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:20240329T092422Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-US:TNHEB CONTACT:Peace Twesigye\; ptwesigye@uts.columbia.edu DESCRIPTION: \nJoin us for Dharma and Justice: Buddhism\, Ancestral Memory\ , and Healing with Duncan Ryūken Williams\, Venerable Bhante Buddharakkita \, DaRa Williams\, and Kosen Gregory Snyder. This online event will take p lace on Thursday\, October 14\, from 12:30 pm – 2 pm ET. Click here to reg ister for the webinar. \nRSVP Today!\nFor some traditions of Buddhism\, an cestral lineage offers a precious spiritual place for devotion\, wisdom\, and a deep sense of origin. As Buddhism continues to unfold in the United States within and beyond the Asian communities in which it came\, all comp lex\, painful\, and cherished relationships to ancestry and ancestors unfo ld with it.\nHistorically\, these same lineages have often been constructe d for reasons of legitimacy\, authority\, power\, and attracting resources . The legacy of white supremacist colonization has severed ancestries thro ugh violent occupation\, relocation\, reeducation\, and enslavement. The l ogic of whiteness itself is one that insists our cultural and ancestral bo dies be stripped\, denounced\, and replaced by ahistorical and racialized hierarchies of power. Ancestry\, then\, can for us bear a timeless love an d encouragement or a deeply cutting domination and erasure. Our ancestors can be as close to our bodies as our very breath and they can be rendered the unnecessary\, cultural baggage of less reasonable peoples.\nHow then d o we morally navigate the many intersections of our personal and Buddhist ancestries so our views and actions cultivate healing and liberation for a ll beings\, rather than furthering the harmful\, colonial\, supremacist le gacies of our world and nation? As we unpack this question together\, we a re excited to learn from three people who have devoted their lives to work ing intimately at these very intersections.\n\nDuncan 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 University\, wh ere he received his Ph.D. in 2000. Currently\, he is the Chair of the Univ ersity of Southern California’s School of Religion\, Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity\, and Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japan ese Religions and Culture. Previously\, he held the Ito Distinguished Chai r of Japanese Buddhism at UC Berkeley and served as the Director of Berkel ey’s Center for Japanese Studies. He is also the founder of Hapa Japan (a mixed race/mixed roots Japanese community and festival). Williams is the a uthor of the LA Times bestseller American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Free dom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press\, 2019) about Buddhi sm and the WWII Japanese American internment\; The Other Side of Zen (Prin ceton University Press\, 2005)\, and editor of 7 books centered on Buddhis m as well as race\, religion\, and American belonging. He is a co-organize r of the “May We Gather” national Buddhist ceremony for Asian American anc estors\, a gathering to heal the rising anti-Asian animus and violence of recent times. Williams is currently writing a book about a Buddhist approa ch to racial reparations and is the organizer of the USC Ito Center series “Black+Japanese American Reparations”.\n \nVenerable Bhante Buddharakkit a was born in Uganda\, Africa. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while studying and living in India. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk by the l ate Most Venerable U Silananda in 2002 at the Tathagata Meditation Center in San Jose\, California. He then spent eight years under the guidance of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society\, West Virginia. He is the founder and Abbot of the Uganda Buddhist Center in Uganda.\nBesides sp ending time at the Uganda Buddhist Center\, he is a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the spiritual director of Radiance Retreat Center in Magnolia\, Mississippi. He is long-time member of Global Buddhist Relief’s advisory council in New Jersey.\nHe has been t eaching mindfulness meditation in Africa\, the U.S.\, and worldwide since 2005\, and he is a much-loved teacher in many countries. His book\, Planti ng Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence of Buddhism in Africa\, tells the story of his religious and spiritual work in the continent of his birth.\nDaRa Will iams is a meditation teacher\, psychotherapist and trainer. DaRa has been a meditator for the past 25 years and is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Med itation Society Teacher Training Program and is a Guiding Teacher at IMS. This year she completed the role of program manager and was a core teache r in the IMS Teacher Training Program. DaRa has been a clinician and admin istrator in the field of mental health for over 25 years and currently mai ntains a private teletherapy practice. She is a holder of Indigenous Focu sing Oriented Therapy and Complex Trauma trainig in the USA and a certifie d trainer and practitioner of IFOT. She is committed to liberation and fre edom thru integrating liberatory voices and knowledge. DaRa incorporates these practices\, skills\, understandings\, wisdom traditions and world vi ews in her intention for contributing to the ending of suffering for all b eings. \n\nKosen Gregory Snyder is the Senior Director and Assistant Profe ssor of Buddhist Studies at Union Theological Seminary.\nProfessor Snyder is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and dharma-transmitted teacher in the l ineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He co-founded and is currently the senior reside nt priest at the Brooklyn Zen Center and Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery in Millerton\, NY. He is one of the founders of the Buddhist Action Coalition \, whose mission is to organize and inspire compassionate Buddhist initiat ives in advancing social\, economic\, and environmental justice through ad vocacy and nonviolent direct action.\nProfessor Snyder’s academic and prac tice interests include socially engaged Buddhism\, the intersections of co ntemplative interreligious dialogue and social action\, the relationship b etween Buddhist liberatory practices and social transformation\, and the e xploratory juxtaposition of Buddhism with liberation theology\, Earth-cent ered cosmologies\, and Western continental theory\, particularly phenomeno logy and post-structuralism. Professor Snyder is currently working on a bo ok exploring expressions of social justice rooted in Buddhist dharma\, mor al epistemology\, and praxis. He has been published in Buddhist and other periodicals\, including Buddhadharma\, Lion’s Roar\, Shambhala Sun and the New York Times.\nTickets: https://myunion.utsnyc.edu/ancestral-memory-and -healing. DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211014T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211014T140000 LOCATION:Zoom Webinar SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Dharma and Justice Dialogues: Buddhism\, Ancestral Memory\, and Hea ling URL:https://utsnyc.edu/event/dharma-and-justice-dialogues-buddhism-ancestra l-memory-and-healing/ X-COST-TYPE:external X-WP-IMAGES-URL:thumbnail\;https://utsnyc.edu/wp-content/uploads/Welcome-Ba ck-to-School-Instagram-Post-150x150.png\;150\;150\;1\,medium\;https://utsn yc.edu/wp-content/uploads/Welcome-Back-to-School-Instagram-Post.png\;1080\ ;1080\; X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\\n\\n
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Jo in us for Dharma and Justice: Buddhism\, Ancestral Memory\, and Healin g with Duncan Ryūken Williams\, Venerable Bhante Buddharakkit a\, DaRa Williams\, and Kosen Gregory Snyder. This online event w ill take place on Thursday\, October 14\, from 12:30 pm – 2 pm ET. Click h ere to register for the webinar.
