BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies - ECPv6.15.12.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20160313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20161106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20170312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20171105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20180311T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20181104T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20190310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20191103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20200308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20201101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20210314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20211107T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20230201T180725Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230201T180726Z
UID:31508-1682528400-1682535600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Xiaotian Yin - Mantra and Icon: Verbalizing and Visualizing Sitatapatrā in Buddhist Art of Inner Asia and China
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xiaotian Yin\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/xiaotian-yin-mantra-and-icon-verbalizing-and-visualizing-sitatapatra-in-buddhist-art-of-inner-asia-and-china/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230412T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230412T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20230201T180545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230201T181000Z
UID:31506-1681318800-1681326000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Mikael Bauer - Under the Gaze of Jion: Kōfukuji’s Heian Period Internal Ritual Network
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Mikael Bauer\, McGill University \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/mikael-bauer-under-the-gaze-of-jion-kofukujis-heian-period-internal-ritual-network/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20230201T180415Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230201T180416Z
UID:31504-1680109200-1680116400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Alexis Brown - Time and Narrative in the Rasavāhinī: A Literary Theoretical Approach to Reading a Theravada Buddhist Text
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Alexis Brown\, Harvard University \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/alexis-brown-time-and-narrative-in-the-rasavahini-a-literary-theoretical-approach-to-reading-a-theravada-buddhist-text/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T200000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20230201T180902Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230223T202829Z
UID:31510-1678298400-1678305600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Wei-Cheng Lin - House of the Buddha in Scale: China’s “Small” Architecture
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Wei-Cheng Lin\, University of Chicago \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/wei-cheng-lin-house-of-the-buddha-in-scale-chinas-small-architecture/
LOCATION:Plimpton Room (133)\, Barker Center\, 12 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230222T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230222T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20230201T175951Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230201T175953Z
UID:31502-1677085200-1677092400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Brandon Dotson - Marginal Comedy and the Production of Sutras in 9th-Century Dunhuang
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Brandon Dotson\, Associate Professor and Thomas P. McKenna Chair of Buddhist Studies\, Georgetown University \n\n\n\nThere is something delightful about jottings and doodles in the margins of religious books. Perhaps it is the counterpoint that they offer to the generally serious and devout contents of the texts they abut. Perhaps it is also that marginalia emphasize the process of producing scripture\, and the human hands at work. Marginalia\, particularly marginal images\, are more familiar to studies of medieval European manuscripts than to Asian manuscript studies. This talk employs a selection of jottings and doodles created during the production of copies of the Tibetan Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 100\,000 lines (Skt. Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā; Tib. Yum ’bum pa) at Dunhuang from the late-820s to early 840s. Attending to scribes’ and editors’ fits of anger and devotion\, and also to their comedic doodles and scrawls\, it offers a glimpse into the personalities and lives of the Chinese and Tibetan men and women tasked with producing these sutras. It suggests that we appreciate their comedy both as a relief from the sometimes monotonous nature of their work\, and from the challenging conditions under which they labored. \n\n\n\nBrandon Dotson is associate professor and Thomas P. McKenna Chair of Buddhist Studies at Georgetown University. Besides Georgetown\, he has taught and researched at Oxford\, SOAS\, UCSB\, and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. He has also enjoyed research stays in China and Tibet. His work concerns ritual\, narrative\, and cosmology and the interaction of Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions in the Tibetan cultural area. In particular\, he works closely with Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts to explore the history and culture of the Tibetan Empire (7th to 9th centuries CE). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/brandon-dotson-marginal-comedy-and-the-production-of-sutras-in-9th-century-dunhuang/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221019T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221019T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20221012T135437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221019T164732Z
UID:30079-1666198800-1666206000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Annabelle Pitkin - Renunciation and the Practice of Care: Himalayan Buddhist Embodiments of Longing and Devotion
