On February 24, 2019, DRBU hosted the Second Annual Student Symposium which featured seventeen students from all the undergraduate and graduate programs.
The event featured the following panels:
- Opening
- Cultivating Transformation
- Change Yourself
- Change the World
- The True Inner, Good Advisor
- Explorations in Interpretation
Each student presented a paper with topics spanning the four major strands of study at DRBU: Buddhist, Chinese, Indian, and Western Classics. After presenting, students answered audience questions. Students introduced concepts expounded in Buddhist primary texts such as Hiri-ottappa, or conscience and concern, detailed in Pali suttas and explored the “Good and Wise Advisor,” introduced in the Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra. In the Explorations in Interpretation panel, a student illuminated the subtleties of language by exploring the “finger pointing to the moon” analogy. The last presenter ended by leading the audience in singing a poetic song after exploring philosopher Martin Heidegger’s remarks on language.
