Grief, Translation, and the Wonder of Friendship: A Book Launch Conversation on Chenxing Han’s ‘one long listening’

How do we grieve our losses? How can we care for our spirits? How is it that 不知最亲切: not knowing is most intimate? one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care dances with these questions as it weaves together letters to a dying friend, bedside chaplaincy visits, and memories of a migratory childhood. In this book launch conversation, Chenxing Han, author of one long listening and Be the Refuge, is joined by Dr. Paula Arai, Eshinni and Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and author of numerous books, including Painting Enlightenment and The Little Book of Zen Healing.

Chaplains serve as translators between anguish and recovery, silence and speech, the broken and the whole. The training of Buddhist chaplains is still an emerging field, and the ethics of spiritual care in a multilingual, multicultural world remain ripe with questions. Guided by Buddhist teachings on spiritual friendship (kalyāṇamittatā), Chenxing and Paula invite us into an intimate evening of conversation, storytelling, and companionship with the unknown.

This program was co-sponsored with the Institute of Buddhist Studies.