Welcome
Joyful Mind Project is a grassroots 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting collective liberation. Our mission is creating an equitable and just society through compassionate action.
We do this by working in solidarity with people of all backgrounds, by listening, learning, and creating spaces where health and wholeness can emerge.
We work alongside people, intentionally fostering collaborative relationships and seeking to create partnerships that support individual and collective well-being.
We believe that these authentic interactions can support ripples of change. In this way, transformation can spiral outward into our communities, repeating liberating fractal patterns like seashells, sunflowers, fiddleheads, and galaxies.
Learn about how we utilize a liberatory frame within our organization here.
““If you’ve come to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you’ve come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.””
Collective liberation
Joyful Mind Project’s work begins within a landscape where social and psycho-spiritual liberation are interdependent… where personal and collective well-being are inseparable.
All of our work comes through a liberatory door deeply rooted in Buddhist Psychology and a Mahayana ethic of inclusivity, where remembering our interdependence with the world moves us to care for one another and the world.
Our work has grown slowly and organically over two decades, beginning with small, community groups, often with people challenging dominant culture norms and exploring education outside of traditional school models.
Through much community support, we received our nonprofit status in 2016 and expanded our work to include programs supporting public, private, and charter schools, and other organizations. Many of our programs have historically taken place on farms or with other strong relationships to the land. In 2022, we launched a mental health initiative that continues today, bringing liberatory and transpersonal psychotherapy to people throughout the state of California.
Our programs and services continue emerging in many forms, from individual psychotherapy to Zen practice discussion with our founder, to building family-based programs on the land and in the zendo at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.
Learn more about our founder, Meikyo Chelsea True, here. Learn more about our services here.
fractal
“frac·tal”
noun. A geometric pattern where every part, regardless of size, represents the whole and expands infinitely in multiple directions.
See seashells, sunflowers, fiddleheads, and galaxies.
adjective. In the context of social justice work, the ripple effect of small collaborations spiraling outwards infinitely into a network of interconnected efforts creating systemic, meaningful, and large-scale change.