BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//141.193.213.20//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.26.9// CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Union Theological Seminary X-WR-CALDESC: X-FROM-URL:https://utsnyc.edu X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20231105T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RDATE:20241103T020000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20240310T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RDATE:20250309T020000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:ai1ec-21606@utsnyc.edu DTSTAMP:20240328T163041Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-US:TNHEB CONTACT:Peace Twesigye\; ptwesigye@uts.columbia.edu DESCRIPTION:
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Join us for Dharma and Justice: Buddhism\, An
cestral Memory\, and Healing with Duncan Ryūken Williams\, Ve
nerable Bhante Buddharakkita\, DaRa Williams\, and Kosen Gregory Snyder. This online event will take place on Thursday\, October 14
\, from 12:30 pm – 2 pm ET. Click here to register for the webinar. <
/p>\n\n
For some traditions of Buddhism\, ancestral lineage offers a precious s
piritual place for devotion\, wisdom\, and a deep sense of origin. As Budd
hism continues to unfold in the United States within and beyond the Asian
communities in which it came\, all complex\, painful\, and cherished relat
ionships to ancestry and ancestors unfold with it. Historically\,
these same lineages have often been constructed for reasons of legitimacy\
, authority\, power\, and attracting resources. The legacy of white suprem
acist colonization has severed ancestries through violent occupation\, rel
ocation\, reeducation\, and enslavement. The logic of whiteness itself is
one that insists our cultural and ancestral bodies be stripped\, denounced
\, and replaced by ahistorical and racialized hierarchies of power. Ancest
ry\, then\, can for us bear a timeless love and encouragement or a deeply
cutting domination and erasure. Our ancestors can be as close to our bodie
s as our very breath and they can be rendered the unnecessary\, cultural b
aggage of less reasonable peoples. How then do we morally navigate
the many intersections of our personal and Buddhist ancestries so our vie
ws and actions cultivate healing and liberation for all beings\, rather th
an furthering the harmful\, colonial\, supremacist legacies of our world a
nd nation? As we unpack this question together\, we are excited to learn f
rom three people who have devoted their lives to working intimately at the
se very intersections. Duncan Ryūken Williams was ordained as a Soto Zen Buddhist priest
at Kotakuji Temple (Nagano\
, Japan) in 1993 and then served as a Buddhist chaplain at Harvard Univers
ity\, where he received his Ph.D. in 2000. Currently\, he is the Chair of
the University of Southern California’s School of Religion\, Professor of
American Studies & Ethnicity\, and Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Cu
lture. Previously\, he held the Ito Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhi
sm at UC Berkeley and served as the Director of Berkeley’s Center for Japa
nese Studies. He is also the founder of Hapa
Japan (a mixed race/mixed roots Japanese community and fe
stival). Williams is the author of the LA Times bestseller American Sutra:
A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Harvard University
Press\, 2019) about Buddhism and the WWII Japanese American internment\; T
he Other Side of Zen (Princeton University Press\, 2005)\, and editor of 7
books centered on Buddhism as well as race\, religion\, and American belo
nging. He is a co-organizer of the “May We Gather” national Buddhist cerem
ony for Asian American ancestors\, a gathering to heal the rising anti-Asi
an animus and violence of recent times. Williams is currently writing a bo
ok about a Buddhist approach to racial reparations and is the organizer of
the USC Ito Center series “Black+Japanese Venerable Bhante Buddharakkita was born in Uganda\, Africa. He first encountered Buddhism i
n 1990 while studying and living in India. He was ordained as a Buddhist m
onk by the late Most Venerable U Silananda in 20
02 at the Tathagata Meditation Center in San Jos
e\, California. He then spent eight years under the guidance of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana at th
e Bhavana Society\, West Virginia. He is the fo
under and Abbot of the Uganda Buddhist Center in Uganda. Besides spending time at the Uganda Buddhist
Center\, he is a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New Y
ork City and the spiritual director of Radiance Retreat Center in Magnolia
\, Mississippi. He is long-time member of Global Buddhist Relief’s advisor
y council in New Jersey. He
has been teaching mindfulness meditation in Africa\, the U.S.\, and worldw
ide since 2005\, and he is a much-loved teacher in many countries. His boo
k\, Pl
anting Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence of Buddhism in Africa\, tells t
he story of his religious and spiritual work in the continent of his birth
. DaRa<
/span> Williams is a meditation
teacher\, psychotherapist and trainer. DaRa<
span id='E229'> has been a meditator for the past 25 years and is a practi
tioner of both Vipassana and
Ascension meditation. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Medita
tion Society Teacher Training Program and is a Guiding Teacher at IMS. Th
is year she completed the role of program manager and was a core teacher i
n the IMS Teacher Training Program. DaRa Kosen
span> Gregory Snyder is the Seni
or Director and Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at Union Theologic
al Seminary. Professor Snyder is an ordained Zen Buddhist pri
est and dharma-transmitted teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He co-founded and is currently th
e senior resident priest at the Brooklyn Zen Center and Ancestral Heart Ze
n Monastery in Millerton\, NY. He is one of the founders of the Buddhist A
ction Coalition\, whose mission is to organize and inspire compassionate B
uddhist initiatives in advancing social\, economic\, and environmental jus
tice through advocacy and nonviolent direct action. Professor Snyder’s academic and
practice interests include socially engaged Buddhism\, the intersections o
f contemplative interreligious dialogue and social action\, the relationsh
ip between Buddhist liberatory practices and social transformation\, and the exploratory juxtaposition
of Buddhism with liberation theology\, Earth-centered cosmologies\, and W
estern continental theory\, particularly phenomenology and post-structural
ism. Professor Snyder is currently working on a book exploring expressions
of social justice rooted in Buddhist dharma\, moral epistemology\, and pr
axis. He has been published in Buddhist and other periodicals\, including
Buddhadharma\, Lion’s Roar\,
Shambhala Sun and the New York Times. Tickets: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/ancestral-memory-and-healing.
\n American Reparations”.