Tony Nguyễn Wiederhold (he/him)
Hi I'm Tony (he/him), one of ICY's three Co-Organizers and Practice Leader of most of our silent meditation practices and Movement and Meditation for Collective Liberation. Practicing with others and making it easy to practice are my favorite things to do.
My life is organized around both practice and caring for my elderly, disabled mother, who was the first person to gift me with the Vietnamese Buddhist rituals of our ancestors. I also study and translate Buddhist texts and frameworks, play with Chinese calligraphy, nurture my plant and animal siblings, and live not-online as much as possible.
On April Fools Day, 2017, I led a free yoga practice outside at the 100 Acres. I didn't set out to "start" anything. I wanted to practice in a circle with friends on the grass under big shade trees. I also wanted to see what would happen if I 1) didn't charge money, 2) actualized equality by practicing-with from within a circle of equals, breaking the usual "teacher-student" power dynamic, and 3) led practices in a natural setting where every other being is just being natural. One practice led to another and now we have in a worker-led, boss-free cooperative offering free and accessible yoga, qigong, meditation, and nature walk practices every day, 100% free of charge for 100% of people.
I first became aware of meditation around age 10, when I began attending Chùa Quang Minh in Chicago with Mom. There, I met the monk Thích Đúc Niệm, who handed me a broom, books, and profound teaching that I would not begin to comprehend for another 25 years. I've completed a lot of training in yoga and American mindfulness from 2013 - 2019 that revealed the exploitative, authoritarian, and capitalist norms at the heart of the American wellness industry. I also spent over 15 years employed by a large pharmaceutical corporation where I saw the same forces. My resistance is to lean into and grow from my Vietnamese Buddhist roots, the gift from my mother, her grandmother, countless ancestors, and my other first teacher Thích Đúc Niệm. I am grateful to our Buddha ancestors, scholars, translators, and ordinary people, ancient and modern, over centuries, who gifted their work, and I am grateful that I can both receive those gifts and become a small link in the chain by passing along those gifts to those who practice with me.
May we all have the courage to be at ease with ourselves, and may we all have the courage to stand with and befriend others.