Pali Dept. – University of Mumbai

The OCBS has for many years been working in collaboration with the the Pali Department at the University of Mumbai.  Inspired by the exceptional results achieved by Dr. Yojana Bhagat and her team, both Prof. Gombrich and our Fellow, Dr. Alex Wynne, have held courses there.

Students from this department have also visited Oxford to study in our Pali Advanced Reading Course, which is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Dhammachai International Research Institute, and Dhammachai Education Foundation.

In 2014 the Institute got an opportunity from Indian Institute of Buddhist Studies (IIBS), Pune to participate in our conference – Buddhism Rejoins the Great Conversation in India – jointly organised by OCBS and IIBS, Pune which was acclaimed by all who attended.

Pali Advanced Reading Course 2019 - including students from Mumbai
Pali Advanced Reading Course 2019 – including students from Mumbai

As well as working on a Marathi version of our signature Pali course, we look forward to many more years of fruitful collaboration in the development and renaissance of Pali and Buddhist Studies.

 

“I am always greatly impressed by the excellence of the University of Mumbai’s students, under the tutelage of Dr. Yojana Bhagat.  Their seriousness of intent and devotion to study is always of the highest calibre.  The future of Pali studies is bright with this pioneering department in operation.”

Prof. Richard Gombrich
OCBS Academic Director
Emeritus Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University

 

MT term 2019

We will have one OCBS lecture this term.

28th October, 5.15pm

Lecture Room 1, Oriental Institute

Prof Richard Gombrich, OCBS

New thoughts on how the Mahayana began

Two themes in the earliest history of Buddhism have perhaps received insufficient scholarly attention: treatment of the dead, and the gradual reification of moral goodness (merit). It strikes me that where these two themes intersect we can learn about massive changes which Buddhism underwent shortly before and after the death of the Buddha.

 

There will be two Lingyin lectures as well.

November 11th and November 18th 2019, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, November 11th, 2019:

Pathways to nirvāṇaPaintings in Kucha between Gandharan heritage and local innovation”.

 Prof. Dr. Monika Zin (Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities / Leipzig University).

 Monday, November 18th, 2019:

 “Reference and representation according to the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā”.

 Prof. Dr. Martin Lehnert (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München).

All are welcome to attend.

For information, please contact: stefano.zacchetti@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Report from Prof. Yu-shuang Yao

I had a very busy summer. I went to China three times and travelled to Japan and Italy; I attended two academic conferences and one forum. The second annual conference of EASSSR (East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religions) was held by Hokkaido University at the end of July. Before that, my university, FGU, had organized a forum with our sister university in China, the North West Normal University. Though I was only given eight minutes for my presentation, I think it was the first time I could talk about my research (undertaken under OCBS auspices) on Fo Guang Shan to my colleagues. I felt my presentation was well received. Of course, I had translated it into Chinese.

In Hokkaido I was planning to speak about my joint research with Richard on the Christian influence on FGS in the EASSSR, as I was pretty sure that none of them had ever heard about our research. Unfortunately, my journey to Hokkaido was very exhausting. I had to take a budget airline from Taipei; the plane took off at 3 AM, but on arrival I had to wait at the airport till 3 pm, when the hotel allowed us to check in. The conference had very bad luck: apparently someone hacked into their bank account, and took quite a lot of money, so that we had to squeeze our conference into two days; there were 4-5 panels taking place at the same time, and I could not give the talk I had prepared.

The third conference I attended in the summer was the CESNUR in Turin. CESNUR is the acronym for the Centro per lo Studio di Nuove Religioni — the Centre for the Study of New Religions. The organizer, a jovial lawyer called Massimo Introvigne, runs this conference annually, and it is colourful and relaxed, because it has an egalitarian ethos and admits both participants in the new religions and academics who study them. I have known Massimo since my student days in the 90s, but I had never had the opportunity to attend it. This time I organized a panel on the new religious movements of Taiwan; it included Richard Gombrich’s talk on Humanistic Buddhism, my talk on Tzu Chi, Miao (my student) on the Bahai, Mo from Beijing and Paris, who gave her field research report on the Bliss Wisdom movement, and a delegation from the Wei Shin Sheng Jiao, a religious group who focus on Yi Jin geomancy. Though, as usual, one would have liked to have had more time for discussion, we certainly conveyed that Taiwan today is a hotbed of religious innovation.

 

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Left – right: RFG, Prof. Yao, Miao, Massimo Introvigne, delegate from Wei Shin Sheng Jiao, and finally Mo.

1/10/19

Recent Interaction with Tzu Chi.1

by Prof. Richard Gombrich (May 2019)

The OCBS has recently enjoyed several brief visits from Dr Rey-Sheng Her, Director of Public Relations for Tzu Chi, the flourishing new Buddhist sect based in Taiwan, but already with an estimated ten million members worldwide. Dr Her has also recently been in Beijing and there set up a Foundation for the Practice of Goodness. This Foundation has been registered with the Chinese government and has already begun to teach courses on practical philanthropy, which is what lies at the heart of Tzu Chi’s mission. In March Dr Her was running such a course for Tzu Chi members based at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, and asked me to give a lecture in the general area of what he called “Buddhist wisdom”. I prefer to talk unscripted and the talk had no formal title, but I spoke about personal responsibility and selflessness, explaining why these values, expounded by the Buddha, form the foundation of what Tzu Chi puts into action. My audience consisted of about twenty Chinese people from Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland, ranging in age roughly from 70 to 20; as a few of them were not fluent in English, Rey interpreted into Chinese throughout. My impression was that we interacted very successfully.

