2020 Lekha Newsletter
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uddhist r B Stu fo d r ie e s t a n t e S C t a o n f H o e r d h · T 史 · 丹 心 佛 何 中 氏佛學研究 TheLEKHA Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University NEWSLETTER • ISSUE 9 • 2020 IN THIS ISSUE: Lekha Newsletter 3 3 CO-DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Issue 9 • 2020 Paul Harrison, Co-Director of HCBSS, Stanford University Lekha is a Sanskrit word 4 SPECIAL EVENT for letter or writing Court Music and Dances from Japan: A Gagaku Performance by The Hideaki Bunno Gagaku Ensemble Contributors: TIBETAN STUDIES INITIATIVE Julian Butterfield 6 Film Screening of Becoming Who I Was (2016) Nancy Chu James Gentry, Stanford University Ralph H. Craig III Tatiana Deogirikar 8 THE EVANS-WENTZ LECTURE Paul Harrison Helen Hardacre, Harvard University Elaine Lai 10 TT & WF CHAO DISTINGUISHED BUDDHIST PRACTITIONER LECTURES Simona Lazzerini Bhante Sujato, SuttaCentral, Australia Irene Lin Furyu Nancy Schroeder, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, California Sangyop Lee Stephanie Lee 12 JAPANESE BUDDHISM LECTURE Ana Cristina O. Lopes Michael Como, Columbia University Grace Ramswick 13 HWEI TAI SEMINAR Ravi Jefferson Smith Ryūichi Abé, Harvard University Kedao Tong 14 RESTARTING THE BUDDHIST COMMUNITY AT STANFORD Cover image: Elaine Lai, Ravi Jefferson Smith, and Julian Butterfield Buddha, the Supreme Healer 17 RESEARCHER IN RESIDENCE REFLECTIONS Opaque watercolor on cotton, Ana Cristina O. Lopes, Stanford University Tibet, 15th century Edwin Binney 3rd Collection 18 STUDENT REFLECTIONS The San Diego Museum of Art, Ralph H. Craig III, Elaine Lai, Kedao Tong, Nancy Chu, Sangyop Lee, and Accession Number: 1990.1470 Julian Butterfield (Reproduced by permission) CO-DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE As I write this the end of May is may have been brought to a temporary halt, approaching, and with it the end—at least as but we can nevertheless look back with pride things stand at present—of the shelter-in-place at our achievements, above all a spectacular orders announced by the six San Francisco gagaku concert on March 3 (see pages 4-5 in Bay Area counties on March 16 in response this issue). The organization of this event, in to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world-wide collaboration with Professor Fabio Rambelli of death toll continues to rise, as countries finding the University of California at Santa Barbara, themselves in different phases of the pandemic would have been demanding and stressful even either tentatively lift their shut-down orders in the best of circumstances, but as the shadow or impose them. Opening things up again is of COVID-19 spread across the world and gratifying to see our students making their way fraught with peril, since by all accounts we started to fall on the United States, we found in the world, even if it means saying goodbye risk a second wave of infections that could be ourselves balancing on a knife-edge, uncertain to them on their departure from Stanford. even worse than the first. The future is highly whether the performers would even be able Other farewells, however, have no uncertain, and nobody knows how long the to make the trip from Japan, and equally admixture of sweetness, and are purely crisis will continue into 2021. Like the state uncertain, if they did come, whether the public bitter. We mourn the loss of our dear friend of California, Stanford University responded would be brave enough to turn out in sufficient Professor Stefano Zacchetti of Oxford quickly and decisively to the pandemic, numbers. As it happened, the performers University, a superbly accomplished scholar sending most undergraduates home and putting arrived, a near-capacity audience turned out who died of a heart condition apparently all teaching for the Spring Quarter online. for the splendid show of court music and complicated by COVID-19 on April 29 this We have all become familiar with Zoom—a dance they put on, and on the very next day year. Stefano had visited us at Stanford several communication platform many of us were Stanford suspended all public performances. times, giving a very successful and inspiring completely unaware of at the beginning of the In short, we were extraordinarily lucky to Hwei Tai Seminar in 2011 on the Da zhidu year—to the point that most of our days are make it through the gate just before it shut, and lun, a massive commentary on the Large taken up with Zoom sessions with people in also extraordinarily grateful that the tenacity Prajñāpāramitā, which is the subject of the the world outside the homes to which we have and dedication of our Executive Director and book he finished just before his most untimely been confined, apart from occasional shopping her staff had carried the project through to death at the age of 52. expeditions and walks in the neighborhood. completion. It has