessions, a trainee in IMS’s Teacher Training Program will moderate those discussions in place of the author.
• Beyond these basic guidelines, authors will be able to tailor their book club meetings as they see fit, so the structure of book club gatherings may vary from month to month.

Want to Join? 

Step one: register for Sebene Selassie’s three book club meetings here.

Step two: join the IMS Book Club here,if you haven’t already. This registers you for our monthly newsletter which announces new programs and allows you to sign up for the book-of-the-month discussions that interest you.

Step three: order your copy of You Belonghere. Although there is no charge to join the book club, participants will need to secure their own copies of the books prior to the start of the monthly discussion group.