XVIIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies
August 18 to August 23, 2014
University of Vienna Vienna, Austria

List of Abstracts

XVIIth Congress of the IABS
Material Visions – avijñapti-rūpa in PracticeGreene, Eric (University of Bristol, GBR)
Within many of their major doctrinal treatises, Sarvāstivādins are presented as
defending their doctrinal position on the reality of “unmanifest matter”(avijñapti-rūpa) with reference to, among other things, meditation practice.
Certain visions experienced by advanced meditators are, it is claimed, instancesof avijñapti-rūpa, and this view on the nature of these visions is presented ascontrasting with the position of at least some other doctrinal schools. It is
undeniable that avijñapti-rūpa plays several important roles within theoverarching framework of the Sarvāstivādin doctrinal system. We may wonder,
however, whether the role of avijñapti-rūpa in meditation was something that
had any particular significance within Sarvāstivādin-influenced meditative
traditions themselves. As a step towards answering this question, in this paper I
will explore a number of 5th-century meditation treatises preserved in Chinesethat are either translations of texts associated with the Sarvāstivādin-influenced
yogācāra meditators of North-west India, or which are Chinese developmentsof the practices associated with these groups. Leaving aside the contentious(and, perhaps, ill-phrased and unanswerable) question of whether the doctrineof avijñapti-rūpa originally emerged from meditation practice itself, I will
endeavor to show that within these meditation texts, the doctrinal implicationsof meditative visions being in contact with avijñapti-rūpa is a crucial element of
the meditation system proposed.

Avoiding the Void: Ambivalence toward Samādhi and the Realization of
Emptiness
Jenkins, Stephen (Humboldt State University, GBR)
Ambivalence toward meditation generally and particularly the direct meditative
realization of emptiness played a role in the Mahāyāna’s rhetoric ofsuperiority, practical ethics, and path. Bodhisattvas are told to view samādhi as
an intoxication that undermines compassionate engagement and to avoid it like
Avīci hell. They are particularly warned not to directly realize emptiness asarhat’s do. Bodhisattvas study, analyze, and investigate emptiness, while

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skillfully applying special upāya to avoid its direct realization. Compassion
generating meditation techniques served to prevent the premature "fall into
emptiness" and thus ensure samyaksambodhi. When “acceptance of the nonarising of all dharmas” is achieved by a bodhisattva, Buddhas must intervene torouse them and prevent the cessation of their compassionate activity.
Realization of emptiness was considered ethically problematic, not an
automatic trigger for compassion. The distinctive identity of the Mahāyāna was
not seen in its conception of ultimate reality, but in its ability to ensure theattainment of all the qualities and powers of a Buddha before engaging in its
direct realization.

How Only Buddhists Can Stop Thinking and Get Away with It: A Theoryof ‘The Attainment of Cessation’ (nirodha-samāpatti) in Early Buddhist
Literature
Gethin, Rupert (University of Bristol, GBR)
Since La Vallée Poussin, scholars have tended to read the apparently differing
accounts of the Buddhist path and its goal found in the earliest Buddhist
sources as reflecting the competing voices of those among the Buddha’s early
followers who conceived of meditation primarily in terms of stilling thoughts
and emotions (characterised by especially craving) and those who conceived of
it in terms of acquiring new knowledge and understanding: the mystics versus
the rationalists. Yet, in contrast to other disputed issues adumbrated in the
Nikāya-Āgama literature (such as the status of the ‘person’, intermediate
existence between lives, the nature of the past, present and future), there is noclear trace of such a dispute in early Buddhist scholastic literature. In fact there
is a general agreement on this issue. The present paper argues that the NikāyaĀgama material concerned with the complete stopping of thoughts represents
an attempt to position the Buddhist understanding of meditation and its goal in
relation to the claim of ‘wanderers of other schools’ that simply stopping theactivities of the mind was equivalent to liberation.

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Tibetan Sectarian Polemics and Internalized Polemics in Contemplative
Contexts
Komarovski, Yaroslav (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA)This paper discusses the relationship between contemplative internalization ofpolemical arguments developed by Madhyamaka thinkers and Buddhist
sectarian polemics. Exploring Tibetan sectarian polemics on the process ofrealization of ultimate reality, it outlines two rival positions that seem toadvocate mutually contradictory processes leading to the direct realization ofultimate reality as well as different views on the nature of that realization: theposition of the major Geluk thinker, Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), and that of his
major Sakya critic, Gorampa (1429-1489). Focusing on the issue ofidentification of the object of negation—a target of fierce inter-sectarianpolemics between Geluk and Sakya thinkers—it provides an alternative
perspective on their discordant approaches, arguing that contrary to clichéd
sectarian claims, differences in their approaches pertain primarily toconflicting descriptions of similar conceptual deconstructive processes leading
to the non-conceptual realization of reality. Addressing positions of suchseminal Geluk writers as Jangkya (1717-1786), Lopzang Chögyen (1570-1662),
and Pabongkha (1878-1941), it argues that later sectarian Geluk thinkers tooshared with their non-Geluk opponents the same basic view of the process ofcontemplative identification and subsequent negation of the object of negation
through Madhyamaka reasoning. It thereby demonstrates that the intersectarian polemics—which are directly affected by adherence to specific tenetsof sectarian traditions—do not in this case translate into the “internalized
polemics” wherein Madhyamaka arguments are put into contemplative practiceof searching for and not finding the object of negation—a process often deemed
indispensable for realization of emptiness to take place.

Realisation as an Argument to End all Arguments
Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DNK)
In my paper I will argue that the experience arising from “meditative practise”(sgom pa, Skr. bhavanA) is used by the Tibetan bKa’-brgyud-pa master ‘Jig-

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rten-gsum-mgon (1143-1217) precisely in so far as an argument, as it
ultimately — when it becomes realisation — ends all arguments, including —and that is the interesting point — all arguments arising from meditative
experience and realisation. He has expressed this point in the view-practiseconduct chapter of his dGongs gcig when he stated that “even the Great Three”— dbu ma chen po, phyag rgya chen po, and rdzogs pa chen po — “cannot
reach/touch realisation,” indicating that actual realisation lies beyond anythingthat could be labeled in any way.

Reflections on the Lama Wearing Trousers, Global Media and theScientific Authentification of Buddhist Art
Bayer, Achim (Dongguk University, Seoul, KOR)
In September 2012, global news sources reported the discovery of an allegedly
Tibetan meteorite-iron statue. Widely considered a witness of a mysterious preBuddhist civilization of Tibet, more than a thousand years old, the statue madea shooting-star career on the title pages of international media. In addition to
the combined notions of remoteness and ancientness, the statue hinted at amysterious technical superiority, with the tools to chisel metal of this hardness
supposedly unknown in those archaic times.
While the material of the statue had been identified by a team of geologists andplanetologists as being of meteoric origin, stemming from a meteor that went
down in the Mongolian-Sibirian borderlands, the statue can stylistically be
identified as a typical twentieth-century imitation of Tibetan art. From theperspective of our field, this media event is just as anachronistic as it isinstructive. It reveals the ongoing force of the Myth of Tibet and ancient Asia,
while the absence of experts from our field in public discourse reveals muchabout a lesser-known satellite to the Myth of Tibet: the Myth of Tibetology, oreven of Asian Studies as a whole. At the same time, this event raises questions
about the processes of authentification and falsification in the contemporary
assessment of antique Asian art.

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Questions of Authenticity: Buddhist art from Gandhara and Tibet
Luczanits, Christian; Snellgrove, David L. (Senior Lecturer in Tibetan andBuddhist Art at SOAS)
It is well known in the scholarly community that today the market in Gandharanart is flooded with pieces of doubtful authenticity, but the degree to which this is
the case is contested. On the other hand, there is little awareness so far, thatsimilar issues can also be found with early Tibetan art. Although playing amajor role in art historical work, issues of authenticity may be taught in an
academic context and discussed at conferences, but for legal reasons are rarely
published unless they have been in a museum collection for considerable time.
Given the complexity of the issues involved in revealing such objects, this fact is
deplorable and results in the frequent publication of problematic pieces.
In my panel contribution I will present a selected group of objects of doubtful
authenticity challenging common suppositions concerning their upcoming, theirartistic quality, and the reliability of technical analyses to prove the authenticity
of an object. There are also objects the authenticity of which cannot be decidedwith the available possibilities of access and technical means. In addition, someexamples of early Tibetan art raise the question of the limits of authenticity
itself.

The Mystery of the Meteorite Statue Solved?
Engelhardt, Isrun (Icking, GER)
Achim Bayer has convincingly demonstrated that the statue cannot be morethan one hundred years old. It also does not seem to be of Tibetan origin.
Contrary to some speculations (based apparently on the presence of theswastika), it is highly unlikely that it was acquired by the Schäfer expedition in
1939. It is not listed in their meticulous records, in which each of the more than2000 purchased objects and gifts (with the names of the donor) are listed withdate, place, and price. Furthermore, the meteorite from which it was made wasfound more than 2000 kilometers from Lhasa, near the Siberian-Mongolia
border in Tannu Tuva. Yet, despite the lack of any credible connection to
Schäfer, blogs with titles like “Nazi-found Buddhist statue” or “Ancient statue

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the Nazis stole,” dominate the web, overshadowing the findings of serious
research.
In an effort to advance the research of scholars such as Achim Bayer, this paper
will argue that this statue depicts a historical person of the 20th century. Thishypothesis will be supported by both textual and visual evidence. However,further questions remain, including where the statue was made and how it foundits way to Europe. The paper will conclude with speculations on thesequestions.

The Hongwu Southern Canon in the Beibei Library: Authentic or False?
Long, Darui (University of the West, Rosemead, CA, USA)The Catalogue of Rare Chinese Books published by the Shanghai gujichubanshe in 1996 lists a number of extant editions of the Chinese Buddhist
canon. One of them is the Hongwu nanzang (洪武南藏, Hongwu Southern
Canon). The catalogue indicates that three libraries in China keep this rare
edition of the Buddhist canon: The Sichuan Provincial Library (四川省圖書館)in Chengdu has an almost complete set, while the sets in the Beibei Library in
Chongqing (重慶北碚) and the Hunan Provincial Library (湖南省圖書館) are
incomplete.
The Catalogue of Rare Chinese Books was a project sponsored by the Chinese
government in 1978, aimed at assessing the extant rare books in Chinese
libraries after the destructions of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
However, due to limited facilities and conditions, librarians were not able tocollect all “treasured books” in order to identify them. Additionally, as could
be expected, the catalogue contained various mistakes.
The results of my research on the Hongwu Southern Canon were first publishedin The East Asian Library Journal, Princeton University, 2000. Afterwards, I
visited Beibei Library twice, in 2005 and in 2010. My photos of the so-called
Hongwu Southern Canon were then kindly evaluated by Mr. Peng Bangming,
curator of the rare books section of the Sichuan Provincial Library, whichhouses an authentic print of the Hongwu Southern Canon. He immediately

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recognized and identified that the Beibei collection canon was printed fromdifferent woodblocks.
In 2011, I visited Tianjin Library and examined their collection of the Yongle
Southern Canon. The photographs I took on that occasion clearly indicate that
the Tianjin Library prints of Yongle Southern Canon are identical to thesouthern canon kept in the Beibei Library.
A colophon in the Beibei collection canon shows that the previous ownerpurchased the prints in the sixth year of Emperor Wanli, i.e. 1578, even though
the woodblocks of the Hongwu Southern Canon were destroyed 172 years
earlier, in 1406. After the destruction, Emperor Chengzu (r. 1403 – 1424)
decided to engrave a new set of woodblocks in the same format as the one
destroyed. This set was later called the Yongle Southern Canon because it was
engraved in the Yongle period (1403 – 1424), in the “southern capital,”
Nanjing. Even though prints from both block sets look similar, there aredifferences.
It seems that even experts at times confound these two distinct editions. I would
like to present some evidence showing that they are demonstrably different andthat, consequently, the Beibei collection houses a Yongle Southern Canon, andnot a true Hongwu Southern Canon.

‘Ho! King, you ought to build a vihara here.’ Connecting foundation
legends and Buddhist monasteries in Khotan
Forte, Erika (Käthe Hamburger Kolleg, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany)
The archaeological material in the oasis of Khotan has provided significant
traces of the tradition of representing Buddhist legends in Khotanese artistic
production: an overall common practice in the visual culture of Buddhist Asia.
This paper will concentrate on the extant visual evidence of accounts that are
specifically related to the history of the kingdom of Khotan.
Depictions of Khotanese local legends have been found from a number of
Buddhist ruins during the pioneering expeditions in the Tarim Basin at the8

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beginning of the 20th century. Previous research succeeded in identifying the
subject of some of these paintings, drawing on Buddhist literary sources fromand on Khotan. However, the archaeological context of the materials and thechronological attribution of the various sites is rarely clear, leaving thismaterial with many questions unanswered.
The revival of investigations in Khotan in the last decade offers a valuable
starting point for gaining a new understanding of already known evidence inthe light of recently discovered material — within a now firmer archaeologicalcontext. This paper will analyse the material from a group of Buddhist
structures (7th-10th c.) recently uncovered near Domoko, in southeastern
Khotan. It will be shown that the pictorial evidence of this site alludes to a
specific legend on the origin of a famous monastery founded by the royals of
Khotan, and that the painting thus suggests a direct association between thisBuddhist structure and the Khotanese royal family.

Mara’s Monsters and the Faces of Fear
Karetzky, Patricia (Bard College, NYC, USA)
Since the earliest scriptural descriptions, the army of Mara, deity of death anddesire, the opponent to Shakyamuni’s enlightenment, embodied the basic
impediments to meditation — lust, discontent, hunger, thirst, desire, sloth,
drowsiness, cowardice, doubt, hypocrisy, stupor, gain, fame and celebrity — asdescribed in such early scriptures as the Dhammapada. In the Kushan era,
contact with other cultural and religious traditions had an impact on the natureof Mara’s army which became more numerous, complex, monstrous andmilitant. The extended narrative in the later texts comprised a tri-prong attackof Mara’s sensuous daughters, his seductive words, and finally a martial attack.
This transition is apparent in the arts, beginning with the bas relief sculpturesat Sanchi (first century) in central India and culminating in those created byKushan artists in Gandhara comprising northwestern India and parts ofmodern Pakistan and Afghanistan (first to fourth century). These demonic
soldiers, a truly awful embodiment of fear, appear in one of the most popular
images of the life of the Buddha, the scene of the Enlightenment which traveled
east along the Silk Route to China and the Far East. This paper will trace theorigins and development of the depictions of Mara’s monsters in India and view
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their representations along the Silk Route with the goal of analyzing the visual
representation of fear in Buddhist art.

