Numata Center for Buddhist Studies 2024-2025 Events
April 11, 2024
2024 Chao Lecture: The Birth of Prince Siddhārtha: From Divergent Textual Sources to Distinct Visual Narratives
Important events related to the life of the historical Buddha are not homogeneously represented in ancient schools of art in South and Southeast Asia, and these differences are due to the confusion and irregularity of the way in which the events are narrated in sacred texts. Among the many episodes of this kind, the events relating to the birth of Siddhārtha have given rise to major (yet at times unnoticed by scholars) disparities in their depiction.Taking this crucial moment in the life of the future Buddha as its focus, this talk examines how the Lalitavistara, the Mahāvastu, and the Buddhacarita, as well as the Chinese and Tibetan translations of the original Sanskrit texts of the Abhiniṣkramaṇa sūtra and the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, and Pāli literature, principally the Nidānakathā, offer divergent narratives. To begin, the iconographies of major Indian Buddhist schools associated with surviving works of art and architecture in stone at Bharhut, Sāñchī, Amarāvatī, Kanaganahalli, Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, Phanigiri, Gandhāra, and Mathurā will be examined. These findings will be compared with paintings preserved in ancient Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka,Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Kizil and Dunhuang in the northern Silk Road in China. We will see that the Sanskrit texts, despite slight variations, agree that the Bodhisattva came out of his mother’s right side and that, owing to this, he was not defiled by the impurities of the womb. This is a revival of the ṛgvedic theme of the birth of Indra, fully grown through his mother’s side (R̥gveda, 4.18.2), by Buddhist hagiographers who thus made Prince Siddhārtha a new Indra. The narrative of the Pāli Nidānakathā is in harmony, to some extent, with the Sanskrit texts until Queen Māyā, standing and holding the branch of the sāl tree in the park at Lumbini, gives birth to her son. The story then takes a drastic turn when the people draw a curtain around her and withdraw. At this moment, the future Buddha is described as leaving his mother’s womb like a preacher (dhammakathika in Pāli) descending from a pulpit (dhammāsana in Pāli) or like a man descending a ladder, erect, stretching out his hands and feet. In China and Tibet, by contrast, murals and banners clearly depict the miraculous birth of Prince Siddhārtha from his mother’s armpit. This reminds us of the narrative in the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (commentary on the Krishna Yajurveda) where Prajapati (Creator God Brahmā) gives birth to seasons from his armpits. Siddhārtha’s birth was as miraculous as that of the Vedic gods and heroes, who were born from the mother’s thigh, hand, head, or armpit. This teaches us that Buddhist texts and related iconographic motifs and conventions developed in a context of fusion whereby local traditions and aesthetics were actively integrated, stimulating the creation of exciting and diverse narrative forms.
Osmund Bopearachchi, Chao Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies and Emeritus Director of Research of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-ENS), Paris, is a numismatist, art historian, and archaeologist. He is also a former Visiting Professor and Member of the Doctoral School of the Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris. Among his numerous publications are books, articles, exhibition catalogues, and translated and edited volumes; he is also a principal collaborator on numerous audio-visual projects and museum and archaeological databases. The French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres has honored five of his books with prestigious awards, including the distinguished George Perrot Medal (2015). In 2006 the French government honored his career achievements with the “Order of Academic Palms.” Prof. Bopearachchi holds a BA from the University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka); a BA honors, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. from the Paris I Sorbonne University; and a Higher Doctorate (Habilitation) from the Paris IV Sorbonne University.
