UPDATE: May We Gather Online Event May 4, 2021 -- National Buddhist Memorial Ceremony

May We Gather is an ad hoc response to the increase in violence against Americans of Asian descent. The outreach includes all Buddhist Communities, all of which have Asian roots.

Interested parties are encouraged to sign up for the link to the national online event on May 4, 2021, at 4 pm Pacific. Organizers tell us the event is expected to last some 90 minutes.

Rationale

The effort is to come together as a broad Sangha to support our freedoms. From the website:

This national memorial ceremony offers an opportunity for Asian American and other Buddhist communities to come together in mourning, mending, and renewal. We find support in the Dharma’s enduring wisdom. We take refuge under the compassionate gaze of buddhas and bodhisattvas. We counter violence with equanimity, ignorance with wisdom, hatred with kindness, and suffering with healing.

Hundreds of Temples and Individuals Already Joined

When you visit the website you will see the many Temples, Sanghas, and individuals already planning on participating, including our own Kenji Sensei.

Host and Organizers

The event is hosted by the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles. You may remember that Higashi Bishop Noriaki Ito poignantly responded to arson and damage at Higashi, “… we need to be part of the solution.” (See Solidarity with Higashi Honganji.)

May We Gather is organized by three Buddhists of Asian heritage, Rev. Dr. Duncan Ryūken Williams, Dr. Funie Hsu, and Chenxing Han. All three are distinguished in their fields. Our Sangha members know Williams Sensei especially well as he spoke at the Temple on his book American Sutra. Dr. Hsu grew up in a multi-lingual household and started as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles; she is now a professor at San Jose State University. Author Han (a graduate Stanford with an MA from the Graduate Theological Union and a product of the chaplaincy program at the Institute of Buddhist Studies) recently published Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists.

UPDATE April 29, 2021: Two corrections are made in this update.

  • Organizers identify the expected duration of the gathering to be 90 minutes.

  • Organizer Chenxing Han was earlier identified as a Chaplain. She is not currently a chaplain and identifies as Author.

  • We are grateful for the opportunity to make the updates and apologize for any inconvenience. - Editor

BT SD