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.
