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A group of young college students studying Buddhism in San Francisco met with their teacher, Master Xuanhua宣化上人(1918-1995), a Buddhist monk from Harbin, China, to discuss starting a Buddhist university. It was 1975 and today Dharma Realm Buddhist University法界佛教大學(www.drbu.org ) is doing what the founders intended: providing a liberal education in the broad Buddhist tradition a tradition characterized by knowledge in the arts and sciences, self cultivation, and the pursuit of wisdom.
In those early days, because DRBU had almost no financial backing, each of us had to take up multiple roles. I was appointed registrar and was responsible for all the record keeping including admissions, schedules, and students transcripts. It was a job I had to learn on my own. I also served on the accreditation team which gained approval from the California Postsecondary Education Commission to operate Dharma Realm Buddhist University as a fully bona fide institute of higher education. The process was quite rigorous and close to what the Western Association of Schools and Colleges requires. I served in this job for nine years and was a member of the Dharma Realm Buddhist University board of directors until 2005.
The campus is located in Northern California at a former state hospital of more than 250 acres surrounded by vineyards, and the complex includes primary and secondary schools, dormitories, facilities for monastics, a library and many classrooms and lecture halls. I lived at the City of 10,000 Buddhas萬佛城for almost 10 years learning what is important in life. We were all both students and teachers learning together in an ideal rural environment.
After leaving the City of 10,000 Buddhas and setting up schools in Seattle and Calgary, Canada, I again had the opportunity to work at a new liberal arts modeled college in Zhuhai, China, United International College聯合國際學院. My former training and new colleagues made me feel right at home in this new environment. Because I lived on campus, I was able to spend a lot of time with students as a teacher, mentor and friend. To help students to learn about English language and culture in a more relaxed atmosphere, I started a movie club on Friday nights which was open to all students and staff, even during holidays. The club ran under my direction for 4 years. UIC also had many administrative committees and faculty was encouraged to join 2 or 3. I served on the Volunteer Services committee and the Library Committee as well as the Mentor Caring Program電動看護床導師關顧計劃. To this day I continue to teach English to the native Chinese staff in many departments on a voluntary basis.
Living in a bilingual environment
Ever since I started studying Buddhism in 1968 I have been living in a bilingual/bicultural environment. Our Buddhist teacher was from Harbin, and he started us off learning Chinese from the very beginning. I recall my first experience with Chinese was during the summer of 1968. A group of us was given a Mathew s Chinese to English dictionary and asked to translate the Heart Sutra心經。At that time I had never used a Chinese dictionary and only knew a few words of spoken Chinese. That was the beginning.
All the schools in California, Seattle and Calgary where I worked were bilingual and bicultural. Most of the students and faculty were Chinese, some born in the USA and some born in Asia. I would say my best friends are Chine三馬達電動床se. This background has helped m高雄電動床e a lot while working in China. I now teach TESL and translation to Chinese students. One course I ve taught for many years is contrastive analysis of Chinese and English. This is a really fascinating class because we compare the language differences from the two broad perspectives of linguistics and culture. I have learned a lot over the years teaching this course, and students have told me it has been very useful in their own teaching and translating.
To sum up, I have had a lot of experience in teaching in bilingual/bicultural settings. I think I understand what is needed to motivate students and help them grow into responsible and productive adults. Wenzhou-Kean is developing and has very lofty goals. I am glad to be part of the faculty and hope to work here for a number of years.
Gary Linebarger藍伯喬
3 January 2016
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