Representatives of DDM Sangha visited The US and emulated Higher Education for Buddhists
From 8th to 20th November in 2018, Venerable Guo Xing (果幸法師), the Associate Dean of DDM Sangha University, Venerable Chang Hua (常華法師), the directors of DDM Chan Meditation Center along with Venerable Chang Shen went to Colorado for a journey of discovery on Buddhist education in America. First, the first stop was to visit Naropa University in Boulder city, venerables reviewed their Buddhist chaplain talent training and curriculum programs for higher education.
In the annual conference held by America Academy of Religion, Venerable Chang Shen (常諗法師) presented her thesis in the sub-forum of Western Buddhism, discussing the future development of Western bhikkhunī Sangha in particular. (Photographer, Ven. Chang Hua)On 16th Dec, they moved to Denver to attend an annual conference held by America Academy of Religion while Ven. Chang Shen presented her paper inspired from her participation of “Living Vinaya in the West” in Sravasti Abbey. She put forward the studies of Chinese Buddhism Dharmagupta-vinaya inheritance and its influence on the Western bhiksuni Sangha development, further extended to the Western bhiksuni Sangha’s future development in the West.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of Shambhala Global Community, established the Naropa University in 1974. Not limited to Buddhist education, the university took the approach of “Buddhist-inspired” as its mission of education and well-known for its curriculum integration of Buddhism, psychology, and art.
Venerables were informed of the various functions of American Buddhist education and the program of Master of Divinity from the curriculum participation and the mutual interactions in the university. To sum it up, it encompassed three phases of the academic training of the Religious Studies, research training of Master of Divinity, and religious social service training of Chaplaincy. Venerables expected more exchanges of views between Eastern and Western societies, on the issues of training approaches that is related to the Chaplaincy’s mission of carrying on Dharma teachings in response to social needs.
According to Ven. Guo Xing, although Naropa University is run based on Buddhists teachings, it emphases on communication with other religions which is quite important in the multi-religion society of America, and worthy of learning for the DDM Sangha.
Lasting for four days, from 17th November onward the annual conference of America Academy of Religion was jointly held by Society of Biblical Literature. It is a grand event that every American religious researcher must attend; with more than ten thousand attendances, hundreds of forums and thousands of papers were presented. The various themes included Chan culture, talent training of Chaplaincy, and the debates of sex scandals among Western Buddhists, science and religion, religion and life ethics etc. Apart from attending these seminars, the venerables also had a meal-gathering with religious scholars. In addition to the efforts of aligning with the international academic community, venerables also gained a deeper understanding of the contemporary view on religions.
Texts: Venerable Chang Shen (常訦法師)
Photos: Venerable Chang Hua (常華法師)
Translation: Frances Liu (劉珮如)
Editing: Elenda Huang; DDM Australian Editorial Team