Instructor: Malik Hokyu Walker
Date: Friday, Feb. 12, 1:00 – 6:00 pm  |  Saturday, Feb. 13, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Format: This two-day intensive course will be held online, through synchronous sessions. Registrants are expected to attend full-time, for both days.

RSVP: This event is at capacity

As a minority religion, Buddhism’s contribution to the caregiving fields has yet to be fully developed or realized. This course will provide an opportunity to discuss three areas of caregiving (Hospital/Hospice, Campus/Collegiate, and Incarceration/Prison) from the Buddhist perspective. It will address the specificity of Buddhist caregiving. We will give a special focus on the concept of Sangha in a broad theological sense as well as the practical locality of the temple and their relationship to the Buddhist caregiver’s relationship and responsibilities to their constituencies (mostly non-Buddhist populations). We will cover models of care with respect to the different areas of caregiving, will read and generate case studies that consider a Buddhist perspective, and address constructive approaches to Buddhist caregiving in a way that brings clarity to the practice of the Buddhist precepts.

This course is one in a series of courses offered as part of Thich Nhat Hanh Program for Engaged Buddhism.

Bio: Malik holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from Fordham University, where he completed his dissertation titled “Saving Space: A Spatial Recasting of the Divine/Human Encounter and Cooperation for an Urban Theology.” He also earned an MAR in Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a BA in Theology from Xavier University in New Orleans. He teaches in the area of theological and religious studies, having taught at Xavier University of Louisiana, Fordham University, and currently, New York University. He has published in the areas of urban theology, race and theology, and religion and society. His current project is a translation and commentary of Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru’s presentation of the Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo.

Malik is an ordained Soto Zen priest in the Kodo Sawaki/Taisen Deshimaru lineage and presides over the North East Zen Association. He was a Buddhist Chaplain in the NYU Center for Global Spiritual Life where he created and led meditation groups for three years.