Michaelmas DIRI Lecture Series 2023

This term we will be presenting three lectures.  These lectures are presented in conjunction with the Dhammachai International Research Institute, as part of our ongoing academic partnership.

The details are as follows:

24 October (5pm BST) / 31 October (5pm GMT) / 7 November (5pm GMT)

The lectures will be streamed on our YouTube page.

For a Zoom link to attend the lecture and ask questions (limited spaces), please contact steven.egan@ocbs.org

Suicide, Meditation and Anti-realism: Three Problems in the Study of Early Buddhism

Alexander Wynne

This lecture series will consider three apparently distinct problems in the study of early Buddhism: one ethical (suicide), one spiritual (meditation) and one metaphysical (anti-realism). By bringing out underlying connections and discontinuities between these subjects, the lectures will show how early Buddhism was decisively shaped by two forces: an ascetic spirituality based on the practice of mindfulness, and rooted in metaphysical anti-realism; and a heterodox Brahminic tradition of renunciation, stemming from the early Upaniṣads, and transmitting a tradition of calm meditation. Understanding early Buddhism in its historical context, and trying to draw out the implicit meaning of obscure canonical Suttas, these lectures will present the nascent Buddhist movement afresh as a creative fusion of two distinct streams of speculation.

 

1. Suicide (October 24th) (Watch Lecture: https://youtube.com/live/b_YT8mjMNdI)

Separate Pali Suttas, all with parallels in the Chinese Tipiṭaka, record the suicides of three bhikkhus: Channa, Vakkali and Godhika. These texts have little to say about the ethical problem of suicide, and are in fact deeply ambiguous: two treat Channa and Vakkali more or less as unenlightened disciples of the Buddha, whereas the account of Godhika’s suicide expresses unorthodox ideas about meditation and final liberation. This lecture will focus on the source of Godhika’s ideas and the likely influence it exerted on the accounts of of Channa’s and Vakkali’s suicides.

2. Meditation (October 31st) (Watch Lecture: https://youtu.be/MrIJBTM-2Xo)

In his famous article ‘Musīla et Nārada: le chemin du nirvāṇa’ (1937), Louis de La Vallée Poussin claimed that different understandings of the Buddhist path are presented in the canonical Suttas. The notion of an ancient debate, between the proponents of calm and insight, has been the subject of academic disagreement ever since. This lecture will argue that there was indeed a debate, and that it was provoked, at least in part, by an influx of non-Buddhist ideas and practices during the 4th century BC, ideas which motivated Godhika’s suicide.

3. Anti-realism (November 7th) (Watch Lecture: https://youtube.com/live/lfO5am9Cvkk)

Within the Pali canon, two short collections of the Khuddaka Nikāya – the Aṭṭhakavagga and Pārāyanavagga – stand out for their high antiquity and apparently unorthodox doctrinal content. Although their unusual teachings have attracted some attention – e.g. Luis O. Gómez, ‘Proto-Mādhyamika in the Pāli Canon’ (1976); Grace G. Burford, Desire, Death and Goodness (1991) – contemporary Buddhist Studies has not built on them. This lecture will extend the analyses of Gómez and Burford, by arguing that the Aṭṭhakavagga and Pārāyanavagga belong to a broader set of canonical teachings, which assume metaphysical anti-realism and teach mindfulness as the soteriological method.

Michaelmas Term University Lectures

Here are the details for this term’s lectures held by the University

Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies 2022-2023 

Lecture Room 1 at 5pm 

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies , Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE 

All Welcome 

Michaelmas Term 2022 

 

Monday 7 November 2022 

Ligeia Lugli, The Mangalam Research Centre, Berkeley, California. 

