UTS attends Burning Refuge conference at HDS

A group of BIE students smiling in front of Harvard Divinity School

On a regular old Thursday morning in January, I came across an announcement of speakers at Burning Refuge—Harvard Divinity School’s inaugural conference for Buddhism and socio-spiritual liberation. Invisible monks, monks in heels, and Duncan Ryuken Williams, oh my! It was free, and it would be livestreamed. But surely, I thought, someone else here might be interested in being around other Buddhists living out questions of liberation in our intensely complicated societies. Plus, they’re providing meals. So, I sent an inquiry to the BIE community, and thus, the journey began.

First, I have to extend countless thanks to Ollie Gillet, who partnered with me to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible, that numerous options were explored, that our friends were accounted for and cared for, and that we had some fun alongside all the mental enrichment stuff. This trip would not have happened without them. Or it would have, but we would’ve had a terrible time. Thank you to Dean Abby and the Student Affairs office for providing some financial support. Thank you to our gracious drivers: Johnson, Facundo, Ollie, Emma, and myself. Thank you to Laura Lamb for lending their car. Thank you to everyone who supported in big and small ways. And thank you to everyone who came and made the trip memorable. I came to Union in search of Sangha, and this trip was one of the profound experiences from which the jewel of Sangha shone brightly.

In my experience, the conference itself was…A LOT. In my efforts to organize the trip to and from the conference, I spent very little time learning any details of what would be presented. This was my first academic conference ever, and while Harvard is renowned for its academic prestige, I thought a conference of Buddhists might feel a little more…Buddhist. By that, I mean embodied, experiential, and skillful. There were spaces where those values were centered, but the nourishment of those spaces was sparse next to the hours of PowerPoint slides, research, and sitting in comfy chairs in a warm lecture hall. The keynote speakers all had fascinating stories and skillful orientations to share. However, I might have been able to absorb more if there had been more space for getting the blood flowing.

I am deeply grateful for the two workshops I attended which were more focused on the body: Dharma of the Entangled Embodied Erotic, led by Syd Yang and Marika Maypop, and If Buddha Were a Trans Dancer: Meditative Movements to Detach from Hegemonic Gender Ideology, led by DeVante Love. Queer Buddhists were, fortunately, a prominent presence at this conference. I would have loved to see more on chaplaincy. Deep listening, non-anxious presence, bearing witness, and compassionate reflection are vital to collective liberation, whether as a chaplain or in numerous other roles (dare I say any role?). Perhaps that’s my invitation to bring that to the conversation next year…

BIE student Raphael Diaz virtually presented their paper Cultivating Seeds of Liberation: Personal and Political Struggle in Baldwin and Vasubhandu, which they wrote for Dr. Rima’s course, Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. While Harvard could not support presenters traveling to the conference, we discovered too little too late that there are funds from Union’s Student Affairs office available to those who are presenting at a conference. Those who attended Raphael’s panel praised them for their skill in weaving personal experiences with contemporary and religious thinkers.

All in all, I am astounded that this trip happened. It took many hours of planning, a mycelial network of coordination, and a fair amount of diving into the unknown. It unfolded in ways I could not expect, and my heart is filled to experience that unfolding in this lovely community.

Bowing deeply,

Ian