Franklyn Wu
Like many in my generation, I am a product of at least two dominant and vibrant cultures, constantly trying to locate myself at the edges of the two waves. My background of high-level and long-term planning for large corporations and governments (specialized in media, consumerism, and technology adoption) sharpens my eyes and tunes my ears for larger trends of our times, which I always then attempt to understand and intuit at the level of the mind. I now serve the function of coordinating the University’s accreditation efforts.
I also like bikes and cycling and burritos!
In his Discourse on Method (1637), René Descartes famously penned “Je pense donc je suis” (I think therefore I am), which became one of the bedrocks of modern Western philosophy. We are possessive of our thoughts (i.e. intellectual property). We strongly identify with, and generally assume, not only the supremacy, but also the primacy of [...]
“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net that has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each “eye” [...]
[Admin’s note: This spring, volunteers and staff participated in a 7-day Guan Yin Practice Retreat. During the Guan Yin session, participants recite the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. In our Chan tradition, meditation brings the mind back to whatever method of practice we are doing, whether it’s mental awareness, reciting, bowing, etc… Inevitably, the mind [...]
On an early January visit to my sister in New York City, my family and I played tourists and walked around Manhattan, soaking up the city. We ambled up Fifth Avenue, passing by Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and scores of flagship stores of companies such as Fendi, Cartier, Gucci, and Giorgio Armani. On this [...]
I was going through some old materials in the archive when I came across a reproduction of this letter: The letter was written by Hassan Ahmed Kamel in 1979, then chief of cabinet of the late President Muhammad Anwar El Sadat of Egypt, and it was addressed to the late Ch’an Master Hsuan Hua, the [...]
The Buddha urged his students to focus on their experiences, rather than trying to figure out the ultimate reason for their existence. “dharmas” are irreducible and basic units of our experience. Momentary and discrete, dharmas appear to be the objects of our cognitive awareness, but they also co-arise with the appearance of our cognitive awareness [...]