May 27

• Class Issue: What is the potential of Buddhism for the next generation? In what ways must it update itself to be relevant in the modern world? Should it become more scientific? What aspects should be brought out and what aspects should be abandoned?
• Presentation: INEB’s Young Bodhisattva training program Many students and young adults today have a strong concern for social justice while also having an interest in inner growth and spirituality. In previous eras, these two concerns have often been separated. Further, Buddhism has often been portrayed as being an individualistic religion focused on the personal attainment of enlightenment. The Socially Engaged Buddhist movement has presented a vision and path for bringing these inner and outer drives together as an integrated path. The International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) based in Thailand has a growing network of “young bodhisattva” activists who are developing a variety of approaches to inner personal cultivation and outer social activism.
• Special Guests via Zoom:

1. The leaders of the INEB Young Bodhisattva program, including Linus Dolfini (Keio Fall 2023). After returning home to his native Switzerland and graduating, Linus moved to Bangkok to work at the main office of INEB in August 2024. He has spent the last two years mostly coordinating the INEB Eco-Temple network, while also assisting the Young Bodhisattva program under the leadership of Soe San, living in exile from his native Myanmar and now working at INEB. Linus will move on to graduate school in Singapore by August concluding a two year journey working in engaged Buddhism. Linus and Soe San will be joined by Guy Bonnyarakyotin, a Thai graduate of the Young Bodhisattva program, who will replace Linus.
2. Alvaro Carulla (Keio Fall 2022) is a native of Barcelona, Spain. After graduating school in 2023 and spending a brief time in the corporate world, Alavaro decided to train as a clinical psychologist. However, his interest in Buddhist psychology was stirred by yoga practice and deepened by joining the weekly after-class meditation group as well as participating in Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto’s death workshop (tabidachi). Alvaro also did a three month residency at the Deer Park Institute in northern India studying various forms of meditation, yoga, and Buddhist thought. While working on his degree, he is also now training as a pro-bono therapist and serving as staff coordinator for the new INEB Institute for Buddhist Counseling and Chaplaincy (IBCC), helping to bring programs like Nemoto’s death workshop to countries in South and Southeast Asia.

• Group Work: Create a list of issues that Buddhism should address and offer guidance to young people about, such as developing sexual identity, facing climate change, using social media & then develop Buddhist positions on them.
• Video: The Francisco J. Varela Research Awards for Young Pioneers (4 mins)

Final Reflection & Homework (due May 30 @ 11:00 pm JST): Submit 1 page reflection on: “The World is on Fire”: In this age, there is so much suffering: both inner, as seen in rampant psycho-spiritual illness, and outer, as seen in religious-ethnic & racial violence, the eco-crisis, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. As a young person coming of age in this world, how do you want to respond? Retreating from the world to meditate and gain liberation? Becoming an academic searching the new frontiers of knowledge? Becoming an activist and fighting for social justice? Raising a family and building a new world of interbeing?