Events
Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World: Buddhist Perspectives on Ecological and Collective Alternatives
A lecture by Dr. Asoka Bandarage (Adjunct Professor, California Institute for Integral Studies, USA )
Date and time: 25. October 2023, 4:15 - 5: 45 pm
Venue: In-Person-Event (AAI, East Wing, Room 120) and ZOOM stream. Registration required via eventbrite
The current political-economic and ecological crisis in Sri Lanka exemplifies a broader existential and ethical crisis facing more and more countries across the world, especially debt trapped countries in the Global South. The crisis represents the culmination of several centuries of colonial and recent neoliberal policies rooted in unbridled growth, profit and power. There is, however, an increasing global awareness of the need for transformation of consciousness from a philosophy of dualism and domination to one of interdependence and partnership with nature and among humanity. Drawing upon the history of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Sri Lanka as well as perspectives on socially engaged Buddhism and ‘Buddhist economics’, this talk will explore direction towards ecological and collective alternatives. How can Buddhism contribute beyond mindfulness towards social action and a Middle Path of sustainability and social justice in both Sri Lanka and the world?
Asoka Bandarage has an M.A. in Religion and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University. She has served on the faculties of Brandeis University, Georgetown University and Mount Holyoke where she received tenure.
Prof. Bandarage is the author of books: Colonialism in Sri Lanka (De Gruyter); Women, Population and Global Crisis (Zed Books); The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka (Routledge); Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy (Palgrave MacMillan) and other publications on political-economy, ecology, ethno-religious conflict as well as mindfulness and social action. Her latest book is Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World: Colonial and Neocolonial Origins: Ecological and Collective Alternatives (De Gruyter, 2023) Dr. Bandarage has written for the Huffington Post and Asia Times, given innumerable lectures and interviews and serves on the Advisory Boards of Critical Asian Studies, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate and the International Buddhist Association of America.
Ways to Cultivate Mindfulness
in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
Dzogchen Advice by Jigme Lingpa and His Sources
A lecture by Marc-Henri Deroche (Associate Professor, Kyoto University)
Date and time: June 21, 2023, 10:00 am
Venue: ZOOM Online-lecture
Meeting ID:635 1147 6317
Passcode:94604818
ZOOM Link:
https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/63511476317?pwd=T2tJMVJHelQzdW5rUEJ5VzI4MWJoUT09
This lecture will focus on “mindfulness” (Skt. smṛti, Tib. dran pa) as it has been understood and cultivated in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, according to the typology formulated by Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798). The latter was a famous master in the Tibetan lineage of Dzogchen (i.e. “the Great Perfection”) that is considered in this tradition to integrate the essence of all Buddhist teachings. We will start by examining the current transdisciplinary academic field of mindfulness, and reflect upon the specific contribution of humanities, philosophy, philology, and especially Buddhist studies, to improving our understanding of the concept of mindfulness. Then we will investigate Jigme Lingpa’s twofold typology of (1) a deliberate mindfulness according to his classical Indian Mahāyāna sources, and (2) a non-dual mindfulness that is consistent with Dzogchen teachings. For the first type, we will thus explore the close relationship between mindfulness and wisdom by studying especially the integration of memory, judgment, and attention on the path of Mahāyāna (with Asaṅga and Vasubandhu); as well as its underlying moral philosophy of mindful awareness, carefulness, and self-examination (with Śāntideva). Concerning the second element of Jigme Lingpa’s typology, we will examine thus the “distinctive mindfulness of Dzogchen” that is, in this lineage, considered to be inseparable from “pure awareness” (rig pa), or the true nature of the mind, beyond subject-object duality. But we shall see how, according to this Tibetan author and his successors, these two ways to sustain mindfulness are to be practically combined, depending on various circumstances, so that the entire way of life can become infused with a heightened sense of presence and freedom, moment by moment. Ultimately, we will inquire into the possible significance of these ancient sources for our contemporary construct of mindfulness.
Marc-Henri Deroche is Associate Professor at Kyoto University, Japan, where he teaches Buddhist and Tibetan Studies. His current research focuses on the notion of mindfulness at the crossroads of Buddhism, philosophy, and psychology, with a focus on classical Mahāyāna sources and later Tibetan lineages, especially Dzogchen. He holds a PhD in East Asian Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). His publications include a monograph, Une quête tibétaine de la sagesse: Prajñāraśmi (1518-1584) et les sources de l’attitude impartiale (ris med) (Brepols), an edited special issue of the journal Religions titled Study, Reflection, and Cultivation: Integrative Paths to Wisdom from Buddhist and Comparative Perspectives, and articles appearing in journals such as Asian Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, Eidos, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, etc.
