Hometown: Hebei, China

Education: Digital Entertainment Technology Diploma, Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore and Msc in Intelligent and Adaptive Systems, University of Sussex

What was I doing before DRBU?
Just finished my study at the University of Sussex, on consciousness

Influential class I’ve taken
Comparative Hermeneutics (both 1 and 2)

Influential book I’ve read
Too many to list here 🙂 Almost all the books that we have gone through in our classes have been influential in different ways. Fine, if I have to pick one out—maybe the Lotus Sutra.

Concept that blew my mind
Concepts are helpful and totally useless at the same time; the finger pointing at the moon is helpful, but the finger is definitely not the moon! However, then the moon has always been (t)here—ever-present but cannot be gotten. Go figure!

Challenge(s) I faced
Know myself, live authentically

How has DRBU changed me? 
Opened my eyes and mind, connected me to a group of like-minded friends and trustworthy teachers.

What surprised me about DRBU?
How each of us are encouraged to understand ourselves and just be ourselves in the truest form. It often is a difficult process, but there is so much care and support from everyone.

Title of senior essay/a recent paper:
Who?

What is it about? 
Trying to trace Heidegger’s analysis of Being and Time to the practice of the Investigation of Chan.

What is it really about?
My own trip to attempt to get a clue of what is going on with the Chan huatou (topic of meditation), “Who?”

What’s your service scholarship (work study) job? 
Working with the super awesome Campus Life team, mainly on organizing activities and dining services

Do you have a daily practice— if so, what is it? 
Sit, recite, be mindful

What do you do for fun? 
Hanging out with friends – anything is fun with great people! I recently picked up gardening; that has been a great source of fun.

How has financial aid played a role in your being here? 
Thank goodness that it exists. Thank you to all who made it available and possible. I wouldn’t be able to do the program without it.

How does what you’re learning here carry out into the world?
Haha, is this a trick question? Am I out of the world now? Is there really an “in and out”? Is there – Isn’t there – is there?