Table of Contents
Lecture Series - Early Buddhist Meditation: A Philosophical Investigation
by Steven Egan
This term the Oxford Centre for
Buddhist Studies (A Recognised Independent Centre of the University of Oxford)
wil be presenting a series of five lectures by Dr. Alex
Wynne.
The
lectures take place every Monday, 29 Jan – 26 Feb, at 5.15pm in Lecture Room 1
at the Oriental Institute, Oxford. All are welcome. The lectures
will be recorded and posted on our website in due course.
Early Buddhist Meditation: A
Philosophical Investigation
What is the philosophical basis
of Buddhist meditation? The theory of ‘calm’ (samatha) and
‘insight’ (vipassanā) was the norm in Buddhist India, and
remains standard in modern Theravāda. Other Indian options include
concentration alone and ‘dry insight’; the former is found in some forms of
contemporary Theravāda, whereas recent therapeutic adaptations of mindfulness
depend on the latter.
Going against the general
consensus, these lectures will claim that none of the traditional theories of
spiritual praxis makes sense of early Buddhist philosophy. Instead, it will be
argued that the theory of calm and insight was a non-Buddhist idea which
distorted the original meaning of Buddhist jhāna. In the
earliest form of Buddhist meditation, the four jhānas were
not states of inner concentration, and ‘mindfulness’ (satipaṭṭhāna) was
not a sort of ‘insight’ (vipassanā) meditation.
Through close textual readings
and conceptual analysis, and touching on the early Buddhist philosophies of
mind and personhood, the earliest Buddhist meditation will be re-imagined as a
natural process of absorption (jhāna),
devoid of specific or necessary objects, but enabled by bodily attention (kāya-gatā
sati).
Lectures
1.
Monday January 29th: Conceptual foundations: Sāriputta or Kaccāyana?
2.
Monday February 5th: Māluṅkyaputta
3. Monday February 12th: What
did the Buddha mean by bare cognition’ (viññāṇa-matta)?
4.
Monday February 19th: Jhāna
5.
Monday February 26th: The Gateway
Steven
Egan
Operations
and Development Manager
Oxford
Centre for Buddhist Studies
The OCBS
is a Recognised Independent Centre of the University of Oxford.