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Annabella Pitkin\, Assistant Professor of Buddhism and East Asian Religions\, Lehigh UniversityDevotion plays a central role in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist accounts of guru-disciple relationship\, part of an ideal of indivisible connection between gurus and disciples. This theme of devotional connection intersects in complex ways with another influential Buddhist ideal\, that of renunciation. Tibetan narratives of renunciation often highlight dynamics of separation\, departure\, and absence\, dynamics that can appear in tension with the devotional ideal. Yet separation from the guru can also affectively energize practices of guru-devotion through generating longing\, in ways that Tibetan and Himalayan commentators assert as soteriologically indispensable. This talk focuses on episodes from stories about the life of the twentieth century Himalayan Buddhist renunciant Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen (1895-1977) that highlight both his own intensive practices of renunciation\, and the impact of his renunciation on his close disciples\, both women and men. I consider ways in which Khunu Lama’s disciples attempted to practice forms of devotional care for him\, while grappling with the separations his practice of renunciation required within their relationships. Annabella Pitkin is Assistant Professor of Buddhism and East Asian Religions at Lehigh University. Her research focuses on Tibetan Buddhist modernity\, Buddhist ideals of renunciation\, miracle narratives\, and Buddhist biographies. She received her B.A. from Harvard and Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia\, and has lived and traveled extensively in the Himalayan region\, China\, India\, and Nepal. She is the author of Renunciation and Longing: The Life of a 20th Century Himalayan Buddhist Saint (Chicago). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/annabelle-pitkin-renunciation-and-the-practice-of-care-himalayan-buddhist-embodiments-of-longing-and-devotion/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Teachings-feature.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220921T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220921T190000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20220907T174112Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220908T161758Z
UID:29462-1663779600-1663786800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Victor Fan - The Insight-Image: Illuminating the Reality of Deleuze's Time-Image
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Victor Fan\, King’s College London \n\n\n\n     In Zen Buddhism\, the notion of here and now is the key to attain––or return to––paññā/prajñā (insight). On a day-to-day basis\, we live each moment with a preoccupation of the past and an anticipation for the future. Our retrospection and expectation produce afflictions such as avarice\, anger and frustration\, as well as delusion. Our penchant for living every moment as a recollection of the past and an anticipation for the future is also propelled by our belief that our existence endures in time; that such afflictions and suffering are both inevitable; and that our self and all the other sentient beings and objects arise out of their self-natures. But as Nāgārjuna (150–250 CE) argues\, the past does not exist\, as its existence has already perished; the future does not exist\, as its existence has yet to arise. If the present is an extension of the past\, and if it extends itself to become the future\, the present does not exist either. Rather\, it is a lived point-instant that instantiates an assemblage of interdependent conditions. But how does the cinema\, as an image-consciousness\, disconceal insight? \n\n\n\n     In Cinema Illuminating Reality [2022]\,I conduct a comparative reading of here and now with Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Henri Bergson’s notion of time. I do so in order to reconfigure Deleuze’s notion of the time-image into the insight-image. For Deleuze\, the time-image is characterized as a pure optical and sound situation\, which draws the consciousness’s attention to the present of the present as a sense-formation and a thought-formation. In other words\, Deleuze’s time-image is capable of generating a mindfulness of the here and now: that each moment is an instantiation of an ecology of interdependent conditions that affect\, and are affected by\, one another. In my presentation\, I will demonstrate how insight can be attained or returned to via the formational process of the image-consciousness. I will also conduct a close reading of Pema Tseden’s Tharlo [2015] to examine how mindfulness is mobilized as a technology that gives the consciousness an agency over its own becoming. \n\n\n\n     Victor Fan is Reader in Film and Media Philosophy\, King’s College London and a film festival consultant. He is the author of Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory (University of Minnesota Press\, 2015)\, Extraterritoriality: Locating Hong Kong Cinema and Media (Edinburg University Press\, 2019)\, and Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (University of Minnesota Press\, 2022).His articles appeared in journals including Camera Obscura\, Journal of Chinese Cinemas\, Screen\, and Film History. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/victor-fan-the-insight-image-illuminating-the-reality-of-deleuzes-time-image/
LOCATION:Barker Center\, Thompson Room\, 12 Quincy St\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cosponsored-lecture-thumbnail-e1705695585733.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220425T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220425T130000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20220414T192517Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220707T204307Z
UID:26293-1650886200-1650891600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Buddhist Studies Forum featuring Halvor Eifring - Let the mind wander towards the Pure Land: Two 19th-Century Chinese Monks on How to Treat Spontaneous Thought
DESCRIPTION:Topics:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Halvor Eifring\, University of Oslo \n\n\n\nMind wandering has been an issue within contemplative traditions for more than two thousand years. How to go about your meditation or prayer when spontaneous thoughts constantly pull your mind in other directions? This talk will focus on the answers of two 19th-century Chinese Pure Land Buddhist monks\, Wukai (悟開\, d. 1830) and Gukun (古崑\, c. 1828–1892). Both display seemingly paradoxical attitudes towards mind wandering\, combining the urge to drive it away with the wish to accept it. They do so\, however\, for different reasons\, which will be presented and discussed in the talk. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-halvor-eifring-let-the-mind-wander-towards-the-pure-land-two-19th-century-chinese-monks-on-how-to-treat-spontaneous-thought/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cosponsored-lecture-thumbnail-e1705695585733.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220418T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220418T183000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20220328T125957Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220707T204304Z
UID:26144-1650301200-1650306600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Buddhist Studies Forum Featuring Julia Cross - Relic Transfers and Statue-Reliquaries in Medieval Japan 
DESCRIPTION:Topics:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Julia Cross\, Postdoctoral Associate in East Asian Studies and Lecturer in Religious Studies\, Yale University \n\n\n\nPrior to the medieval period\, Buddha relics (Sk. śarīra; dhātu) in Japan were typically under the domain of the court or court-related temples. In the Kamakura era (1185–1333)\, this shifted\, however\, as relic worship became increasingly accessible to temples and shrines outside of court circles. As social anxieties magnified that the Buddha’s teachings were slowly slipping away (i.e.\, mappō)\, the desire to be close to his relics increased. These relics\, seen as “essential ingredients” of the Buddha\, facilitated a physical proximity to his body. Accordingly\, Buddha relics\, remainders found in the Buddha’s funeral pyre\, were gifted\, swallowed\, stolen\, and transferred through dream-like-visions. It was through this physical proximity—almost osmosis—to the Buddha’s body (i.e.\, his bones) that devotees moved closer to the Buddha and to their own spiritual salvation in the afterworld. \n\n\n\nAlong with this revival of relic worship came the revival of the nunhood\, which had lost much of its power by the late Heian period (794–1185). This paper shows that Kamakura era nuns used relics\, seen as direct access to the Buddha\, to argue for their right to practice. It contends that nuns used such relics to re-establish their monastic power and spread their teachings. By examining historical records\, origin narratives\, and material culture this paper argues that nuns utilized relics to create Dharma networks and strengthen their monastic ties. Many of these relics can be traced back to China and India\, and\, ultimately\, to the Buddha himself. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-julia-cross-relic-transfers-and-statue-reliquaries-in-medieval-japan/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cosponsored-lecture-thumbnail-e1705695585733.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220307T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220307T183000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20220216T140057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220420T220859Z
UID:24735-1646672400-1646677800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Norihisa Baba - Sanskrit vs Pāli: Buddhaghosa’s Linguistic Turn and its Impacts on Mainland Southeast Asia
DESCRIPTION:Topics:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister now\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVenue
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/norihisa-baba-sanskrit-vs-pali-buddhaghosas-linguistic-turn-and-its-impacts-on-mainland-southeast-asia/
LOCATION:Presented via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220221T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220221T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20220209T153241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220707T204309Z
UID:24561-1645459200-1645464600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Buddhist Studies Forum Featuring Keng Ching - Towards a New Interpretation of Dignāga's Mental Perception (mānasa-pratyakṣa): Clues from the Notion of Simultaneous Mental Consciousness
DESCRIPTION:Topics:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-keng-ching-towards-a-new-interpretation-of-dignagas-mental-perception-manasa-pratyak%e1%b9%a3a-clues-from-the-notion-of-simultaneous-mental-consciousness/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211025T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211025T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20211005T132553Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211005T132553Z
UID:11091-1635177600-1635183000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum Featuring Aaron Proffitt - Buddha's Name as Mantra in Medieval Japan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Aaron Proffitt\, Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies\, University at Albany-SUNY\n\nThe recitation of the name of a buddha (nenbutsu) is often associated with deathbed practices and traditions commonly grouped under the rubric Pure Land Buddhism. In this talk\, Professor Aaron Proffitt will consider this widely popular practice as understood by practitioners of mantra\, focusing in particular upon the work of Dohan (1179-1252)\, an early-medieval Japanese scholar-monk and Esoteric Pure Land theorist. While Pure Land practices such as aspiring for rebirth in a purified buddha land are often seen to be at odds with the recitation of mantra for this-worldly benefits\, in fact\, in medieval Japan these approaches to the practice of Buddhism were often carried out in tandem. In some cases\, the nenbutsu was understood as a mantra\, and because many mantras are in fact the very name of a particular buddha\, bodhisattva\, or god\, many mantras would technically qualify as “nenbutsu.” As we will see\, Dohan’s “esoteric nenbutsu” theory reveals that for some medieval Japanese Buddhist practitioners\, the so-called mystery of speech as a willed act\, an act of “self power\,” rests in its expression of the mystery of breath\, as an unwilled act\, an expression of “other power.” In this way\, the nenbutsu as mantra is said to transcend and collapse perceived binaries between buddhas and beings\, this world and the Pure Land. \nProfessor Aaron Proffitt is an Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies at the University at Albany-SUNY. Proffitt received his PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan\, and his monograph\, Esoteric Pure Land Buddhism\, is currently in-press with University of Hawaii Press\, Pure Land Buddhist Studies series. \nPresented via Zoom\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcuf-CsrDMvH9a02UR3MCAR_3t_83P_OpHa