The Transmission of Buddhist Astral Science from India to East Asia –The Gandharan and Central Asian Connections
Mak, Bill (Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN)
Among the bodies of auxiliary knowledge Buddhist missionaries brought into
East Asia which had a lasting impact on the local cultures was the astralscience, comprising a broad range of related subjects such as cosmology,
astronomy, calendrics, astrology and the worship of astral deities. Thisparticular body of knowledge, though somewhat frowned upon in the vinaya
and the early Buddhist texts, was nonetheless highly esteemed in all ancient
cultures, and was widely adopted and propagated among the Buddhists
themselves. The great interest in the subject was evinced also by the fact thatdetailed accounts of the subject found their way into a number of key Sanskrit
Mahāyāna texts, as well as their Chinese translations such as theŚārdūlakarṇāvadāna, the Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra and Amoghavajra's Xiuyao
jing. A comparison of the Indian astral science and the East Asian version of it,
both textually (as presented in the Chinese Buddhist translations) andiconographically, however, reveals some key differences between the two. In my
paper, I will examine whether these differences may be attributed to Gandhāraninfluences. Iconographically, some of the developments not yet fully accounted
for include the representation of zodiacal signs (most notably Gemini and
Virgo) and the planetary deities. Textually, my focus will be on the threechapters of the Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra which contain substantial astralreferences, and had been considered by scholars to be Central Asian andGandhāran interpolations.

The Cult of Śākyamuni and Its Centrality at Dunhuang
Schmid, Neil (Beijing, CHN)

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Discussions of religious life in medieval China generally stress the demise ofŚākyamuni’s role in cultic worship. Research on Buddhist ritual, texts, doctrine,and visual culture during the medieval era maintains worship of Śākyamuni
peaked in the Northern Wei (386-535) and declined in favor of the “cult ofMaitreya” 彌勒信仰, “cult of Mañjuśrī” 文殊信仰, “cult of Amitābha” 阿彌陀
信仰, “cult of Avalokiteśvara” 觀音信仰, and other cosmic buddhas. However,a close analysis of Dunhuang ritual and narrative manuscripts demonstrate anequivalent "cult of Śākyamuni" dominated daily religious life during the Tangand Song periods. Worship of Śākyamuni at Dunhuang was specificallyconfigured around his life as a mundane historical figure in pre-Maurya India.
Furthermore, this life was elaborated through a complex yet highly coherent
network of textual genres such as narratives (yinyuan 因緣), poetry, and ritualtexts (lichan wen 禮懺文, jiangjing wen 講經文, etc.), ritual practices, together
with a wealth of cultural and visual resources as exemplified in the Dunhuang
grottoes themselves. Such a consistent set of materials did not originate abnihilo but rather stems from a set of canonical texts, namely the Xiuxing benqi
jing 修行本起經, T184; the Taizi ruiying benqi jing 太子瑞應本起經, T185;
Yichu pusa benqi jing 異出菩薩本起經, T188; and the Guoqu xianzai yingguo
jing 過去現在因果經, T189. This paper defines the corpus of textual, visual,and ritual resources at Dunhuang that characterize this cult, elaboratesŚākyamuni's centrality in medieval religious life, and demonstrates how theselater developments at Dunhuang clarify earlier traces of Śākyamuni's cult inCentral Asian materials as a continuous and highly delineated Buddhist
tradition that extends from Gandhāra to medieval China.

An Aristocrat Sasanian Female as Devotee of Buddhism
Schmidt, Carolyn (The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA)
During the Archaeological Survey of India, Frontier Circle, season of 1909-10,
David Brainerd Spooner recovered, from Mound B at Sahrī-Bāhlol, a circa 163
centimeter, independently sculpted, schist figure of a haloed female dressed in
Sasanian attire. In addition to elaborate jewelry, this figure is adorned with ahigh-rising Sasanian hairstyle displaying an ordered row of forehead ringlets
bracketed by a single ringlet curl before each ear, and a diadem secured by
Sasanian-style pleated ribbons. In her hands she holds a portable shrine that is11

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believed to have originally held an image of a Buddha. Portrayed on the
figure’s base are the head and shoulders of what appears as the genius loci, orEarth Goddess raising her arms and hands as if to support the ornately adorned
female. Spooner concluded that there could not be a more immortalizing motif
for a reigning monarch. He described her as extraordinary and new toarchaeology in the northwest. To the present, this figure remains unique to theGandhāran Buddhist tradition and is, perhaps, the finest attestation of Sasanianroyal patronage extant.
This aristocratic image is presented with the same sense of hieratic formality,
weightiness, and scale as the major second and third century stone images
fashioned in the Buddhist genre of Sahrī-Bāhlol, Mound B, and of Takht-i-Bāhī.
Comparisons among a number of almost identical sculpted details used for
Bodhisattvas recovered from these sites leave no doubt that all are products ofthe same time and atelier. These facts offer invaluable insight into the regional,
relative, stylistic chronology that postdates the rise to power of the SasanianKing Shapur I (r. 240/42–270/72).
As this female image is uninscribed, her identity is not known. Her
iconographic features, however, are indicative of authority and a level oftransmundane status. Research suggests that her jeweled diadem, ornamented
on the right and left sides with two crescent moons with vertical projections
rising from their centers, once displayed a larger version of this moon motif at
center front as its most prominent feature. Unfortunately, the crescent moon
motif with vertical projection remains enigmatic.
The archaeological record indicates that the companion figure to the female
was that of an aged monk, who also held a portable shrine. This pairing of anaristocratic Sasanian female devotee with a monk devotee recalls the painted
pair of images found on the interior sidewalls of a diminutive niche from TapaKalān, Hadda (Musée Guimet, no. MG 21810), although no direct relationshipbetween these pairs can be demonstrated.
While many Sasanian artifacts and documents attest to the important roles
women played in Sasanian society, the role of females of Sasanian ethnicity as
devotees of Buddhism is largely unstudied. This on-going effort is intended to
draw increased attention to, and provide new insights into, the role of female
Sasanian patronage and its influence on the transmission of cultural values and

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Buddhist traditions both eastward and westward during the vibrant andturbulent period of Sasanian hegemony.

Examining an Early Manuscript Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa: A Case
Study of Sogdian Buddhist Scribe An Hongsong (安弘嵩) in Early 5th C.
Tsui, Chunghui (Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, CHN)
In the collection of the National Library in Beijing, one existing Buddhist
manuscript, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa fascicle 55 (大智度論卷第 55),
came from the Dunhuang library cave with the inscription of a Sogdian scribe
named An Hongsong. According to their record, the manuscript was dated the“Six Dynasties” (ca. 3rd － 6th century CE). The colophon is written as:“Dharma Master Huirong’s text, copied by Bhiksu An Hongsong”. However, it
is not dated, nor is there any other related biographical information on Bhiksu
An Hongsong.
Since the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa was translated by Kumārajīva in 405
CE, the manuscript should be a copy from after 405 CE. Coincidently, anothersection of the same manuscript, the 59th fascicle of the same sūtra, records that
it was copied by the same monk, An Hongsong.
Based upon a detailed examination and analysis of the calligraphic style fromthe dated Buddhist manuscripts and stone inscriptions before 500 CE, the paper
first discovers the evidence for dating the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa
manuscriptby the Sogdian Buddhist monk. It is probably the earliest existing
Chinese Buddhist manuscript written by Sogdian monks to date. Secondly, it
explores the important role of early foreign scribes, from Central Asia to China,
Buddhist monk scribes who also specialized in writing bilingually or in multilanguage scripts.

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Buddhist Women during the Kuṣāṇa Empire (Afghanistan and Northwest
India) According to Kharoṣṭhī Donor Inscriptions
Walter, Mariko (Association for Central Asia & Silk Road Studies, Cambridge,
USA)
Women in northwest India and the region currently called Afghanistan under
the Kuṣāṇa Empire were very active Buddhist donors, according to Kharoṣṭhī
donor inscriptions. They owned some property and had the financial means todonate a Buddhist statue or lion capitals for a Buddhist stūpa, for example. The
inscriptions tell us that typically women as daughters, wifes, or mothers
concerned with their family donated goods to Buddhist monasteries and stūpas
in order to accumulate merit for the wellbeing of their family members.
There are mainly two different kinds of script used for the early Buddhist
inscriptions: Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī. Brāhmī inscriptions were found in a wide
range of time and geographical regions in India and Central Asia. Among the1726 Brāhmī inscriptions studied mostly by Lüder and others, there arecountless examples of women’s involvement in Buddhist donations. These
women were wives, mothers, sisters, elderly nuns (therī), ordained women(samanikī), Bhikṣunī, as well as women disciples of well-known scholar monks.
Here I discuss mainly Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions, as their dates correspond with thetime of the Kuṣāṇa Empire, and the inscriptions written in northwestern Prakritin the Kharoṣṭhī script are mainly found in the region under the Kuṣāṇa
Empire. Most of the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions used here were published by Sten
Konow in 1929. Konow studied about 109 inscriptions in total, which weredated within the four hundred years from towards the end of the first century
BCE to c.315 CE. But the majority of his inscriptions were dated around thefirst or second century CE, around the time of Kaniṣka I, during the peak of theKuṣāṇa Empire.
The overall impression of the women’s position in north India and Afghanistan
gained from the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions is quite positive. Women owned property
and wealth, and they were actors of their own religious decisions such as
Buddhist donations. This active participation of women in religious acts is very
different from the typical negative views regarding women in the Brahmanicaltradition or early Buddhist texts, which often emphasize the passiveness,greediness, and evil nature of women, although other Buddhist texts tend toinclude both positive and negative aspects of women’s nature as perceived bymen. For example, the Fo-shuo yü-yeh-nu ching (T2,863c-864c, unknown
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Central Asian translator, 265-316 CE) and the Yü-yeh -nu ching (T865c-867a,
translated by T’an-wu-ch’en, c. 381-395) talk about the three evil qualities andfour virtues of women. When the Buddha expounded on this teaching, Princess
Yü-yeh (Sujata) choose to be a slave-like woman to serve her husband.
In contrast, women in Gandharan and greater Gandharan regions seem to havebeen respected as vital family members. Even the donations initiated byhusbands or fathers tend to include wives and daughters as donors in theinscriptions, as for instance in the case of a Greek local general in Taxila:“...the Meridarkh, together with his wife, the stūpa was established, in honourof (his) mother and father, for the presentation of a respectful offering”. (Notethat “mother” comes before “father”). Thus the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions seem toindicate relative gender equality and women’s freedom in religious
participation in contrast to the early Buddhist texts, which usually reflect the
male authors’ aspirations in Indian society of that time.

The Transformed-Buddha Figures in the Aura – The Transmission from
Gandhāra to Central China
Zhu, Tianshu (University of Macau, Macau, MAC)
Depicting small emanated Buddha figures in the aura is a convention of
Buddha/bodhisattva images commonly seen in Buddhist art. However theoverall history of this motif is poorly studied. This motif was derived from
Gandhâran Buddhist art of the late third and fourth centuries (e.g. the Buddha
image on the upper left corner on the Mohammed Nari stele). It was thendeveloped in the Khotan area (e.g. sculpture R13 found at Rawak and publishedby Stein in 1907), reached Kucha area (e.g. the well-known cosmological
Buddha painting in Kizil 17), and became prevalent in central China after the
mid-fifth century (e.g. the colossal Buddha statues in Yungang Cave 20 andLongmen Cave 19). Images with emanated figures in the aura from Gandhâra
are traditionally identified as the Śrâvastî Miracle. I argue that this motif
represents the nirmâṇabuddha (transformed-Buddha) concept which isfundamental in Mahâyâna doctrine-- a Buddha transforms intonirmâṇabuddhas to save sentient beings in the ten directions. Gandhâra wasinstrumental in the spread of Buddhism in central Asia and eastern Asia.
However, among the exclusive features of Gandhâran Buddhist art, what
actually generated an enduring impact on a large scale in eastern Asian15

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Buddhist art is this convention of representing Buddhist images, not the
Gandhâran style or any specific iconography. The main task of this study is tomap out the transmissions and transformations of this motif in different areas incentral Asia and central China. A successful transmission of a concept or animage is often simply described as “influence.” This study aims to go beyond
the concept of influence and examine the mechanism of such transmission. In
the case of the transformed-Buddha figures, I found three aspects that are
critical. First, the Gandhâran influence is not simple linear, and in every region
this motif has developed its own unique features that depart far from its source.
Consequently, the Gandhâran influence in a location can be direct, but most of
the time it is indirect through variations developed in other regions. Second, theoriginal meanings may have been altered or detached from the visual
representation in the process of transmission. Third, a foreign element
flourished in a new environment maybe because it resonated with pre-existing
indigenous belief systems. In short, the study, although it focuses on one motif,
ultimately enriches our understanding of the significance of GandhâranBuddhist art and the working of Buddhist transmission in different areas.

The “Jātaka-Avadānas” of the Avadānaśataka – An Exploration of Indian
Buddhist Narrative Genres
Appleton, Naomi (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, GBR)
While the definition of “jātaka” as a story of a past life of the Buddha is fairly
widely accepted, finding an equally acceptable definition of “avadāna” issomewhat harder. Scholars have talked of avadānas as stories of heroic deeds,
stories of arhats, of anybody except the Buddha, or of karmicly significant
deeds and their fruits. Some of these definitions deliberately oppose jātaka andavadāna while others allow the possibility of a story belonging to both genres.
It would seem that any understanding of these two generic terms must include
an understanding of the relationship between them.
In this paper I will use the second decade of the Avadānaśataka, which contains
ten stories of episodes in the Buddha’s past lives, to explore the definitions ofthese two genres. The stories are jātakas (that is to say, stories of the past livesof the Buddha) and they exhibit certain features of that genre familiar from, forexample, the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā and Mahāvastu. However, other features, suchas their focus upon karmic fruition, mark them out from these jātakas, and their
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presence in an avadāna collection forces us to reflect upon what it might mean
to be both a jātaka and an avadāna.
During my paper I will ask which features of the “jātaka-avadānas” of the
Avadānaśataka can be viewed as “jātaka-like” and which as “avadāna-like”,
and what this might tell us about the text and its wider context. By exploringsuch aspects as chronology, progression, the presence/absence of buddhas, theperfections, the role of karma and the identity of the protagonist, I will attempt
to construct meaningful definitions of the genres that might work beyond theboundaries of this particular text and its school. At the same time I will argue
that it is in the very process of questioning and challenging definitions of genrethat generic categories can become most useful as scholarly tools.