\n\nFor some traditions of B uddhism\, ancestral lineage offers a precious spiritual place for devotion \, wisdom\, and a deep sense of origin. As Buddhism continues to unfold in the United States within and beyond the Asian communities in which it cam e\, all complex\, painful\, and cherished relationships to ancestry and an cestors unfold with it.
\nHistorically\, these same lineages have of ten been constructed for reasons of legitimacy\, authority\, power\, and a ttracting resources. The legacy of white supremacist colonization has seve red ancestries through violent occupation\, relocation\, reeducation\, and enslavement. The logic of whiteness itself is one that insists our cultur al and ancestral bodies be stripped\, denounced\, and replaced by ahistori cal and racialized hierarchies of power. Ancestry\, then\, can for us bear a timeless love and encouragement or a deeply cutting domination and eras ure. Our ancestors can be as close to our bodies as our very breath and th ey can be rendered the unnecessary\, cultural baggage of less reasonable p eoples.
\nHow then do we morally navigate the many intersections of our personal and Buddhist ancestries so our views and actions cultivate he aling and liberation for all beings\, rather than furthering the harmful\, colonial\, supremacist legacies of our world and nation? As we unpack thi s question together\, we are excited to learn from three people who have d evoted their lives to working intimately at these very intersections.
\nDuncan < span id='E119'>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 University\, where he received hi s Ph.D. in 2000. Currently\, he is the Chair of the University of Southern California’s School of Religion\, Professor of American Studies & Ethnici ty\, and Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. Previously\, he hel d the Ito Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhism at UC Berkeley and serv ed as the Director of Berkeley’s Center for Japanese Studies. He is also t he founder of Hapa Japan (a mixed race/mixed roots Japanese community and festival). Williams is the a uthor of the LA Times bestseller American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Free dom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press\, 2019) about Buddhi sm and the WWII Japanese American internment\; The Other Side of Zen (Prin ceton University Press\, 2005)\, and editor of 7 books centered on Buddhis m as well as race\, religion\, and American belonging. He is a co-organize r of the “May We Gather” national Buddhist ceremony for Asian American anc estors\, a gathering to heal the rising anti-Asian animus and violence of recent times. Williams is currently writing a book about a Buddhist approa ch to racial reparations and is the organizer of the USC Ito Center series “Black+Japanese American Re parations”.
\n\n
Vene rable Bhante Buddharakki ta was born in Uganda\, Africa. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while studying and living in India. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk by the late Most Vener able U Silananda< span id='E169' class='qowt-font1-Calibri'> in 2002 at the Tathagata Meditation Center in San Jose\, California. He then sp ent eight years under the guidance of Bhante Henepola Gunaratana< span id='E181' class='qowt-font1-Calibri'> at the Bhavana Society\, West Virginia. He is the founder and Abbot of the Uga nda Buddhist Center in Uganda.
\nBesides spending time at the Uganda Buddhist Center\, he is a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the spiritual director of Radiance Retreat Center in Magnolia\, Mississippi. He is long -time member of Global Buddhist Relief’s advisory council in New Jersey. span>
\nHe has been teaching mindfuln
ess meditation in Africa\, the U.S.\, and worldwide since 2005\, and he is
a much-loved teacher in many countries. His book\, Planting Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence of
Buddhism in Africa\,
DaRa Williams is a meditation teacher\, psychotherapist
and trainer. DaRa has been a
meditator for the past 25 years and is a practitioner of both
Kosen Gregory Snyder is the Senior Director and Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at Union Theological Seminary.
\nProfessor Snyder is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and dharma-transmitted teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He co-founded and is currently the senior resident priest a t the Brooklyn Zen Center and Ancestral Heart Zen Monastery in Millerton\, NY. He is one of the founders of the Buddhist Action Coalition\, whose mi ssion is to organize and inspire compassionate Buddhist initiatives in adv ancing social\, economic\, and environmental justice through advocacy and nonviolent direct action.
\nProfessor Snyder’s academic and practice interests include socially engaged Buddhism\, the intersections of contemplative interrelig ious dialogue and social action\, the relationship between Buddhist liberatory practices and social tr ansformation\, and the exploratory juxtaposition of Buddhism with liberati on theology\, Earth-centered cosmologies\, and Western continental theory\ , particularly phenomenology and post-structuralism. Professor Snyder is c urrently working on a book exploring expressions of social justice rooted in Buddhist dharma\, moral epistemology\, and praxis. He has been publishe d in Buddhist and other periodicals\, including Bud dhadharma\, Lion’s Roar\, Shambhala Sun and the New York Times.
\nTickets: https://myunion.utsnyc .edu/ancestral-memory-and-healing.
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