Lecture Hilary term 2019

The OCBS won’t be holding any lectures this term.  There will be two Lingyin Lectures presented by the Oriental Institute, to which all are welcome:

 

Lingyin Lectures in Buddhist Studies – Hilary Term 2019

January 28th and February 18th 2019, h. 5.15pm

The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE

Lecture Room no. 1

Monday, January 28th 2019:

“Mapping the Buddha’s Teaching in Early Gandhāra: The Saṃgītisūtra Commentary”.

Dr. Stefan Baums (Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie, Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München).

 

 

 

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).

Mindfulness and Psychological Process

J. Mark G. Williams

The author reviews the articles in the Special Section on Mindfulness, starting from the assumption that emotions evolved as signaling systems that need to be sensitive to environmental contingencies. Failure to switch off emotion is due to the activation of mental representations of present, past, and future that are created independently of external contingencies. Mindfulness training can be seen as one way to teach people to discriminate such “simulations” from objects and contingencies as they actually are. The articles in this Special Section show how even brief laboratory training can have effects on processing affective stimuli; that long-term meditation practitioners show distinct reactions to pain; that longer meditation training is associated with differences in brain structure; that 8 weeks’ mindfulness practice brings about changes in the way emotion is processed showing that participants can learn to uncouple the sensory, directly experienced self from the “narrative” self; that mindfulness training can affect working memory capacity, and enhance the ability of participants to talk about past crises in a way that enables them to remain specific and yet not be overwhelmed. The implications of these findings for understanding emotion and for further research is discussed.

Please click here to read the paper.

Sarah Shaw

sshaw

 

Sarah Shaw studied Greek and English at Manchester University, where she obtained a doctorate in English Literature. She studied Pali at Oxford and has written books and articles on Buddhist themes. She is a member of Wolfson College and the Oriental Institute.

E-mail:  sarah99@onetel.com

Sarah’s newest book has just been published.  Mindfulness:  Where It Comes From and What It Means.  You can find it here.

The audiobook is also currently offered for free with an Audible trial.

Georgios Halkias

ghalkias

Dr Georgios T. Halkias is a specialist on Tibetan forms and practices of Buddhism in Tibet, Central Asia and the NW Himalayas. He completed his MA (Comparative Philosophy) at the University of Hawai‘i and his DPhil (Oriental Studies) at the University of Oxford. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Tibetan Buddhism at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, the University of Hong Kong.

He has held several research posts at the Warburg Institute, at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and has been a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at SOAS, University of London. He has several publications including a substantial monograph on the history and development of Pure Land Buddhism in Tibet, Luminous Bliss: a Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. With an Annotated Translation and Critical Analysis of the Orgyen-ling golden Small Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra (Hawaii: University of Hawai‘i Press 2012); “The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchange in Ladakh and Baltistan,” in Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes, ed. by Anna Akasoy, et al. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 231-252; 2008. “Buddhist Meditation Traditions in Tibet: The Union of the Three Vehicles,” in Buddhist Meditation: An Introduction, by Sharah Shaw. (New York: Rutledge Press, 2008) pp. 159-186; and “Tibetan Buddhism Registered: Imperial Archives from the Palace-Temple of ’Phang-thang.” (The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1 and 2, 2004). pp. 46-105.

He is currently researching the translation history of Buddhism in Tibet with Prof. Roberta Raine http://translationintibet.wordpress.com/.

Articles

Tibetan Buddhism Registered

The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas

From: “The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchange in Ladakh and Baltistan.” In Islam-Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes,  eds. Anna Akasoy et al. Ashgate Publications, 2011: 231-252.

Georgios’ new book is Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet.  For more details please click here.