Avadānas and the Kitchen Sink in My Suitcase
Lenz, Timothy (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)The slippery term avadāna at times seems to whirl in its own corner of saṃsāra,stuck in a perpetual dance with karma and rebirth. But as pointed out recently,
the avadāna view derived from previous studies of published and unpublishedavadāna and jātaka collections, including the Pali Jātakāṭṭhavaṇṇanā and
Apadāna, and the Sanskrit Avadānaśataka and Divyāvadāna is not readily
applicable to the small corpus of Gandhāran avadānas represented in the
British Library Collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts. In ancient Gandhāra, atleast in the region around present-day Haḍḍa, the proposed find spot of the
British Library documents, the meaning of the term avadāna must have been far
more inclusive than ones generally attributed to it by modern-day scholars. By
considering a fairly diverse selection of texts, including the Nīya documents, it
is possible to zero in on the meaning of avadāna as it pertains to 1st or 2nd
century avadānas in a specific location (Haḍḍa) and in a specific linguistic
milieu (Gāndhārī).

The Vicissitudes of Long-Distance Travel: An avadāna Takes to the Road
Muldoon-Hules, Karen (UCLA Extension/UCLA, Los Angeles, USA)

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How elastic can a genre be? This paper examines variant versions of the Virūpā
avadāna found in India, Central Asia and China. Starting with the Sanskrit
version in the Avadānaśataka (Avś 80), the paper compares it to a set of seven
Central Asian fragments of this avadāna first identified by Else Lüders (SHT1186). These were later re-examined by Waldschmidt, who provided an
important corrective to Lüders’ interpretation.
In addition, two Chinese versions of the Virūpā avadāna are known. One
appears in the Chinese Avś, Zhuanji baiyuan jing (撰集百縁経,T. 200) asavadāna 79 instead of 80, this change in position being just one of a number ofstriking differences between the Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the Avś thatwere noticed by Bagchi and a series of Japanese scholars, leading to a fuller
comparison by Demoto. A second Chinese version of Virūpā’s tale appears in
the late 5th century compendium, the Za bao zang jing (雜寶藏經, T. 203),
which shows yet more variations.
The shifts in content as this tale reappears in each new environment
demonstrate just how flexible the avadāna genre can be. The shifting content of
the Virūpā avadāna in microcosm set alongside the considerable differences
between the Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the Avś in macrocosm and theGandhāran evidence suggest another possible mode of trans-Asiantransmission.

Adapting Jātaka and Avadāna in Nineteenth-Century Tibet: Shabkar’s
Marvelous Emanated Scripture
Pang, Rachel (University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN)
Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781-1851) was one of the most celebrated poetsaints in Tibetan Buddhist history. A prolific author, his Collected Works total
fourteen volumes. One of the most interesting but understudied aspects of
Shabkar’s writings is a series of nine “emanated scriptures.” Inspired by thelegend of a series of emanated scriptures transmitted to Tsongkhapa (13571419) by the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī in a dream-vision, Shabkar essentiallyinvents a new Tibetan Buddhist literary genre in the nineteenth century bycomposing “emanated scriptures” of his own. In these nine works, Shabkar

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takes classic Buddhist ideas and presents them in a way that is eloquent, easy
to understand, and applicable to the everyday lives of his audience. In thehighly conservative culture of Tibetan Buddhism, Shabkar's works
demonstrate a remarkable freedom and flexibility in its use and deployment ofliterary genre.
In his Marvelous Emanated Scripture (Tib. ngo mtshar sprul pa’i glegs bam),Shabkar recounts both jātaka and avadāna in order to explain classic
Mahāyāna Buddhist concepts (such as renunciation, compassion, lovingkindness, bodhicitta, and the six pāramitās) and to demonstrate how his
audience can and should incorporate Buddhist teachings into their quotidian
lives. This essay will examine: (1) the ways in which the jātaka and avadāna in
Shabkar's text are similar to and different from their original forms in SouthAsia, and (2) the ways in which he adapted these classic Buddhist genres to suitthe needs of his nineteenth-century Tibetan audience in his Marvelous
Emanated Scripture.

Stories of Self-Sacrifice in the Pannasa Jataka: Jatakas or Avadanas?
Sheravanichkul, Arthid (Department of Thai, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, THA)This paper studies the stories of self-sacrifice in the Pannasa Jataka, acollection of non-classical jatakas that has been widespread in the mainland
Southeast Asian Buddhist tradition since the fifteenth century CE. Many stories
seem to have an Indian origin. Some are considered avadanas and others
jatakasin their Indian context, but they are all perceived as ‘jataka’ in Thai
Theravada Buddhist context and can function as other local genres, e.g.
anisamsa, a genre of Thai Buddhist literature in which the benefit of
meritorious acts, especially giving is explained.
The paper also reconsiders the categories used by some scholars to identify the
Indian gift-of-the-body stories as jatakas or avadanas, such as thepresence/absence of Buddhism in the stories, the bodhisatta’s moral/ devotional
acts, and the definition of Dana-paramita (the Perfection of Giving) as
conveyed in the stories. The stories of self-sacrifice in the Pannasa Jataka from19

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Southeast Asia will be taken into consideration with the hope that this might
give us a wider view in understanding the ‘genre’ of these stories.
This study is therefore an attempt to open up questions about how South Asian
generic categories of narratives were reinterpreted in different regions.

The Uses of Critical Examination and Independent Reasoning/Analysis in
the Self-Diction of Early Indian Buddhist Literati
Eltschinger, Vincent (Institut für Kultur und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, Wien,
AUT)
The Buddhist poet Aśvaghoṣa (early 2nd century CE?) often represents the(future) Buddha as subordinating rational choice in religio-philosophicalmatters to a critical examination (parīkṣā, vicāra, etc.) of the competingsalvational systems (especially Sāṅkhya). This picture is part of the poet’s wider
concern with the bodhisattva as challenging allegedly deceptive systems andconverting their representatives (Arāḍa Kālāma, Subhadra). But as the works ofAśvaghoṣa (the Buddhacarita and the Saundarananda) themselves clearlytestify, the notion of parīkṣā plays a prominent role in early Indian Buddhist
literature of both polemical and “meditational” intent. On the one hand, theYogācārabhūmi (early 4th century CE?) makes critical examination theessential concern of its polemics against “allodoxies” (Sāṅkhya, Jainism,
Sarvāstivāda, materialism, etc.) and a key component of its definition of logic
and dialectics (hetuvidyā, vāda). On the other hand, meditational handbooks
such as Saṅgharakṣa’s Yogācārabhūmi (early 2nd century CE?) and the socalled Yogalehrbuch allot a central place to parīkṣā while describing theintellectual practices and the (early?) career of a bodhisattva. In these andother texts, critical examination through independent and value-free reasoning
is made the condition of the Buddha’s paradigmatic experience and thedefining, exclusive characteristic of Buddhism. The aim of this paper is toinquire into the semantics and the pragmatics of parīkṣā in Indian Buddhist
literary works from the 1st half of the 1st millenium CE and to assess the role
played by it in the Buddhists’ self-diction and apologetic endeavours. At thesame time, the paper will provide an intellectual genealogy of the Buddhist
epistemologists’ uses of parīkṣā—a characteristic component of so many of
their works’ or chapters’ titles—, reasoning, and the means of valid cognition
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(pramāṇa). There are good reasons to believe that what Sara McClintock hasvery aptly described as the late Buddhist philosophers’ “rhetoric of reason”
was already a central concern to Aśvaghoṣa and his contemporaries.

The Functioning of Performatives in the Rhetoric of Chinese Tiantai and
Huayan Texts
Kantor, Hans-Rudolf (Huafan University, Taipei, TWN)
Rhetoric and linguistic strategy are essential components in the “deconstructive
practice” (po 破) of “contemplation” (guan 觀) expounded by the Chinese
Tiantai Buddhists, as well as in the textual pragmatics developed by the Chinese
Huayan masters.
The two Buddhist schools stress the importance of our insight into, orawareness of, the “inseparability of truth and falsehood” (zhenwang buli 真妄不離) concerning the way we relate to and exist in our world. The
epistemological sense of such inseparability coincides with the ontologicallevel, because both the present world and the way we exist in it are dependent
upon our epistemic stance in relation to it. Our full awareness of inseparability
evolves a dynamic which, paradoxically, consists in constantly differentiating
our own constructions from that which really or truly sustains ourconceptualizing activity. The Chinese term for that dynamic awareness is called“subtle awakening” (miaowu 妙悟), disassociating us from the deceptive force
of all falsehood without really and completely nullifying falsehood itself. The
course of practice and cultivation that entails all this also embraces insight on
the basis of discursive analysis expounded in the Tiantai treatises on“contemplation,”and the Huayan works of Sūtra interpretation. However, thespecific feature of those texts is their rhetoric, as well as their linguistic andcompositional strategies used to trigger the dynamics of our awareness. In
other words, the text itself performs what it signifies in the specific sense thatthe way in which it talks about “contemplation” itself exemplifies the sense of“contemplation.”The same applies to the Huayan discussions of “trueemptiness” (zhenkong 真空). In an operational manner, the rhetoric that
constitutes or informs the performatives in those texts is crucial to therealization and presentation of the meanings and the sense as a whole. The

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present paper intends to describe, analyze, and compare the rhetorical forms of
those performatives and their functioning, by examining selected passages from
Zhiyi’s (538-597) Tiantai texts Mohe zhiguan and Fahua xuanyi, and the
Huayan work Huayan fajie xuanjing traditionally ascribed to Dushun (557640).

When Argument Becomes Perfume: Audience, Persuasion, and Spiritual
Cultivation in Kamalaśīla’s Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā
McClintock, Sara (Emory University, Atlanta, USA)The title of this talk borrows from a phrase from a famous verse near the startof the text that has come down to us with the title of Bodhicaryāvatāra
attributed to the ninth-century Indian Buddhist scholar-practitioner Śāntideva.
In the verse, Śāntideva maintains that the following treatise contains nothing
new, nothing that has not already been taught before. In addition, he also
exhibits his modesty by claiming to have no particular gifts when it comes to thecomposition of treatises. For these reasons, he says, he has not undertake towrite the Bodhicaryāvatāra for the sake of others, but rather what motivates his
composition of the text is his desire to “perfume” (vāsayitum) his own mind.
A similar verse can be found at the outset of Kamalaśīla’s
Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā. Although the language of perfuming is absent, theparallel construction is striking. Here, we hear the eighth-century thinker
Kamalaśīla similarly claim neither to be clever enough to state something newnor to be writing explicitly for others. Instead, he states that he undertakes thiswork in order to familiarize himself with reality (tattva). The word that
Kamalaśīla uses here for familiarization, abhyāsa, literally means repetition orpractice, but it has a secondary connotation of habituation or cultivation. It is
the same word that both he and Śāntarakṣita, the author of the Tattvasaṅgraha
upon which he is commenting, use when discussing how practitioners cultivate
particular mental states as antidotes to the affective and cognitive structures at
the root of suffering.
Rhetorically speaking, these statements at the outset of these two texts invite
readers to similarly engage with the treatises as methods for spiritual22

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cultivation. Yet at the same time, both texts, the Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā
especially, contain copious polemical arguments aimed at philosophicalantagonists, both within and outside of the Buddhist fold. Such arguments might
be thought to be for the purpose of dialectical persuasion only and thus to falloutside the purview of spiritual cultivation per se. Indeed, contemporary andancient scholars appear split on questions concerning both the audience andthe aims of Buddhist polemical works such as these, with some arguing thatthey do not belong to the Buddhist project of spiritual transformation but only
to the domain of epistemology and logic.
This paper probes the intertwined questions of audience and aim in
Kamalaśīla’s Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā to show how it explicitly rejects any
strong distinction between polemical persuasion and spiritual cultivation. The
key to understanding how this can be so is to revise our conception of audienceaway from the idea of an actual audience and in favor of the notion of arhetorically constructed audience. This then allows us to see how Kamalaśīla
envisions the audience to transform through its engagement with the text.
Arguments now are seen to work on different levels depending on the degree of
spiritual maturity of the rhetorically constructed audience. For some,arguments work to persuade and refute. For others, they work to perfume themind.

Modern Configurations of Meditation, Selfhood, and the Secular
McMahan, David (Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, USA)
Buddhist and Buddhist-derived meditation and mindfulness practices haveundergone profound changes in the modern period. From their sole institutional
home in the monastery, they have now taken their place in the most prominent
secular institutions, such as corporations, public universities, public health caresystems, and even the US military. The rhetorical reconfiguration of meditation
practices as modern technologies of the self for increasing the freedom andeffectiveness of modern selves in secular societies has been, and continues tobe, essential for their inclusion in secular institutional settings. This paper
examines the transcribing of meditation and mindfulness from indigenous
Buddhist categories into categories of modern secularism. This has involved therhetorical reframing of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness practices as
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secular, even scientific endeavors. What models of the mind and the humanbeing are operative in this rhetoric? What is at stake in such reframing?
Many promoters of Buddhist and Buddhist-derived meditation and mindfulness
practices in recent decades have emphasized their “non-religious” character,distancing them from the “religious” elements of Buddhism. In many westerncountries, separation of church and state requires that secularism serve as akind of “filter” to strip away the “religious” elements of meditation, leaving ita technique to achieve various forms of well-being, instrumental effectiveness,and human enhancement as conceived in modern societies. This is acontinuation of the discursive thrust of certain modes of Buddhist modernism
that have been developing for over a century.
Exploring this reconfiguration not only helps the historian of religion
understand one of the most momentous transformations andrecontextualizations of Buddhist meditation in its history, it helps analysts ofculture discern the boundaries of the modern conception of the secular itself.

