miércoles, 31 de julio de 2013

AABS

Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies (AABS)
Two Talks by Venerable Dr Huifeng


Venerable Dr Huifeng will be presenting two papers next week. The first will be the opening seminar for the AABS semester 2 seminar series and the second will be a public lecture at Nan Tien Institute. Details are listed below.

We do hope you can attend.

Kind regards
AABS Executive


AABS seminar: Chiasmic Structure in the Prajñāpāramitā

Time: 5:30–7:00 pm, Tuesday, August 6.
Venue: Room N208, John Woolley Building, University of Sydney (walk down the flight of stairs directly inside the main entrance of the John Woolley Building).

This study examines the early Prajñāpāramitā sūtras through the theory of “chiasmus”. Chiasmic methodology analyses a text into two parallel halves, identifying a complementary “prologue” and “conclusion”, and highlighting the critical “central point”. In this paper, it will be argued that the Prajñāpāramitā was initially composed as a complete chiasmic whole, rather than from accumulated fragmentary parts. Hermeneutically, the core message may be understood more systematically than earlier methods. It proposes “suchness” (tathatā) as the central theme, rather than “emptiness” (śūnyatā). Finally, this study will offer direction for uncovering other cases of chiasmus in early Mahāyāna and Buddhist literature in general, with examples.


Nan Tien Institute Lecture: Meditation Practices in Chinese Buddhism

Time: 10:00am –11:30am, Saturday, 10 August.
Venue: Conference Room, Nan Tien Institute, 180 Berkeley Road, Berkeley, NSW.

Due to the circumstances under which Western culture has contacted Buddhism, “meditation” has become a key topic of interest. Chinese Buddhist meditation practices are conversely relatively unknown in the West. However, Chinese Buddhism and its meditation practices have a long and rich history, which has continued up to the present. This talk will examine Chinese Buddhism in four parts. 1. The deeper underlying doctrinal models which serve as the theory for meditation. 2. The various practices that were brought from India. 3. From these imported forms, several key forms of Sinicized Buddhist meditation, particularly the so-called Chán and Pure Land schools. 4. The situation in modern Chinese Buddhism, which contains not only the classical Sinicized traditions, but also a combination of both revived and new practices. For enquiries on this lecture, please contact Juewei (juewei@nantien.edu.au) or info@nantien.edu.au.


Venerable Dr Huifeng

Venerable Dr Huifeng is originally from New Zealand. Having been introduced to Buddhism at a young age, he committed himself to full time Buddhist practice in the late 1990s, studying at several of Fo Guang Shan Monastery’s Buddhist Colleges and Universities, receiving full ordination in 2004. From 2006 to 2011 he studied first a Masters and then a PhD degree at the University of Hong Kong, with his PhD dissertation entitled “Chiasmus in the Early Prajñāpāramitā: Literary Parallelism Connecting Criticism & Hermeneutics in an Early Mahāyāna Sūtra”. Presently he is an Assistant Professor at Fo Guang University, Ilan, Taiwan, teaching at the Department of Buddhist Studies. His areas of academic focus include Indian Buddhism, in particular early Mahāyāna sūtra and śāstra, translation and hermeneutics, and practices of contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism.