Speaker: Péter-Dániel Szántó, All Souls College, University of Oxford The 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.

Speaker: Bryan Lowe, Vanderbilt University This 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 […]

Speaker: Dan Arnold, University of Chicago Over 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 […]