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/harvard-buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-aaron-proffitt-buddhas-name-as-mantra-in-medieval-japan/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210510T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210510T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20210426T151829Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210426T151829Z
UID:10684-1620662400-1620667800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Elizabeth Angowski - A Clash of Clawed Significations: Reading and Rereading the Life of Yeshé Tsogyal and the Story of the Starving Tigress
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Elizabeth Angowski\, Assistant Professor of Religion\, Earlham College \nFor an eager bodhisattva intent on honing the virtue of generosity\, there would appear to be no shortage of starving tigresses to feed\, or so it must have seemed to Yeshé Tsogyal\, an eighth-century tantric adept renowned for her role in disseminating Buddhism throughout Tibet. Within her earliest biography\, the Life of Yeshé Tsogyal (14th century)\, she encounters an emaciated tigress on the verge of devouring her cubs—a tigress much like the one to whom the Buddha\, in one of his previous lifetimes\, fed his own body. But when Yeshé Tsogyal’s story is set against the Buddha’s\, we see the tale take a remarkable turn. Where once a prince met his gory\, albeit praiseworthy end\, now a princess sees her shredded limbs restored by an act of truth and the kindness of a predator who plays against type. \nRecasting Yeshé Tsogyal as the protagonist of the Tigress Jātaka—a popular\, multiform tale that typically stars the Bodhisattva—might seem a curious choice on the part of the Life’s author\, but ultimately\, it is a brilliant intertextual move\, one that stands to (1) mobilize in the model reader certain\, perhaps otherwise mute\, expectations vis-à-vis the figure of Yeshé Tsogyal and (2) resignify the familiar story of the starving tigress in tandem. After clarifying the relationship between these works\, this talk will demonstrate how they stand to interanimate one another through a “clash of significations\,” a process by which both stories emerge\, in the end\, more than the sum of their parts. \nPresented via Zoom\nRegistration Required\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlf-uhrj0pEtJNPDkKauJUrz48VK0pI_Gk
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/elizabeth-angowski-a-clash-of-clawed-significations-reading-and-rereading-the-life-of-yeshe-tsogyal-and-the-story-of-the-starving-tigress/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210405T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210405T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20210401T124559Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210401T124559Z
UID:10571-1617638400-1617643800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Buddhist Studies Forum Featuring Matthew King - Ocean of Milk\, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Matthew King\, Associate Professor of Transnational Buddhism and Director\, Asian Studies Program\, University of California\, Riverside \nAfter the fall of the Qing empire\, amid nationalist and socialist upheaval\, Buddhist monks in the Mongolian frontiers of the Soviet Union and Republican China faced a chaotic and increasingly uncertain world. In this book\, Matthew W. King tells the story of one Mongolian monk’s efforts to defend Buddhist monasticism in revolutionary times\, revealing an unexplored landscape of countermodern Buddhisms beyond old imperial formations and the newly invented national subject. \nOcean of Milk\, Ocean of Blood takes up the perspective of the polymath Zava Damdin (1867–1937): a historian\, mystic\, logician\, and pilgrim whose life and works straddled the Qing and its socialist aftermath\, between the monastery and the party scientific academy. Drawing on contacts with figures as diverse as the Dalai Lama\, mystic monks in China\, European scholars inventing the field of Buddhist studies\, and a member of the Bakhtin Circle\, Zava Damdin labored for thirty years to protect Buddhist tradition against what he called the “bloody tides” of science\, social mobility\, and socialist party antagonism. Through a rich reading of his works\, King reveals that modernity in Asia was not always shaped by epochal contact with Europe and that new models of Buddhist life\, neither imperial nor national\, unfolded in the post-Qing ruins. The first book to explore countermodern Buddhist monastic thought and practice along the Inner Asian frontiers during these tumultuous years\, Ocean of Milk\, Ocean of Blood illuminates previously unknown religious and intellectual legacies of the Qing and offers an unparalleled view of Buddhist life in the revolutionary period. \nPresented via Zoom\nRegistration Required\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrc-mpqz8iH9zemwbT9yGX177ThmjFyLc_ 
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-matthew-king-ocean-of-milk-ocean-of-blood-a-mongolian-monk-in-the-ruins-of-the-qing-empire/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210315T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210315T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20210201T134942Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210201T134942Z