Configuring enlightenment - A model for the analysis of Buddhist
rhetoric
Steineck, Raji (University Zürich, Switherland)
Many Buddhist texts are persuasive in nature, i.e. they aim at changing theminds of their readers. Buddhist authors from different times and places haveused diverse means such as arguments, narratives, poetic language, citations,word-play etc. to achieve this aim. In order to be able to detect andsystematically describe the means and strategies that are employed within a
specific text we developed a model of rhetorical analysis. This model is basedon the idea that texts are products of communication and can therefore beanalyzed with the help of models of communication. The sophisticated authorof a text does not only communicate with his readers outside the text, but hewill also try to shape the communication that takes place within the text. He
will configure the text's addresser, for example, in order to appear in afavorable light, and he will try to influence how the envisaged readers conceiveof their own role when reading the text.

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In our talk we will present this model and illustrate its use with the help of
Dōgen's early text Bendōwa . We will show how Dōgen , a cleric with highaspirations but of unestablished legitimacy, attempted to convince a mixed
audience of clerics of higher, equal, and lower rank as well as actual andpotential lay followers and patrons of the qualities of his spiritual authority andteaching. He had to reckon with their doubts on the legitimacy of his position
and with their objections to his teaching, which ran contrary to the establishedconvictions of the day. He chose to deal with this problem by employing a
structural rhetoric device: he reconfigured, in the intratextual communication,
his own position and the pragmatic relationship between himself and hisreadership. The Bendōwa thus illustrates how an author can try to configure
the communicative situation embedded within the text in order to compensate
for the deficiencies of his power to influence his communicative stance in thereal world .

Bringing the Preacher down to Earth: Rhetoric, Humanity, and Glamourin the Great Lamp of the Dharma Dhāraṇī Scripture
Overbey, Ryan (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Mahāyāna sūtras often portray the Buddhist preacher of the dharma as a heroic
being, advanced in practice, approaching the highest stages of the bodhisattva
path. And yet the very same sūtras also reveal profound obstacles faced by thepreacher in the difficult arena of pedagogy and persuasion. This paper
examines an early medieval Buddhist text, the Great Lamp of the Dharma
Dhāraṇī Scripture (Dà fǎjù tuóluóní jīng 大法炬陀羅尼經, extant in a single
sixth-century Chinese translation) to explore the tensions between thepreacher’s purported attainments and the very real obstacles confronting him.
The Great Lamp uses many of the same techniques found in Aristotle’s Rhetoric
to both navigate the mundane difficulties of preaching and to construct theimage of the preacher as a venerable presence. The Great Lamp demonstrates
how practical Buddhist rhetorical techniques could transform the flawed
humanity of the preacher into an authoritative figure with superhumanglamour.

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Can we be Humean about the Emptiness of Causation?
Bliss, Ricki (Kyoto University, Japan, Kyoto, JPN)
It has been suggested that one way we might understand the account of
causation as empty, on the view espoused by Nāgārjuna, is in terms of a
Humean regularity account of causation. According to this interpretation, forcausation to be empty is for there to be constant conjunction between cause andeffect. The assumption that there is any necessary connection between the two is
a product of activities of the mind, and not of how the world is. There issomething about this suggestion, however, that doesn't quite sit right: the
Humean regularity account of causation follows from the principle that there
are no necessary connections between wholly distinct existents. One way inwhich the suggestion that we understand the emptiness of causation in terms ofa regularity account could be deeply problematic is if the principle that
underwrites it - Hume's Dictum - is analytic. In this case, that cause and effectare wholly distinct from one another simply follows from denying that there is
any necessary connection between them. And, of course, for cause and effect tobe wholly distinct is what it is for them to fail to be empty.
In this paper, I explore Hume's Dictum, its relationship to the regularity
account of causation and whether we have reason to prefer analytic or synthetic
versions of it. I then apply these results to an investigation of the claim that wecan be Humean about the emptiness of causation.

Buddhist Ethics in the Present: Anti-realism and Karmic Consequences
Davis, Jake (CUNY Graduate Center, Chilmark, USA)
Elsewhere I have leveraged recent quasi-realist (Blackburn 1998, Gibbard2003) and Humean constructivist (Street 2012) accounts of ethical expressions
in order to defend a modest claim for a certain circumscribed set of ethicaluniversals (Davis 2013). This account, which I have called Acting Wide Awake,draws from empirical research on attention, emotion, and ethical judgment to
defend in naturalistically plausible terms a proposal that lies at the heart of
Buddhist ethics: that certain emotional motivations are skillful (kusala) and to26

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be developed (bhavitabbaṃ), for any human being, that others are unskillful(akusala) and to be abandoned (pahātabbaṃ), and that we can come to discern
the difference for ourselves (cf. AN.III.65). In this paper, I outline three
applications of this approach. First, I defend attempts to develop naturalizedversions of Buddhist ethics independent of metaphysical doctrines of karma andrebirth, such as my own, against Westerhoff’s (forthcoming) ‘suicide’argument. I argue that if a motivation to kill oneself to end one’s own suffering
is unskillful, that is because of the psychological suffering that characterizes
such an aversive motivation in the moment of being so motivated, rather thanbecause of future karmic consequences. Secondly, I note that in reconstructing
a Madhyamika response to relativism about truth generally, Westerhoff (2009:
222ff) in fact develops a strategy for saving a form of mind-dependent but
nonetheless sufficiently objective truth that parallels in many ways the strategy
that I adopt in Acting Wide Awake as a response to moral relativism inparticular. In conclusion, I attempt to reconcile my approach to ethical claimsin the Nikāyas with Madhyamika-derived as well as more recent naturalist
varieties of anti-realism in ethics, by recalling the Nikayas’ focus on dependent
co-arising (paṭicca-samuppāda) in the world of experience (lokāsaññī). It isjust within this world of experience that suffering, the cause of suffering, the endof suffering, and the path to it are to be found (cf. AN.4.45; SN.12.44). In thisway, the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings, including the ethical teachings, areexperiential (sandiṭṭhiko)… a come-and-see-kind-of-thing (ehipassiko)… to beexperienced by the wise for themselves (paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhī).

The Salient Features of Causality in the Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka
Thakchoe, Sonam (University of Tasmania, Hobart, AUS)
Some Tibetan philosophers claim that no causal thesis whatsoever could be
attributed to the Prāsaṅgika. The fact that Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti
categorically deny the possibility of all four alternative causal theses – from
self, another, both and neither (causelessly) – stands to reason, they argue, thatno causal thesis is acceptable for the Prāsaṅgika. Tsongkhapa however
challenges the validity of this argument. He argues that the conclusion is notentailed in the premises. For Tsongkhapa the conclusion that follows from thepremise – the denial of the four alternative causal theses – are twofold. First, it
explicitly shows that Candrakīrti denies the foundationalist or essentialist type27

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of causality, which, he argues, is antithetical to the Prāsaṅgika’s emptinessontology. However, the argument does not show that Candrakīrti denies
causality altogether. Second, the argument implicitly proves that Candrakīrti
accepts a non-foundationalist or non-essentialist type of causality, the one
which complements is core emptiness ontology. In this paper I seek to flesh out,
from the philosophical works of Nāgārjuna, Candrakīrti and Tsongkhapa,
certain concepts associated with causality which, in my view, decisively support
the view that the Prāsaṅgika does have its own causal theory.

Reading Practices in Northern Song Chan
Ahn, Juhn (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA)This paper will attempt to analyze some of the more popular forms of reading
practices in Chan Buddhism during the Northern Song (960-1127). Althoughmany associate Chan Buddhism with the popular slogan of not setting up words
and letters and the notion of a “sudden” experience of awakening, this paper
will show that Chan learning during the Northern Song did not always consistof a direct unmediated insight. Instead, it consisted of various reading practices
that made use of verbal formulas, esoteric diagrams, typologies of Chanteachings, verse commentaries, and the verbatim reproduction of stock phrases
and stereotyped Chan sayings. This paper will show how monks who belonged
to or who were associated with the Yunmen and Huanglong lineages began tochallenge these earlier reading practices and tried to develop a style of Chanlearning that emphasized reading for comprehension and knowing what one hasread for oneself rather than relying on the writings and understanding ofothers. There are, this paper argues, two important catalysts behind thischange: this new style of Chan learning emerged (1) in a new sociopoliticalclimate where learned Chan monks competed for the abbacies of publicmonasteries where they had to address monks on pilgrimage who had exposure
to many different kinds of Chan teachings and (2) in an environment wheremore Chan texts, manuscripts and printed texts, were available for perusal. The
availability of more texts made it necessary to develop a reading practice that
could make sense of the diversity of Chan teachings.

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The Koan Teachings of Chan Master Xuedou
Huang, Yi-hsun (Fo Guang University, Yilan, TWN)
Master Xuedou (980–1052) is an important Chan master in the Yunmen branch.
My paper will analyze Xuedou’s Verses on Old Cases with a special focus on its
literary originality and the role of religious practice in it. Xuedou’s Verses on
Old Cases consists of one hundred old cases selected by Xuedou as well as hiscomments in verse form. To compile this genre of Chan literature, the Chanmaster must first be familiar with the contents of the old cases, and then be able
to express, in verse form, his own religious insights into those old cases. These
two requirements are the very reason why Xuedou’s Verses on Old Cases is aperfect source for investigating its religious practice and literary aspects. My
paper will first discuss the compilation and structure of Xuedou’s Verses on Old
Cases and then analyze two verses on old cases.

Finding One’s Place in a Story of Decline: Chan Buddhists Gauging theState of the Dharma in the Song and Later
Morrison, Elizabeth (Middlebury College, Cornwall VT, USA)The theory of the decline of the dharma is crucial to the rise of Pure Land
Buddhism in East Asia, but what is its relationship to the Chan tradition? Early
Chan texts that assert that the dharma has been transmitted to China by a lineof specially authorized teachers implicitly refute widespread contemporary
certainty that the decline of the dharma was already well underway. Indeed, awell-known line in the eighth-century Dunhuang text of the Platform Sutra goesso far as to call Huineng not just the Sixth Patriarch but a buddha.
The notion of a special transmission of the dharma began as a claim about
particular teachers, usually the teacher of the current master in a given
community, but it soon crossed into the present, and the idea of “dharma heirs”
no longer applied only to past figures. Disciples began aspiring to berecognized as dharma heirs, and, as Morten Schlütter has demonstrated, theSong state took a keen interest, eventually limiting the leadership of important

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“public” monasteries to properly qualified dharma heirs who could then, as
abbots, continue the line.
I will argue that almost as soon as transmission was a matter of the present,with significant real world consequences, members of the Chan community
began talking about a decline of their own, a decline of the lineage. Often they
criticized lines of the Chan tradition other than their own, but sometimes theyeven expressed doubts about their own particular lineage. In time, more generalideas of decline – the classic idea of the overall decline of the dharma – beginappearing in Chan writings, with other Buddhist schools, rulers, and socialchanges variously held up as proof of the decline.
Jan Nattier has argued that the origins of the decline theory lie primarily not inexternal persecution of the Buddhist tradition but in fears about the internal
problem of complacence. This observation is accurate also for the Chan
tradition. Perceived decline, inside and outside of the Chan tradition, promptedreflection on how Chan Buddhists could stave off the decline with their own
teachings and behavior. The crisis, in other words, served as a catalyst to
articulate what in the Chan tradition – and the Buddhist tradition as a whole –is effective in holding off the inevitable. I will discuss a variety of Chanreactions to decline (including a continuing rejection of the idea by some)against the backdrop of other Chinese Buddhist responses. In so doing, I hope
to demonstrate that while the influence of this theory on early and medieval
Chinese Buddhism is well-known, its later importance and dynamic nature has
yet to be fully explored.

Chan Buddhism in the Tangut State, 11th-13th Centuries
Solonin, Kirill (China Renmin University, Beijing, CHN)
Chan Buddhism was one of the mainstreams of Sinitic Buddhism in the Tangut
State. A number of Chan texts had been translated into Tangut, while somecirculated in their Chinese originals. The Tangut version of Chan Buddhism
appears to be a multifaceted phenomenon, but the present research basicallyconcentrates on the texts which have been translated into Tangut. In thispresentation I will summarize the results of the previous research into the30

XVIIth Congress of the IABS
Tangut Chan texts, in an attempt to trace the possible origins of peculiar
Tangut Chan tradition and will offer a hypothesis for the timeline for Tangut
Chan Buddhism and Sinitic Buddhism in the Northern Chinese borderland inparticular. Basic tenet of the paper is that the specific version of Chan in Xixia
developed out of an imaginary scheme of the “perfect teaching,” i.e. a specificversion of Buddhism which existed in the Wutaishan area since the end of theTang and was specifically advocated by the Kitan Liao.

Yulu Formation in Chinese Chan: The Records of Nanyue Huairang and
Mazu Daoyi, Qingyuan Xingsi and Shitou Xiqian
Welter, Albert (University of Arizona, Tucson, USA)
Chan yulu (Dialogue Records) went through editorial alterations before being
issued in standardized forms in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A glimpse
into this editorial process is evident in the earliest records or fragments of Chanteachings in the Zutang ji (Patriarch’s Hall Anthology, compiled 958 with later
additions), the Zongjing lu (Records of the Source-Mirror, compiled 961), theJingde Chuandeng lu (Record of the Transmission of the Lamp compiled in the
Jingde era, compiled 1004), and the Tiansheng Guangdeng lu (Expanded Lamp
Record compiled in the Tiansheng era, compiled 1029). In this presentation, I
review the dialogue records of four Tang dynasty masters deemed essential tothe preservation of Chan lineages beyond the Tang––Nanyue Huairang and
Mazu Daoyi, Qingyuan Xingsi and Shitou Xiqian––through whom the so-called
Five Houses of Classical Chan allegedly descended. My presentation focuses on
a comparative analysis of each master’s teachings across the sources referred
to above, with an aim toward determining how textual nuances reflect theperspectives of individual sources and the context in which each was compiled.

Buddhist Pilgrimage, Monastic Building and Corruption at the Seat ofEnlightenment
Geary, David (University of British Columbia, Kelowna, CAN)

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Bodh Gaya – the seat of Enlightenment – is widely viewed as the cosmogeographic centre of the Buddhist world and a place of cultural, religious andmoral superiority. Due to its sacred connection with the birthplace of
Buddhism, it is also landscape endowed with religious merit and the preeminent location for pilgrimage activity attracting millions of Buddhist devotees
each year. How has the recent globalization of Bodh Gaya as an international
center of Buddhist pilgrimage led to certain moral and ethical quandaries for
Buddhist groups, especially over the politics of land acquisition andcorruption? How are criminal practices and Buddhist moral traditions
entwined through monastic building and how does the production of a shared
religious and moral space also create new forms of social inequality andcommunal opposition? Drawing on several years of fieldwork in Bodh Gaya,
this paper will examine the different ways in which diasporic Buddhist
communities navigate a complex moral landscape where the issues of land,
power and money are entwined.