About a fortnight later I was in Taiwan and found myself lecturing at Tzu Chi University, which is in Hualien on the east coast, next to the movement’s headquarters. I was invited to talk by Prof. Hui-Xin Lou, Dean of Humanities, and my companion, Prof. Yu-Shuang Yao, interpreted. I spoke on the same topic; however, since I had no script, it was easy to adapt my content to a more academic (though still a Tzu Chi) audience who might, I felt, like to know a bit more about the Buddha’s historical context.

1. The best source of information on Tzu Chi is Yu-Shuang Yao, Taiwan’s Tzu Chi as Engaged Buddhism, Leiden and Boston, Global Oriental, 2012. The name means “Compassion Relief”. In pinyin it would be written Ci Ji, but the movement is Taiwanese and thus uses the older Wade-Giles romanisation.

Trinity term 2018 Lecture Series

There will be two lectures this term, given in the Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1.  All are welcome

 

April 23 – 5.15pm

Prof. Richard Gombrich (OCBS)

The Origin of Pali

 

April 30 – 5.15pm

Professor Paul Bernier (Université de Moncton)

Causation and Free Will in Early Buddhist Philosophy

The problem of free will and determinism has a long history in Western philosophy; it is also an important issue in contemporary metaphysics. While this problem has not been the focus of discussions in the commentarial tradition of Buddhist philosophy, it has recently attracted the attention of many Buddhist scholars, who have defended conflicting interpretations.

As we know, causation is a central notion of Buddhist philosophy, particularly in the context of the doctrine of Dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda). It is very tempting to interpret this notion as entailing universal causal determinism, as many scholars have done. This interpretation, however, raises a serious problem with respect to a passage of the Aṅguttara Nikāya (A. I. 173-175), where the Buddha rejects as “wrong views” three so-called “sectarian views”. I argue that a good reason to reject these “sectarian views” is also a reason to reject universal causal determinism. This suggests that causation in Early Buddhism does not entail universal causal determinism and that it leaves room for indeterminist causation and a form of free will.

 

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Trinity Term 2018

May 14th, June 4th, and June 11th 2018, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

 Monday, May 14th 2018:

 “The Three Nature (trisvabhāva) Theory in the Yogācāra Texts of the Five Maitreya Works”.

Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes (Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Universität Wien).

 

Monday, June 4th 2018:

 “Legality, ideologies and identitarian dynamics in the contemporary re-establishment of the Theravāda bhikkhunī-saṅgha”.

Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā (Āgama Research Group, Department of Buddhist Studies, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts).

 

Monday, June 11th 2018:

 “What can we learn from Musīla and Nārada?”

Prof. Johannes Bronkhorst (Université de Lausanne).

All are welcome to attend.

For information, please contact: stefano.zacchetti@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Lectures TT2017 – OCBS and Lingyin

24 April

Lecture Room 1 – Oriental Institute
5.15pm

Professor Richard Gombrich, OCBS
New Discoveries about the Origins of the Buddhist Order of Nuns

Buddhism makes a reasonable claim to be the first world religion to emphasise human equality, including equality between the genders. But certain well known features of the Buddhist religion seem incompatible with this claim. Perhaps the most important of these are the tradition that the Buddha was reluctant to agree to the foundation of an Order of Nuns, and that when he finally agreed he said that it would mean that Buddhism would die out within this world in 500 years. Besides, Theravada Buddhism has for about a thousand years stopped ordaining nuns, a move backed by both religious and secular authorities.

Ven. Analayo, a German Theravada monk, published a book last year proving that these positions do not go back to the Buddha himself, but reflect misogynistic changes in the tradition and its texts. His discoveries deserve to be known and acted upon wherever Buddhism is found today. This lecture will simply summarise Analayo’s findings, which I believe to be momentous and convincing.

 

5 June

Lecture Room 1 – Oriental Institute
5.15pm

Dr Péter-Dániel Szántó
Tantric Buddhist Gurus in Mediaeval Indian Royal Courts

Although some passages of late tantric Buddhist literature (ca. 700 to 1200 CE) display a certain reticence towards royal courts, there is some evidence to suggest that a handful of tantric Buddhist masters did became kings’ chaplains. I will examine this corpus, consisting mostly of inscriptions and exegetical passages, trying to draw out as much information as possible about these masters’ perceived roles, standing, influence, and possible problems they may have encountered when trying to harmonise antinomian teachings and social morality.

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Trinity Term 2017

May 8th and May 22nd 2017, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

 Monday, May 8th 2017:

“The Indian Yogācāra Scholar Sthiramati and his Proofs of the Validity of the Mahāyāna”.

Prof. Jowita Kramer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

  

Monday, May 22nd 2017:

“Reviving a Text and Questioning a Tradition: Yinshun (1906-2005) and New Studies of Da zhidu lun in Twentieth-century China and Taiwan”.