UID:10334-1615824000-1615829400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Trent Walker - The Scattering of the Thirty-Two Minds: A Southeast Asian Buddhist Doctrine of Rebirth
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Trent Walker\, Lecturer\, Department of Religious Studies; Postdoctoral Fellow\, The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies\, Stanford University \nPresented via Zoom\nRegistration Required\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ucuCrqjIvGdHcV9R5NW15u5jLGwLD4M7j
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/trent-walker-the-scattering-of-the-thirty-two-minds-a-southeast-asian-buddhist-doctrine-of-rebirth/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210301T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210301T153000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20210201T134637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210201T134637Z
UID:10333-1614607200-1614612600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum featuring James Benn - Meditation in the Surangama Sutra
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: James Benn\, Professor and Director of the Centre for Buddhist Studies\, McMaster University \nPlease note earlier start time. \nIn the later Chinese Buddhist tradition one text above all others has been extolled for the profundity of its ideas\, the beauty of its language\, and its insight into the practice of meditation—this is the scripture popularly known as the Lengyan jing or Śūraṃgama sutra (Scripture of the Heroic March). In this talk\, I will look at the Śūraṃgamasutra’s general prescriptions for meditation. I will indicate some specific examples of methods of mental cultivation described by the scripture and taken up by later Buddhist practitioners. Finally\, I will talk about how the scripture elucidates in detail some of the potential dangers of meditation for the practitioner. \nPresented via Zoom\nRegistration Required\nRegister at https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEod-6vrDMtH9OEsMHaq7KaNFyxyk-475Nj
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/harvard-buddhist-studies-forum-featuring-james-benn/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210215T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210215T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20210201T134159Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210201T134159Z
UID:10332-1613404800-1613410200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Amy Langenberg and Ann Gleig - From Sudinna to the Sangha Sutra: Classical and Contemporary Buddhist Responses to Sexual Misconduct
DESCRIPTION:Speakers:\nAmy Langenberg\, Associate Professor of Religious Studies\, Eckerd College\nAnn Gleig\, Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies\, University of Central Florida \nSince the 1980s\, American Buddhist convert communities have been the site of reoccurring cases of sexual abuse and misconduct. This two-part presentation will reflect on how some contemporary practitioners have responded\, in particular identifying “generative responses” that combine Buddhist and non-Buddhist frameworks to generate new forms of Buddhist thought\, community\, and practice. Taking a constructive rather than a corrective approach\, it will then consider these responses in relationship to the Buddhist sexual ethics found in classical sources\, focusing especially on the ideas of consent and intention. \nAmy Langenberg is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College. She is author of Birth in Buddhism: the Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (Routledge\, 2017). Ann Gleig is an associate professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. She is author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press\, 2019). They are currently working on a co-written book project on sexual violations in American convert Buddhism\, which is under advance contract with Yale University Press. \nPresented via Zoom\nRegistration Required\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkduiurjsvG9PmwRaDUydAC-oK7RPe5z7L
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/amy-langenberg-and-ann-gleig-from-sudinna-to-the-sangha-sutra-classical-and-contemporary-buddhist-responses-to-sexual-misconduct/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201123T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201123T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20201013T152949Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T152949Z
UID:9828-1606147200-1606152600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Xingyi Wang - Boundary of the Body: The Monastic Robe and Revival of the Vinaya in Medieval China and Japan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xingyi Wang\, PhD Candidate\, Harvard University \nModern scholarship often compares Buddhist monastic rules to legal codes or treats them mainly as nominal prescriptions. The reality\, however\, was more complex than what appeared on paper. I propose a new understanding of the Vinaya which sees it as vital device and site for the formation of a religious self\, in tandem with the habitual cultivation of the human body in everyday monastic living. Given that the body of a monastic is almost always clothed\, the apparently disproportionately large number of rules in the Vinaya about monastic robes should not be surprising. This talk focuses on the practice of robing monastics in the Vinaya revival in Song China and Kamakura Japan. The formative power of the Vinaya on the individual body and on the collective community hinges on the mediacy of the robe. By tracing the trajectory of the commentarial tradition and material culture of the Vinaya from Song China to Kamakura Japan\, I show how Buddhists negotiated the tension between fidelity to the Vinaya and their localized ephemeral social reality. \nPresented via Zoom.\nRegistration required.\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtfuyupzwtGN1AU-KhH1IScyoXKjlLHD-r
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/xingyi-wang-boundary-of-the-body-the-monastic-robe-and-revival-of-the-vinaya-in-medieval-china-and-japan/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201109T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201109T153000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20201013T152709Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T152709Z
