Abstract: The ritual activity that in China was known as chanhui 懺悔 – often understood to mean “confession” or “repentance” – was without doubt one the central forms of Buddhist practice in medieval China. Despite this, scholars have often disagreed concerning, firstly, what “repentance” even means in the Chinese or Buddhist contexts, as well as the best way of understanding the relationship between Chinese Buddhist chanhui and its Indian Buddhist antecedents on the one hand, and pre-...
Personalism and the Mādhyamika Recuperation of Conventional Truth: Some Heretical Thoughts
Abstract: Over the years, I have advanced an interpretation of Madhyamaka that frames Nāgārjuna’s arguments in terms suggested by some contemporary debates in philosophy of mind. Nāgārjuna can thus be understood to reject the reductionist elaboration of anātmavāda that was epitomized for him by Ābhidharmika philosophy, and as doing so for the reason that the Ābhidharmika’s own project depends for its intelligibility on the “conventionally real” (saṃvṛtisat) world. This talk will...
Preaching to the Periphery: Buddhism in Provincial Villages in Ninth-Century Japan
Abstract: This paper looks at itinerant preaching in early ninth-century Japan with a particular focus on sermons intended for provincial villagers. In contrast to most studies of this period, which address sectarian founders, I will highlight figures peripheral to dominant scholarly accounts: minor monks, provincial patrons, and destitute villagers. I will introduce a ninth-century collection of homiletic notes, known as the Draft of Tōdaiji Liturgies (Tōdaiji fujumon kō), as...
Abstract: The eleventh-century Eastern Indian Buddhist master Ratnākaraśānti, a teacher of teachers, renowned in his own time as the omniscient one of the Kali Age, wrote works of great clarity, subtlety, and power on both the Method of the Perfections and the Method of Mantras, the two branches of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. This talk will...
Khu lo tsā ba’s Treatise on the Svātantrika/*Prāsaṅgika Distinction in early 12th century Tibet
The teachings of Madhyamaka (“middle way philosophy”) have been the basis of Tibetan Buddhist thought and practice since the eighth century. After the twelfth century, Tibetan scholars distinguished two branches of Madhyamaka: Autonomist (rang rgyud pa) and Consequentialist (thal ’gyur ba, *prāsaṅgika). What distinctions in Madhyamaka thought and...
Tantric Buddhist Communites and Seeking Patronage at Mediaeval Indian Courts
The talk will have roughly two parts. In the first, I would like to share some thoughts backed by evidence about how mediaeval Indian tantric communities were orgazied socially and economically. In the second, I will present some passages dealing with tantric Buddhist gurus' various strategies for dealing with royal punishment...
Inventing a History for a Young Tradition: Early Modern Shugendō at Mount Togakushi
Japan’s mountain school of Shugendō has been depicted through various lens—a folk tradition, a symbol of national unity, and an ancient form of nature worship—all of which leave a hazy impression of its historical formation. This is owed, in part, to sentiments in modern scholarship and the...
Abstract: In the late tenth century, Japanese clerics started to develop a liturgy in the vernacular language. Probably the most important liturgical genre that was developed during that time was kōshiki 講式. This genre became very popular, and over the centuries more than 400 kōshiki for various objects of veneration, such as buddhas, bodhisattavas, kami, or eminent monks, were composed.
While most scholars have focused on kōshiki in premodern Japan, this paper will explore ...
How to access a native speaker’s reading of Medieval Chinese: Tibetan translations of Chinese from Dunhuang
Abstract: Among the materials preserved in Dunhuang are several Tibetan translations of scriptures made not from Sanskrit Indian sources but from Chinese. Among other things, these precious materials allow us access to contemporary educated readings of Chinese sources. This presentation introduces these materials and explores some aspects of their value.
Jonathan Silk studied East Asian Studies at the Oberlin College in Ohio and subsequently Buddhist...
The Inescapability of Narrative in Philosophy — A Buddhist Perspective
Abstract: It is well known that narrative can be a powerful means for conveying philosophical truths, and some have even argued that there are certain kinds of truths that can only be conveyed through narrative. This paper does not dispute that claim, but it makes a different argument. Starting with an understanding of narrativity drawn from the work of Gerald Prince, and moving to a Buddhist-inspired understanding of philosophy as the...