Prof. Stefania Travagnin (University of Groningen)

All are welcome to attend.

For information, please contact: stefano.zacchetti@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Michaelmas Term 2016 Lectures

Mon 7th November

5.30pm

Oriental Institute, Lecture Room No. 1

Prof Richard Gombrich

Tzu Chi: the rapid development of a new Buddhist sect

Lingyin Lecture in Buddhist Studies – Michaelmas Term 2016

Monday 24 October

5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Dr Christian Luczanits (SOAS, London)

Portraiture in the Light of Symmetry: Revisiting the Sculptures of the Path with the Fruit Teaching Lineage at Mindroling Monastery, Tibet.

Pali Development Project

OCBS Pali Development Project

The OCBS has for many years been a place where Pali studies have thrived. Students come from all over the world to the annual Pali Summer School, which is always full. In addition to this, Professor Richard Gombrich gives private tuition to many people who approach him. The Journal has also hosted several papers on Pali scholarship.

To support the growth of Pali scholarship all over the world, the OCBS is launching its Pali Hub project. The aim of this project is to create a hub that brings together all facets of Pali scholarship to generate and develop an academic community devoted to carrying Pali forward and thereby give access to the oldest written teachings of Buddhism.

This project includes the following:

Pali Online School

The OCBS is trialling a new Pali Online School. This is designed to make the groundbreaking Pali Summer School course available to many more people. Students go from total beginner to being able to read original Buddhist suttas in less than 4 weeks. FUNDED SUCCESSFULLY

Pali Teacher Training

The OCBS is developing a Pali teacher training course so that alumni of the course who wish to become teachers have a training pathway to follow and can deliver the Pali Summer School experience in their own localities. Funding needed: $10,000 per student.

Pali Reading Group

The Pali Reading Group provides a new online group for all alumni of the Pali Course to meet and continue their studies through a community of their peers. FUNDED SUCCESSFULLY

WiPitaka

This online resource provides the opportunity for individuals to trial their own translations of the Pali Canon, and receive feedback. FUNDED SUCCESSFULLY

Pali Hub

This will be an online hub containing detailed information on all Pali scholarship. Starting with the digitized archive of Professor Richard Gombrich’s work, we would like to be able to host work of other scholars as well. Where hosting is not possible, the Pali Hub will provide comprehensive details about where to find the work. Funding needed: £25,000.

What the Buddha Thought

Richard Gombrich

Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title award 2010

In What the Buddha Thought, Richard Gombrich argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time.

Intended to serve as an introduction to the Buddha’s thought, and hence even to Buddhism itself, the book also has larger aims: it argues that we can know far more about the Buddha than it is fashionable among scholars to admit, and that his thought has a greater coherence than is usually recognised. It contains much new material. Interpreters both ancient and modern have taken little account of the historical context of the Buddha’s teachings; but by relating them to early brahminical texts, and also to ancient Jainism, Gombrich gives a much richer picture of the Buddha’s meaning, especially when his satire and irony are appreciated. Incidentally, since many of the Buddha’s allusions can only be traced in the Pali versions of surviving texts, the book establishes the importance of the Pali Canon as evidence.

The book contains much new material. The author stresses the Buddha’s capacity for abstraction: though he made extensive use of metaphor, he did not found his arguments upon it, as earlier thinkers had done. He ethicized and radically reinterpreted older ideas of karma (human action) and rebirth. Similarly, building on older texts, he argued for the fundamental importance of love and compassion, and analysed fire as a process which could stand as a model for every component of conscious experience. Morally, the Buddha’s theory of karma provided a principle of individuation and asserted each individual’s responsibility for his own destiny. To make the book completely accessible to the general reader, the author provides an introductory section of ‘Background Information,’ for easy reference.

https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/what-buddha-thought/

 

Lectureship Campaign

OCBS’ Lectureship Campaign aims to establish within the University of Oxford a centre of excellence for the study of Buddhism. The goal is to raise funds to endow permanently a Lectureship in Early Buddhism.

Thanks to the efforts of Richard Gombrich, and the generosity of a benefactor, Oxford today has the only chair in Buddhism in the whole of Europe. In order for a centre of excellence to be established we need to expand the scope of Buddhist studies at Oxford.

If you wish to make a major gift please call Richard Gombrich

on +44 (0)1865 766830 or e-mail him at richard.gombrich@balliol.ox.ac.uk.

The full endowment of the Lectureship would enable the donor to specify its title.

Here are more details on the proposed lecturship:

Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, known in English as the Pali Canon. This huge collection of texts is our main source for the teachings of early Buddhism, indeed of the Buddha himself. For Theravada Buddhists it is the functional equivalent of the Bible for Christians.

The Buddha lived when writing was not in use in ancient India, so we cannot precisely judge the accuracy of the claim that the texts in the Pali Canon report his very words; scholars disagree about it. However, we can be sure of two things: that those texts have a far better claim to reflect the Buddha’s ideas than any other set of texts; and that their language, Pali, while it does not exactly reflect the Buddha’s own speech, comes closer to doing so than any other language in which substantial texts survive.