March 8, 2024 - March 10, 2024
The Genesis and Formation of Newar Buddhism
Friday, March 8
2:00 - 2:15
Opening Remarks: Alexander von Rospatt and Samuel M.Grimes (UC Berkeley)
Monastic Buddhism in Nepal and its Purported Domestication
2:15 - 3:45
Todd T. Lewis, Holy Cross College
Textual Archives, Art, Ritual: In Search of Early Newar Buddhism
Samuel M. Grimes, Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley
Was There Ever a Local, Celibate Saṃgha in Nepal after the Licchavi Period? A Survey of the Evidence
15-minute Break
4:00 - 5:30
Alexander von Rospatt, UC Berkeley
The Treatment of the Monastic Ordination as a Rite of Passage in the Pārājikā Literature and its Precursors
Christoph Emmrich, University of Toronto
Malla Period Girlhood Rites. The Textualization of the Ihi and the Bārhā in Late Medieval to Early Modern Newar Manuals
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Saturday, March 9
Vajrayāna Practices in Nepal
9:30 - 11:45
Péter-Dániel Szántó, Eötvös Loránd University
A Tibetan in Nepal during the End of the World
Ryan Damron, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
The Making of a Vajrācārya: The Influence of Newar Buddhism on the Career of the Indian Paṇḍita Vanaratna
Tsunehiko Sugiki, Hiroshima University
The Psychophysiology of the Saṃvara Literature
15-minute Break
12:00 - 1:30
Kris Anderson, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
Traces and Variations: Development of the Utkrānti Funeral in Newar Buddhism
Manik Bajracharya, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Royal Patronage of the Cult of Buṅgama-Lokeśvara under King Śrīnivāsa Malla
1:30 - 2:30 Lunch
Narrative Literature
2:30 - 4:00
Camillo Formigatti, Independent Scholar
Remaking Buddhism for Early Modern Nepal. Jayamuni and his Role in 17th-century Newar Buddhism
Meghan Howard Masang, Yale University
The Textual History of the Lake-Draining Episode in the Svayambhūpurāṇa
15-minute Break
4:15 - 5:45
Miroj Shakya, University of the West
A Liberator of Hell Beings: Nepalese Legends of Jaṭādhārī Lokeśvara
Petra Lamberson, UC Berkeley
Viṣṇu Bows and Śiva Cries: Buddhist Māhātmya Literature of the Nepal Valley
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Sunday, March 10
The Arts
9:00 – 10:45
Makoto Kitada, Osaka University
Cacā Songs. So-called New Caryāpada in Kathmandu
Suyog Prajapati, University of Michigan
Always Watching: Sacred Gaze through the Newar Jhyā and its Indo-Islamic Contexts
15-minute Break
11:00 - 12:30
Workshop: Digital Tools for the Study of Nepalese Buddhism
February 22, 2024
2024 Khyentse Lecture: The ‘Nanjing Miracle’ Reinterpreted: The Cult and Yogic Practices of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in Ming China - 2024 Khyentse Lecture
Sponsor(s): Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Khyentse Foundation
In the fifth year of the Yongle Reign in the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor Zhu Di invited the Fifth Karma pa Patriarch bDe bzhin gshegs pa to preside over the Universal Liberation Rite of Water and Land (Pudu Dazhai) at Linggu Temple in Nanjing to transferring his deceased parents into the Realm of Supper Bliss. The entire ceremony was accompanied by rare auspiciousness and wonders, and recorded in a long painted scroll with inscriptions of five languages, thus depicted as the “Nanjing Miracle” by later generations. Undoubtedly, it was a major event in the political and religious history of the early Ming Dynasty. People usually regard this “Universal Liberation Rite” as a political show successfully organized by the Yongle Emperor to establish his political legitimacy. However, there is a lack of basic understanding of its religious form and nature which even makes people wonder: Why is a “Universal Liberation Rite of Water and Land” for the salvation of ancestors needs to specially invite a Tibetan Buddhist master from the distant dBus gtsang to preside over it? Through careful examination of Chinese and Tibetan sources related to the life and deeds of the Fifth Karmapa, it reveals that the wondrously performed Universal Liberation Rite was actually the Obstacle Removal Ritual of Avalokiteśvara” passed down by the Karma pa sect. The fourteen-day ritual is completely in accordance with the pith instructions of Obstacle-Removing Ritual of Avalokiteśvara transferred by the Third Karma pa Patriarch Rang byung rdo rje. This event was not only purposed to save the Ming Taizu couple, but also to save all sentient beings who lost their lives in the wars in the early Ming Dynasty. This may indicate that this “Universal Liberation Rite” was not just a political show, but a religious act with a clear religious purpose. Combining various other documentary materials for a comprehensive investigation, we may think that the Emperor Yongle had very clear Tibetan Buddhist beliefs.
