Dear readers,
Happy Pride Month! I hope you are enjoying this June as spring transitions to summer. After several much-needed days away from the phone/computer at the beginning of this month, I was delighted to return to a message in my inbox from Prumsodun Ok, whose quote on pages 246–247 of Be the Refuge has resonated with many. Prum is the founder of NATYARASA, Cambodia's first gay dance company. Among the projects they are currently working on is "A Deepest Blue," which features Khmer lyrics set to the Japanese classical music form gagaku. The beautiful confluences in this video remind me of the way Buddhism adapts to—and weaves together—many different cultures.
In other exciting news, today, June 8th, marks the launch of the audiobook for Be the Refuge, narrated by the amazing Jennifer Aquino. It's an honor to have the book be voiced by an Asian American woman conversant in Japanese, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Spanish. For those who prefer your books in audio form (hi mom!), you can check it out at your local library, or purchase it from Audible, Libro.fm, Google Play, and other audiobook retailers.
Hot off the (digital) press this month is my interview on "Authorship as Chaplaincy" conducted by artist, writer, and technologist Ana Mina of the Los Angeles Review of Books. I'm also celebrating the first review of Be the Refuge in an academic journal by the brilliant Hsiao-Lan Hu, author of This-Worldly Nibbana: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community. The clarity and fierceness of Dr. Hu's writing shines in this review, published in the open-access Journal of Global Buddhism (vol. 22, no. 1). I am especially grateful for Prof. Hu's courage in sharing a personal story that vividly illustrates the issues highlighted in my book. The freely available articles in this excellent issue of JGB include "Sitting in the Fire Together: People of Color Cultivating Radical Resilience in North American Insight Meditation" by Dr. Nalika Gajaweera, whom I was in conversation with at last month for Harvard's Buddhism and Race series (a recording is available here), and "#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas" by Ann Gleig and Brenna Artinger.
Be the Refuge has been out in the world for a little more than four months now. I never could have foreseen that my first book would come out during a time that has been riven not only by a global pandemic but also by racial violence. I reflect on these themes in "Honoring Our Ancestors: A Buddhist Response to Anti-Asian Violence," an article in the latest issue of Insight Journal. To each and every one of you who has helped Be the Refuge find a home across North America and around the globe: thank you. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter, for attending my online events, for asking thoughtful and challenging questions, for taking the time to share your reflections via email and social media, for your solidarity and spiritual friendship.
If you're interested in attending an online event around Be the Refuge this June, feel free to register for these upcoming events:
On the subject of systemic violence, some of you may wish to endorse this Interfaith Statement of Solidarity with the New Jersey BAPS Temple Workers (most of whom are from Dalit backgrounds). And finally, on the topic of May 4th, words are insufficient to express my gratitude for everyone who made this historic and healing gathering possible. Over 1,700 people joined the livestream last month, and the video has been watched over 8,000 times. Given the long history of erasure of Asian American Buddhists, it was powerful to see May We Gather featured in the LA Times and NY Times. If you'd like to stay up to date about future May We Gather events, feel free to sign up for the newsletter on the MWG website.
With warmth and gratitude,
~Chenxing