Studying Pali and other relevant early languages,  should therefore be a top priority for anyone with a serious interest in the Buddha’s teaching or in the history of Buddhism, which is the mass of ideas and practices which have sprung from that teaching. It is a great tragedy that Pali is so little studied or understood today. Outside the societies with a long tradition of Theravada Buddhism, in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, there are hardly any (less than 5?) university posts in the world devoted to Pali; and even in the Theravada countries most of those who study it are monks with little interest in scholarly inquiry.

Oxford’s undergraduate course in Sanskrit included a Pali option as long ago as the 1880s. We believe that this was the first undergraduate curriculum to feature Pali in the West. Ever since it has fostered the continuing tradition of Pali scholarship in Britain, supporting the work of the Pali Text Society, which Prof. Gombrich, founder of the OCBS, served as President. For many years, while he was Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, he took responsibility for the Pali teaching, and he also supervised many doctoral theses in Pali and Buddhist studies, until his retirement in 2004. Since then, Pali has depended on part-time teachers who do not hold posts at the University, and the situation is precarious.

In consultation with Professor Zacchetti (the Numata Chair for Buddhist Studies), the Centre is running a campaign for a lectureship in Early Buddhism.

If you would like to discuss further the funding of this post please contactrichard.gombrich@balliol.ox.ac.uk.

OCBS News – June 2015

Welcome to the June 2015 Issue of OCBS News.

We start with some very sad news.  Lance Cousins, renowned Pali scholar and Fellow of the OCBS, died on March 14th.  Sarah Shaw, another of our Fellows, has written an obituary which we are including here.  Lance was a great supporter of the Centre, and of the teaching in Pali at the University.  He is greatly missed.

In this newsletter we also report  on the recent donation by the Dhammachai Education Foundation and Dammachai International Research Institute, to support the Pali Summer School.  Full details below.

We finish with details of Volume 8 of our Journal, news of the latest Student Grants awarded by the OCBS, and details of our new Annual Review.

Thank you for your continued support of the OCBS.

Lance S. Cousins – Obituary

written by Sarah Shaw

With the death of Lance Cousins we have lost a man whose life was devoted to both the study and the practice of Buddhist meditation and theory. He will be deeply missed, and the effects of his life’s work long-lasting.

Lance Selwyn Cousins was born in 1942 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, a place for which he always retained an affection, and where his family had been printers for several generations. He attended Letchworth Grammar and Hales Grammar. In 1961 he won a scholarship to read History at St John’s College, Cambridge. He changed to Oriental Studies, though a historical perspective never left his academic work. He studied with Professor Sir Harold Bailey and Professor K.R.Norman, both of whom left a mark on his scholarly methods and understanding. When he graduated he worked in computers, and then conducted research in Denmark. By this time he was married, and he and his wife Barbara had two children, Randal and Halla. In 1970 he obtained a job at the University of Manchester, in the Department of Comparative Religion, where he subsequently became Senior Lecturer.

Whilst at Cambridge, he had met the man whom he regarded as his lifelong teacher. Boonman Poonyathiro (1932–) had become a monk at an early age and trained at Wat Pailom in various forms of samatha practice at that time popular throughout Thailand. In 1963, now a layman, Boonman met Lance, who immediately decided to set up classes for him in London and then Cambridge. In Britain Boonman taught a variation on a traditional Thai practice based on samatha breathing mindfulness, the meditation said by the commentaries to have been undertaken by the Buddha on the night of the awakening. Lance instinctively felt that he had found a practice true to the Buddha’s original teachings on meditation, a conviction deepened by a lifetime’s practice and academic research. During this time Lance was involved with setting up the Samatha Trust and became its founding chairman (1973–1999). He worked on organization and class teaching, but his success perhaps lay most in the one-to-one discussion that lies at the heart of the way this form of meditation is taught. He remained a trustee all his life and regularly attended courses taken by Boonman.

In Manchester in the early seventies Lance enjoyed working with Professor John Hinnells, in a lively academic environment. As the only full-time member of staff teaching in the area of Indian religions he had a busy workload. He was also asked by one of his students to start a meditation class, which he did in 1971, with great success. So from this time teaching commitments were paramount, with those in academia and those with meditators working in tandem.

In 1977 Lance established a centre for Samatha practice in Manchester, on High Lane, Chorlton, and organized often extended visits by monks, nuns and lay teachers. The range of these demonstrated the interest he felt in the living Buddhist tradition: they included Ven. Anandamaitreya, Ven Piyadassa (Sri Lanka), Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Mahamanop (Thailand), and monks and nuns in the forest monastery tradition of the British Sangha Trust, including Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Viradhamma. The Burmese monks Ven U Titthila and Ven U Ñāṇika were invited: Ven U Ñāṇika’s teaching on the Yamaka over an extended period brought Lance in the presence of what he felt was a living Burmese tradition of Abhidhamma teaching. Guests from Cambodia were Ven Dhammavara and Ven Candavaṇṇa, a greatly esteemed student at Manchester University, who helped Lance in his early Abhidhamma and Sutta classes, linked to meditation. Ven Candavaṇṇa trained a few members of the group in the disciplines of Cambodian chanting, in which he was expert. Ananda Bodhi visited, as did Ato Rinpoche, and a Bhaisajyaguru initiation was held at the centre by the fourteenth Karmapa in 1978. Lance fostered links with the oldest Buddhist group in Britain outside London, the Manchester Buddhist Society, Sale, and with Saros, a philosophical group established by W.G.Davies. In 1986 a national Samatha Centre was founded in Greenstreete, Llangynllo, Powys; Lance frequently took courses and held meditation weeks there.