Trailblazers of Global Buddhist Networks: Early International Travelers
Harding, John (University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, CAN)
Even before the dramatic growth of Buddhist networks through international
travel in the second half of the 20th century, variations of this mode forcreating transnational networks was formative to the rise of modern and global
Buddhism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From the beginning, global
networks have shaped modern representations of Buddhism in and beyond
Asia and have fostered increased interest in Buddhism among North
Americans and Europeans who did not grow up in the tradition. Although these
global influences include a host of ideas, pressures, and cross-cultural flows
facilitated by transformative technologies, there always has been an importantrole for Buddhist travelers creating global networks through face-to-faceencounters.
This paper explores some of the early travels and travelers through the lens of
the networks that prompted, and were extended by, their travel. Revisiting thetravels and networks of Buddhist figures early in the modernization of thisincreasingly global tradition introduces lesser known characters, re-examines
renowned Buddhist representatives, such as Shaku Sōen and Anagarika
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Dharmapala, and reinforces the Asian center of gravity for these modern andglobal networks despite some high profile travelers and crossroads in North
America and Europe.
In addition to documenting some key early travelers and analyzing nodes of
their transnational networks, the paper also suggests strong resonance between
these early Buddhist travelers’ re-imaginations of Buddhism and modern
representations and global popularity of Buddhism today.

The Lapland Temple Mountain in the Rural North of Sweden – A Halted
Vision of a European Thai Buddhist Retreat Center
Plank, Katarina (Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion,
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SWE) and Raddock, Elisabeth (UmeåUniversity, Umeå, SWE)
On a mountain top outside Fredrika, a small village in the rural north of
Sweden, a standing Buddha statue and the seated statue of Luang Pho Thuat,
invoke reverence by visiting Buddhists. Plans of a large scale temple andmeditation center have also invoked hope of religious tourism and economic
growth in an area highly affected by depopulation – not only in local
entrepreneurs but also in representatives of the Åsele municipality, which has,initially, financially supported the establishment.
The mountain has, on the one hand, become a pilgrimage site, visited bydiaspora Thai women living in different parts of Sweden and temporaryinternational migrant workers from Thailand picking berries in the forests ofnorthern Sweden, as well as people belonging to other Buddhist communities,
such as the Sri Lankan, or convert Buddhists. The site is, on the other hand,contested by Christians from near and far who also come to the mountain topray against the establishment of the Buddhist retreat center. The building of aretreat center has, however, come to a halt. The Buddhist community is now in
debts – nobody knows if and when the retreat center can be completed.
The paper discusses the background of the temple, giving contrasting examplesof other establishment patterns of Thai Buddhist temples in rural Sweden, and33

XVIIth Congress of the IABS
gives particular highlight to the long distance travels both locally andinternationally of diaspora Thai Buddhists (lay and ordained), the transnational
networks being created, and the difficulties involved in supporting andmaintaining temples in rural Sweden. We also look at the temple’s importancefor Buddhist converts who have had a number of meditation retreats in thevicinity.

Thai Meditation Lineages Abroad: Creating Networks of Exchange
Schedneck, Brooke (Chiangmai, THA)International travel to meditation centers in Thailand has created possibilities
for transnational networks of exchange. International meditators who arrive inThailand often wish to take the practice to their home countries by inviting their
Thai teacher to give teachings and meditation retreats in the meditators' homecountry. Through fieldwork conducted in the international meditation centers in
Thailand, this presentation illustrates the lasting effects of international travel
to meditation centers, which can result in meditation teachers traveling abroad
to teach new communities. More broadly, this presentation concerns Thai
meditation lineages as they exist outside of Thailand, and the historicalimpetuses that created these networks. Examples of these networks include the
Ajahn Tong lineage from Wat Chom Tong, Chiangmai, where an international
lay lineage has created centers in Israel, Mexico, Canada, and Germany. Mae
Chii Brigitte of Wat Prayong in Bangkok and Ajahn Nawi Piyadassi of Wat Tam
Dauy Don, Chiangmai, visit Europe and America, respectively, each year
through connections made with international students. Santikaro has created a
meditation retreat center in Liberation Park, in Wisconsin, USA, in homage to
his late teacher, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, former abbot of Wat Suan Mokkh, Surat
Thani. The Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah is popular not only in Europe,
America and Australia, but also in Malaysia. English-speaking forest monks
who visit Thailand every year on their teacher’s birthday in January are often
invited to stop in Kuala Lumpur and Penang to offer meditation retreats.
All of these examples illustrate how individual connections of student andteacher allow meditation methods and lineages to spread outside of Thailand. A
single meditation practitioner can chance upon a center and teacher and createa relationship that leads to an annual meditation retreat and the possibility of34

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new audiences for particular meditation lineages. These examples concern
individual relationships that create long lasting, and in some cases,
institutionalized meditation centers abroad. Through traditional social
networks of dissemination from monk teacher to monastic disciple,
international travel multiplies the circumstances in which Buddhism can adapt
to new contexts, generating new interpretations and practices. These networks
not only highlight the decreased significance of borders, but how new ideas andcommunities form.

The Appeal of Buddhism to Travelers along the Silk Road
Veidlinger, Daniel (California State University, Chico, San Francisco, USA)
Buddhism has been associated with travel and transportation since its
inception. The Buddha himself led a peripatetic life wandering from town totown preaching his Dharma, and Aśoka sent missionaries travelling far andwide. Travelling merchants were the most prominent early converts to
Buddhism and their importance in the religion continued for a long time.
Symbols representing the various faiths of the world include natural phenomena
such as the moon for Islam or fire for Zoroastrianism, but the Wheel of Dharma
makes Buddhism the only religion that is traditionally represented by a meansof transportation. Not just wheels, but other vehicles such as rafts, chariots,
elephants, and even flying palaces are also prominently featured in the
Buddhist imaginaire. Later, the word yāna, a generic term for vehicle, came to
be used to refer to the different schools of Buddhism. Transportation
terminology was essentially the domain of the Buddhists, and for good reason.
This paper will explore the importance of travel in the development andacceptance of Buddhist ideas themselves, and will show that the changes inworldview undergone by one traveling from place to place, encountering along
the road different ways of thinking, dressing, speaking and living are likely tofoster in such a person an interest in the ideas and practices embodied in
Buddhism. The psychological effects of travel forced those on the journey towrestle with their previously accepted local truths, drawing them instead to
Buddhism’s universal outlook and rejection of culturally specific social
restrictions or religious rituals in a manner that fit more closely with thecosmopolitan experience of the world that they were now having. Looking at
what can be garnered from sites such as Dunhuang, Kashgar and Khotan, this35

XVIIth Congress of the IABS
paper will focus on exploring the affinity that Buddhism has for travelers as one
possible explanation for its remarkable success along the Eurasiantransportation networks known as the Silk Road and will end by suggesting that
this also helps to explain the religion’s currency amongst the wired, urbane,
well-travelled classes of today.

Meditation and Theory of Pratītyasamutpāda: Mainly in theŚrāvakabhūmiAbe, Takako (Taisho University, Kokubunjisi, JPN)
The Śrāvakabhūmi (ŚBh) is generally said to indicate the experience of yoga
practitioners. The yogins, however, did not practice freely; rather they based
their practice on doctrines that were already established. In general, the ŚBhrelies on teachings found in the Āgamas. The compilers skillfully combined
many passages from the sūtras, to instruct practitioners on how to contemplate
and to record the master’s teaching to his disciples. It is necessary for us toconfirm how doctrine was introduced into the meditative system in the ŚBh, andto consider how its expression developed ideologically in the other chapters in
the Yogācārabhūmi (YBh).
From this point of view, I will focus on the meditation of idampratyayatā
pratītyasamutpāda. Although the ŚBh seems to include the meditation as one of
the Five Gates of Meditation under the influence of meditation manuals such as
the Yogācārabhūmi of Saṃgharakṣa (Xiūxíngdào dì jīng 修行道地経), its
explanations differ from these manuals. There is very little explanation ofpratītyasamutpāda in the ŚBh, but by examining the passages carefully, we canidentify both the texts on which the ŚBh relies and the yogin’s meditativereflections.
In addition, there is an important issue regarding the pratītyasamutpāda theoryof the Yogācāra school. The concept of the so-called “One Fold Causality
Spanning the Two Lifetimes 二世一重因果 ” is found in the YBh [Matsuda
1983]. However, it is somewhat different from the more systematized model in
the Abhidharmasamuccaya [Kritzer 1999], which was inherited by Chéng wéisí
lùn 成唯識論, finally becoming a typical teaching of the Hosso School 法相宗

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in Japan [Harada 2004]. Passages that represent the pratītyasamutpāda theoryof the YBh mostly appear in the Savitarkādibhūmi and also occur with much thesame wording in the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī. However, the theory ofpratītyasamutpāda in the Savitarkādibhūmi and the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī,particularly in comparison with the ŚBh, has not been sufficiently studied. With
this in mind, I will discuss the logical relationship between the version in theŚBh and those found in other chapters of the YBh.
In the early Yogācāra school, the yogins practiced based on a doctrine that was
already established, and by verbalizing the experience, they constructed a newtheory. To help to verify this, I examine the pratītyasamutpāda theory, which
was based on the yogins own meditative experience.

Meditative Experience and Hermeneutical Fiddling in Yogācāra
Buddhism
Deleanu, Florin (International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies,Tokyo, JPN)
The paper will examine how apparently similar meditative experiences can beassessed, and arguably practised, differently when hermeneutical criteria andparadigms are shifted. I shall focus on three major strategies of dealing withmainstream meditation practices in such Yogācāra sources as theŚrāvakabhūmi, Bodhisattvabhūmi, Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī,Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, Mahāyānasaṃgraha, etc. (1) The first strategy, which
I call ‘subsumption’, makes use of old canonical techniques such as mindfulnessof breathing (ānāpānasmṛti), absorptions (dhyāna), etc. not (only) for theirtraditional goals but (also) as an exercise in eliminating (vibhava) ideations(saṃjñā). (2) ‘Re-evaluation’ refers to approaches such as the downgrading or
upgrading of meditative states or paradigms like śamatha or vipaśyanā,described in more or less similar terms, in order to accommodate new epistemic
and soteriological priorities. (3) The more drastic process of ‘substitution’implies such strategies as the replacement of the content of a traditional
structure like the five paths of spiritual progress with entirely or partly different
practices. The analysis will be set against the background of the growing stressplaced upon the role and attainment of non-conceptual cognition(nirvikalpakajñāna).
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Abhidharma Works of the Yogācāras and Their Practical Uses
Delhey, Martin (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC),
University of Hamburg )On the one hand, the encyclopedic basic work of the Yogācāra school of
Buddhism, viz. the Yogācārabhūmi, has often been regarded as a summa of
Buddhist scholasticism by the tradition itself. And this holds true not only forlater Buddhist scholars but (at least partly) even for the very authors andcompilers of this text. Accordingly, attempts to build a complex and coherent
dogmatic edifice and to justify it from an exegetical point of view prevail in
most, though not all, parts of this bulky and heterogeneous work.
On the other hand, the very title of this work suggests that it is spiritual practicerather than theoretical issues that formed the main concern of the Indian
Buddhist circles in which this work and simultaneously the Yogācāra school of
Mahāyāna Buddhism originated.
Therefore, one might wonder how these two fundamentally different concerns
relate to each other. Is the study of abhidharma works in this school anecessary prerequisite, a useful preparation, or (at least in certain cases) an
impediment for successful spiritual practice? Did these books, apart fromsoteriological aims, serve other practical ends as well?
In examining the questions mentioned above, I will take relevant text passages
from the Yogācārabhūmi and several later works into consideration. Theinteresting remarks on the purpose of abhidharma texts in Sthiramati’s
Pañcaskandhakavibhāṣā will serve as a starting-point for the investigation.
Through examination of these passages, I hope that the present investigation
into the sitz im leben of the Yogācāra abhidharma works will also prove to shedsome new light on other related issues discussed during the panel.

Aśubhā in Yogācārabhūmi: Meditation, Systematization, and Sources.
Kritzer, Robert (Kyoto Notre Dame University, Kyoto, JPN)38XVIIth Congress of the IABSAśubhā bhāvanā, meditation on the impure, appears frequently in
Yogācārabhūmi, most notably but not exclusively in Śrāvakabhūmi. As is thecase elsewhere in other texts, we can find both descriptive and prescriptive
passages of the meditation and passages that explain where the meditation fits
in the scheme of the spiritual path. Through careful analysis of these passages, I
shall discuss how meditative experiences were organized into doctrinal systems,
and how doctrinal traditions in turn influenced meditative practice.
There is a sizable literature on the meditation that precedes or is approximately
contemporaneous with even the oldest portions of Yogācārabhūmi, including
Sarvastivāda abhidharma texts, such as Vibhāṣā, and meditation sūtras, such as
Damoduoluo chan jing and Zuochan sanmei jing. However, at least in the caseof the three most important passages in Śrāvakabhūmi, the sources are by nomeans clear. As Paul Demiéville has noted, Yogācārabhūmi shares with themeditation sūtras a category of five types of meditation, one of which is aśubhā.
Interestingly, however, the most striking feature of the aśubhā material in themeditation sūtras, namely the pure meditation on the white bones, is completely
absent from Śrāvakabhūmi, suggesting that it takes an approach more in linewith traditional āgama and abhidharma sources. Nevertheless, it displays adegree of systematization not found in other relevant sources. In comparing thedescriptive and systematic passages from Yogācārabhūmi with relevant
portions of other texts, I shall discuss both originality and conservativeness intreatments of aśubhā bhāvanā in Yogācārabhūmi, especially Śrāvakabhūmi. In
doing so, I hope to shed new light on the relationship between doctrinal
traditions and meditative practice in Yogācāra.

