AABS. Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies

On Wednesday 6th April the AABS will host John McRae, Shinnyo-en Visiting Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, at the Woolley Lecture Theatre S325, John Woolley Building, University of Sydney. The presentation will be for an hour from 5.30pm with half an hour afterwards for questions and discussion. OnWe do hope you can attend.

• New evidence for the life and thought of Bodhidharma, founder of Chinese Zen


• It has long been known that the hagiography of Bodhidharma (d. ca. 530), the putative founder of Chinese Chán or Zen Buddhism, evolved radically over time. Indeed, the incredible fluidity of that hagiography has led at least one scholar to suggest that there is no discernable beginning point to the process of legendary fabrication, and that there are no kernels of biographical truth that might be derived from the earliest sources. In this presentation I will re-evaluate the earliest evidence for Bodhidharma's religious identity and thought. It turns out that looking closely and with a fresh perspective at the earliest sources allows us to make important inferences regarding Bodhidharma's historical contributions and those of his immediate disciples. In the process, we will answer the questions of whether Bodhidharma came from Central Asia or southern India, how two of his most important successors both lost a hand to amputation, and how the core philosophical structure of the Two Entrances and Four Practices (the only text potentially attributable to Bodhidharma) relates to contemporary Chinese Buddhist thought and the eventual growth of Chinese Chán/Zen.



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.Fuente. AABS