Zen & the Arts is located in Naples, FL, on the southwest coast of the state, bordering the Everglades. We are honored and privileged to practice on this beautiful land, previously and currently home to many indigenous communities including the Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples, the Calusa Tribe of Florida, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.
We acknowledge the profound suffering caused by the colonization of this land. We vow to break the cycle of delusion and ignorance about Indigenous displacement and genocide. Educating ourselves about the conditions that have shaped our world is part of how we understand the Buddha’s teachings on the root causes of suffering. We vow to act with the intention to prevent harm in the future.
Land acknowledgment can be thought of as a mindfulness practice, bringing awareness and compassion to the present by understanding the conditions we inherit from the past. Land acknowledgments are educational, and also have a ritual function: they can invoke ancestors, ask forgiveness, offer reparations, and invite a deepening in self-awareness for people descended from settlers.
We invite you to learn more about the people that stewarded the land you walk on. And we invite you to let humility, reverence and respect inform your practice of Zen. To learn more about the Seminole Tribe of Florida, please visit this link. https://www.ahtahthiki.com/