Presented in a video message that opened the 2026 Tzu Chi Global Symposium for Common Goodness at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Venerable Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s words offered more than a greeting.
William A. McGrath, Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at New York University, opened the symposium’s consideration of health and care by turning to two paradigmatic Buddhist physicians, Jīvaka Kaumārabhṛtya and Yutok Yönten Gönpo the Elder.
At the heart of Venerable Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s teachings, and the Tzu Chi School of Buddhism and Jing Si Dharma Lineage she established, ancient Buddhist teachings are not only studied or recited, but applied through active service that relieves suffering, protects the environment, and responds to the needs of our time.
Opening the panel, Pei-Ying Lin, Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Religious Studies at Chengchi University in Taiwan, explored the ethical structures that allow compassion to become durable across cultures and communities.
“What does Buddhism have to do with design?” asked Eugene Y. Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University and Founder and Director of the Cognitive Aesthetic Media Lab (CAMLab) at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as he opened his keynote address, “Design After Buddhism: Back to Future,” during the 2026 Tzu Chi Global Symposium for Common Goodness. Held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from May 7 to 9, the gathering, co-hosted by the Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation and CAMLab, had already explored how Buddhist teachings move from philosophy and scripture into lived practice, how the thought of Tzu Chi founder Venerable Dharma Master Cheng Yen shapes its humanitarian action, and how the Bodhisattva path can respond to the needs of the contemporary world.
“Trees as Teachers,” Sheila Kennedy, Professor of the Practice of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explored how trees can guide an architecture rooted in the interconnection between the health of the natural world and human well-being. Bringing ancient arboreal wisdom into conversation with contemporary design, digital tools, climate urgency, and forest ecology, Kennedy grounded the inquiry in Buddhist tradition, noting that trees appear in early Buddhist art before figural representations of the Buddha. Moreover, the Buddha’s life unfolded in forests and beneath trees, most famously beneath the Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple in India, where he attained enlightenment.
On the evening of May 9, 2026, blue light bathed the stone arcades of the Harvard Art Museums’ Calderwood Courtyard. Here, as Tzu Chi commemorated its 60th anniversary and Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s 90th birthday, the Under One Sky concert, presented by the Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation in collaboration with the Harvard FAS Cognitive Aesthetics Media Lab (CAMLab), would soon commence.
On October 24, 2025, Havyn Morris walked across a bare, fire-scarred clearing, the dirt beneath her feet raw and open to the sky, the ground only beginning to green again in patches…
Tzu Chi began with a heartfelt commitment expressed by Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s first followers, who set aside a little each day in coin banks made from bamboo.
Written by Pheel WangTranslated by H.B. QinEdited by Ida Eva Zielinska Published #78 | Fall 2025 Issue Haiti, an impoverished nation grappling with ongoing instability,
