Dear readers,

As 2022 draws to a close, I wish you ample time for celebration, mourning, reflection, dreaming, and whatever else feels just right this winter.

I was startled to realize that it’s been over half a year since my last newsletter (…oops). Though my abilities tend to fall short of my ambitions when it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I do hope to write more regularly in 2023.

Today I’m celebrating the book launch of Trent Walker’s Until Nirvana’s Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia. (As one of Trent's students in his Buddhism in the Bay Area class this fall asked: “Are you the Trent in Be the Refuge?” Hint: yes.) Though not a student of Khmer chant myself, I’m deeply indebted to the Cambodian Dharma song masters whose teachings have transformed my life and Trent’s. I’m so happy that these songs can now reach more hearts and hearers. You can listen to recordings of this melismatic chant tradition here and here.

Until Nirvana’s Time reorients the way I understand the centrality of women in the Buddha's life story; challenges my assumptions on what I owe my parents and kin; enjoins me not to take this brief and precious life for granted; and teaches me how to dream big on the path to peace. The book has been a most cherished companion and teacher to me—may it be so for you and yours as well. If you’d like to take a deeper diver into the tradition, please join us for Story and Song: Learning and Living with Buddhist Chant, a four-day retreat at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts from March 30 to April 2, 2023. Registration is open now and, like last year, any dāna received will go toward donating copies of Until Nirvana’s Time to Cambodian communities across the United States. 

One of my aspirations for the new year is less screen time, so I’ll bring this letter to a close. More soon, in the new year!

Warmly,

~Chenxing