Modelling the Dharma: advances in Buddhist Sanskrit Corpus linguistics and Natural Language Processing 

This talk introduces a new corpus of Buddhist Sanskrit literature that is being developed at the Mangalam Research Centre (Berkeley, California). After presenting the corpus and some of the problems that it poses, the talk will outline the motivations that led to its creation and the methodological avenues that it opens up. It will briefly report on the experimentations with different Word Embedding Models for Buddhist Sanskrit that are currently underway at the Mangalam Research Centre. It then offers some practical examples of how the corpus can be used for Buddhist studies.  

Ligeia Lugli holds a PhD in Study of Religions from SOAS, where she worked on the Mahāyāna discourse on language. Since 2016 she is Head of Lexicography at the Mangalam Research Centre (Berkeley, California), where she directs the Buddhist Translators Workbench, a project aimed at creating digital resources for the study of the Buddhist Sanskrit vocabulary. She is currently also leading a project on Buddhist Sanskrit Natural Language Processing, in collaboration with researchers from the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. At the same time, she is working on the development of a Buddhist Sanskrit corpus, with funding from the Khyentse Foundation, and a programme of education in digital lexicography at the State University of São Paulo, with funding from Brazil’s Ministry of Education. 

Monday 28 November 2022 

Andrew Skilton, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford 

The Prohibition of Anal Surgery in the Vinaya 

This talk unpacks the prohibition on anal surgery in the bhesajjakhanda/bhaiṣajyavastu section of the Vinaya, revealing a detailed familiarity with the dangers of such surgery, the risks of sexual misinterpretation and the importance of focusing in on technical terminology when translating Buddhist texts.  

Andrew Skilton conducts research on Mahāyāna and Vinaya literature in Sanskrit and Pali, which he teaches in the faculty. He is interested in the interpretation of texts. He has held posts in Cardiff, King’s College, London, and the Bodleian Library.   

Buddhist Mind Science and Its Philosophy

We thought you might be interested in this upcoming course held at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education

Led by Geshe Tenzin Namdak

How do we perceive the world and how does our mind shape those perceptions into an understanding of what we perceive? Learn more about these essential aspects of our minds and come to know how to eliminate destructive emotions and distorted perceptions, understand ultimate reality and the paths to liberation and enlightenment.

Date
Sat 22 Oct 2022

Time
9:45am-5:00pm

Location
Online or Rewley House
1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA

For further details visit:  https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/buddhist-mind-science-and-its-philosophy?code=O22P197THJ

Lingying lectures – MT2021

 

There are two lectures in the Lingyin Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies for the Michaelmas term 2021

The first lecture is as follows

Meditation Sickness and the Ethics of Buddhist Studies 

Dr. Pierce Salguero (Penn State University’s Abington College) 

Date: November 22nd, 2021. 

Time: 5:00 PM GMT

Venue: Zoom

Why does a certain percentage of people experience psychotic breaks or other adverse mental and physical side-effects from practicing meditation? Are these the symptoms of improper practice or an unavoidable part of spiritual cultivation? In either case, the phenomenon that centuries-old Buddhist texts called “meditation sickness” is now amply documented in contemporary scientific literature. Writings from medieval China not only identify the mental and physical symptoms that can arise in the course of meditation practice, but also explain why these pathologies arise and how they can be effectively treated. Might these materials contain important therapeutic information that is relevant for meditators today? The possibility is tantalizing, but we Buddhist studies scholars find ourselves in a predicament. We are the only people who can translate these premodern texts for contemporary audiences and interpret them in light of modern medical theories. But will our professional norms and disciplinary identities let us help? 

Dr. Pierce Salguero is a transdisciplinary humanities scholar who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. He holds a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teaches Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. 

The major theme in his scholarship is discovering the role of Buddhism in the global transmission and local reception of knowledge about health, disease, and the body. He approaches this topic using methodologies from history, religious studies, translation studies, and literary studies. More recently, He has gotten into ethnography and documentary filmmaking as well. 

This lecture series is generously sponsored by Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, China. 

Attendance free. Advance registration required.
 
Everyone is welcome to attend.
 
For registration of this event, please click on the link below to view the full poster.

MT21 Lingyin lecture Pierce Salguero

 

The second lecture is as follows:

CHAN ISN’T JUST MEDITATION: Chan Master Hanyue’s Attitude toward Sutra Teachings in the Ming

Speaker: Prof. Yi-hsun Huang (Shanghai University, China)

Date: Monday, 29 November 2021

Time: 10 AM – 12:00 PM (UK time),

Venue: Online via Zoom.

This talk introduces Chan Master Hanyue’s 漢月 (1573–1635) attitude towards sūtra teachings in the late Ming by using a rare book, Hanyue’s Guiding Words on the Zhizheng zhuan. Hanyue represents a mature and confident attitude towards sūtra teachings on the part of a Chan master during this late stage of development in imperial China.

Prof. Yi-hsun Huang is a researcher of the Center for Chan Buddhism at Shanghai University, China. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and specializes in Chan and Pure Land Buddhism. She has published Rare Texts by Chan Master Hanyue in the Ming I, A Study of a Chan Dictionary: The Zuting Shiyuan, A Study of Chan Master Xuedou, and Integrating Chinese Buddhism: A Study of Yongming Yanshou’s Guanxin Xuanshu, as well as various articles in Chinese and English.

This lecture series is generously sponsored by Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, China.

All are welcome. Attendance free. Advance registration required. For registration details please click on the link below to see the full poster.

Lingyin Lecture 2- Yi-hsun Huang- 29-11-21

HT 2020: So-Wide Visitor Lecture and Reception

This year’s So-Wide Academic Visitor will deliver a lecture on 12th March at 5.30pm in the Buttery at Wolfson College.  This will be followed by a farewell reception at 7pm as his visit comes to an end.  All are welcome.

Lama Shanta Kumar Negi, CIHTS Leh-Ladakh

Traditional Learning Systems in a period of change – a personal reflection

Our visitor will explain his own journey through the Tibetan-Buddhist traditional learning systems in India, outlining his background in the tribal area of Kinnaur and the stages by which he came to his current position on the doctoral program of the CIHTS.

In this context he will offer some reflections about Himalayan Buddhism in modern India, the challenges and opportunities presented in this changing environment, and the relevance of interaction with the global academy.

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

Lecture Trinity term 2019

This term we will present one lecture on 20th May.  There will also be two Lingyin lectures.

20th May, 5.15pm

Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

Honouring the Body: early Buddhist relic assemblages from Greater Gandhara and India

Dr. Wannaporn Kay Rienjang, University of Oxford

The lecture will present an overview of reliquaries recovered from stupas in ancient Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of India. It will also look at beads that these reliquaries contained and discuss their possible functions in the veneration of Buddhist relics.

There are also two Lingyin Lectures this term.

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Trinity Term 2019

June 3rd and 17th 2019, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, June 3rd 2019:

“Acceptance and transmission of Buddhist practices in Early medieval China: the changing function of text extracts in the making of compendia and miscellanea”.

Dr.Sylvie Hureau (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris).

 

Monday, June 17th 2019:

 “Does meditation produce knowledge? Kamalaśīla on the relationship between philosophy and meditative practice”.

Prof. Dr. Birgit Kellner (Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia,

 Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna).

All are welcome to attend.

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

Lecture HT2019

The OCBS won’t be running any lectures this term.  There will be lectures from the Oriental Institute:

Lingyin Lecture in Buddhist Studies – Hilary Term 2019

February 18th 2019, h. 5.15pm

 The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, February 18th 2019:

“Producing Buddhist Manuscripts (and Textual Alterations) in Medieval China: Reflections on Scriptural Transmission and Textual Corruption Processes, with a Focus on Dunhuang Materials”.

Prof. Costantino Moretti (École française d’Extrême-Orient).

Michaelmas Term 2018 Lectures

The OCBS is holding one lecture this term.  There will also be two Lingyin lectures.