UID:9827-1604930400-1604935800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Eviatar Shulman - What is a Discourse (Sutta)? Reconsidering the Nature of Early Buddhist Scripture
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Eviatar Shulman\, Hebrew University of Jerusalem \nWe commonly speak of the Buddha’s “discourses” – sutta\, sūtra – knowing that they were not just spoken by him (or “him”) in this way\, but nevertheless taking these texts as a clear category of authorized Buddhist speech\, which scholars then ask to what degree they return to the Buddha himself; even if they are not historical utterances of the historical Buddha\, they are the closet we can get to understanding his ideas and practices. While much of scholarly practice today still hopes to skin a discourse of its mythology and popular sentiments to reveal the earlier layers of the teaching\, and while many scholars compare discourses in different languages in the quest for their original core\, it is time to see these texts for what they are – literary masterpieces\, which generate and channel rich patterns of Buddhist emotion and imagination\, and that engage with the Buddha devotionally while contemplating his figure and hoping to feel his unique presence. This talk will focus on some of the literary\, poetic\, and contemplative dimensions of the texts\, in an attempt to understand what a discourse was for the early Buddhists. Specifically\, we will investigate the idea that the texts are\, in certain cases\, a meditative practice\, so that the text is in itself the reflection upon the teaching\, rather than being some formulized representation of them. \nPresented Via Zoom.\nRegistration required.\nRegister at: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqceyrqD0pGdW8y-zm51z1273EjYQsqisj%C2%A0
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/eviatar-shulman-what-is-a-discourse-sutta-reconsidering-the-nature-of-early-buddhist-scripture/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20201019T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20201019T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20201013T151734Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T151734Z
UID:9825-1603123200-1603128600@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Sonam Kachru - The Questions of Milinda: How To Use a Philosophical Classic and (perhaps) find a Literary Gem.
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Sonam Kachru\, University of Virginia \nMy goal is practical—How shall an intelligent reader make use of the remarkable though forbidding work\, The Questions of Milinda (Milindapañha)? The Pāli work can seem discouragingly heterogenous. My guide is intended to overcome that\, seeking to facilitate productive (and even potentially transformative) encounters with the text. It is divided into two parts\, each part emphasizing distinct ways of approaching (sometimes overlapping parts of) the work. In Part One we will consider how to think about two features that are said to make the discourse (kathā) of Nāgasena aesthetically captivating (citra)\, the use of illustrative examples and arguments. In Part Two\, we shall explore a small section of the work which constitutes a complete dramatic unit\, so to speak\, and one which is worthy of being taken up “as a work of art\,” to borrow T. W. Rhys Davids’ characterization. As I read it\, the text contains a drama concerned with the nature\, salience and even tragedy of thought. I conclude with a discussion of the text’s own meta-poetic suggestions for readers and the practice of wise reasoning as a way of reading and a way of life. \nPresented via Zoom.\nRegistration Required.\nRegister here: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlfuqsqD8jHNWLB7LYEyAB7Vw4IarTG2JH
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/sonam-kachru-the-questions-of-milinda-how-to-use-a-philosophical-classic-and-perhaps-find-a-literary-gem/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200928T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200928T173000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20200908T130309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200908T130309Z
UID:9607-1601308800-1601314200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Ann Heirman - Protecting Insects in Medieval Chinese Buddhism: Daoxuan's Vinaya Commentaries
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ann Heirman\, Ghent University \nBuddhist texts generally prohibit the killing of all sentient beings. This is certainly the case in vinaya (disciplinary) texts\, which contain strict guidelines on the preservation of all human and animal life. When these vinaya texts were translated into Chinese\, they formed the core of Buddhist behavioural codes\, influencing both monastic and lay followers. Chinese vinaya masters\, such as Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667) and Yijing 義淨 (635–713)\, wrote extensive commentaries and accounts\, introducing Indian concepts into the Chinese environment. In this lecture\, we focus on an often neglected aspect of inflicting harm on sentient beings: namely\, the injury that may be caused to some of the world’s smallest animals – insects. Some insects produce economically valuable products\, such as silk and honey; others\, such as mosquitoes and bedbugs\, are annoying or dangerous; and still others are innocent victims of essential human activities\, such as earthworms that are killed when farmland is tilled. Yet\, all of these are sentient beings that – according to Buddhist principles – should not be harmed or killed. What this implies for Chinese vinaya masters\, and especially the highly influential Daoxuan\, is the core question of this lecture. As we will see\, their responses are mixed\, but they always attempt to remain true to the basic principles of Buddhism.Please contact coordinator Guttorm Gundersen for a link to the event: gundersen@g.harvard.edu