Is Yogācāra Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng weishi lun
Sharf, Robert (University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA)
Several attempts have been made of late to read Yogācāra through the lens ofWestern phenomenology. The growing popularity of this approach is notdifficult to fathom. In the last few decades philosophers in the West have beendrawn to developments and findings emerging from cognitive neuro-science,developments that bear on issues such as the relationship between mind andmatter, the nature of consciousness awareness, and what it means to be a
person. Psychological phenomena such as brain-fission, blind sight,
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inattentional blindness, Capgras syndrome, and so on pose conceptual puzzles
that seem to undermine the common-sense belief in a singular “self” or“cogito.” Philosophers are accordingly drawn to theories of consciousness thatare not predicated on the existence of a unified subject. Buddhist theories ofconsciousness and the relationship between the perceiving subject andperceived object take as their starting point the absence of an abiding self orsoul, and this allows scholars to argue that the Buddhist account of cognition,
honed by centuries of philosophical reflection and debate, has something tobring to the table. Moreover, some argue that the Buddhist theories areenriched by meditative technologies developed by yogis who explored the outer
limits of human experience. Yogācāra is supposedly the culmination of thistradition; it brings together Buddhist analytic psychology and philosophy on the
one hand, and empirical methods for disciplined introspection on the other,resulting in a system that has something in common with the philosophicaltradition stemming from Brentano and Husserl.
My paper will approach the relationship between Yogācāra andphenomenology primarily through the Cheng weishi lun 成唯識論. Specifically,
I will look at two topics in the Cheng weishi lun that would seem to bear on
issues of current philosophical interest. The first is its analysis of the “fiveomnipresent mental factors” (pañca-sarvatraga, wu bianxing xinsuo 五遍行心所), namely, contact (sparśa, chu 觸), attention (manaskāra, zuoyi 作意),sensation (vedanā, shou 受), conception (saṃjñā, xiang 想), and intention(cetanā, si 思). The second topic is the “four aspects” (sifen 四分) of cognition,
under which falls the complex issues associated with “self-awareness”(svasaṃvedana, svasaṃvitti, zizheng 自證).
The topics of the five omnipresent mental factors and the four aspects ofcognition would seem, at least on the surface, to bear on issues at the very
forefront of current philosophical debate—issues such as the status of “qualia”
and the relationship between perception, language, memory, and selfawareness. But I will suggest that the Cheng weishi lun approach is not“phenomenological” in the proper sense of the word. The categories and modesof analysis in the Cheng weishi lun do not emerge from or aver to an empiricaland systematic reflection on the nature of “lived experience,” so much as they
are focused on metaphysical entities and processes that belong to the domain of
the noumenal.

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Theory and Practice in the Context of Ālayavijñāna, Focusing on Its
Physiological Functions
Yamabe, Nobuyoshi (Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Kanagawa,JPN)
The issue of how the concept of ālayavijñāna was introduced into the doctrinal
system of Yogācāra is controversial. Some scholars, both Western andJapanese, argue that ālayavijñāna was purely theoretical, constructed toaccount for problems of personal continuity in the absence of an everlasting
Self in Buddhism. Other scholars suspect that ālayavijñāna was directly basedon meditative experience. In this paper, I readdress the issue of the roles oftheory and practice in the introduction of the concept of ālayavijñāna.
In an extensive monograph on this matter, Lambert Schmithausen has suggested
that ālayavijñāna was introduced as a “gap-bridger” that maintains the seedsof the “forthcoming” forms of mind (pravṛttivijñāna) and keeps the body alive
during the Absorption into Cessation (nirodhasamāpatti). In his opinion,ālayavijñāna was tied to, but not directly derived from, meditative experience.
Rather, in his view, theoretical reflection on nirodhasamāpatti led to theintroduction of this new concept.
Referring to Schmithausen’s research, I focus on the importance of thephysiological aspect of ālayavijñāna. As Schmithausen has already noted,ālayavijñāna’s physiological (in his terminology, “biological”) function of
keeping the body alive (upādāna) is highly emphasized in the early Yogācāra
sources. In addition, Yogācāra texts indicate that the transformation brought
about by meditative practice has a physical aspect and is not just a mental
process, and ālayavijñāna seems to be cardinal in the process of thistransformation. To me, these points suggest that ālayavijñāna was more closely
tied to meditative experience than Schmithausen believes. In my paper I shall
examine relevant passages and test the validity of this hypothesis.

Canon and Commentary at the Kandyan Court: Ven. Väliviṭa Saraṇaṃkara
Blackburn, Anne (Cornell University, Ithaca, USA)41

XVIIth Congress of the IABS
Taking as its focus Ven. Väliviṭa Saraṇaṃkara’s Sinhala language commentaryon Pāli paritta texts, Sārārthadīpanī, composed at the 18th-century Kandyan
court in highland Laṅkā (Sri Lanka), this paper examines the ways in which acommentary may develop an implicit argument through patterns of glossing andcommentarial additions, and how bilingual commentarial practice may
participate in the work of localizing Pāli tipiṭaka texts institutionally as well as
linguistically. The paper contextualizes a discussion of commentarialargumentation and localization in relation to the Lankan monastic history of
the time as well as relations between Väliviṭa Saraṇaṃkara and the Kandyan
kings

Buddhaghosa and Women
Collett, Alice (York, GBR)
My interest in convening this panel stems from my work on my forthcoming
book, Pāli Biographies of Buddhist Nuns. One of the foundational parametersof the book is that I attempt to establish differences of opinion on sex andgender between the Pāli canon and the early commentaries (aṭṭhakathās).
Historically, on the ‘women question’, the commentaries have been used, as
elsewhere, in an intratraditional manner, i.e. to augment understanding of thecanon. As a historian of religion, I am interested in the commentaries ashistorical documents in their own right, produced in a separate socio-historicalmilieu. In this paper I will look specifically at one particular commentator –Buddhaghosa – and attempt to assess his views on women. This task is ofcourse made difficult by the fact that Buddhaghosa based his commentarial
exegesis on earlier, now lost Sinhala works. By looking at Buddhaghosa’s
rendering of two biographies of two particular nuns – Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā and
Dhammadinnā – I will argue that in one case (that of Bhaddā) it is not possible
to discern which version, or which parts of which version, might have been
composed or redacted by Buddhaghosa. However, in contrast, with regards tothe biography of Dhammadinnā – which remains much more static through the
Pāli literature – it is possible to see Buddhaghosa’s particular emphases andfoci in his rendering of the biography. In its detail, Buddhaghosa’s account of
the life of Dhammadinnā prior to her ordination positions her as more
subservient to her husband Visākha – who is her husband only according to the
Pāli tradition – than do any other accounts. However, Buddhaghosa’s reason
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for reconfiguring the historical memory of Dhammadinnā in this way may nothave been because he was especially anti-women, but rather that he was
uncomfortable with women in particular positions of high office. As such, hisviews may not betray a low view of women, but instead be an indicator of thechanging status of the dhammakathika within the tradition.

When Commentary Begins: The Relationship between Exegetical andCanonical Literature in Early Gāndhārī Manuscripts
Cox, Collett (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
Among the newly discovered early Indian Buddhist Gāndhārī manuscripts
dating from the first to second centuries CE, there are as many as 19 exegeticaltexts, four of which might be considered commentaries. These exegetical texts
are our earliest written evidence for the development of a genre whose
formative period had been completely obscure. These commentaries, which canbe seen as responses to Buddhist texts that existed at the time, also raisequestions about both the parameters defining early Buddhist textual collections
and the relationships among their various parts. Specifically, formal
characteristics of these exegetical texts challenge the strict genre divisions
typical of later canonical collections and instead imply a continuous
development in which boundaries among textual genres were more fluid. In
short, the Gāndhārī exegetical materials suggest that we should not viewcommentaries as reacting to established canons or even as demarcating canon
closure but rather should adopt a co-evolutionary perspective in which
commentary as exegesis operates within the sūtras and emerges as protoAbhidharma.
An overview of the Gāndhārī exegetical texts will highlight the range ofinterpretive methods that they employ and will illustrate the various interpretive
activities employed in commentaries during this period. An examination of two
Gāndhārī commentaries, specifically, the University of Washington scroll andthe commentary on the Saṅgītisūtra, will then permit us to review possible
scenarios illuminating the function of commentaries and their relationship toother textual genres. Finally, drawing upon comparative material not only in
Gāndhārī and Pali but also in non-Buddhist literature, this paper will briefly

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delineate the historical context for both the emergence of the commentary
prototype and the scholastic or Abhidharma texts that developed from it.

Buddhist Commentaries and the Chinese Canon
Deeg, Max (Cardiff University, Penarth, GBR)
This paper will address some general problems around Chinese Buddhist
commentaries in relation to canonicity of Buddhist Scriptures. We are used tothink of the commentarial tradition of Theravāda Buddhism as closely linked to
the Buddhist canon in its ideal form – the Tripiṭaka / Tipiṭaka. However, theevidence from China, with its early translated texts, poses some questions about
the nature of commentaries and the texts they are supposed to elucidate.
Looking at the commentaries preserved in the Chinese “Canon” it becomes
clear that commentarial activity is rather focused on single Mahāyāna sūtras,
and to a period where a denominational selection of such sūtras had alreadybeen made, i.e. starting with the Sui period and through the Tang. While writing
commentaries on chosen Mahāyāna sūtras becomes a feature of East Asian
Buddhist literary activity the relative lack of such literature in the earlier period
is striking. This paper will concentrate on the few examples of such early
Chinese commentaries on sūtras found in the Āgamas or on the Āgamas
themselves and will readdress some fundamental questions of canon andcommentary in the light of the evidence.

Hermeneutical Strategies and Challenges in the Guhyasamaja Literature:
A Case Study in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Exegesis
Hackett, Paul (Columbia University, New York, USA)This paper presents a case study in the exegesis of Buddhist tantric literature byexamining a segment of the corpus of Guhyasamaja literature and in doing so,
addresses both emic and etic approaches to the hermeneutics of tantric
texts. On the most basic level, we discuss the mechanisms for interpretingstatements within the root tantra internal to the exegetical tantric literature

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itself as exemplified by Candrakirti’s Brightening Lamp (pradipoddyotana)commentary. On a second level, we discuss the strategies for adjudicatingproblematic readings in the sole Sanskrit manuscript of Candrakirti’scommentary in light of its Tibetan translation and its commentaries, mostnotably the extensive commentary by Bhavyakirti (a text that at present remains
extant only in Tibetan translation). Finally, we discuss the strategies ofexegesis adopted by the Tibetan tradition receiving the Guhyasamaja tantric
system as typified by Tsong-kha-pa’s sub-commentary on the root tantra andCandrakirti’s Brightening Lamp, and discuss, in general, the methodologicalissues surrounding the use of the Tibetan tradition in informing decisions on thefirst and second levels.

Knowledge and Power in the Representation of the Ṛṣi in the Pāli Canonand the Mahāvastu
Benedetti, Giacomo (University of Kyoto, Kyoto, JPN)
The figure of the Ṛṣi is one of the most fundamental and longstanding in Indian
tradition, starting from the most ancient Vedic texts. We are inclined to identify
the Ṛṣis with the Brahmanic tradition which saw in them the founders of theBrahmanic lineages as well as those who have seen and revealed Vedic mantras
and rituals, but Buddhist texts not only mention these figures as representativeof the Brahmanic tradition, but often also identify as Ṛṣi(s) the Bodhisattva in
the Jātakas, the Pratyekabuddhas, the monk disciples of the Buddha and theBuddha himself.
In some Suttas of the Pāli canon, the knowledge of Vedic Ṛṣis is explicitly
denied, using the image of a row of blind men for the tradition starting fromthem, but in the Jātakas the Ṛṣis (isi in Pāli) are ascetics living normally in the
Himalayas as vānaprasthas, adopting what is called isipabbajjā (Sanskritṛṣipravrajyā, the ‘going forth’ to religious life proper of the Ṛṣi). Throughintense meditation they achieve the five abhiññās, which include knowledge (thedivine eye and ear, the knowledge of the others’ minds and of previous lives)
and the miraculous power (iddhi), most typically represented by the capabilityof flying through the air, which can be considered a visible manifestation oftranscending the world. The same is true of the Jātakas of the Mahāvastu,
where we find standardized descriptions of the yogic path leading to the five45

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abhijñās, and formulaic epithets related to the spiritual power of Ṛṣis(maharddhika and mahānubhāva).
Traditionally, Ṛṣis were also regarded as endowed with the power of cursing
the offenders, and although this idea and fear are present in some stories of the
Mahāvastu, the ethics of compassion and patience followed by the Ṛṣis in the
Jātakas prevents this potentiality from being realized.
Among the traditional qualities of Ṛṣis in Brahmanic texts, however, tapas (theascetic practice of austerities) is retained in these representations, although it iscriticized in canonical Suttas. Nonetheless, meditation is the main means ofdeveloping spiritual power, and the objects of knowledge (summed up in theabhijñās) are quite different from those seen by the Ṛṣis in the Vedic tradition(Mantras and rituals), and more similar to what we find in the Yogasūtras or
the Mahābhārata, if we exclude the metaphysical tenets.
A particular aspect that should be considered is the reason behind the use of theepithetṛṣi for Buddhas and bhikṣus, whether it is simply due to the identificationof the Ṛṣi with an ascetic, or whether the connection of Ṛṣis with special
knowledge and power is also important for this choice.

Sovereignty in Surveillance: Knowledge and Power in the
Abhidharmakośabhāṣya
Fiordalis, David (Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, USA)
What is knowledge, what is power, and how is their relationship conceptualized
in Buddhist thought? This paper stems from asking this apparently basic set ofquestions, and finding the answers less than straightforward in either primarysources or modern secondary literature. It grows out of a close analysis of thesixth and seventh chapters of the Abhidharmakośa and its commentary (AKBh),
where awakening is defined as a particular type of knowledge (6.67), which isthen made the theoretical basis for discussing a range of qualities acquired
through practicing the stages of the path of cultivation. Many of these qualities,
such as the so-called “higher knowledges” (abhijñā) and “powers that derivefrom knowledge” (jñāna-bala), possess a semantic field closer to that of power.
Vasubandhu also appears to recognize this fact, and it prompts him to discuss
the nature of knowledge and its relation to power.

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One of the overarching metaphors employed in Buddhist thought to express thisrelationship is that of the sovereign in whom knowledge and power intersect
and from whom they emanate. Although this metaphor is evoked explicitly only
once in the relevant section of the AKBh, in the commentary on 7.26, its
appearance seems significant. Here, sovereignty is achieved through gaining
mastery over one's own mind, a process that is said to involve thoroughinvestigation of mental phenomena and objects of the senses, as they exist in
reality. This process of observing, analyzing and cultivating dispassion towards
these sensory objects and thoughts also results in knowledge of and power overthem. By acquiring knowledge of various objects of knowledge, one gains powerover those objects, power that manifests as both self-control in the form ofconfidence, strength, and equanimity, and control over others and nature
through teaching the doctrine and developing institutions, demonstrations ofsuperhuman power, reading others' minds and controlling their responses, andso on.
While Buddhist theoretical discourse on the path as exemplified by the AKBhinvokes the trope of the sovereign individual as the locus of knowledge andpower, it nonetheless outlines a set of paths to actualizing this state ofsovereignty through internalization of a discipline, that is, a set of prescribed
norms and insights. This might suggest an implicit justification of
institutionalized regimes of power as the means through which knowledge isachieved. Moreover, the relationship articulated here between knowledge andpower has roots in canonical sources, and finds further articulation in a wider
range of scholastic and narrative literature. By working out from an analysis of
the AKBh, this paper aims to sketch a broader conceptual paradigm throughwhich the relationship between knowledge and power is conceived in Buddhist
thought, one that appears to combine elements that are recognized, thoughdistinguished in the modern critique of knowledge and power and theirrelationship to institutional dynamics of authority.

Cognition and Objective Power in the Efficacy of Amulets that “Liberate
through Wearing”
Gentry, James (Harvard University, Alexandria, VA, USA)47

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Radical claims that “buddhahood,” or “liberation” can be achieved not only
through the meditative cultivation of knowledge, but also through sensory
contact with certain powerful sacred media, is a standard feature of the Great
Perfection (rdzogs chen) tradition of Tibet’s rNying ma school. During thesixteenth century such claims came under criticism. A document signed with thename of the Eighth Karmapa Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-1554), perhaps the mostpowerful hierarch in Tibet at the time, vehemently argues that promises of“buddhahood without meditation” (ma sgom sangs rgyas) run counter to
Buddha’s teachings, which highlight instead the role of effort in meditation andother methods of cognitive cultivation and personal karmic purification in theprocess of spiritual development. This critique prompted a series of responses
from rNying ma scholars.
The present paper explores the apologetic response authored by Sog bzlog pa
Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-1624) entitled Thunder of Scripture andReasoning (Lung rigs ’brug sgra), specifically as it concerns the efficacy ofamulets purported to confer “liberation through wearing” (btags grol). This
discussion illustrates how Sog bzlog pa’s strategy is not to unilaterally defend
direct material efficacy against his opponent’s emphasis on cognition, but tomodel a contextual, relational, and distributed sense of efficacy, in which potent
sensory objects work in tandem with the sensate minds and bodies of beings in avariety of ways that cut across strict subject-object, person-thing distinctions.
Sog bzlog pa’s argument demonstrates how in the case of amulets that “liberate
through wearing,” power and knowledge span those divides, working off ofeach other to produce transformational opportunities that extend across a wide
range of registers.
This paper argues that fundamental to Sog bzlog pa’s response is a tendency toplay with the boundaries between subjective and objective sources of power,
invoking a productive tension between these poles that he refuses to resolve
once and for all. This unresolved tension invites comparisons with D.W.
Winnicott’s notion of the “transitional object” and the role of such objects as
focal points for the dynamic interaction between subjunctive as if and indicative
as is approaches to the world. This discussion explores how in the case of Sog
bzlog pa the tension between these two modalities may be characteristic of amore general orientation to action, rooted fundamentally in a ritual sensibility
formed from immersion in specialized settings where the boundaries between
objective and subjective spheres are blurred to enable the controlled flow ofpower between them. The paper closes by suggesting some implications of such

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boundary crossings for understandings of the roles of power-objects in theformation of identity and authority on the levels of person, institution, and statein Tibetan Buddhist societies.

Cultivating a Powerful Knowledge: Knowledge and Power in the
Abhisamayālaṃkāra and Haribhadra’s Commentaries
Harter, Pierre-Julien (University of Chicago, Chicago, USA)The concept of power or mastery (vaśitva/vaśitā) is interestingly used in thecommentaries of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra written by the Indian scholar
Haribhadra (8th-9th century) to describe the particular gnoseological progressof a follower of the Buddhist path. The relationship between knowledge andpower is ordinarily conceived as an instrumental one where knowledge is ameans to attain power and where power is the end. Such a conception runs fromGreek philosophy and ancient Indian religious speculation to recentsociological research. My paper suggests exploring another type of relationshipbetween the two concepts as instantiated in Haribhadra’s works. In such a
relationship, the direction as well as the kind of relationship changes: it is nolonger knowledge that is a means to power, but power that takes knowledge as
its object. This original way of considering the relationship is a conscious
choice by Haribhadra, as the multiple occurrences of the phrase in his
commentaries testify.
I will present a specific passage from Haribhadra’s Āloka to contextualize theconceptual innovation within the exegesis of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra. I will
explain that Haribhadra’s usage of the concept of mastery expresses the sort ofrelationship the follower of the Buddhist path is supposed to establish withknowledge: knowledge should be firmly fastened to the practitioner’s mind,
which is the condition for the full potency of knowledge to be produced. The
concept of power thus allows Haribhadra to qualify an advanced form ofknowledge. Indeed to unfold his conception, Haribhadra distinguishes two kindsof knowledge that are also two stages of knowledge, the theoretical stage ofknowledge and the mastered stage of knowledge.
The passage from the first to the second is operated by cultivation (bhāvanā),and this is what I will present in a second part of the talk. It will drive me to49

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sketch a theory of the notion of cultivation in the Abhisamayālaṃkāra, acontribution to the investigation of the concept of bhāvanā that is still to bedone in Buddhist studies. I will particularly pay attention to the different
dimensions of cultivation (i.e. theoretical, gnoseological, ethical, affective, etc.)
to determine how cultivation fosters empowerment for the practitioner.
In the last section of the talk, I will highlight the fact that by “masteringknowledge” the Buddhist practitioner triggers the transformative power ofknowledge. At the highest stages of the path, knowledge is intrinsically powerful
because it is intrinsically transformative: by mastering knowledge thepractitioner subdues at the same time all phenomena and afflictions (kleśa).
Hence the last part of the talk will reveal the attributive relationship between
power and one kind of knowledge. Philosophically considered, this talk aims tobring about a reflection on the concepts of knowledge and of practice ofknowledge.

Freedom, Truth and Insight on the Path of Purification
Meyers, Karin (IABS, Bethesda, USA)In the Vitakkasaṇṭhāna sutta (M. i.118-122) the Buddha describes a monk who
has mastered the “ways and courses” of thought as able to think any thought hewishes to think and to not think any thought he does not wish to think. This
speaks to a conception of freedom and self-control well beyond what mostmodern philosophers have in mind when they debate the existence of free will,
but it leads, somewhat paradoxically, to a kind of freedom some would consider
antithetical to free will, the freedom to experience one's own actions without
identifying as the agent, to see them as the mere result of various mental andphysical events. Abhidharma schools envision this freedom as the result ofabandoning or destroying adventitious defilements through the cultivation of
moral and sensory restraint, concentration and, finally, insight into “the way
things really are,” viz., into ultimate materiality and mentality.
This paper examines this soteriological strategy as presented in the
Visuddhimagga and as interpreted in the modern Burmese Pa Auk tradition ofpractice, which is renowned for its rigorous investigation of ultimate materiality

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and mentality as defined by the Theravāda Abhidhamma. I will consider, inparticular, 1) the relationship between insight and power in the forms of selfcontrol and non-identification with self, 2) how these forms of power relate (orfail to relate) to the kinds of freedom commonly valued in the modern debate
over free will, and 3) how the freedoms of self-control and non-identification
with self are cultivated and experienced by modern yogis.
In addition to outlining the dynamic relationship between knowledge (in theform of conceptual knowledge and meditative insight) and power (in the form of
the freedoms mentioned above) according to the soteriological strategies of the
Visuddhimagga and Pa Auk system, the paper will also address criticalquestions about the relationship of text and textual interpretation to meditative
practice and truth claims: How is the soteriological strategy outlined in the
Visuddhimagga interpreted and implemented in the Pa Auk training regime? In
what ways does this modern system of practice rely on the authority of theclassical textual tradition (as presented by both Burmese and Westernteachers)? How does the truth authorized by these texts relate to the authority
of individual experience? What kind of truth is the “ultimate truth” thus
authorized? Is it objective and ontological or provisional and pragmatic?
Finally, how do modern Western practitioners who submit themselves to the Pa
Auk regime of practice negotiate between the worldviews and truth claims
authorized by modern science and psychology, the Abhidhamma and their own
contemplative practice?

Power in Practice: Cosmic Sovereignty Envisioned in Buddhism’s Middle
PeriodStuart, Daniel (University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA)The Buddha’s biography is a narrative of conquest; first of the entire cosmos,and second of the teachers of his time. This conquest gets played out in thecontext of meditation, when the Buddha conquers Māra, and in the context ofteaching, when the Buddha brings his inner state of conqueror to the knowledgeof others. An additional mode of conquest involves the coalescence of the powerof meditation and teaching in the miraculous, perhaps best exemplified bystories of the Buddha’s Twin Miracle, which he is said to have carried out in51

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order to trump the powers of other ascetics or to assuage the doubts of his own
relatives and countrymen.
This powerful narrative legacy influenced conceptions of Buddhist practicethroughout the history of the Buddhist tradition in India. The Buddha’s story—
his actions, his wisdom, and his powers—formed the foundation for many
practitioners’ conceptualization of their own identities. In this paper, I look at
how the elements of this legacy get appropriated in a single Buddhist text—the
second-fourth century CE Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra) (Saddhsu)—in a
description of the individual spiritual development of an ideal practitioner, as
he works towards becoming a master practitioner (yogācāra).
I argue that the Saddhsu represents an explicit attempt to theorize the way inwhich meditation allows a Buddhist practitioner to experientially negotiate avariety of epistemological registers, from the ethical to the deconstructive, andto thereby acquire knowledge of the world that serves as a powerful force in thedevelopment of cosmic sovereignty, power comparable to that of a Buddha. I
also show how the depiction of practice in the Saddhsu is presented in an
idiosyncratic literary form, in which a number of fundamental philosophicalquestions come to the fore regarding the ontological status of the external
world and the role of the mind in constructing human experience. I suggest thatsuch philosophical issues cannot be separated from an understanding of thedevelopment of insight practice traditions, and that meditation, philosophicalinquiry, and soteriological power constructions are deeply intertwined in the
Saddhsu.
This paper reveals that the Saddhsu is an exceptional literary form that allows
scholars a glimpse into a largely unstudied early cult of yogācāras, whose
theoretical engagement with the path of Buddhist practice presents an
expansive vision of spiritual power founded on insight knowledge andsupported by ethical mastery.

Manuscript Growth and Episodic Composition: Commentaries andAvadānas in Early South Asia
Baums, Stefan (University of Munich, Munich, GER)52

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Some early Indian manuscripts contain texts – verse anthologies with andwithout commentary, collections of story sketches – that appear to have been
conceived and written not in a single sitting, but periodically added to following
a logic that was dictated by text‐external factors. Tell‐tale signs are lack of
textual continuity between sections, changes in the style of writing from one
section to the next, and in some cases physical additions to the manuscript to
add more sections than originally anticipated. Early texts in this genre of‘episodic compositions’ share the property of concise and sometimes ellipticalexpression, but some (typically commentarial texts) are written very carefully
and were apparently intended to be used more than once, while others (typicallystory sketches) are written in untidy hands and contain many mistakes. This
paper will consider the possible text‐external factors influencing these types of
episodic composition (for example liturgical or educational settings) and theirinteraction with oral modes of textuality by drawing on comparable uses ofwriting in modern Buddhist monastic environments, and it will trace the fixationof material from episodic and casual manuscripts in classical works of Buddhist
scholasticism and narrative literature.

Secular Uses of Writing in Buddhist Monasteries in Kucha
Ching, Chao-jung (Turfanforschung, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie derWissenschaften, Berlin, GER)
The region of Kucha (Xinjiang, China) is well known for Buddhist grottoes,
mural paintings and Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit and Kuchean (Tocharian
B). Numerous fragments of secular texts, especially monastic accounts ofexpenditure and income, were also discovered in the ruins of Buddhist
monasteries. In this paper, I will try to generalize the properties and thefeatures of the materials written in Kuchean. The documents written in local
Prākrit (i.e. the so-called “Kučā-Prākrit” or “Kučā-Gāndhārī) as well as theones written in other languages found in Chinese Turkestan will also be treatedfor comparison. Attention will be paid on economic activities and monastic
administration in the local monasteries by a brief reflection of the studies of theeconomic law in Vinaya texts.

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Dhāraṇī Translations and the Shifting Ritual Text
Davidson, Ronald (Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, USA)
Several dhāraṇī translations into Chinese, attributed to the Liang period (502557 CE) show a marked difference to all known recensions of the texts. This isespecially true of the various recensions of the Saptabuddhaka-dhāraṇī and the*Mūlyamantra (T.1007), both relatively elaborate Mahāyāna mantra texts. In
both instances, the earliest translation is the most extensive, in contradiction to
the normative supposition of Indological textual criticism. A comparison of the*Mūlyamantra with the approximately contemporaneous Gilgit fragments
demonstrate that the Indian monk bringing the text to China employed themanuscript as a place holder for a series of ritual pericope, variable instructure, application and language as needed. The paper will examine therelationship of the mudrā section of the Gilgit manuscript to the anonymous
Liang translation, and the translations of Bodhiruci II (706 CE), Amoghavajra,
and the Tibetan, to demonstrate that at least some fifth to seventh century
manuscripts were employed as prompts or mnemonic rubrics to include greateror lesser related material, dependent on genre. In this regard, they demonstratethat the critical observations of Herman Gunkel and his followers in form andredaction criticism may be extended to Buddhist texts, particularly ritual or
liturgical works. Consequently, when we examine the Sitz im Leben of dhāraṇī
ritual texts, we see genre relations to other ritual texts outside of Buddhism,
particularly the vidhāna, pariśiṣṭa, and śeṣa later appendices of thegṛhyasūtras.