Whilst often busy with academic and personal teaching, Lance wrote some seminal articles, on oral literature, meditation and jhāna, during this time. He always felt, however, that he would like to pursue more academic research. The early nineties were a very difficult time for him, but after this period he did indeed do this. The circumstances were unhappy: his marriage broke up and the university became victim to radical changes. Lance took early retirement and in 2000 he moved to Oxford. He became a member of common room (2001–2007, 2009-2015) and a supernumerary fellow (2007–2009) at Wolfson College. He was made a member of the Faculty of Theology at Oxford University, where he taught and lectured on Pāli and Buddhist Studies. Lance thoroughly enjoyed academic life in Oxford, and his college. His given names were oddly apt: certainly on the outside a ‘Lance’, he was, on the inside, a ‘Selwyn’, ‘a friend in the house’ – or in college, organization, and family home. He was a regular attender at Wolfson, and Sanskritists’ lunch. He was a staunch supporter of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, set up by Professor Richard Gombrich, and became an honorary fellow. He was also delighted when Ajahn Dhammasāmi established the Oxford Buddha Vihāra. Some chanting was performed for him there on his 70th birthday.

At Oxford he undertook a considerable amount of academic work, though continued to teach and hold courses in samatha meditation, both for those in Wales and, in ventures he greatly enjoyed, for newly founded groups in Northern Ireland and America. He wrote extensively on Abhidhamma, Buddhist meditation, Pāli, Middle Indian and Buddhist Sanskrit textual studies, and the history of early Buddhist schools, particularly in the Southern Buddhist Tradition. Always primarily interested in the common sources of the modern meditative traditions, he had a special interest in Sanskrit Buddhist sources. He was working on a number of projects at the time of his death, a situation he patently enjoyed. He did not complete his translation of the Abhidhammāvatāra. A long-term planner, however, he left complete drafts of two books: a translation of the Yamaka and its commentary with Charles Shaw, and a history of aspects of Buddhist meditation. He knew that after two major heart attacks he might not see these published. After his move he sustained his strong connections with the living traditions in South and Southeast Asia. He spent periods of practice, teaching and research in Sri Lanka and Thailand and encouraged the Samatha group learning chanting with Ajahn Maha Laow to make tours in Thailand. In all, his death, the day after completing teaching of a five-term Pāli course, finally studying the commentary of Jarasutta (the ‘Discourse on Old Age’), came at a time of contented study, discussion and teaching.

His body remained at the Oxford Buddha Vihāra before his funeral, where full funerary Abhidhamma chanting was performed. Ajahn Dhammasāmi presided over his funeral, which included chanting, recital of the Mettā Sutta in English, and recollections from his daughter. At the reception at Wolfson afterwards, Professor Richard Gombrich discussed his career as an academic, Dr Paul Dennison his association with the Samatha Trust, Professor Rupert Gethin his role as a teacher, and Dr Rajith Dissanayake his strong Sri Lankan connections. The family recounted memories from childhood.

It is an odd thing when someone that you have known for a long time dies, as if only at death you see that person’s life as a whole, as you only see the full boat as it leaves the port. A funeral is a time when this becomes strangely possible, as one sees so many parts in a person’s life coming together. At Lance’s funeral many strands interacted, and all just looked very happy to have had a chance to know him. A theme that recurred was Lance’s careful distinction between academic work and private practice. This seems odd, but it was out of respect for both. The analogy that comes to mind is of the historian of an early musical instrument and the player. The historian wants to find out the detail of early materials that make up the composition of the instrument, the circumstances in which it was played, how and why the instrument developed, and notation for its music. The player just wants to play it better. For Lance, the instrument was the human mind and body. He helped people who wanted to find out about how the instrument was understood by early Buddhists, and the detail of its music. But he also helped people who wanted to find the right notes to play now. At his funeral, hosted by his children, all these parts came together so we could feel a harmonious whole; his life events, happy and sad, were recollected in an atmosphere of deep attentiveness. Barbara, his brother and sister, his extended family and all his seven grandchildren, of whom he was very proud, attended.

He died on March 14th, 2015. The hospital lost all records of him for a while afterwards and the family did not find out about his peaceful death, from his third heart attack, until five days later. As Dr Paul Dennison noted at his funeral, this was rather typical of Lance. For all his unbounded enthusiasm, quizzical wit, love of debate and conviviality, he could also be quietly traceless. After death his face apparently had that slight amused smile he sometimes had when some knotty puzzle was starting to become clear.

For his published work, see http://oxford.academia.edu/LSCousins

Dhammachai Foundation and DIRI


The Centre recently hosted a visit by monks from the Dhammachai Education Foundation and the Dhammachai International Research Institute, both based in Australia.

