Whether attending to a person speaking from across the table or words that someone wrote down hundreds of years ago, I believe that deeply listening to other people’s stories and experiences is a critical tool we can use to cure what William James described as “the blindness with which we all are afflicted in regard to the feelings of creatures and people different from ourselves.” My own work as a scholar of contemporary Buddhism reflects this commitment. I combine diverse ethnographic methods among Buddhist communities in Taiwan, Nepal, India, China, and the US to better understand the ways Buddhists live out, relate to, negotiate with, and find meaning in their religious traditions. In the classroom, I encourage students to listen deeply to the voices conveyed in the texts we read and videos we watch, as well as the diverse experiences of their peers. This is the kind of dynamic and deeply engaged work we will do in my Engagements class. I am excited to support opportunities for first-year students’ critical reflection, self-discovery, and genuine curiosity about the ways ritual actions contribute to our senses of self, give our lives meaning, and connect us with others.