Table of Contents
1. COURSE> Special class on early Tiantai at Yale
2. QUERY> The Consciousness-only Debate on Idealism
3. WORKSHOP> ROLLING WITH UNCERTAINTY: Koans and Writing - Natalie Goldberg & Steven Heine, PhD
4. QUERY> Interrelation between Eastern India and Tibet during the Early Medieval (c.6th-13th century CE)
________________________________________
COURSE> Special class on early Tiantai at Yale
by Eric Greene
Dear Colleagues,
The Department of Religious Studies at Yale University, with the generous support of the Buddhist Association of Mt. Kuaiji, is pleased to announce a special, intensive master class taught by Professor Daniel Stevenson (University of Kansas): To Meet the Buddhas Face to Face: Ritual Penance, Samādhi, and Self-Cultivation in Early Tiantai, to be held at Yale University on October 14-16 (Friday-Sunday), 2016.
Professor Stevenson is one of world’s foremost experts in Tiantai Buddhism, and this class represents a unique opportunity to read Tiantai texts with him.
The class is open and free of charge to all interested graduate students and faculty. A reading knowledge of classical Chinese (or Japanese kanbun, etc.) is recommended for all attendees, though English-language translations of many key documents will also be provided. Meals will be provided for all participants.
All those who wish to attend must PRE-REGISTER no later than September 1st 2016.
GENEROUS FUNDING is available to cover travel and accommodation expenses for a limited number of graduate students coming from anywhere in North America. To apply for funding, you must be enrolled in, or about to begin, an MA or PhD program. Please send a brief cover letter explaining your reasons for wishing to take the class, and your background and qualifications. Priority will be given to those with the requisite language skills. Your advisor at your home institution must also send a (brief) letter of support. Please send or have sent the relevant documents to the email address below no later than AUGUST 1st 2016.
To register, or to apply for funding, please contact: earlytiantai@gmail.com
The full description of the class is given below.
Eric Greene
Department of Religious Studies
Yale University
To Meet the Buddhas Face to Face: Ritual Penance, Samādhi, and Self-Cultivation in Early Tiantai
October 14-16, 2016
Yale University
Daniel B Stevenson
In addition to the celebrated Great Calming and Contemplation (Mohe zhiguan 摩訶止觀), numerous works on the principles and practicalities of self-cultivation (xiuxing 修行) were produced over the course of Tiantai Zhiyi’s 天台智顗 (528-597) career. Their contents range over a diversity of subjects, from step-by-step instructions for cult-specific programs of ritual repentance and devotion, to synoptic treatises on the meditative path as a whole. Some were written by Zhiyi personally; others were redacted from his lectures or oral instructions. Though the Great Calming and Contemplation is often lionized by modern scholars as the sine qua non of Zhiyi’s teaching on the “sudden and perfect approach to calming and contemplation” (yuandun zhiguan 圓頓止觀), the quintessence of Tiantai meditative praxis, the historical record amply reveals that the MHZG never abrogated this larger repertoire of works. Canonized, reproduced, and consumed by generations of Tiantai practitioners, along with the MHZG, these diverse literatures provide an invaluable point of entry to the lore and logics of estimation that informed the world of meditation and self-cultivation in Tiantai communities.
Drawing selectively from both these assorted early tracts and related sources, including the MHZG, this seminar will explore Tiantai views regarding the human condition and practicing subject, the prospects and perils of self-cultivation, the strange fauna and phenomena that populate its path, and the technologies that bear on its lifelong pursuit. Particular attention therein will be given to the relationship between contemplative discernment of the mind (guanxin 觀心, what we often idiomatically refer to as “meditation”) and formal procedures of ritual repentance and devotion directed to the Three Treasures with which meditative discernment was inseparable linked. A variety of supporting documents will be brought into relation with the core treatises on meditation and ritual practice, including hagiographies and independently circulating epitaphs, memoranda, tales of miraculous response, monastery inscriptions, and personal correspondence. Wherever possible, sources will be selected with attention to the historically specific communities and locale from which they were generated and known to circulate. English translations will be provided together with the original Chinese text.
• Read more or reply
QUERY> The Consciousness-only Debate on Idealism
by Ronald Davis
Dear Colleagues,
I'm writing a somewhat journalistic series of pieces, in which I nonetheless am trying to provide firm scholarly footing for accounts of various controversies that have taken place in Buddhism, both in classical and modern times. The piece that I am working on now involves the characterization of the "Yogachara Buddhism" as "idealism." Meaning "idealism" as a position that takes all of reality to reside within the mind, and not in the external world.
It seems that there was apparently a debate on this topic between the scholars Kapstein and Hopkins in the 1980's, centered on works from the Tibetan tradition. In any case, I'd be interested in knowing other circumstances and traditions in which the debate took place, and if this issue still has currency in modern scholarship?
Much obliged for any information.
Ron
• Read more or reply
WORKSHOP> ROLLING WITH UNCERTAINTY: Koans and Writing - Natalie Goldberg & Steven Heine, PhD
by Steven Heine
We are pleased to announce that Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico will feature a Summer Retreat/Workshop on July 6 - 10 for ROLLING WITH UNCERTAINTY: Koans and Writing. Steven Heine, scholar of Zen Buddhist history and thought, will join Natalie Goldberg, noted author who frequently gives workshops on creative writing in light of Zazen meditation.
Koans are perplexing riddles that cause us to doubt our assumptions and expectations. Using meditation and writing practice, we embrace this uncertainty as the key to unlocking the heart and truth held within these ancient teachings.
For more information and to register: https://www.upaya.org/program/?id=1635
ROLLING WITH UNCERTAINTY: Koans and Writing
Email: registrar@upaya.org
Phone: 505-986-8518 ext. 12
• Read more or reply
QUERY> Interrelation between Eastern India and Tibet during the Early Medieval (c.6th-13th century CE)
by Swadhin Sen
Dear Colleagues/researchers,
I am an archaeologist and I am working for the last 15 years in the northern part of Bangladesh. We have numerious examples of interactions between Tibet and Eastern India during early medieval period. There are several publications regarding these interactions through Buddhist religion and trade.
I would be obliged if you could kindly suggest to me some recent works in which the socio-economic and political contexts and dimensions of these interactions, and/or the monastic networks and role of trade and trade routes have been addressed.
With best regards,
Swadhin Sen, Professor, Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University.
• Read more or reply
________________________________________
H-Net on: Facebook - Twitter