OCBS Lecture

October 8 – 5.15pm

Oriental Institute Lecture Room 1

Professor Todd Lewis (College of the Holy Cross)

Reconfiguration and Revival: Newar Buddhist Traditions in the Kathmandu Valley (and Beyond)

100_2474Beginning with Sylvain Lévi,  most scholars for the past century who have assessed the state of Newar Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley have described the tradition as “decadent,” “corrupted by Hinduism,” and so in serious decline. Many predicted its withering away, most often due to competition from the reformist Theravādins, a movement that arrived in Nepal a century ago. The predations of the modern Nepalese state with its staunchly Hindu biases have also been a central axis of analysis. What has emerged over the last decade, however, is a hitherto unimagined revival among traditional Newar Buddhists and their venerable tradition centered on Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna teachings and practices. Led by younger Buddhist vajrācāryas and scholars, leaders have introduced a welter of new spiritual initiatives, institutional innovations, along with gender and caste reforms; supported by wealthy merchants, newly-rich landholders, and a growing number of migrants living abroad, Newar Buddhist traditions have shown a remarkable resiliency and vibrancy. The talk will sketch this confluence of re-configurations and revivals, with special focus on how these factors converged in the nearly-completed construction of a Newar Vajrayāna monastery in Lumbini.

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Michaelmas Term 2018

October 29th and November 19th 2018, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, October 29th, 2018:

“The paradox that is language and what the Yogācāra had to say about it”.

Prof. Roy Tzohar (Department of East Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University).

 

Monday, November 19th, 2018:

 “Meditation and its subjects: tracing kammaṭṭhāna from the early canon to the boran kammathan traditions of South East Asia”.

Dr. Andrew Skilton (King’s College London).

All are welcome to attend.

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

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

Hilary Term 2018 Lecture Series

This term we will be presenting a series of five lectures by Dr. Alex Wynne.

The lectures take place every Monday, 29 Jan – 26 Feb, at 5.15pm in Lecture Room 1 at the Oriental Institute.  All are welcome.

Early Buddhist Meditation: A Philosophical Investigation

What is the philosophical basis of Buddhist meditation? The theory of ‘calm’ (samatha) and ‘insight’ (vipassanā) was the norm in Buddhist India, and remains standard in modern Theravāda. Other Indian options include concentration alone and ‘dry insight’; the former is found in some forms of contemporary Theravāda, whereas recent therapeutic adaptations of mindfulness depend on the latter.

Going against the general consensus, these lectures will claim that none of the traditional theories of spiritual praxis makes sense of early Buddhist philosophy. Instead, it will be argued that the theory of calm and insight was a non-Buddhist idea which distorted the original meaning of Buddhist jhāna. In the earliest form of Buddhist meditation, the four jhānas were not states of inner concentration, and ‘mindfulness’ (satipaṭṭhāna) was not a sort of ‘insight’ (vipassanā) meditation.

Through close textual readings and conceptual analysis, and touching on the early Buddhist philosophies of mind and personhood, the earliest Buddhist meditation will be re-imagined as a natural process of absorption (jhāna), devoid of specific or necessary objects, but enabled by bodily attention (kāya-gatā sati).

Lectures

1. Monday January 29th: Conceptual foundations: Sāriputta or Kaccāyana?

2. Monday February 5th: Māluṅkyaputta

3. Monday February 12th: What did the Buddha mean by bare cognition’ (viññāṇa-matta)?

4. Monday February 19th: Jhāna

5. Monday February 26th: The Gateway

 

Lingyin Lecture

5th March. 5.15pm

Lecture Room 1:  Oriental Institute

Dr. Francesca Tarocco

 “(Re)locating Chinese Buddhism in the Digital Age”.

