Buddhist program’s end prompts student outcry

Home The Americas US Northeast

Yale University, USA -- Yale has abruptly ended its Buddhist program, Indigo Blue, and the chaplaincy of the program’s leader, Bruce Blair ’81, prompting protests from some students.

<< Indigo Blue's nightly Stillness & Light meditation sessions are canceled. Photo: Mark Ostow

At a meeting yesterday with University Chaplain Sharon Kugler, “nearly half” the students “walked out in the middle of the conversation, expressing dissatisfaction with the way in which Yale has handled the situation,” the Yale Daily News reports.

Students who arrived at Battell Chapel for Indigo Blue’s nightly meditation session, Stillness and Light, on October 22 found an empty room. The Buddhist Chapel, in Branford College’s Harkness Tower, was dismantled a week later. Kugler told the News that the university decided to end its nine-year relationship with Blair and Indigo Blue but declined to say why: “We have decided it would be best to go in a different direction to serve our Buddhist community.”

In an e-mail to students, Kugler said the chaplain’s office is working on restoring the Buddhist chapel and creating new programs for Buddhist students. “This change may feel sudden,” she wrote, “but it was carefully thought out.”

On a new Indigo Blue website, Blair writes that “the reasons Yale gave for annulling its relationship with Indigo Blue were allegations, mainly new, and neither detailed nor substantiated.” He also declines to detail the reasons, saying he hopes they can be addressed privately: “I still feel I have done nothing wrong and hope misunderstanding can be addressed and the relationship renewed.… for the moment it is not appropriate to discuss in detail the issues Yale raised.”

View the original article here

Turmoil over Salt Lake Buddhist temple prompts protest

Last October, members of the Vietnamese-American Unified Buddhist Association of Utah were displaced from the temple located at 1185 W. 1000 North. A legal battle has ensued over who owns the property and members of the congregation of more than 100 fear it could take the beloved temple away them.

Chanting, "Give back our temple. Give back our temple," protesters on Saturday went to another Buddhist temple in West Valley City, where a group of monks had gathered for a national conference.

The monks are members of the Vietnamese-American Unified Buddhist Congress in the United States of America. For the past year, the two groups have been embroiled in a legal battle over property rights to the temple in Rose Park.

The Utah group agreed to donate the property to the congress, but that deed was given to a monk without the local group's knowledge.

"So they are very frustrated and they want the congress to return back to them the title," said congress spokesman Thuan Tran.

Litigation is ongoing, but the dispute has divided the Salt Lake Buddhist community. Local temple leaders even suspected the dispute had something to do with a break-in at their business office two weeks ago, although police have made no arrests in the case.

Utah Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake, is not involved in the lawsuit but both temples are in her district. She showed up to offer her support to both sides.

"It's a big deal, especially for the Vietnamese Buddhist community,? Robles said. ?It's becoming more of a pertinent issue. ? There's some frustration going on."

The frustration has been mounting among the local congregation that has worshiped at the Rose Park temple for 19 years. It's also a sacred burial ground for their loved ones who have passed on.

"Suddenly, they've been deprived of their religious freedom and deprived of their rights to worship, the rights to worship their ancestors and that is very much hard for them to swallow," Tran said.

View the original article here