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Tentative Schedule

Register Now!

Registration deadline extended to July 11, 2018

Download Mail-in Registration Form

(MAP or JSCC participants: Please DO NOT use online registration; see instructions below.)

Lodging at the Jodo Shinshu Center is not available for the Summer Pacific Seminar. 

*MAP and JSCC SUMMER WORKSHOP*

The MAP Session and JSCC Summer Workshop

both begin on Thursday, July 19 and include the Summer Pacific Seminar.

Different registration forms and fees apply; please don't register online.

MAP participants: Contact CBE at cbe@bcahq.org

JSCC Summer Workshop participants: Contact hongwanjioffice@bcahq.org

Keynote Bio:

Shinran's View of Enlightenment

REV. DR. JEROME DUCOR

More Speaker Bios:

Views of Enlightenment from Many Buddhist Traditions

 _________________________________________________________

Ven. Tathaloka Bhikkhun  (Theravada)

 Venerable (Ayy) Tathlok is an American-born member of the Buddhist Monastic Sangha. She entered monastic life thirty years ago and received bhikkhun upasampad with with the Sri Lankan Sangha of California in 1997, with the late Vev. Havanpola Ratanasra Mahthera as preceptor. In 2005 she cofounded Dhammadharini Support Foundation and the firs tmoastic community of Thervada bhikkhuns in North America.  Inspired by Buddhist Forest traditions, in 2008, she cofounded Aranya Bodhi Hermitage on the Sonoma Coast, and later Dhammdharini Monastery in the Sonoma Mountain area of Northern California.  Ven. Tathlok first received instruction in Mindfulness and Insight practices at age ten, further studying and training with Indian, Korean, Thai, Sri Lankan and Burmess meditation teachers, including the Thai forest meditation traditions of the most venerable Ajahjn Mun Bhuridatta and the Burmese Vipassana meditation masters Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa-auk Sayadaw.  Her practice and teaching are profoundly influenced by the Buddha’s teachings as contained in the canonical Early Buddhist suttas, together with the teachings and practices of Forest and Insight meditation traditions.

Ms. Mayumi Kodani  (Tibetan)

Mayumi Kodani is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies (Tibetan Buddhism) at UC Santa Barbara. She grew up in Los Angeles, among many interesting and unusual people in the Crenshaw district, at Senshin Buddhist Temple, and at Hamilton High School. Her BA is in English Literature from McGill University in Montreal. After working in the non-profit sector for 8 years, she began graduate school at UCSB. Her long and winding path of study has also allowed her to be a student of foreign languages and Buddhism at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Tibet University in Lhasa, and in Darjeeling, India. Most recently, she returned from research/translation trips to Sarnath, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal. Her research interests include Tibetan translation, the traditional Tibetan sciences, and the Grotesque. She has written about the life of a prominent Sakya monk and about Tibetan zombies. Everyone she knows wishes she would finish her dissertation.

Dr. Paula Arai (Zen)

Paula Arai, author of Women Living Zen: Japanese Buddhist Nuns (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Buddhist Women’s Rituals (University of Hawaii Press, 2011), received her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University. Arai has published her research on Japanese Buddhism in numerous journal articles, chapters in edited volumes, and regularly presents at national and international venues. Her research has received generous support from Fulbright and American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships, and grants from the Mellon Foundation, Reischauer Institute of Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Carleton College, the American Academy of Religion, and ATLAS (Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars). Her current book project, Opening the Heart of Compassion: Visions of the Heart Sutra, includes curating exhibitions of paintings by the Japanese contemplative scientist featured in the book, Iwasaki Tsuneo (1917-2002). Having taught in a number of educational communities, including at the Institute of Buddhist Studies as the Yuki Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies, Arai is currently an associate professor of Buddhist Studies at Louisiana State University and holds the Urmila Gopal Singhal Professorship in Religions of India.

Ms. Mayumi Kodani  (Tibetan)

Mayumi Kodani is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies (Tibetan Buddhism) at UC Santa Barbara. She grew up in Los Angeles, among many interesting and unusual people in the Crenshaw district, at Senshin Buddhist Temple, and at Hamilton High School. Her BA is in English Literature from McGill University in Montreal. After working in the non-profit sector for 8 years, she began graduate school at UCSB. Her long and winding path of study has also allowed her to be a student of foreign languages and Buddhism at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Tibet University in Lhasa, and in Darjeeling, India. Most recently, she returned from research/translation trips to Sarnath, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal. Her research interests include Tibetan translation, the traditional Tibetan sciences, and the Grotesque. She has written about the life of a prominent Sakya monk and about Tibetan zombies. Everyone she knows wishes she would finish her dissertation.

Moderator:

Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto

Rev. Matsumoto is the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs of the Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS), where he is also the Center for Contemporary Shin Buddhist Studies. He received M.A. degrees from IBS and Ryukoku University in Kyoto; as well as a Ph.D. from Ryukoku. He is ordained as a Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha minister and served for fifteen years as the resident minister of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple. His translations of Japanese-language works include: Bearer of the Light: The Life and Thought of Rennyo, by Jitsuen Kakehashi; and A Life of Awakening: The Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path, by Takamaro Shigaraki.

Resources

Buddhadharma Practitioner's Quarterly (Spring 2016)

featured the following article

Forum: What Is Enlightenment?

BY JOSH BARTOK, DZOGCHEN PONLOP RINPOCHE, SETSUAN GAELYN GODWIN, REV. DAVID MATSUMOTOAND AYYA TATHAALOKA| 

https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-enlightenment-2/

About Pacific Seminar:

Continuing in the spirit of the Pacific Seminars which enlivened the Jodo Shinshu movement in the US after WWII, the IBS and the BCA Center for Buddhist Education re-initiated the Pacific Seminar – 21st Century in 2008 shortly after the Jodo Shinshu Center first opened, ushering in a new era for Jodo Shinshu Buddhist education. In addition to the two-day annual summer session, one-day Winter and Spring Pacific Seminar sessions have been hosted in Southern California and in the Northwest.

Presented by 

Institute of Buddhist Studies 

Buddhist Churches of America - Center for Buddhist Education