Buongiorno, dear readers,I’m writing to you from Perugia, Italy, on my first international trip since the start of the pandemic. My first morning here, I woke to the gut-wrenching news out of Buffalo. I hope you and yours are taking good care in the wake of this tragedy.This latest eruption of unconscionable violence has me thinking about Larry Ward’s clarion call about how we must repair America’s racial karma from a place of spiritual rootedness. Dr. Ward’s powerful speech at last year’s National Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors has continued to inspire me as a co-organizer, alongside Duncan Ryūken Williams and Funie Hsu, of May We Gather. Duncan has an upcoming weekend retreat at the Barre Center on “Refuge-Liberation: A View of Belonging from Buddhist Asian America” (June 17–20). This is a rare opportunity to learn from his expertise in ritual, history, and community organizing; please consider attending and/or sharing about the retreat with those who might benefit from it. Duncan’s accomplishments are astounding—most recently, he became the first Buddhist to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Religion Award for his book American Sutra, and he was just awarded a major grant from the Mellon Foundation to build the first-ever Irei Names Monument memorializing every individual of Japanese ancestry incarcerated during World War II in America’s concentration camps—yet he is among the most humble and unassuming people I know. I’m indebted to Duncan as a mentor and colleague; his work and activism were foundational for Be the Refuge.How are you as spring unfurls into summer? (Or fall into winter, for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.) Lately I’ve noticed in myself twin desires: to express grief, to sharpen resolve. Interrelated needs: laying to rest what needs setting down, dwelling in the stillness from which clarity, energy, and life-giving movements arise.What work/play animates your life these days? For me, it’s Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard, an experimental high school class that I’ve been co-teaching with Andy Housiaux of the Tang Institute at Phillips Academy Andover. I bow to the six students in our project and the local Buddhists of the Merrimack Valley we’ve been learning from—they are my teachers. Our spring term will culminate in an online conference on Wednesday, May 24 from 1–2:30pm ET, organized by the students around the three key themes that arose most frequently in their research and community engagement: dāna (generosity), youth groups, and adaptation to American culture. (Those of you who are local to Andover are welcome to join us for the in-person symposium on May 25 from 1:30–3:30pm ET.) In the words of the students:
The online conference will include a presentation including descriptions of local temples, our personal interests that grew from the experience, and shed light on the incredible kindness shown to us through our visits. After the presentation, we will hold a discussion on shared experiences of Buddhism and Buddhist pedagogy. With an audience of scholars, local Buddhists, educators interested in experiential education, and other community members, we hope the discussion allows us to learn from one another. Please join us for this informative event!
From those of you in New York City, the Buddhist Action Coalition (BAC), Union Theological Seminary (UTS), and the Buddhist Council of New York are co-sponsoring the NYC book launch for Be the Refuge on Wednesday, June 1from 7–8:30pm ET. I'll be in dialogue with BAC member Belinda Ju and there will be plenty of time for audience discussion. Vaccination+booster+mask will be required for entry. Hope to see some of you there!Finally, I’m grateful to the organizers of “The Future of American Buddhism” conference for bringing me out to New York. I'll be among the panelists at this multi-day gathering, which features both in-person and virtual attendance options. I’ll be speaking on Saturday, June 4from 2–3:30pm ET as part of the “BIPOC Wisdom and Skillful Means” panel with Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, and moderator Rima Vesely-Flad, whose new book, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition, has been a cherished companion on this trip to Italy.
Ciao, friends. Be well!
~Chenxing
PS: Despite my best intentions, there’s usually a several-month gap between these newsletters, so I want to make sure to thank Rev. Tadao Koyama for the invitation to speak at the Tacoma Buddhist Temple on Saturday, June 25 from 2–4pm PT (RSVP here). We postponed from last summer in the hopes that we could gather in person this year, but ultimately decided to keep it as an online event. Join us if you can for this long-awaited discussion!