Led by Most Venerable Phrakruvithetsudhammayana  they came to the Centre to sign a Memorandum of Understanding.  As part of this they have pledged £6,000 per annum to the Centre for five years, to support the Pali Summer School.  This has been done to commemorate the 71st Birthday Anniversary of their Founder.

The Centre is very grateful for this support of such an important activity.

Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies


We are pleased to announce that Volume Eight of our Journal has been published.  It contains seven articles and one book review. Topics include Problems with Conze’s Prajñāpāramitāhrdaya and a detailed look at a ritual which is part of Tibetan medical practices.  It also includes an article by the late Lance Cousins on the origins of the canoncial abhida(r)mma literature.

We are happy to receive submissions for Volume Nine that is to be published in November.

Thank you to everyone who has worked to publicise our Journal. Full details about the JOCBS can be found here.

OCBS Student Grant

The OCBS has awarded two grants of £500 since our last newsletter.  In Hilary term, the grant went to Sangseraima Ujeed, a DPhil student who is working on the Tibetan Buddhist historiographical or biographical literary genre of gsan yig or thob yig ‘the records of teachings received’.  In Trinity term, the grant was awarded to Aleksandra Wenta, an MPhil student in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, to assist with fieldwork.

The OCBS would like to thank the devotees of the Oxford Buddha Vihara, and an anonymous donor, for their generous sponsorships of these grants.

New Annual Review

The  OCBS has now produced its Annual Review for this year.  In it we give details of our activities over the last year, including our conference in Pune, and list some of our plans for the future.  It can be found on the Support Us page of our website, or by clicking here.

We hope you enjoy reading it and please pass it on to anyone you think might be interested in our work.

Archive

Welcome to the electronic archive of Professor Richard Gombrich.  Thanks to the generosity of a benefactor we have been able to digitize substantial amounts of his academic output.  The archive is ordered by the year in which articles and book reviews were published.

The years 66 – 69 and 70 – 74 are now published for viewing.  Further years will be published over the next month.

Article names can be searched for using the Search box on our site.

Individual articles can be purchased for £5 per file.  If you wish to purchase an article please contact steven.egan@ocbs.org.

 

 

 

 

Pali Reading Club

The Pāli Reading Club (PRC) is a reading group led by Dr. Alex Wynne designed mainly for people who already know Pāli to some degree. Maybe you have attended the Pāli Summer School, or Online School, with Prof. Richard Gombrich. Or you have completed the Pāli Online Courses (Level 1 and beyond), or you possess similar knowledge of Pāli.

This term the PRC will read the opening sections of the Pārāyana-vagga, ‘the chapter on going to the far shore’, one of the oldest texts in the Pāli canon and the fifth and final book of the Sutta-nipāta.

The Pali Reading Club will  have five meetings this term:

March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Time: 4.00pm UK local time

Cost: £41

Book your place here: https://ocbs-courses.org/catalogue/online-course/pali-reading-club/

The sessions will take place on Zoom.

Organizational

 

OCBS employs two part-time staff and benefits greatly from the help of volunteers.  For more details on our Staff please visit the Contact Page.

The OCBS has nine Trustees:

  • Charles Shaw is the Chair of Trustees.
  • Richard Gombrich, is the Boden Professor of Sanskrit Emeritus. He first proposed the idea of a Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2002, and has served on the Board since its founding, including fulfilling the role of Chair of Trustees, and Academic Director of the Centre from 2011 – 2020.

Click here for full details of Richard’s career. [a Word file   ~5MB]

  • Ramesh Kapadia is the Honorary Treasurer. He studied mathematics at Warwick, and then at  Brasenose College, Oxford before completing a doctorate at  Nottingham University. He now acts as an educational consultant after a long career culminating in becoming one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors, a role he undertook for over twenty years.  He is currently Honorary Professor at the University of Klagenfurt and occupied a similar position at the Institute of Education, University of London from 2009-2012.
  • Tony Morris holds a doctorate in history from Cambridge University. He ran the world’s largest history list at Oxford University Press, was a founding director of Hambledon and London (Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year 2001-2002) and first Chief Executive of The History Press. He is also a published author, partner in an historical walks company and co-director of Historyfm, the UK’s only multi-media history agency.
  • Originally from Shan State, Union of Burma, Khammai Dhammasami has a doctorate from Oxford. The incumbent of the Oxford Buddha Vihara, he also heads the International Association of Buddhist Universities (www.iabu.org) and has been involved in organising the UN day of Vesak, based in Bangkok since 2005. He travels the world both in that capacity and as teacher and meditation master. He has a key role in the OCBS’ relations with the Sangha and Buddhist Universities in Theravada countries and more widely across Asia. Supporters of the Oxford Buddha Vihara have offered much voluntary help to the OCBS.
  • David Gellner (Bio forthcoming)
  • Jonathan Katz (Bio forthcoming)
  • Roger Farmer (Bio forthcoming
  • Justin Meiland (Bio forthcoming)

Geoffrey Bamford. We are sad to announce that Geoffrey Bamford died in 2023.  He gained a 1st class degree in Sanskrit and Pali from Oxford University in 1970, then did 4 years’ postgraduate work, both in Oxford, at Wolfson College. and in Sri Lanka and India. From 1974 he had a business career; from 1986 to 2000, he ran an independent consultancy in cross-cultural communication. In 2003, he helped to found the OCBS, and has since been a Trustee. From 2003-11 he served as Executive Director, working full time pro bono. In 2008, he in addition helped to found the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, where he also served as Executive Director 2008-11. Since 2011, and ran the Traditional Scholar Visitorship scheme.

