The 2012 Graduation Commencement Address was delivered by Prof. Franz Metcalf and generously sponsored by the Numata Foundation. “Our Buddhadharma, Our Buddhist Dharma” explores our evolving Buddhist dharma in two senses. That is, it tries to begin clarifying dharma in the sense of (a) what the Buddhadharma, as teaching, is; and (b) what our dharma, as duty, is toward that Buddhadharma. While the former is a bottomless pit of circularity into which scholars may sink their careers, and the latter is a deepening chasm of responsibilities into which practitioners may throw their lives, the sinking and the throwing need doing. Treading (and thereby perhaps obliterating) one line between scholarship and practice, this address attempts to trace a path on which scholars and graduates may walk together, down into the darkness.
Prof. Metcalf is a teacher at the California State University, Los Angeles, and the author of numerous books applying Buddhist teachings to our everyday lives, including Just Add Buddha and Buddha in Your Backpack.
Originally recorded on 18 May 2012
(c) 2012 The Institute of Buddhist Studies and Franz Metcalf