Harvard Divinity School

From Those Who are Unaffiliated | Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan Read by Kate Hoeting, MTS II Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s TRANSCRIPT: Hi everyone! I’m going to be reading a passage from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot, in which he is reflecting on the famous photo which you can see here, titled Pale Blue Dot, taken from the Voyager I spacecraft on its way out of our solar system of Earth. It’s a little self portrait, and you can see in the middle-right, sort of in that orange sunbeam, is a tiny pixel which is Earth. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of… religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every [parent], hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there— on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. […] The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.   It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (New York: Random House, 1994), 8-9.

From the Hindu Tradition Read by Malini Srikrishna, MTS II Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s TRANSCRIPT: The ancient Indian or Hindu traditions are passed down by grandmothers, grandfathers, their stories and just the spirit of our ancestors. So here is a prayer my grandmother taught me. The human body is the temple of God. To kindle the light of awareness within you is to experience true light. The sacred flame in your inner shrine is constantly burning—embrace it! The experience of unity is what will enable you to find the purpose of this body, of this temple. Every season can be a season of light when we recognize that the true light is already always within us. To harness it, we must intentionally take the time to reflect on the ways in which darkness has shown up in our bodies and our lives. Be it through hatred, separation, ignorance or deception. A central aspect of discovering our inner shrine is recognizing the unity of all Life. If one life form suffers, you, me and all life forms are suffering in the process. To recognize that is to truly recognize ourselves, our unity. How we can manifest and really live this unity is by setting a clear vision for the way our lives will work to transform malicious histories into a future that reinforces truth. So, for this Season of Light, I invite you to discover the ways in which your body has been a carrier of histories of hatred and love and envision the future and qualities you want it to become a temple for. Let us be brave and let our fire burn all that is dark so we pave the way for an unimaginable and unifying light force. One that burns away hatred and is eternal in its capacity to love.

Kindling the Light | “Vajra Mantra” by Satigata Chris Berlin, Counselor to Buddhist Students; Darren Becker, MDiv ’15; Andrew Stauffer MDiv ’18; and Alanna Coady, MDiv ’18 The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life.

Prelude | Adagio by Franz Josef Haydn Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, piano Seasons of Light is hosted by Harvard Divinity School's Office of Religious and Spiritual Life under the direction of Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, and Kerry A. Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. The full video recording of Seasons of Light 2020 can be found on the HDS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVuYb9d7tCc&t=587s

Nyasha Junior, Visiting Associate Professor of Women's Studies and African-American Religions, and Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America, discuss Jarena Lee as Protestant icon. View the full transcript here: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/news/2020/11/03/audio-jarena-lee-protestant-icon-conversation-nyasha-junior-and-catherine-brekus

The 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School share their backgrounds, fellowship projects, and how they hope to engage with the RCPI and RPL communities during their fellowship year. To engage further, get in touch with RPL at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/about/contact-us.

The 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School share their backgrounds, fellowship projects, and how they hope to engage with the RCPI and RPL communities during their fellowship year. To engage further, get in touch with RPL at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/about/contact-us.

The 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School share their backgrounds, fellowship projects, and how they hope to engage with the RCPI and RPL communities during their fellowship year. To engage further, get in touch with RPL at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/about/contact-us.

The 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School share their backgrounds, fellowship projects, and how they hope to engage with the RCPI and RPL communities during their fellowship year. To engage further, get in touch with RPL at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/about/contact-us.

The 2020-21 Fellows in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School share their backgrounds, fellowship projects, and how they hope to engage with the RCPI and RPL communities during their fellowship year. To engage further, get in touch with RPL at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/about/contact-us.