been a year, then, of gains and losses, Life has changed to an extent that we could There have been other achievements of triumphs and tribulations, challenging us in not have predicted when this year began, and it to celebrate during this academic year as totally unanticipated ways. The Ho Center has may never be quite the same again. well, foremost among them the generous been proud to be a small part of the response to All this is to say that 2019–2020 started endowment by the T. T. and W. F. Chao those challenges, supporting our students and out as a normal year for The Ho Center for Foundation of two new graduate fellowships carrying on its mission in uncertain times, but Buddhist Studies at Stanford, but before in Buddhist Studies, with additional funding to with unshaken commitment. I thank all of our it had even reached the halfway mark we support a program of lectures, workshops and staff, our faculty and our students who have found ourselves living through a historical conferences. We have also greeted the arrival played their part in this. cataclysm whose onward progress and future of Dr James Gentry, our most recent addition Postscript: On the very day I wrote this consequences for our societies, our economies to the Buddhist Studies faculty in Stanford’s report, George Perry Floyd Jr. was killed by and our political systems we can scarcely Department of Religious Studies, bringing police in Minneapolis. Since then protests imagine. Yet somehow, in the midst of this the total number up to four, in fulfillment against racism have convulsed the nation and upheaval, our program and those affiliated of a long-held dream. As the year opened, spread around the world. In the light they with it carry on, with our students continuing Dr Adeana McNicholl took up her tenure- have cast on our society it is clear that, rather their studies and our faculty persevering with track position as Assistant Professor in the than reflecting that life may never be the same their teaching and research, even though the Department of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt again, I should express the hope that it is not. job market will inevitably shrink and all the University, while two other Buddhist Studies Sometimes change leads not to suffering, but Buddhist Studies conferences at which we students have completed their degrees: Daniel to its alleviation. were planning to communicate our findings Tuzzeo has been offered a postdoctoral have one by one been postponed until next fellowship at Columbia University, while Allan Paul Harrison, Co-Director of HCBSS year (with no guarantee that it will be any safer Ding (Ding Yi) will be joining the faculty at May 25, 2020 to travel in 2021). The Ho Center’s programs DePaul University in September. It is always 3 SPECIAL EVENT COURT MUSIC AND DANCES FROM JAPAN: A Gagaku Performance by The Hideaki Bunno Gagaku Ensemble (by Irene Lin) On March 3, 2020, we had the sounds of dissonance. For most people, rare opportunity to watch a gagaku even those well-versed in Japanese performance by the Hideaki Bunno culture, this production was their first Gagaku Ensemble in the Dinkelspiel live gagaku performance. Auditorium. Gagaku is the classical We are grateful to our collaborators for music and dance of the Imperial Court making this show possible at Stanford. of Japan and an important component of First, my co-organizer, Professor Fabio Buddhist and Shinto liturgies. Maestro Rambelli from U.C. Santa Barbara, Hideaki Bunno, a former Director of the who approached me with the idea of a Gagaku Orchestra at the Tokyo Imperial duo gagaku performance at Stanford Palace and Living National Treasure and Santa Barbara. Second, our co- of Japan, brought to Stanford his new host, the Department of Music, under 17-member gagaku ensemble, composed of former directors of the Imperial Palace the leadership of Professor Jaroslaw Orchestra as lead performers, assisted by Kapuściński and with the able assistance distinguished gagaku musicians gathered of production manager Zack Leuchars, from all over Japan. helped to make this production possible. In Japan, the Japan Foundation and the Produced by Naoyuki Manabe, the Arts Council Tokyo provided a travel performance at Stanford included pieces from all genres of the classical gagaku grant to the gagaku ensemble to transport repertory: dance pieces or bugaku, the instruments, costumes, and stage representative pieces of instrumental props to California. At Stanford, our music or kangen, and vocal music, co-sponsors included the Department including ancient secret songs or kagura- of East Asian Languages and Cultures, uta performed at Shinto ceremonies the Stanford Humanities Center, the at the Imperial Palace. The audience Department of Religious Studies, the was captivated by the alluring dances, Center for East Asian Studies, and the elaborate costumes, and the unique Office for Religious Life.