Making the Buddhist World: Encounter, Networks, and Colonialism in the Japanese Reception of Sri Lankan Buddhism, 1872-1894
A lecture by Stephan Kigensan Licha (Faculty member, University of Heidelberg)
Date and time: June 27, 2023, 6:15 to 7:45 pm
Venue: AAI, ESA-O 121
In recent scholarship, the formation of the "Asian world religion Buddhism" has commonly been studied as having occurred in a discursive space informed, or rather deformed, by Western colonial ambitions in Asia. Today's presentations seeks to go beyond this East/West axis and instead to consider how relationships between Asian Buddhist protagonists themselves impacted the modern map of the Buddhist world. The presentation focuses on the encounter between Sri Lankan and Japanese Buddhists from the 1870s onwards and consider its increasing institutionalization in trans-local networks as well as its transformation into a vehicle for Japanese imperial and colonial concupiscence from the mid-1890s onwards. I will argue that central to these developments was the conscious manipulation of confluences between Western scholarly and Eastern scholastic conceptual schemes, especially as they involve the Hīnayāna or "Small Vehicle" and its transposition from a doctrinal or textual into a political register. I will close by considering some of the ways in which the legacy of these developments still continues to haunt contemporary practitioners and scholars alike.
Stephan Kigensan Licha received his PhD from SOAS in 2012 and is a faculty member in the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Heidelberg. He specializes in the intellectual history of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on the tantric, Tiantai/Tendai, and Chan/Zen traditions during the pre-modern, and the global history of Buddhist modernism during the modern period. His monograph, "Esoteric Zen: Zen and the Tantric Teachings in Premodern Japan" is forthcoming with Brill, and he is currently completing a second monograph preliminarily entitled, "Amida in the Colonies."
Abendkurs Sanskrit - this course will take place in German only -
Mit dem Abendkurs Sanskrit bieten wir Ihnen hier am Numata Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde der Universität Hamburg eine universitätsnahe Möglichkeit des Sanskritstudiums außerhalb des Hörsaals.
Dieser Kurs vermittelt die Grundlagen des Sanskrit, sodass nach erfolgreichem Abschluss zum einen einfache Prosatexte selbstständig gelesen werden können und zum anderen ein weiterführendes Studium in Eigenregie möglich ist.
Über einen Zeitraum von insgesamt 14 Kursterminen hinweg werden wir uns, beginnend im Wintersemester 2021/22, die Grundbausteine des Sanskrit durch praktische Übungen erschließen. Wir lernen nach dem Buch "Sanskrit - Devavāṇi. Die Sprache aus der Stadt der Götter" von Jutta Zimmermann. Die Kursinhalte umfassen u.a. die Schrift (die Devanāgarī), Aufbau und Verwendung thematischer Verben, Aufbau und Verwendung von Substantiven der häufigsten Endungen und ihrer Fälle sowie die Adjektive.
Textpassagen aus dem Lehrbuch (u.a. aus dem Pañcatantra und aus den Upanischaden) werden in Abstimmungen mit den Kursteilnehmenden durch weiteres Material aus der indischen Sanskrit-Literatur ergänzt.
Kenntnisse der grammatischen Terminologie sind zwar hilfreich, aber nicht Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme.
Termine
Der Kurs findet im Wintersemester 2021/22 immer dienstags in der Zeit von 18-20 Uhr statt. Kursbeginn ist Dienstag, der 19. Oktober.
Anmeldung
Die Kursteilnahme ist kostenfrei. Für Studierende besteht die Möglichkeit, bei erfolgreicher Teilnahme zwei ECTS zu erhalten.
Bitte senden Sie eine Mail an buddhismuskunde"AT"uni-hamburg.de mit den folgenden Informationen: Name, Vorname, Kontakt (e-mail und Telefonnummer), sowie zwei Absätze zu Ihnen und zu Ihrer Motivation, Sanskrit zu lernen.
Dozent: Leo Maximilian Koenig
Leo Koenig ist Student des Masterprogramms Buddhist Studies an der Universität Hamburg. Er studiert seit 2016 in Hamburg und verbrachte ein Auslandsjahr am Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Taiwan. Dort waren seine Schwerpunkte Sanskrit, Chinesisch und Tibetisch. Erfahrungen in der Lehre konnte er in seiner mehrjährigen Tätigkeit als studentischer Tutor für Sanskrit und modernes Hochchinesisch sowie in diversen Sanskrit-Workshops sammeln.
Leo König ist Dozent der jährlichen Sanskrit Yoga Summer Class am Wissenschaftsschwerpunkt Yogastudien.