The OCBS has a Publications Committee:

 

The OCBS also has an Advisory Board:

  • Prof. Paul M. Harrison – George Edward Burnell Chair in Religious Studies at Stanford University
  • Prof. Florin Deleanu – Professor at the International Institute for Buddhist Studies (affiliated to the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies)

To see the CV’s of the members of our Advisory Board please click on their individual names.

How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings

beganpic

Richard F. Gombrich

Written by one of the world’s top scholars in the field of Pali Buddhism, this new and updated edition of How Buddhism Began, discusses various important doctrines and themes in early Buddhism. It takes ‘early Buddhism’ to be that reflected in the Pali canon, and to some extent assumes that these doctrines reflect the teachings of the Buddha himself. Two themes predominate. Firstly, the author argues that we cannot understand the Buddha unless we understand that he was debating with other religious teachers, notably Brahmins. The other main theme concerns metaphor, allegory and literalism. This accessible, well-written book is mandatory reading for all serious students of Buddhism.

https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415514163

The Rise of the Concept of ‘Own-Nature’ (Sabhāva) in the Paṭisambhidāmagga

Noa Ronkin (Gal)

The Buddha’s teaching, as it is recorded in the first basket of the Pali Canon, the Sutta-piṭaka, is presented as the path leading to the solution of the fundamental problem of human existence, namely, dukkha, customarily translated as ‘suffering’. The Buddha’s message contains doctrinal concepts and theoretical statements on the nature of suffering, its cause and the way to its cessation, but these are merely guidelines for making sense of Buddhist thought and do not amount to a systematic theory.

Noa Ronkin (Gal) (more…)

Donate

Our Annual Review gives a comprehensive look at our recent activities, and our plans for the future.

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Click here for the OCBS Annual Review 2021

The OCBS is entirely funded by the generosity of its supporters. We are looking for large donors to endow the Centre and regular donors to allow the Centre to operate day-to-day.

We are currently running a campaign to fund a Pali Translation Project – completing the translation of the Pali Canon into English.  For further details visit our dedicated site for this project.

If you wish to discuss endowment please contact richard.gombrich@balliol.ox.ac.uk

If you wish to make a one off donation, or a regular donation to ensure that we can plan ahead effectively then please click on a button below.

Thank you for your support of Buddhist Studies!

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Pali Online School Gombrich portrait

Pali Online School

Pali Online School

 

Details of our next intensive three week course will be posted when they are known. 

In the meantime, please visit our new online courses in Pali that allow you to study at your own pace.

 

 

Details of last intensive

Name of course: POS-6_W18

Dates: 2nd January – 20 January 2018 (technical dry run on 1st January)

Course runs every day except Sunday.

Times:  9am – 1.30pm GMT (with breaks)

Cost:  £750  (Sangha members receive a 50% discount)

Practical Arrangements. The course will take place entirely online. A computer, high speed internet and basic ability to use email and a web browser are needed.

The course only consists of live interaction between Professor Gombrich, the Teaching Assistants and the students. The intensity of the course is what makes the course so successful and therefore live attendance at all classes is mandatory.

Booking.  Bookings are through the application form below (please scroll down) and we will require payment for the course by 22 December. We shall send out the course book on receipt of payment. When applying, please supply full contact details, including telephone and postal address, and let us know your highest educational qualification. We shall also need to know whether you have learned Pali, Sanskrit or any other language(s) previously. The closing date for applications is 10 calendar days before the course start date. The course requires a minimum of 10 to run, and has a maximum capacity of 24.

I found Prof. Gombrich not only immensely knowledgeable, but also very well organised, presenting a set of materials consisting of what we really needed to know in an order to have a good go at translating a variety of passages from the suttas. There’s as much skill in knowing what to leave out or only touch on as in knowing what to include! He is very clear in delivery and provides very helpful (and patient) explanations. When translating, he seemed to pick out straightforward meanings that were well informed by his knowledge of Indian society and culture at the time. And he’s very humorous too.  ”  – Paul Trafford (click here for full review)

Having studied with him at the 2011 Pali Summer School, I can attest to his engaging and direct method and the success that his students experience in reading Pali after a short period of instruction. Students from a variety of backgrounds including academics, interested practitioners, and monastics, traveled from around the world (quite literally) to spend two weeks in Oxford for this class.” – Justin Whitaker (click here for full review)

Aim. At the end of the course you should be able, using the normal aids available, i.e. dictionaries, grammars and translations, slowly to read a Pali canonical text and understand it for yourself.

Is this really possible? I devised the course and have already given it more than twenty times with great success.  Pali can be learnt in less than a month because the aim is only to read it, not to write or speak it – though you do learn to pronounce it and recite a few chants.  There is also much less emphasis on memorisation than in a traditional course: why memorise things you can easily look up?

