Weekend on Buddhism and Social Activism - Prof. Jan Willis

Living Fully Amid the World's Challenges

With Buddhist scholar Professor Jan Willis

Online and onsite

When we hear calls for the end of destroying our planet, racism, war, violence in our cities, and polarization, we are left with uncomfortable questions: can these really be conquered? Are we doing enough to combat these challenges? And what can I do? How do I ensure I do not become paralyzed by everything I see and hear? Am I just zoning out sitting on my cushion to meditate? And, if I do take part in activism, will I get sucked into the anger and divisiveness that we are supposedly fighting against? Can I make a difference for me and the world around me?

Professor Jan Willis, one of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism and Professor Emerita of Religion at Wesleyan University, will help us explore these difficult questions. She will draw not only upon her decades of Buddhist practice and scholarship but also her personal journey of healing the traumas of racism: growing up in the Jim Crow south, witnessing cross-burnings on her lawn, and marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Buddhism has helped me in real ways to find what I was looking for as a young person in a world that was violent,” she explained. “It showed me how to locate the deep wounds that racism caused in my early life … and having found them, how to heal them.” 

We are thrilled to host Professor Willis, who is beloved for her wisdom, joy, humor, and kindness. She will share insights on how the Buddha’s teachings are deeply relevant today for living fully amid these challenges, and for countering what we face today; how wisdom and compassion for all beings (‘us’ and ‘them’) can heal ourselves and our communities. She will speak to us about the overall message and central teachings of Buddhism and about how she sees these teachings as calling upon each of us to become “engaged” in some form of activism that will ultimately help to make this world a better place, for us and those coming after us.

Your teacher:  Prof. Jan Willis, Ph.D. 

Prof. Jan Willis is an author, activist, scholar, professor, Baptist, and long-time Buddhist practitioner. TIME magazine named her as one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium”, and Ebony called her one of its “Power 150 - most influential African Americans”.

She is one of Lama Yeshe’s earliest Western disciples and sees him as her root spiritual mentor. She grew up in the Jim Crow South of the 1950s and 1960s and took part in the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1970s, while traveling through Asia, she met Lama Yeshe and discovered her spiritual and academic homes.

Dr. Willis is Professor Emerita of Religion at Wesleyan University and was recently visiting Professor of Religion at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Cornell University, and her Ph.D. in Indic and Buddhist Studies from Columbia University. She is the author of many books, her best-known work is her personal memoir, Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist—One Woman’s Spiritual Journey. She has also published numerous articles and essays on various topics in Buddhism—Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. 

The suggested donation for this weekend is €80. For students and people with low income, the suggested donation is €60. Please send an email to amsterdam@maitreya.nl if you'd like to make use of this option.

On Wednesday evening September 25, Prof. Jan Willis will give a teaching on the famous Diamond Sutra.

The donation amount should never be an obstacle to your access to the Dharma! Please contact us if it might be an obstacle for you.