from the directors
autumn 2009
back issues
Over the summer.
With the students away and the campus quiet, we normally suspend our public programs over the summer; but this year our Buddhism in the Modern World program co-sponsored two popular public events: a screening of Doris Dörrie’s charming film “Enlightenment Guaranteed, for the ICA International Film Festival; and a two-day symposium on “Zen Practice at 50,” hosted by the San Francisco Zen Center and U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Buddhist Studies. Both events attracted audiences of over 100 people.
Coming this autumn.
Our public events program in fall term will feature four distinguished speakers: Nyingma author and photographer Matthieu Ricard (October), Buddhist studies scholars Luis Gómez and Reginald Ray (November), and Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer (December).
Special programs.
The lecture by Professor Gómez is the first event in a program we’re calling “Exploring the Buddha Fields” that will focus on the pure lands of Buddhism. Built around Paul’s winter seminar on “Buddhist Visions of Paradise,” it will include a weekend seminar for faculty and students on “Pure Land Buddhism in the Song Dynasty” led by Daniel Stevenson (winter), as well as a public lecture by Yamabe Nobuyoshi and colloquium talk by Frederic Kotas (spring).
Reginald Ray’s lecture will initiate a program called “Saints and Sages” that focuses on images of the religious adept. It will be followed in winter by talks by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara. The program is part of a year-long series on hagiography in the Religious Studies department that will also include lectures on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Alumni news.
Congratulations to James Robson (’02), on the publication of his book Power of Place; and to Julius Tsai (’03), on his move to Temple University. A welcome back to Wendi Adamek (’97), who will be a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, to work on her manuscript "A Niche of their Own: The Buddhist Women of Bao shan."
From the directors.
This page is updated each academic term. Earlier issues can be found in an archive.
Carl Bielefeldt
Paul Harrison
Directors
