A wandering monk was climbing a mountain alongside a stream, on his way to the Zen monastery at the top, when he noticed a vegetable leaf floating downstream. He thought, "It is just a single leaf, but any place that would waste it cannot be very good," and he turned to go back down the...
A Lecture by Prof. Dr. Klaus Vollmer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich)
Der starke Einfluss des Buddhismus auf Naturverständnis und Esskultur gehörte bis in jüngste Zeit zum festen Bestandteil eines Bildes von der japanischen Kultur, das nicht zuletzt durch bedeutende Vertreter der...
A Lecture by Prof. Kristin Surak, PhD. (University of London)
Nations are made real not only through concrete symbols, icons, and institutions, but also through lived experiences. The tea ceremony, tracing a picaresque history from Buddhist temples through high power politics to arrive in...
A Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman (Ghent University, Belgium)
One of the most distinguishing features of a Chinese monk and nun is the refusal to eat or drink certain types of food: it is forbidden to drink alcohol, to eat meat or fish, or to consume five products that have a strong flavor...
A lecture by Prof. Dr. Max Deeg, Cardiff University / Max-Weber-Kolleg, Universität Erfurt
One of the most often quoted sources on Indian Buddhism but also more generally on medieval India is the “Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang” (Datang Xiyu ji) written by the famous Chinese...
In the presentation Prof. Dr. Sven Trakulhun will examine the interplay between knowledge transfer and the Christian mission in nineteenth-century Siam. From c. 1830 onwards, discussions on religion became a central arena of conflict between rival regimes of knowledge, confronting ‘traditional’...
A Lecture by Prof. em. Dr. Lambert Schmithausen (Hamburg)
Das Thema Nahrung wird in den Texten des frühen Buddhismus vor allem im Hinblick auf die Ordinierten (Mönche und Nonnen) eingehender thematisiert. Sie sollen essen, um ihren Körper gesund zu erhalten: maßvoll und ohne Gier und Anhaften...
Māra, the Evil One, has a very long and exciting career in Buddhist narratives. Represented as a god of the highest abode of the Sensual Heavenly Realms and interpreted as the personification of evil, defilements and death, in the canonical texts he appears as the evil temptation trying again...
Seit gut zehn Jahren haben wir es mit tiefgreifenden Veränderungsprozessen zu tun. Neben einer fortschreitenden Säkularisierung gibt es ein Erstarken von Religion und religiösen Diskursen, vor allem im Blick auf das Judentum, den Islam, den Buddhismus und das Alevitentum, aber auch hinsichtlich...