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/ann-heirman-protecting-insects-in-medieval-chinese-buddhism-daoxuans-vinaya-commentaries/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180416T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180416T183000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20170919T170440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170919T170440Z
UID:5939-1523896200-1523903400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Paul Harrison - Mañjuśrī’s Residence on China’s Wutai Shan: The View from Distant India
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Paul Harrison\, George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies\, Stanford University \nThe Buddhist practice of replicating sacred sites in multiple locations is a well-known feature of the history of the religion\, as is the readiness of Buddhists to keep finding new places blessed by the presence of Buddhas\, bodhisattvas and other such beings. Thus in China\, for example\, Wutai Shan in the north was identified as the residence of the great bodhisattva Mañjuśrī\, while\, in other parts of the country\, we find the island of Putuo Shan in the east recognized as Potalaka\, the abode of Avalokiteśvara\, Jiuhua Shan\, also to the east\, seen as the dwelling place of Kṣitigarbha\, and Emei Shan in the south singled out as the home of Samantabhadra\, thus yielding the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhist China. The way in which such identifications as these proliferated was foundational to patterns of pilgrimage across the premodern Buddhist world. This paper addresses one small aspect of this broad topic\, and investigates the lore surrounding the linkage of Mañjuśrī and Wutai Shan\, using as its point of departure an early Tantric text for which until recently we had no Sanskrit version. This short work\, the Viśeṣavatī-dhāraṇī\, opens up some new perspectives on the cult of Mañjuśrī and its transnational manifestations. It also raises the question whether the flow of influence was always from the imagined center to the periphery\, that is\, whether we have any solid evidence that in India it was accepted or even known that Mañjuśrī had become a permanent resident of China. \nPaul Harrison is the George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies. Educated in his native New Zealand and in Australia\, he specializes in Buddhist literature and history\, especially that of the Mahāyāna\, and in the study of Buddhist manuscripts in Sanskrit\, Chinese and Tibetan. He is the author of The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present\, and of numerous journal articles on Buddhist sacred texts and their interpretation. He is also one of the editors of the series “Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection.” \nPaul’s current projects include editions and translations of a number of Mahāyāna and Mainstream Buddhist sūtras and śāstras\, including the Vajracchedikā (Diamond Sutra) and the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa\, as well as a general study of issues of authority\, textual transmission and innovation in Mahayana Buddhism. \nPaul serves as Co-Director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford.
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-2018-04-30/
LOCATION:Plimpton Room (133)\, Barker Center\, 12 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180305T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180305T180000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20170919T170440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170919T170440Z
UID:5938-1520265600-1520272800@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Eric Greene - Repentance in the Formation of Chinese Buddhism
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Eric Greene\, Yale University \nThe ritual activity that in China was known as chanhui 懺悔 – often understood to mean “confession” or “repentance” – was without doubt one the central forms of Buddhist practice in medieval China. Despite this\, scholars have often disagreed concerning\, firstly\, what “repentance” even means in the Chinese or Buddhist contexts\, as well as the best way of understanding the relationship between Chinese Buddhist chanhui and its Indian Buddhist antecedents on the one hand\, and pre-Buddhist Chinese religious ideologies on the other. In this talk I will attempt to offer some new ways of thinking about some of these questions that will help us understand how “repentance” came to serve within early medieval Chinese Buddhism (roughly 200-600 AD) not so much as one mode of Buddhist activity among many\, but as a unifying frame for understanding the ultimate point of all forms of Buddhist practice whatsoever. \nEric Greene is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from Berkeley in 1998\, followed by his M.A. (Asian Studies) and Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) in 2012. He specializes in the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism\, particularly the emergence of Chinese forms of Buddhism from the interaction between Indian Buddhism and indigenous Chinese culture. Much of his recent research has focused on Buddhist meditation practices\, including the history of the transmission on Indian meditation practices to China\, the development of distinctly Chinese forms of Buddhist meditation\, and Buddhist rituals of confession and atonement. He is currently writing a book on the uses of meditative visionary experience as evidence of sanctity within early Chinese Buddhism. In addition to these topics\, he has published articles on the early history of Chan (Zen) Buddhism\, Buddhist paintings from the Silk Roads\, and the influence of modern psychological terminology on the Western interpretation of Buddhism. He is also presently working on a new project concerning the practice of translation – from Indian languages to Chinese – in early Chinese Buddhism. He teaches undergraduate classes on Buddhism in East Asia\, Zen Buddhism\, ritual in East Asian Buddhism\, and mysticism and meditation in Buddhism and East Asia\, and graduate seminars on Chinese Buddhist studies and Chinese Buddhist texts. \nAfter completing his Ph.D. in 2012\, Eric took a position at the University of Bristol (UK)\, where he taught East Asian Religions until coming to Yale in 2015.
