Dear Colleagues,
This announcement is for a short-term intensive workshop
on vinaya to be led by Professor Ann Heirman of GCBS, Belgium, and organized by
the Woodenfish Project. The Vinaya Workshop will be held at _Sichuan Bhikkhuni
Buddhist College_ in Chengdu, Sichuan.
The workshop begins with a
five-day intensive study of vinaya. This includes an introduction, readings of
textual fragments, and at least one entire day specifically devoted to female
monasticism. This will be followed by a two-day tour of historical Buddhist
sights in Sichuan. The seven-day intensive program will include a monastic life
practicum consisting of daily meditation and chanting. The program is open to
faculty, graduate students as well as advanced undergraduates. In addition,
ordained Buddhist nuns and priests are strongly encouraged to apply.
This
workshop continues the series “Connecting with the Source,” which creates
opportunities to study essential source materials for Buddhism near their places
of origin. The Sichuan Bhikkhuni Buddhist College was the first state-accredited
Bhikkhuni Buddhist College in modern China. The SBBC was founded by the eminent
Ven. Longlian 隆蓮 and built on the site of a Ming Dynasty temple. The College has
a special focus on vinaya. We are very excited about this special opportunity to
study vinaya at the Bhikkhuni College.
Please share this program with all
colleagues or students who might benefit from participation. For those who are
interested and wish to know more, please read the announcement included below,
or visit http://www.woodenfish.org/china/vinaya
Please direct
all questions regarding applications and travel logistics to the workshop
coordinator at woodenfish.vinaya@gmail.com.
Please contact Ven. Yifa, ven.yifa@gmail.com, with any other
questions.
Yours,
Jason Protass
PhD Candidate, Stanford University
- Buddhist Studies
Visiting Researcher, Academia Sinica - Chinese Literature
and Philosophy
Academic Liaison, Woodenfish
Project
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ANNOUNCEMENT:
**Woodenfish
Project: Vinaya Workshop in China led by Professor Ann Heirman**
DATE:
December 28, 2013—January 4, 2014
VENUE: Sichuan Bhikkhuni Buddhist
College (Sichuan Nizhong Foxueyuan 四川尼眾佛學院)
- Buddhist College Website: http://www.nzfxy.org/ (Chinese
only)
Eligibility: Faculty, graduate level and advanced undergraduate
students as well as ordained nuns and female priests of any Buddhist
tradition
Application Deadline: December 1, 2013
To Apply: To
download the application form, please visit our website : http://www.woodenfish.org/china/vinaya
**Course
Introduction:
The Vinaya Workshop will begin with a five day intensive study
of Vinaya at “Sichuan Bhikkhuni Buddhist College” in Chengdu, Sichuan. This will
be followed by a two day tour of historical Buddhist sights in Sichuan. The
Sichuan Bhikkhuni Buddhist College was the first state-accredited Bhikkhuni
Buddhist College in modern China, founded by the Ven. Longlian 隆蓮, with a
special focus on vinaya, and was built on the site of a historic Ming Temple. We
are very excited about this special opportunity to study vinaya together with
practicing bhikkhuni. The seven day intensive program will include a monastic
life practicum including daily meditation and chanting.
Each day during the
five day course covers a different topic. The course begins with a general
introduction to vinaya (disciplinary rules) and an overview of Chinese
developments. In every session texts will be read and discussed. After these
introductions, our focus will be the development and spread of female
monasticism as well as the importance of food and bodily care. More details on
the course curriculum can be found below and on the website http://www.woodenfish.org/china/vinaya
**Schedule:
December
28: Arrival Chengdu, Sichuan
December 29-January 2: Classes and discussions
on vinaya and Monastic Life Practicum
January 3-4: Culture Tour
January 5:
Depart from Chengdu, Sichuan
**Fees:
Accepted applicants must provide
their own transportation to and from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China as well as
$100 (USD) to be used for the purchase of uniforms and a set of monastic bowls.
There are no additional costs for the workshop. Room and board, tuition, and
local transportation costs will be covered by a scholarship for all selected
participants.
**About the Application:
The vinaya workshop accepts
applications from faculty, graduate level, advanced undergraduate students,
monastics, as well as those who have already completed their degrees from any
country. Buddhist nuns and female priests from any Buddhist tradition are
especially encouraged to apply. Applicants from diverse academic disciplines are
encouraged to apply with preference given to those in the fields of East Asian
and Buddhist Studies. Applications will be reviewed by a committee including
Buddhist clergy, scholars, and ordained monastics. Approximately 30 applicants
will be offered admission to this program.
Applications will be reviewed
on a ROLLING BASIS, and decisions will be made within two weeks after
submission. Selection is quite competitive; applicants are encouraged to apply
early to ensure a better chance of admission into the workshop.
**About
Prof. Ann Heirman:
Ann Heirman, Ph.D. (1998) in Oriental Languages and
Cultures, is Professor at Ghent University (Belgium), where she is teaching
Classical and Buddhist Chinese. She has published extensively on Chinese
Buddhist monasticism and the development of disciplinary rules, including Rules
for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi,
2002), The Spread of Buddhism (edited volume with Stephan Peter Bumbacher,
Brill, Leiden, 2007) and A Pure Mind in a Clean Body, Bodily Care in the
Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China (Academia Press, Ghent, 2012,
with Mathieu Torck). At Ghent University, she is president of the Ghent Centre
for Buddhist Studies, an international research centre that focuses on India and
China.
**Detailed Course Syllabus: “Vinaya – Monastic Discipline”
The
course takes five days, each day covers a different topic. The course begins
with a general introduction to vinaya (disciplinary rules) and an overview of
Chinese developments. In each session, texts will be read and discussed. After
these introductions, our focus will be the development and spread of female
monasticism as well as the importance of food and bodily care.
I.
General introduction to vinaya
+ reading of textual fragments
For a study
of the monastic context, we have a wealth of monastic guidelines at our
disposal. A common term for all disciplinary guidelines is vinaya, translated in
Chinese as lü律 – rule or law. All vinaya texts primarily contain practical
rules, rather than theoretical observations. Some compilations can be considered
as key texts for monastic discipline in India, in China, or in both. They
comprise our main sources. On the first day, we will focus on the Indian vinaya
texts. As we will see, most of these survive only in their Chinese translations
– translations that underpinned the formation of Chinese monastic
life.
II. Introduction to Chinese developments
+ reading of
textual fragments; discussion on vinaya development in China
On the basis of
the Indian monastic background, Chinese masters wrote their own compilations,
still deeply influenced by the vinayas, but also strongly attracted to a new
movement, commonly called Mahāyāna, which reached China in the very early stages
of Chinese Buddhism. A central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism is the bodhisattva
figure, ‘a being oriented towards enlightenment’. While the bodhisattva ideal
already appears in so-called birth stories (jātaka) of the Buddha, who in his
many earlier lives – as a bodhisattva – cultivated perfections such as
generosity and morality, in Mahāyāna Buddhism it is believed that there are many
such bodhisattvas, living in a system of countless worlds. These bodhisattvas
can offer help to all living beings. Rules of moral conduct for bodhisattvas
were stipulated and grouped in several Mahāyāna texts.
While Buddhism started
to develop in China, the homeland of the Buddha continued to raise the interest
and curiosity of Chinese Buddhist monks. Several of them even travelled to India
to find texts and experience the Indian Buddhist environment; and some of these
wrote lengthy travel accounts, offering the reader a glimpse into the Indian
monastic world. As we will see, these Chinese authors regularly compare their
Indian experiences with their Chinese background.
Finally, based on many
centuries of vinaya texts and compilations, a new genre started to develop in
China from the eighth century onwards – the so-called ‘rules of purity’, qing
gui清規. While the qing gui clearly rely on earlier compilations of disciplinary
rules, they also constitute an entirely new phenomenon, with their principal aim
being the practical organization of large public monasteries.
III.
Interlude: speech is silver; silence is golden?
In a Buddhist context, three
kinds of acts are to be considered: the acts of body, mind and speech. In this
topic, we focus on acts related to speech, and more particularly ‘speech’ in the
monastic guidelines as they spread from India to China. First, we examine how on
the one hand speech is explicitly allowed by the Indian vinayas, while on the
other hand the same texts also meticulously constrain them. When analyzing the
underlying reasons why vinaya compilers decided to include rules on speech in
the most basic monastic guidelines, two motives come to the fore. First, an act
should not be wrongful. Secondly, it should not transgress proper etiquette.
Secondly, we will focus on early Chinese monastic compendia that supplement the
Indian rules. Again we see that speech is explicitly allowed, though also
carefully restricted. The two motives to do so remain the same: acts should not
be wrongful, nor should they go against exemplary behavior. Still, as we will
see, the way of implementing these motives has considerably changed.
IV.
Female monasticism: development and globalisation
+ reading of textual
fragments
One of the most debated issues in present-day Buddhism is the
question of access of women to a full ordination as a nun (bhikṣuṇī). Of the
three extant ordination traditions – Dharmaguptaka, Theravāda and
Mūlasarvāstivāda, it is only in the first one that both men and women are
accepted without any dispute as fully ordained members of the monastic
community. This situation has given rise to many discussions pleading for a
revival of a full ordination ceremony in all Buddhist traditions. In these
revival movements, special attention goes to several technical questions of
monastic discipline (vinaya). We will focus on these questions, while also
paying attention to the role played by concepts involving gender.
As we will
see, the technical questions, and the debates surrounding them, are not at all
new. Right from the start of the first Buddhist communities, they gradually
gained importance. This process thoroughly influenced the spread and the
survival of the ordination ceremony for women throughout the history of
Buddhism. When returning to the present day, we can demonstrate how the
technical questions of the past still play a major role in discussions on status
of female monastic members of the Buddhist community.
V. Development
of monastic daily life: a few topical matters based on vinaya
a.
Food
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. This was not merely a matter of monastic code. Under the influence of
Mahāyāna, with its strong emphasis on compassion, the monastic discipline was
subjected to an increased moralization. At the same time, we see how the secular
authorities interfered with the monastic discipline on an increasing scale,
until they finally even took it upon themselves to enforce these monastic rules
by including them into the secular law codex. The Daoseng ge, Regulations for
the Daoist and Buddhist Clergy, included in the civil Tang code issued in 637 by
Emperor Taizong, is a prime example.
Based on disciplinary (vinaya) texts,
Chinese commentaries written by vinaya masters, and historical accounts, we will
discuss the development of disciplinary rules on forbidden food in the Buddhist
monastic community. At the beginning, a wrong-doer was a mere offender of the
monastic code. He gradually became a sinner, and finally also a state criminal
(at least in theory).
b. Bodily care
In this final topic, we
study some of the most essential, but often overlooked, objects and practices of
daily life: namely, those relating to bodily care. As with all topics, these
need to be seen in a well-defined context, taking historical and geographical
data into account. The context chosen for this study is the relatively
well-documented environment of the early Buddhist monasteries. Over time,
Buddhist monks and nuns have put painstaking effort into regulating all aspects
of their daily life, thereby defining the identity of the Buddhist
saṃgha.
** About Woodenfish Project, Buddhism in China, "Connecting with
the Source"
Woodenfish Buddhism in China - Connecting with the Source Winter
2013
A Seven Day Vinaya Workshop
led by Professor Ann Heirman
at
Sichuan Bhikkhuni Buddhist College 四川尼眾佛學院
The Woodenfish “Buddhism in
China—Connecting with the Source Program” is a semi-annual program, sponsored by
the Woodenfish Project, that offers faculty, graduate students, and advanced
undergraduates opportunities for direct and intensive engagement with important
historical centers of Chinese Buddhism and culture. Previous programs have
included a Platform Sutra Workshop in Nanhua Temple led by Peter Gregory and a
Guanyin Workshop on Mt. Putuo led by Chün-fang Yü.
From: Jason Avi Protass <protass@stanford.edu>
