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- LECTURE> Annual Leslie S. Kawamura Memorial
Seminar and Lecture: Bernard Faure
- JOURNAL TOC> Vol. 16 of The Silk Road Now
Available
- CFP> Edges of Freemasonry II - Lived Esotericism
and the Western Modernity (30 August - 1 September 2019, Tampere, Finland)
LECTURE>
Annual Leslie S. Kawamura Memorial Seminar and Lecture: Bernard Faure
by Wendi Adamek
The Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary is pleased to present the Annual Leslie S. Kawamura Memorial Seminar and Lecture, with Prof. Bernard Faure.
Memorial Seminar
Divine Land, Demonic Seas: Another Look at Japanese Religion
Thursday, March 28, 3:30 p.m. SS 527
Until Amino Yoshihiko, most of the histories of Japan have been land-based. By emphasizing sea circuits and non-agricultural production, Amino reminded historians that the Japanese territory is an archipelago. This “maritime view” of Japan is just beginning to change our ways of thinking about Japanese religion. If the Japan Sea can be described as an East Asian Mediterranean of sorts, it is not only as a locus of commercial exchanges: it also held in store the same terrors that the ancient Greeks feared. The sea was not just the enchanted land of beneficent dragon-kings, it was also swarming with monstrous creatures, some of them so powerful that they could shake or decimate the archipelago. As a result, these terrors elicited rituals design to transform monsters into protectors. This paper will examine some of the ambivalent deities that haunted the high sea or the Japanese shores.
Memorial Lecture
Beyond the Hype: Buddhism at the Risk of Neuroscience
Friday, March 29, 7:00 p.m. TFDL Gallery Hall
In the recent past, a number of Western scholars have argued for a need to “naturalize” Buddhism, that is, to rid it from allegedly peripheral elements such as karma, cosmology, ritual, and myth, in order to better focus on the philosophical content of the Buddha’s teaching. What such philosophically-minded scholars would see as a long-overdue purification process, however, others may see as an impoverishment, a form of reductionism. The same debate has been rehearsed, in one way or another, for more than a century. What gives it a renewed urgency is the advent of neuroscience. In particular, its reduction of mind to brain—of mental events to physical phenomena—presents Buddhism with a radical challenge. This paper will explore this challenge and examine the question of the naturalization of Buddhism using a two-pronged approach: a critical assessment of naturalism in general and of neuroscientific naturalism in particular; and a reevaluation of the most recent forms of Buddhist modernism and postmodernism, including the extraordinary success of mindfulness.
About the Speaker:
Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctorat d’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esoteric Buddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory, has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the Buddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His current research deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and its relationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number of books in French and English. His English publications include: The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton 1991), Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition (Princeton 1993), Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism(Princeton 1996), The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality (Princeton 1998), The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender (Princeton 2003), and Double Exposure (Stanford 2004). More recently, he has been writing on Buddhism and neuroscience, and has published two volumes of a four-volume series on Japanese Gods and Demons: The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval Japanese Gods I (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016) and Protectors and Predators: Medieval Japanese Gods II (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016).
For more information call: 403-220-5886
www.ucalgary.ca/numatachair
To receive event notices, send email to numatach@ucalgary.ca
Wendi Adamek
Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies
Department of Classics and Religion
University of Calgary
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, AB Canada T2N1N4
JOURNAL
TOC> Vol. 16 of The Silk Road Now Available
by Justin Jacobs
I am pleased to announce the publication of
Vol. 16 (2018) of The Silk Road, an open-access online journal
published by the Silkroad Foundation.
All articles for the latest issue can be
accessed at: https://edspace.american.edu/silkroadjournal/volume-16/
Recent Excavations of Xiongnu Graves on the Left Bank of
the Ulug-Khem in Tuva
Marina Kulinovskaya and Pavel Leus
Japanese Spies in Inner Asia during the Early Twentieth Century
Jin Noda
Sogdians in Khotan
Zhang Zhan
Caravan Routes East of Chang’an:
Marina Kulinovskaya and Pavel Leus
Japanese Spies in Inner Asia during the Early Twentieth Century
Jin Noda
Sogdians in Khotan
Zhang Zhan
Caravan Routes East of Chang’an:
Iranian Elements in the Buddhist Art of Shandong Province
Li Sifei
On the Northern Branch of the Great Silk Road:
Li Sifei
On the Northern Branch of the Great Silk Road:
A Celadon Dish from the Excavations at Novgorod the Great
Marina Rodionova and Iakov Frenkel’
One Bow (or Stirrup) Is Not Equal to Another:
Marina Rodionova and Iakov Frenkel’
One Bow (or Stirrup) Is Not Equal to Another:
A Comparative Look at Hun and Mongol Military
Technologies
Samuel Rumschlag
Heroes Fighting Snake Demons:
Samuel Rumschlag
Heroes Fighting Snake Demons:
BOOK REVIEWS
- Justin M. Jacobs, Editor (jjacobs@american.edu)
CFP>
Edges of Freemasonry II - Lived Esotericism and the Western Modernity (30
August - 1 September 2019, Tampere, Finland)
by Mikko Kemppainen
Edges of Freemasonry II – Call for Papers – Extended deadline: 5April 2019.
Tampere University will be
hosting a second international Edges of Freemasonry conference on 30
August – 1 September, 2019. This three-day event focuses on the history of
Western esotericism. It aims to study the long-lasting process
of Western modernisation – starting roughly from the 17th and 18th centuries
and ending somewhat to the present day – by exploring fields of esoteric and
masonic traditions as well as other heterodox spiritualities. The conference
brings together scholars from various scientific disciplines, but will also be
open for students and post-graduate students as well as for general public. Edges
of Freemasonry II: Lived Esotericism and the Western Modernity will be a
continuation of the first Edges of Freemasonry conference, which was held
at the Tampere University in 2012. The conference board have the honor to announce that the keynote speakers of the 2019 conference are Professor Joy Dixon (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), Professor Egil Asprem (University of Stockholm), Fabio Venzi (Grand Master of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy) and Architect Msc. Antti Talvitie (Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Finland, Provincial Grand Master of the Royal Order of Scotland). Keynote speakers have published extensively on history of modern Western esoteric and occult ideas as well as on history of Freemasonry.
The thematic aim of the conference is to study the variety of ways in which esoteric currents and ideas have participated in the construction of Western modernity. Our special point of interest is, how esoteric and occult conceptions and identities have become intertwined with the personal and shared experiences of modernity and modern life. In relation to this, we look forward to study the meaning of ritual, experientiality and initiation as part of masonic traditions as well as wider field of modern spiritualities. We also want to emphasize the connections between Western esotericism and modern social and cultural phenomena. In this respect, we are interested in interaction between esoteric ideas and modern emancipatory or counter-cultural policies and identities, Western esotericism as part of transnational and orientalist practices, adapted particularly from Buddhist and Hindu tradition, and the dynamics between esoteric ideas and modern knowledge.
The conference board wants to express gratitude for numerous exiting papers we have received so far. The board has also received inquiries about moving the submission deadline and has decided to extend the Call of Papers. The new deadline is: 5 April 2019. The board welcomes alla scholarly papers considering the topics mentioned above, but will also consider other themes related to the academic study of modern Western esotericism and history of Freemasonry. We kindly ask to send proposals for the conference sessions with an electronic form on the conference website:
http://events.uta.fi/edges2/call-for-papers-2/
The proposals should include contact information, the title of the presentation and a short abstract (400–600 words).
The main organiser of the event is Tampere University´s Faculty of Social Sciences/History Programme in association with Research Lodge Minerva No.27 of the Grand Lodge of F. & A.M. of Finland.
For furher information: https://events.uta.fi/edges2/
On behalf of the conference board,
Mikko Kemppainen, conference secretary