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-2018-03-05/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum,China Humanities Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180226T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180226T180000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20170919T170440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170919T170440Z
UID:5937-1519660800-1519668000@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Dan Arnold - Personalism and the Mādhyamika Recuperation of Conventional Truth: Some Heretical Thoughts
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Dan Arnold\, University of Chicago \nOver the years\, I have advanced an interpretation of Madhyamaka that frames Nāgārjuna’s arguments in terms suggested by some contemporary debates in philosophy of mind. Nāgārjuna can thus be understood to reject the reductionist elaboration of anātmavāda that was epitomized for him by Ābhidharmika philosophy\, and as doing so for the reason that the Ābhidharmika’s own project depends for its intelligibility on the “conventionally real” (saṃvṛtisat) world. This talk will suggest that that point can be understood in terms of Nāgārjuna’s having had affinities with the so-called pudgalavādin “school” of thought. While there has been some philological work suggesting such affinities\, this talk will focus on philosophical considerations that recommend this view – and\, as well\, on some methodological reasons for thinking this reading is not tantamount to attributing a “heretical” view to Nāgārju \nDan Arnold is a scholar of Indian Buddhist philosophy\, which he engages in a constructive and comparative way. Considering Indian Buddhist philosophy as integral to the broader tradition of Indian philosophy\, he has particularly focused on topics at issue among Buddhist schools of thought (chiefly\, those centering on the works of Nāgārjuna and of Dharmakīrti)\, often considering these in conversation with critics from the orthodox Brahmanical school of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā. His first book – Buddhists\, Brahmins\, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (Columbia University Press\, 2005) – won an American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. His second book – Brains\, Buddhas\, and Believing: The Problem of Intentionality in Classical Buddhist and Cognitive-Scientific Philosophy of Mind (Columbia University Press\, 2012) – centers on the contemporary philosophical category of intentionality\, taken as useful in thinking through central issues in classical Buddhist epistemology and philosophy of mind. This book received the Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism\, awarded by the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California\, Berkeley (see below for more information). He is presently working on an anthology of Madhyamaka texts in translation\, to appear in the series “Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought.” His essays have appeared in such journals as Philosophy East and West\,the Journal of Indian Philosophy\, Asian Philosophy\, the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies\, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy\, and Revue Internationale de Philosophie.
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-2018-02-26/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180212T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180212T180000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20170919T170440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170919T170440Z
UID:5936-1518451200-1518458400@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Bryan Lowe - Preaching to the Periphery: Buddhism in Provincial Villages in Ninth-Century Japan
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Bryan Lowe\, Vanderbilt University \nThis paper looks at itinerant preaching in early ninth-century Japan with a particular focus on sermons intended for provincial villagers. In contrast to most studies of this period\, which address sectarian founders\, I will highlight figures peripheral to dominant scholarly accounts: minor monks\, provincial patrons\, and destitute villagers. I will introduce a ninth-century collection of homiletic notes\, known as the Draft of Tōdaiji Liturgies (Tōdaiji fujumon kō)\, as well as related archaeological and narrative evidence that illuminate Buddhism as a lived religion in the provinces. These sources show how monks crafted doctrines aimed at their provincial and sometimes impoverished audiences. They taught that joining one’s palms could replace almsgiving and depicted the village as manifesting the body of Vairocana. I will argue that a study of these individuals and teachings prompt a reassessment  of the development of Buddhism in ancient and medieval Japan.
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum-2018-02-12/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20171002T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20171002T180000
DTSTAMP:20260503T104523
CREATED:20170919T170440Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170919T170440Z
UID:5934-1506960000-1506967200@fairbank.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Buddhist Studies Forum - Tantric Buddhist Communities and Seeking Patronage at Medieval Indian Courts
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Péter-Dániel Szántó\, All Souls College\, University of Oxford \nThe talk will share some thoughts backed by evidence about how medieval Indian tantric communities were organized socially and economically. It will also present some passages dealing with tantric Buddhist gurus’ various strategies for dealing with royal punishment and patronage.
URL:https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/events/buddhist-studies-forum/
LOCATION:MA
CATEGORIES:Buddhist Studies Forum
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR