Dharma Realm Buddhist University Awards 48 Degrees

On the Saturday of May 23rd, Dharma Realm Buddhist University held its 2009 Commencement ceremonies. Degrees were awarded in Chinese Studies, Education, Translation, and Buddhist Study and Practice. The graduates included not only the Abbot, Dharma Master Heng Lyu, who received a Master of Arts in Buddhist Study and Practice, but also students of many different nationalities. Family and friends came from as far away as France and parts of Asia

Helen C.M. Woo, who currently resides in Los Angeles, was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letter for Humanitarian Contributions in the Field of Education. Ms. Woo has built schools, primary through university, in poor rural communities abroad, and has given many students the opportunity to receive an education by providing them scholarships. She later said, “Although I am in my seventies, having received this award, I will have to work even harder.”

Dharma Master Heng Hsien, a founding faculty member of the University, (Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley) was awarded Professor Emerita status in recognition of her many years of dedicated teaching and her effort in establishing Dharma Realm Buddhist University.

World renowned religious studies scholar, Huston Smith, author of the best-selling text The World’s Religions, recorded a special keynote address for the graduates. Now in his nineties, Smith expressed his admiration for the univiersity's dedication to not only scholarship but also practice, and wished that he could “turn the clock back fifty years and teach there.”

The commencement hall was packed with family members, well-wishers, and fellow cultivators. And as it is with custom, the entire hall joined in to conclude the commencement exercises with the Dedication of Merit, which begins, “May every living being, our minds as one and radiant with light / share the fruits of peace, with hearts of goodness, luminous and bright..."