Dharma + Justice + Abolition
Instructor: karen g. williams Date: Fri, Feb. 5, 1:00 - 6:00 pm | Sat, Feb. 6 from 9:00 am -...
Learn MoreStudying Buddhism within the Interreligious Engagement field at Union allows you to enter into some of the most exciting and challenging conversations of our time. How do we understand social justice through a dharmic lens? How do we engage one another’s faiths and traditions without causing harm? How do we orient spiritually in a time of climate instability? How does one respond skillfully to a world in need of deep healing transformation? At Union, BIE students are able to discern these questions and countless others together with a cohort of Buddhist students while also engaging widely ranging student perspectives across faith traditions. What we have found over the years is that few places are as academically exciting as a Union classroom. We invite you to add your voice to the conversation as we collectively find our way to a more peaceful and just world.
The Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism (TNHEB) promotes academic and public education aimed at cultivating diverse Buddhist responses to pressing social issues. It seeks to generate innovative and informed discourse on topics, such as violence, climate change, racism, poverty and economic inequality, incarceration, gender and sexuality, religious pluralism, and the intersection of contemplative practice and social action.
Union’s Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation!
Learn MoreThe M.Div. BIE is a 78 credit, three-year professional graduate degree that allows students to pursue Buddhist ministry and chaplaincy within an interreligious, socially engaged context. This degree prepares individuals for diverse leadership roles working with and in Buddhist communities as well as bringing Buddhist practices and principles to communities that may not identify as Buddhist. These roles include religious and spiritual leadership; chaplaincy at universities, hospitals, or prisons; professional counseling; teaching; and careers in interreligious/interfaith cooperation, policy-making, social justice advocacy, journalism, nonprofits, and government.
The M.Div. BIE curriculum engages students in sustained and probing study of Sacred Texts, History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology and field education. The curriculum has three distinctive features:
Focus on Buddhist tradition and Buddhist practice: The M.Div. BIE provides a solid foundation in the Buddhist tradition. M.Div. BIE students take at least 27 credits (9 courses) that focus on foundational sources, disciplines, practices, diversity, and contextual realities of the Buddhist tradition and Buddhist practice.
The Master of Arts (MA) is a two-year, full-time degree program with a 51-credit minimum requirement. A concentration Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement (BIE) will allow to deepen in your Buddhist scope of knowledge while acquiring broad knowledge and academic skill by taking a common core of courses in the “classical” theological disciplines of Bible/Sacred Texts, Church History/Historical Studies, and Theology and Ethics and in the interdisciplinary field of Interreligious Engagement.
Union’s curricula for all degree programs intentionally engage disparities in a society based on gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, and other divisive or marginalizing forces. Studying in this environment is both a strength and a challenge. Studying as a BIE student while getting an MA is a unique opportunity that prepares students to work in an interreligious, socially engaged context.
The MA BIE provides a solid foundation in the Buddhist traditions. MA BIE students take at least 24 credits (8 courses) that focus on foundational sources, disciplines, practices, diversity, and contextual realities of the Buddhist traditions and Buddhist practice.
TNHEB offers at least two major public events related directly to Buddhism, social action and interreligious contemplative engagement each year. These events take the form of panels with multiple participants, one-day colloquia, artistic performances, small conferences or invited lectures by prominent voices in the fields.
TNHEB organizes workshops, conferences and other events that bring together a small, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational cohort of New York-based scholars, dharma teachers, community organizers and social activists who are interested in critically engaging questions of Buddhism, academic and public scholarship, the intersection of contemplative practice and social justice and the seminary’s role in Buddhist community organizing and activism. These workshops aim to establish ongoing conversations and networks across New York City academic institutions, Buddhist centers, community-based organizations and activists.
An example of this in action was our February 3rd event, Buddhist Action: Morals, Vision, Action, where 225 engaged Buddhists met at Union to begin organizing a coalition of Buddhist individuals and organizations able to respond effectively to social injustice, violence and the increasing anti-democratic climate of our nation. This meeting gave birth to the Buddhist Action Coalition, a community of engaged Buddhists who organize in the New York region in coordination with broader national efforts. Union students are invited to participate in this ongoing gathering of scholars, dharma teachers and organizers who meet regularly at UTS to discuss and organize around these issues.
The Engaged Buddhist Leaders Program creates multi-day conferences for leaders in Engaged Buddhism who serve or intend to serve in religious, scholarly, community, or social leadership capacities. With a focus on bringing together dharma teachers whose voices and mutual exchange may not be regularly supported for reasons of gender, race and class, the program aims to nurture a community of dialogue among diverse Buddhist leaders; to foreground participants’ engagement of various aspects of the Buddhist tradition (including exegetical, ethical, spiritual and theological methods and approaches); and to cultivate more detailed knowledge around specific themes of contemplative action and social justice.
TNHEB activities are planned in consultation with the members of its Advisory Council. Members of the Advisory Council are selected based upon academic expertise, experience as leaders in the field of socially engaged Buddhism, and experience in interreligious engagement.
Instructor: karen g. williams Date: Fri, Feb. 5, 1:00 - 6:00 pm | Sat, Feb. 6 from 9:00 am -...
Learn MoreJoin us for a timely conversation between Rev. Grace Song, James Lynch, and Kosen Gregory Snyder on Immigration Justice and...
Learn MoreInstructor: Malik Hokyu Walker Date: Friday, Feb. 12, 1:00 – 6:00 pm | Saturday, Feb. 13, 9:00 am – 5:00...