Furthermore, an early Ming collection of 23 Chinese texts on the cult and yogic practices of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara of Tibetan tantric Buddhism are found in Chinese National Library in Beijing. These texts are mostly of Sa skya pa and Karma bKa’‘gyur pa traditions, and translated during the Tangut Xia, Mongol Yuan and Early Ming. The discovery of this text collection reveals the historic fact that the cult and yogic practices of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara of Tibetan Buddhist tradition were widely spread among Tanguts, Mongols and Chinese from early on. By examining these texts on the cult and practices of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara within Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, three specific examples of the practice of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara are presented in the collection, those being 1) the Deity Yoga of Avalokiteśvara ; 2) the yogic practice of Inner Heat (gtum mo) of the Deity Yoga of Avalokiteśvara ; and 3) the yogic practice of luminosity (‘od gsal) at the moment of death through the meditative practice of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara . The yogic practices of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara can also be classified into two categories, one for self liberation and the other for the salvation of others. The Obstacle Removal Ritual of Avalokiteśvara belongs to the second category. Several texts of this ritual attributed to the Karma pas are seen in this Chinese collection of Early Ming. It testifies that the cult and yogic practices of Avalokiteśvara in Ming China had already a long tradition.
Shen Weirong holds a Ph.D. in Central Asian Science of Language and Culture from Bonn University (1998). Currently, he is Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Philology at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of Leben und historische Bedeutung des ersten Dalai Lama dGe ’dun grub pa dpal bzang po (1391–1474)—Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der dGe lugs pa-Schule und der Institution der Dalai Lama (Styler Verlag, Institut Monumenta Serica, St. Augustin, Germany, 2002) and Philological Studies of Tibetan History and Buddhism (Shanghai Press of Chinese Classics, 2010).
February 15, 2024
We are the same substance! Zongmi’s theory of the True Mind
Sponsor(s): Numata Center for Buddhist Studies
We are the same substance! Zongmi’s theory of the True Mind
Jenny Hung , Assistant Professor, Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Zongmi 圭峯宗密 (780-841) was a prominent Chinese Buddhist scholar who lived during the Tang Dynasty. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of Chinese Buddhism, particularly the Huayan (Flower Garland) and the Chan school. When constructing his own theory of mind and nature, Zongmi proposed the concept of “true mind of original enlightenment” (本覺真心 benjue zhenxin).
In this presentation, I argue for two claims about the true mind: (1) we are the same substance: the true mind. Moreover, (2) the true mind is a cosmic mind, a fundamental mental substance as one unified whole, that is also the ontological ground of the myriad entities. I provide two interpretations of the characteristics of the true mind. The first is to say that it is pure awareness without content. The second is to say that it is pure awareness of all sentient being’s minds. I then devise a unity theory of consciousness modified from Brentano (1874/1995), according to which inner awareness is what unifies experience. I illustrate that this theory can be applied to explain how experiences merge to form a cosmic true mind, while each ordinary mind does not feel so.
Jenny Hung is an assistant professor in the Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She has two PhDs, one in philosophy, another in nanophysics. She investigates the nature of the self from both the Western and Eastern perspectives. She published in Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy East and West, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, History of Philosophy and Logic, etc. She is now working on two books: Between Buddha-nature and Emptiness: The Peak Era of Chinese Buddhism (OUP) and What am I? Personal Ontology in Chinese Philosophy (under review).
Speaker: Jenny Hung, Assistant Professor, Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.