Lectures MT2017

6 November

Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

5.15pm

Dr. Nick Allen, University of Oxford

Chronicle and epic, or the introductions to the Mahāvaṃsa and to the Mahābhārata: selected comparisons

The Mahāvaṃsa (written in Pali) presents itself as a chronicle recounting the origins of Buddhism and its import to Lanka, where it became the State religion. Examined in detail, the chronicle shows surprisingly pervasive similarities to the great Sanskrit epic. A selection of such similarities, drawn from the respective introductions, will be presented, and possible explanations will be considered.

 

20 November

Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1

5.15pm

Dr. Alex Wynne

Buddhist India

In his Buddhist India (1903), T. W. Rhys Davids described ancient India from the Buddhist rather than Brahminic perspective. But he was aware that such an approach would regarded by some as a form of lèse majesté: ‘the brahmin view … has been regarded so long with reverence among us that it seems almost an impertinence now, to put forward the other’. This lecture will review Rhys Davids’ thesis in the light of recent work by Giovanni Verardi and Johannes Bronkhorst; by drawing on these works and barely noticed material from the Pali canon, it will re-evaluate the relationship between Buddhism and Brahminism in classical India.

 

 

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Michaelmas Term 2017

October 30th and November 27th 2017, h. 5.15pm

 The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

 Monday, October 30th 2017:

 Philosophy and Philology in Edo Commentaries on Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō: Construction and Deconstruction of the 95-Fascicle Honzan Edition.

Prof. Steven Heine, (Florida International University)

  

 Monday, November 27th  2017:

 The Ox-Bezoars Empowerment for Safe Childbirth in Heian Japan.

Dr. Benedetta Lomi (University of Bristol)

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

Buddhism in Nepal – a personal perspective

A talk given by Gakar Rinpoche.

Date: 24/2

Time: 17:00

Place: Florey Room, Wolfson College

Rinpoche will discuss his Buddhist heritage in Dolpo, and will present his experience of the wider Buddhist scene in and around Nepal in the light of his training at Shechen Monastery. He will reflect on the changes that Nepal has been undergoing, and Nepali Buddhism with it, then he will invite the audience to offer academic perspectives on what he has said and on that basis to enquire further.

Buddhist Philosophy lectures from the Faculty of Philosophy

 

These lectures are offered by the Faculty of Philosophy, rather than the OCBS.  We are sure that many of our visitors will be interested in them:

Course: Buddhist Philosophy

Lecturer: Rafal K Stepien

Time: Hilary Term 2017, Fridays 2-3pm (except 2nd Week: 10-11am)

Place: Radcliffe Humanities Lecture Room, Faculty of Philosophy, Woodstock Road

 

This series of lectures constitutes a thematic introduction to Buddhist philosophy. It explores major topics in Buddhist ontology, epistemology, philosophy of logic and language, philosophy of mind, ethics, and other fields. While arranged thematically, the course also serves as an introduction to the history of Buddhist philosophy, in that each lecture singles out certain prominent thinkers or movements to illustrate the problematic at hand. This approach allows classical Buddhist philosophers to be studied who represent all the major schools of Buddhist thought from India, Tibet, China, and Japan. In addition to reading relevant primary sources in translation, students are encouraged to read secondary scholarship selected so as to help guide them through the seriously mind-altering ideas encountered in the Buddhist philosophical world. The course also proposes ways in which Buddhist thought can contribute to Western philosophical issues and, conversely, how intellectual paradigms prevalent in the West can be used to understand Buddhist philosophy. Students interested in broadening their mind beyond the confines of Western philosophy should find this course rewarding. The foreseen order of topics is as follows:

1st Week: Buddhism as Philosophy

Surveys the history of Buddhist philosophy, introduces the core philosophical tenets shared across traditions, and provides a rationale for studying Buddhist philosophy as philosophy.

 

2nd Week: Causation, Interdependence, and Impermanence

Addresses the metaphysical underpinnings of the Buddhist worldview. (Note different time: 10-11am).

 

3rd Week: Ontology

Explores Buddhist anti-foundationalist ontologies of emptiness.