Learn More'When there was blood on the kerbstone My white mother tried to protect me. Sticks and stones did break my...
Learn MoreLearn from Rev. Kosen Gregory Snyder and esteemed thought-leaders as they discuss how to engage with anger, wisdom and politics from a Buddhist perspective. We invite you to reflect on these topics in community with Lama Rod Owens, Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Lama Justin Von Budjoss.
To address the needs of our communities in these times, more than ever spiritual leaders are being asked to act from a deep place of wisdom and skill. However, the appropriate response is not always clear, especially when spiritual training has not prepared many to discern and address the social complexities and challenges of our nation. When considering spiritual leadership in this moment, what are we being called to do to care for ourselves and our communities? How do we care for ourselves as leaders? How do we go about resourcing ourselves to make sense of these times? In what ways may we be failing our communities? How do we create harm when we attempt to lead with no understanding of what these times require?
In his teaching regarding the eightfold path, the Buddha used the word, sammā, to characterize view, intention, action, speech, livelihood, mindfulness, effort, and concentration. Usually translated as “right,” the word can also suggest thoroughness, connectedness, and wholeness. How do we understand the work of justice in this way? How can we meet our violent histories and current realities from this place of right justice that endeavors to heal without reproducing false harmonies and relationships of subjugation?
How do Buddhists address social and political violence when there can often be an insistence within our traditions that doing so disrupts harmony, takes sides, and creates division? How do we ensure our traditions do not join in the reproduction of structural oppression and inequity? How do we work diligently for justice without entrenching separation and anger in our minds and hearts?
Dr. Simran Jeet Singh describes Union's interreligious engagement programs, interviewing Professor Greg Snyder and students in the Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement M.Div. pathway.
Read MoreAt the first-ever gathering of Buddhist teachers of black African descent, two panels of leading Buddhist teachers took questions about what it means to be a black Buddhist in America today.
Read the Q&ADr. Kamilah Majied reflects her experiences at The Gathering of Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent and what it means for humans to be free within ourselves, despite social, political, or “legal” imprisonment or persecution.
Read MoreOn September 6, 2017, Union awarded Thich Nhat Hanh—internationally celebrated Zen Buddhist monk, dharma teacher, scholar, author, and peace activist—with the Union Medal. Sister Chan Duc, an emissary from Plum Village, the monastery Nhat Hanh founded in France, accepted the medal on his behalf.
Read MoreThe Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism and Compassion Institute hosted a conversation with Tibetan Buddhist scholar, translator and author, Thupten Jinpa, and president of Union Theological Seminary, Serene Jones.
The Buddha spoke of four immeasurable dwelling places of the heart that we now practice called the brahmaviharas. DaRa Williams spoke about how even in the midst of the challenging moments of today, we can rest our heart and develop balance, joy, kindness, and care.
Read MoreAbbot Ven. Bhante Buddharakkhita discusses how conceptual, inferential, and experiential knowledge into emptiness of an inherent self invites a response to circumstances that are stressful, painful, and violent.
Misunderstanding the teachings and truth of emptiness can lead to apathy, despair or rationalized disinterest. Sincere practice and correct understanding allows us to be truly and skillfully engaged within the world of samsara, without becoming overwhelmed by the suffering we encounter.
Read MoreThe most important contribution of Buddhism to our situation today is the bodhisattva path, understood in a new way that combines the traditional concern for personal transformation with a commitment to social transformation. Does social engagement distract us from the realization of emptiness, or does emptiness empower social engagement?
Read MoreVen. Bhikkhu Bodhi draws upon three classical Buddhist sources that deal with the legitimation of political authority: the suttas of the Pali Canon, the edicts of King Asoka, and Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland. He then applies the principles derived from this survey to the present-day question of a government’s obligations to its citizenry.
Read MoreIn the face of discrimination, dislocation, dispossession, and confinement, Japanese Americans turned to their faith to sustain them. American Sutra reveals how the Japanese American community broadened our country’s conception of religious freedom and forged a new American Buddhism.
Read MoreThe Thích Nhất Hạnh Program for Engaged Buddhism invites you to join us for our monthly Dharma Talk Series: Emptiness and Social Action.
Co-hosted by the Buddhist Action Coalition, this conversation focused on the causes and conditions of the crisis, along with the role that Buddhist laity and monastic communities have played in the rhetoric and violence.
Read MoreRev. Dr. TK Nakagaki, author of "The Buddhist Swatsika and Hitler's Cross; Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate," in conversation with Rabbi, author and poet Sheila Peltz Weinberg and Professor Mary Boys.
Read MoreApril 17, 2019
Ven. Khenpo Pema Wangdak leads a discussion and meditation on the subject of patience.
This unprecedented public gathering brought together 15 leading Buddhist teachers of black African descent from across the country to talk about dharma, the state of the world, and what it means to be a black Buddhist in America today.
Read MoreFebruary 3, 2018
A gathering of New York Area Buddhist practitioners, scholars, activists and teachers.
November 1, 2017
A conversation featuring Sharon Salzberg, angel Kyodo williams, and Robert Wright.
The Thich Nhat Hanh program and the Buddhist Council of New York partnered for Vesak festivities. Vesak marks the traditional celebration of Buddha’s birthday in countries around the world. Celebrating Vesak involves making special efforts to reduce the suffering of sentient beings who are less fortunate.
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