Who may attend? Anyone who is genuinely interested and prepared to work hard.  There are no academic prerequisites, but the course is aimed at beginners and I am reluctant to admit those who have already studied Pali. There are no exams, and no certificates are issued.

Method. Accordingly, the course is built on learning how to use the Pali-English Dictionary published by the Pali Text Society.  The course begins with learning Pali alphabetical order, and throughout the course each pupil is constantly using the Dictionary.  It is advisable to begin this before the course starts. Tables of the main grammatical forms are supplied in the course book and, again, students constantly consult them for themselves, until they become familiar.

Throughout the course, teachers and students connect together via video conference and share the screen and the course materials.  Students are urged to keep asking questions, and to work in cooperation.   On many days, Prof. Gombrich will teach for the first 2 hours; on the other days that period will be taught by Dr. Alex Wynne, an experienced teacher who knows the course well. Then, after a break of an hour, which leaves time for students to look at the material by themselves, the students will be organised into small groups, and work together, while TAs will discuss with them any problems they have, revise what has just been taught, and sometimes administer simple written exercises. Details will be supplied in advance in the Teaching Schedule.

Organisation. On 1 January there will be an introductory session. This has two purposes: first, we shall check that students can handle the very simple technical aspects; then students will introduce themselves. Classes will begin the next day. Before this students should have read sections 1—4 of the course book and cast an eye over section 7. They should try to memorise Pali alphabetical order (see sec. 4) before the course begins; they can practise it by using the dictionary (see below).

The rest of the course is extremely intensive.  It is cumulative, so that to miss a lesson is disastrous.  The one rigid rule is that no one may miss a class.  Besides the Pali language, the course will discuss the Pali canon and many questions concerning the Buddha’s teaching and our evidence for it.

In our experience students need to devote an additional 1-3 hours to homework and revision every day outside of class time; how much they will need will depend largely on the extent of their experience of learning languages.

Format

  • Zoom for voice and screen sharing
  • pair-work for peer-to-peer learning and teaching
  • Professor and TA working with pairs and individuals

Requirements

Language

  • Preferably no previous knowledge of Pali
  • Knowledge of other languages helpful but not required

Technology

  • Ability to use email, Google Drive, Zoom and a web browser
  • Knowledge and ability to copy files, install applications, register via online forms
  • Computer and web camera
  • Both desktop and laptop are acceptable, however tablets will not work (we have tested them)
  • Microphone and earphones with decent sound quality
  • High speed internet

Materials

The only material that is an absolute must for the course is the Pali-English Dictionary. There is a free version available online. For links to the paper and electronic version see below. We also suggest two other books; those who intend to keep up their Pali studies after the course may wish to get their own copies.

  1. Pali-English Dictionary by Rhys Davids and Stede, affectionately called the PED
    – you can buy the paper version from the 
    Pali Text Society
    – many people prefer to use the 
    on-line version, which also has the advantage of being free
  2. An Introduction to Pali by A.K. Warder (optional)
  3. A Pali Grammar by Wilhelm Geiger, revised by K.R. Norman (optional)

 

Payment

We would prefer to be paid by cheque, made out to  “Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies”, and sent to the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford OX2 6UD. If this is not possible then the second best option is via our PayPal account. In this case we kindly ask that you also cover the transaction fee of approximately £40. If that is not possible either, please contact susan.gianni@ocbs.org for further details.  Payment is due upon successful registration and all payments are non-refundable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I have to be a Buddhist to attend?
A: No.

Q: I don’t know how to use Zoom. What should I do?
A: There are many tutorials online and it’s easy to learn.

Q: I don’t know any foreign languages. May I apply?
A: Yes.

Q: I know some Pali already. May I apply?
A: You may, but be warned: this course is aimed at absolute beginners, so you may be disappointed.

Q: Is this a pre-recorded class?
A: No. All sessions and all interactions are live.

Q: I would love to attend but my schedule would only allow me to attend part of the schedule. May I attend?
A: I am afraid not. All classes are mandatory and build upon each other so missing even one class can have a detrimental effect.

Q: The class schedule is very intensive. Why? Will you give a less intensive course?
A: Experience tells us that the more intensive the course, the better the results. When given in Oxford, it is for 6 hours a day of classroom teaching plus some homework. This online course is already a compromise, in that the schedule tries to accommodate people who are committed to a work/family schedule. That said, after this initial intensive course we do offer a less intensive weekly Pali Reading Club.

Q: Will there be any homework? If yes, how much?
A: We find that most students need to spend 1-3 hours 
daily on homework. That is, revision, redoing exercises, pre-reading materials for the next day, collecting and researching their questions and so on. It is of vital importance to reserve this time in advance to fit into one’s daily schedule.

Q: I am not too tech-savvy. Will you provide technical support?
A: We provide a technical dry-run before the course starts. However, we cannot provide detailed technical support one-on-one, unfortunately. It is your responsibility before the course starts to get familiar with Google Drive, Google Docs and Zoom. Fortunately there is excellent documentation available for all of them for all possible platforms, and Google and YouTube contain many tutorials on how to use them, so you should be able to catch up pretty quickly.