 

4th Week: Selfhood & Personhood

Draws on the Buddha’s arguments for the ultimate non-existence of a substantial self to explicate the conventional operation of personal action.

 

5th Week: Epistemology

Addresses the nature of knowledge and examines the validity of perception and inference as means of its acquisition.

 

6th Week: Philosophy of Mind

Addresses cognition and self-cognition in the light of idealist and phenomenological accounts of mind.

 

7th Week: Philosophy of Logic & Language

Focuses on Buddhist formulations of non-classical logics and the linguistic expression of concepts.

 

8th Week: Ethics

Addresses normative ethics and their application to contemporary social issues.

 

All are welcome.

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.

“The Possibility of Buddhism for the Future of Humankind”

The Second Symposium of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy and the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies

Wolfson College

6 – 7 April 2016

The OCBS will be hosting this joint Symposium on 6th and 7th April.

On the 6th, six papers will be delivered, exploring various ways that Buddhism interacts with the modern world.  The 7th April will see a discussion of the areas explored.

All are welcome.  If you wish to attend then please inform steven.egan@ocbs.org ahead of time, as space is limited.

Papers:

Dr. Sarah Shaw: “Voices of Freedom: friendship, trust and liberation in the poems of the early Buddhist nuns”

Dr. Kurihara: “The world without nuclear weapons and women’s roles”

Mr. Mark Leonard: “Mindfulness meditation and social change: from therapy to wisdom and ethics”

Dr. Onishi: “Natural disasters and Buddhist organizations’ activities”

Ven. Dr. Dhammasami: A Reflection on the Practice of Compassion in the Theravada Buddhist Meditation Traditions

Dr. Kawada: “Medical ethics and Buddhism – The issues of death with dignity and the vegetable state”

Lectures TT2016 (including Lingyin Lectures)

Monday 2nd May

Lecture Room XXIII, Balliol College
6.15pm (PLEASE NOTE THE DIFFERENT START TIME)

Dr. Marie-Hélène Gorisse (SOAS)

Who can infer the existence of God from the concept of ‘product’? Genealogy of a Buddhist refutation.

In his Īśvarasādhanadūṣaṇam, Ratnakīrti (11th c.) attacks the thesis according to which God exists as the creator of the world. Ratnakīrti’s multi-layered refutation is a witness of the history of debate in classical India, because it displays changes of focus and of technical terminology, which are indicators of the fact that specific philosophical problems were overcome thanks to the development of new theories concerning the art of debating. This lecture aims at showing the impact of these philosophical transitions on the main argumentation over God, especially in relation to the conception of probative inferential evidence.

 

Thursday 19 May

Wolfson College
5.30pm

Mr Alex Wrona (University of Vienna)

An Arabic Dhamma? – On Sri Lankan Theravadins in the Sultanate of Oman

There are currently around 14,000 Sri Lankan expatriates in Oman, at least half of which settled in Muscat, the Sultanate’s capitol. Most of them follow Theravāda Buddhism. Only little research has been done on the modern phenomenon of Asian migrant workers in the Gulf, and nearly exclusively from a social or legal perspective. In this lecture, the focus is on Theravāda Buddhism as constituted in the Sultanate of Oman, namely in the community of the Sri Lankan expatriates. It would appear that this community has not been studied in such a way before.

Mr Wrona will  present parts of the results of his ethnographic research in the Sri Lankan community in Muscat, carried out from September 2015 to December 2015. He will try to explain the major aspects of the situation the Sri Lankan community in Oman finds itself in and investigate how the Theravāda Buddhists within this community experience and develop their religious identity, being a religious and ethnic minority in an Arab-muslim majority country. It will thereby become clear that this process of religious identity building can at least partly be understood as a result of mechanisms of transnationalism.

