Looking Back, Looking Forward: Chants, Prayers, and Meditation

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Logo designed by John Harrison-Lin

TICKETS

ADVANCED REGISTRATION REQUIRED. This event is free and open to attend for current Stanford faculty, staff, postdocs, and students only. Please observe social distancing during this outdoor event. Reserve your tickets here.

The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies (The HCBSS) and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) will host a session of chants, prayers, and meditation to reflect on the past year and to look forward to the new year as a part of “We are Stanford: A Festival of Reflection and Renewal.”

7:00 p.m. Opening remarks (Rebecca Nie, Buddhist Chaplain-Affiliate, OSRL)

7:10 p.m. Chants in English (Reverend Jin Chuan, Berkeley Buddhist Monastery)

7:20 p.m. Chants in Tibetan (Oriane Lavolé and Ralph H. Craig III, PhD students, Religious Studies)

7:25 p.m. Cambodian Dharma song (Trent Walker, Postdoctoral Fellow, The HCBSS and Lecturer, Religious Studies)

7:30 p.m. Prayer (Reverend Jin Chuan) and LED candle offering

7:40 p.m. Walking meditation (led by Rebecca Nie)

7:50 p.m. Closing remarks (Irene Lin, Executive Director, The HCBSS)

We are Stanford: A Festival of Reflection and Renewal marks the return of the full Stanford community to campus, offering a diverse range of ritual, artistic, commemorative, and celebratory programs to express and hold all that we have been through, individually and collectively, over the last 18 months. Two dozen campus departments and programs have partnered to present events that are authentic to their communities and open to broad student, staff, and faculty participation, engaging themes of grief, loss, and remembrance, community and gratitude, and hope and joy. All together, the festival is an active invitation to care for ourselves and each other as we rebuild the Stanford community. For the full schedule, visit https://orsl.stanford.edu/festival 

Bios:

Reverend Jin Chuan. Bhikshu Jin Chuan is an Asian-American Buddhist monk who grew up in the Silicon Valley of California. After graduating with a BS with Distinction in Physics (2004) and an MA in Religious Studies (2005), both from Stanford University, he went to live at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) as a lay volunteer. After five years, he decided to begin the monastic training program at CTTB, and later received novice ordination in 2010 and full ordination in 2013. In 2016, he received an MA in Buddhist Classics at Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Ukiah, where he currently serves as an assistant professor, chaplain, and board member. He is also involved in various translation projects led by Reverend Heng Sure. He is based in Berkeley Buddhist Monastery.

Z. M. Rebecca Nie. Z. M. Rebecca Nie is the Buddhist Chaplain-Affiliate at Stanford. She is also a Stanford alum, Zen Master of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, and an established Bay Area visual artist. 

Oriane Lavolé, PhD Student in Religious Studies, Stanford University. Oriane Lavolé is a student of Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy who spent the past years living in Nepal and learning from the communities who uphold the living tradition of Tibetan Buddhism there. She worked as a translator and interpreter of Tibetan Buddhist texts and teachings before joining the PhD program in Religious Studies at Stanford University.

Ralph H. Craig III, PhD student in Religious Studies, Stanford University. Ralph H. Craig III is specializing in Indian Buddhism. He received his BA from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA, where his research interests focused on Sanskrit and the intellectual history of religions in South Asia, as well as Early Christianity and yoga studies. Ralph's current research foci include ritual studies, Buddhist literature and history, and comparative religion.

Trent Walker, The HCBSS Postdoctoral Fellow, Lecturer, Religious Studies, Stanford University. Trent Walker specializes in Southeast Asian Buddhism, including ritual, manuscript, and translation cultures in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Recent publications include articles on Cambodian Dharma songs, Thai literary history, and translation practices in southern Vietnam. He is working on his first book, Classical Reading, Vernacular Writing: A Bitextual History of Mainland Southeast Asian Letters, 1450–1850, which argues that a distinct mode of translation was the core intellectual and literary activity in early modern Theravāda Buddhist cultures.