 

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Trinity Term 2016
May 16th and May 30th 2016, h. 5.15pm
The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE
Lecture Room no. 1

PLEASE NOTE: 

Unfortunately, Prof. Nicoletta Celli’s lecture (“The Dawn of Buddhist Art in China: Reflections on the Image of the Buddha in Meditation”), originally scheduled for Monday May 16th, has been cancelled.

 

Monday, May 30th 2016:
“Mahāyāna in Gandhāra”.
Prof. Dr. Ingo Strauch (Université de Lausanne)
All are welcome to attend.

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

Lectures HT 2016 (including Lingyin Lectures)

This term we will be holding two lectures.  The lectures will start at 5.15pm at the Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 1 . The details are as follows:

Monday 18 January

Nawang JinpaIndependent Researcher

Introduction to the Drukpa Lineage – the yogic order of ‘divine madmen’

In 13th century Tibet,  it was said  that “half the world is Drukpa, and half the Drukpa are mendicant hermits”. In the 17th century, as Tibet was being reshaped by civil wars and Mongol invasions, Himalayan rulers still eagerly sought out Drukpa yogis.

This lecture will introduce the religious characteristics and social influence of that yogic tradition, and will outline  its contemporary importance in Ladakh and in Bhutan, where it is still the ‘state religion’.

 

Monday 15 February

Prof Rey-sheng Her, Tzu Chi

Tzu Chi: Buddhism as compassion in action

 

Prof Rey-sheng Her will also be delivering a lecture at the University of Oxford China Centre, Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road

Tuesday 16th February at 2pm

Organizing Charity in China: the work of Tzu Chi in the People’s Republic.

 

This term’s Lingyin lectures are as follows:

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Hilary Term 2016

January 25th and February 8th 2016, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, January 25th 2016:

“Bodily care in Buddhist Monastic Life of Ancient India and China: An Advancing Purity Threshold?”

Prof. Ann Heirman (Ghent University)

Monday, February 8th 2016:

“Monk and Lay in the Mahāyāna Sūtras”.

Prof. Jens Erland Braarvig (University of Oslo)

All are welcome to attend.

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

Lectures MT2015 (including Lingyin Lectures MT 2015)

This term we will be holding two lectures.  The lectures will start at 5.30pm in Balliol College, Lecture Room XXIII. The details are as follows:

Monday 26 October

Dr. Alexander Wynne,

Hope University, Liverpool

The ur-text of the Pali Tipiṭaka: some reflections based on new research into the manuscript tradition.

Wat Dhammakaya in Thailand are preparing a critical edition of the Pali Canon, and Dr Wynne has been playing a leading role in their work. He will explain the importance and difficulties of the project, and suggest what benefits it may produce.

 

Monday 23 November

Dr Tadaatsu Tajima,

Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Tenshi College, Sapporo, Japan

Ethnic Buddhist Temples and Korean Diaspora in Japan

Some Korean-Japanese have established their own Buddhist temples for the performance of ancestral rituals. This will be discussed from the point of view of the sociology of religion.

 

Please also find below details on the Lingyin Lecture Series for this term:

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Michaelmas Term 2015

October 19th and November 16th 2015, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, October 19th 2015:

“Writing on Mountains to Save the World”.

 Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose (Seniorprofessor für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens, Universität Heidelberg)

Monday, November 16th 2015:

“Buddhist Texts and Buddhist Images. New Evidence from Kanaganahalli”.

Prof. Dr. Oskar von Hinüber (Professor Emeritus, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

All are welcome to attend.

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

Launch of the MPhil in Buddhist Studies

We are very pleased to announce that Oxford University is offering a MPhil in Buddhist Studies in 2015-16.

This newly launched two-year degree aims to give comprehensive training in one of the main Buddhist canonical languages, namely Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan and Classical Chinese. In-depth explorations of Buddhist history, philosophy, and literature will be the focus, along with a comprehensive study of important Buddhist texts in the original language.

This degree can be a standalone qualification or preparation for doctoral research.

More information about this programme can be found at:

Oxford University – Graduate Admissions.