Paper, People, and Prayers: A Community of Scribes and Editors Copying
the Tibetan Aparimitāyur-nāma Sūtra at Dunhuang
Doney, Lewis (LMU, München, GER)
Fujieda Akira already noted in 1969 that ‘a copying office on a very large scale
was established at Tunhuang under Tibetan rule in the first half of the ninth
century’ (“The Tunhuang Manuscripts: A General Description. Part II.”
Zinbun 11: 36). This presentation offers a glimpse into the fascinating world ofthat copying office, through the colophons of the texts copied there, as well as

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related documents concerning the economy of paper, copying religious works,
and their relations with the Tibetan empire just before its collapse.
Understanding the inner workings and output of this copying office is incredibly
important to gain an insight into the Tibetan imperium at the time, its links withother countries, and adoption of Buddhism. Yet despite this, and the fact thattexts created by this office form by far the majority of the Tibetan documents at
Dunhuang, these important sources have received little attention since
Fujieda’s general description.
Brandon Dotson (Munich), Duojie Dongzhi (Lanzhou) and I have recently
begun a major systematic investigation of one group of texts copied in
Dunhuang during the early ninth century— the Aparimitāyur-nāma Sūtra. This
research has been carried out with access to primary material held at the
British Library, London. It uncovers the relationship between scribes andeditors of thousands of copies of religious texts (primarily the Aparimitāyurnāma Sūtra, but also the Śatasāhasrikā-prajñapāramitā Sūtra). These groups ofcopyists consisted of both monks and laymen, working in a fluid structural
hierarchy to complete this huge undertaking as a ‘gift’ for the Tibetan emperor,
Khri gTsug lde brtsan (r. 815–841). The investigation also reveals a practice of
supplanting the names of the actual scribes with those of other people, perhaps
as a means of the real scribes to loan, barter, or perhaps “sell” copies to otherscribes.
We have located the names of scribes in other, contemporary Tibetan texts,
which further evidence the economy of paper present at Dunhuang. These
documents show how important and potentially lucrative the work of this copy
house was for those in the areas surrounding Dunhuang. The same texts also
demonstrate the high price that would be paid (either literally or
metaphorically in a form of punishment) for falling behind in this work or
losing the precious paper that formed the basis for this economy.
Such indications of economic concerns among the scribes of the copying houseare born out in the colophons to the Aparimitāyur-nāma Sūtra. However, thesecolophons also contain religious sentiments, such as invocation of Buddhist
deities and prayers for the long life of the Tibetan emperor. These act as acounterbalance to the above concerns, suggesting a more complex culturaldynamic present within the copying project than a mere calculating
acquiescence to imperial decree out of a desire for economic gain. A more55

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nuanced account of the daily life of this copying house is necessary, which
could be fruitfully compared to other major copying projects, such as in Tang
China, to properly contextualize Asian scribal culture in this period.

Colophons, Scraps, Jottings, and the Law: The Context of the Tibetan
Emperor’s Sūtra-Copying Project, Dunhuang, c. 820-840
Dotson, Brandon (Institute für Indologie und Tibetologie, München, GER)In the 820s the Tibetan emperor Khri Gtsug lde brtsan (reigned 815–841)
commissioned the production of thousands of copies of the Aparimitāyur-nāma
mahāyāna-sūtra (AN) in both Tibetan and Chinese, and hundreds of copies of
the Tibetan Śatasahasrika-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (SP) and the Chinese Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra (MP). The purpose for doing so is alluded to inadministrative documents, in a rock inscription in eastern Tibet, and in
impromptu prayers and jottings in the sūtras themselves. The sūtras were meant
to generate wisdom and merit so that the Tibetan emperor, and all beings,
might attain enlightenment by seeing, hearing, and worshipping them. As such,
we may approach the copying and commissioning of these sūtras – particularly
the AN – as a ritual act in the context of the Buddhist cult of the book. In doing
so, we gain some insight into the ritual and karmic economy in the late Tibetan
Empire, and the place of the king in relation to the ritual act.
Additionally, however, these documents allow us a glimpse at the ritual actors
who produced these sūtra copies. From their names and titles we know that the
scribes and editors were Chinese and Tibetans, monks and laymen. Apart fromthe execution of their copying duties, and their loans of paper to one another,
we gain a sense of who the scribes and editors were by looking at their jottings
and at the scraps of paper they used in order to patch damaged sūtras. Many of
the sūtra folia that come down to us are discards rejected by the editors. On
these folia we occasionally find jottings – flights of fancy penned around theedges and in the margins of the copied sūtra. The contents of the jottings –whether or not they reflect the wandering of the scribe’s mind amid the
devotional or mechanical practice of copying sūtras – tell us about the scribes’social milieu and about their interests. In these jottings we find, for example,
proverbs, and a verse from the Rāmāyaṇa about Sita’s beauty. Moreprosaically, on the verso of rejected folia there are drafts of official letters,
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usually in the form of practice runs at the formulaic openings that begin suchcorrespondences. Where sūtras are repaired with patches, these are not madewith new, blank paper, but from offcuts of discarded documents. These patches
often come from sūtras, but there are also scraps from official letters. As awhole, the patches constitute a fascinating sample of the sorts of documents
found in the chancellery or in the editors’ and scribes’ workshops. Piecing
together such patches and jottings, we can better understand the editorial
process, the scribes’ relationships to one another, and their duties and interests
beyond the work of copying sūtras.

Scribes, Leaves and Libraries: The Ancient Pāli Tradition of Southeast
Asia, Particularly in Lān Nā and Siamvon Hinüber, Oskar (Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, GER)
Among the three branches of the extant Pāli tradition preserved in the
traditional Theravāda countries Ceylon, Burma and Siam respectively, theoldest manuscripts are preserved in Lānā (Northern Thailand) being copied
towards the end of the 15th century. They are of particular value for text critical
purposes not only because of their age, but first of all because of the excellent
text tradition which they preserve. This will be demonstrated by help of selected
examples of both, text critical and linguistic investigations. Moreover, thecolophons contain rich information on various aspects of cultural history.
Particularly, the information concerning the production of manuscripts, which
can be gathered from the colophons, will also be communicated.
After a brief survey of the major collections, ancient (Buddhist monasteries)
and modern (libraries), manuscripts will be dealt with in the historical context
of the text tradition including exchange of texts among the different Theravāda
countries in pre-modern times.
Lastly, some of the modern research tools available for using the Southeast
Asian Pāli manuscripts will be described.

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Linguistic Ambiguities, the Transmissional Process, and the Earliest
Recoverable Language of Buddhism
Levman, Bryan (University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN)
Scholars have long been preoccupied with the language(s) the Buddha spoke
and the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism. Underlying the surviving
witnesses a simplified communication medium is found, called by scholars une
langue précanonique, a lingua franca or koine. It removed characteristic
dialect differences, by lenition or elimination of intervocalic stops, lenition of
aspirated stops to aspirates only, assimilation or resolution of conjunctconsonants, levelling of sibilants, and interchange of certain glides, nasals,palatals and liquids. This is by definition a lingua franca or koine, a common
language or interlect which “contained elements of all the dialects but was freefrom the most obtrusive dialectical characteristics” (Geiger 1916: 4). The koine
harmonized the different Middle Indic (MI) dialects for mutual comprehension
and was also constrained by the different phonologies of other unrelated
autochthonous languages (Dravidian, Munda, Tibetan), or other Indo-Aryan
languages (Tocharian, Krorainic, Old Sinhalese) which interacted with MI.
Since these languages had a different phonemic structure, their speakers were
not able to hear or repeat some of the MI phonemes. This catalyzed thedevelopment of the koine in a certain direction — towards simplification,
eliminating some of the phonemic distinctions of MI, and making it more
intelligible to a wider audience.

Instituting Transcription: Laborers, Administrators, and Scriptoria and theEmergence of a Textualized Buddhist Tradition in Japan
Lowe, Bryan (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA)In the roughly one hundred years between the late seventh century and the endof the Nara period (710-784), Japanese Buddhism transformed into a textual
tradition. Prior to this time, there is little evidence of Buddhist textual practices
in Japan; it was primarily a religion of architecture and icons. The spread oftexts in the eighth century forever altered the religious landscape of Japan.
Buddhist scholasticism emerged; temples accumulated multiple copies of the58

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canon; and ritual practices related to recitation and transcription flourished. In
short, by the end of the Nara period, Japanese Buddhism had become a religion
inseparable from texts.
This paper will argue that these transformations were enabled by institutional
and technological developments. It will use a collection of more than 10,000
hand-written documents from a bureau for transcribing Buddhist scripture, as
well as colophons from extant sutra manuscripts, to chart the emergence ofdiverse sutra copying institutions—both officially sanctioned canon copying
offices and smaller aristocratic household organizations. My paper will focus
on the activities of those employed within these scriptoria. These include
laborers such as scribes, proofreaders, and assemblers, as well as
administrators responsible for keeping records and coordinating with otheroffices. By highlighting the role of these individuals, my paper challenges
traditional narratives of early Japanese Buddhism, which attribute thereligion’s rise to the activities of courtiers and monks. In contrast, this paper
will suggest that the foundations of Buddhism in Japan were built through thesweat of scribes and the administrative skills of mid-level managers.
My paper will begin by introducing a collection of documents from the treasure
house known as the Shōsōin. These documents have received scant attention byscholars in Buddhist studies, but they provide an unparalleled perspective on
the circulation and production of scripture in early Japan. I will then outline
the types of institutions through which sutras were transcribed. After describing
the relevant collections of sources and institutional contexts for sutra copying,
the paper will turn to an insider’s view of the scriptorium by exploring the livesof the administrators and laborers responsible for large scale transcription
efforts. I will argue administrative and technical skill helped produce religious
texts and knowledge. The paper will conclude by showing how thesetechnologies shaped the history of Buddhism in Japan by connecting sutratranscription to the rise of scholasticism and new ritual and artistic practices.

Two Gāndhārī Saṃyuktāgama Sūtras of the Senior Collection
Marino, Joseph (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)59

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Recent studies of the Senior Collection of twenty-four Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts
have revealed at least twenty-six sūtras with either direct or indirect parallels
in the Pāli Saṃyutta-nikāya (SN) and/or Chinese Saṃyuktāgama (SĀ). Dating
to around the early 2nd century CE, these have been called the “earliest
documentary witness to the development of the Connected Discourses” (Glass
2007), and as such, their study has important implications for our
understanding of the relationship between early South and East Asian
recensions of the SN/SĀ and of the relationship between oral and written sūtras
in South Asia as a whole.
Senior scroll no. 20 contains two SN/SĀ-type sūtras. The first includes a uniqueversion of the gatekeeper metaphor (G doario; Skt. dvārika), which appears inother sūtras such as the P Kiṃsuka-sutta (SN IV 194) and Uttiya-sutta (AN V
193), but has no complete parallel in Pāli, Chinese, or Sanskrit. The second
sūtra corresponds in part to the Pāli and Chinese Pariḷāha-suttas, describing
the hellish nature of life for those who are ignorant of the Noble Truths. A
detailed comparative study of both the content and the technical features ofthese texts, namely, their structure, their orthography, and the medium by which
they are transmitted, brings to light features that augment and clarify ourunderstanding of where such texts might be situated within the presumably
literary-cum-oral milieu of Gandhāran Buddhism and within the broader
context of textual transmission between South and East Asia.

Palimpsests and Recycled Manuscripts from Bāmiyān
Matsuda, Kazunobu (Bukkyo University, Kyoto, JPN)
Among the Buddhist manuscripts discovered in Bāmiyān Valley included in the
Schøyen Collection, Norway, and Hayashidera Collection, Japan, there are two
unprecedented kinds of fragments. One are palimpsests of palm leaf manuscript
written in Kharoṣṭhī script, and the other are recycled birch bark manuscripts
written in Brāhmī script. Based on these two kinds of manuscripts, I would liketo analyze the scriptural transition and the change of transcription materials in
the Bāmiyān manuscripts.

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The Deorkothar Inscriptions and Buddhist Institutional Memory
Salomon, Richard (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
O. von Hinüber and P. Skilling have recently published two very important
inscriptions which were found on a fragmentary pillar at the Buddhist site of
Deorkothar (Rewa District, Madhya Pradesh), and which date from about thesecond century b.c.e. (Annual Report of the International Research Institute forAdvanced Buddhology 16, 2013, pp.13-26). The inscriptions trace the monastic
lineages of their donors back to the Buddha (inscription 1) or Anuruddha(inscription 2). Such lineages were previously unknown in early Buddhist
inscriptions, and now give us an important insight into the modes ofpreservation of institutional lineages in early Indian Buddhist communities.
Moreover, two important points in the inscription are unexpectedly consistent
with traditions recorded in canonical and post-canonical texts: the associationof Anuruddha with the Cedi/Vatsa region in which the inscription was found,and the linkage between the Kukkuṭika/Gokulika (kokuḍika-) and Bahuśrutīya
schools which are mentioned together in inscription 1. These points argue
against the excessive skepticism about the historicity of Buddhist textual
traditions which has prevailed in some circles, and strengthens the position ofscholars such as A. Bareau and M. Hofinger who have favored a more open
attitude.

Writing and the Production of Mahāyāna Literature
Strauch, Ingo (Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, CHE)
The influence of writing and associated cultural techniques on the developmentof Buddhist Mahāyāna literature has been controversially discussed. It was first
Gregory Schopen, who in his famous article on the Mahāyāna book cultdirected the attention to the role of manuscripts and books in the history of
early Mahāyāna. Despite Drewes’ fundamental criticism it cannot be denied
that the technique of writing did indeed play a crucial role in the emergenceand in the development of Mahāyāna literature.

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It is the aim of my paper to investigate this issue on the basis of the recently
discovered manuscripts of Mahāyāna texts from “Greater Gandhāra”. These
manuscripts represent the oldest material evidence for early Mahāyāna.
Moreover, they originate from an area which was highly important for thetransmission of Buddhism and its literature to Central and East Asia. Many ofthe early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna sūtras are said to be based on textsin Gāndhārī, the Middle Indian language of that region.
In the last decades, seven different Mahāyāna sūtras could be identified among
the materials of different manuscript collections. They belong to different
periods and different regions. The contents, the formal features and the contextsof these Gāndhārī Mahāyāna sūtras can probably help to get a clearer pictureof the importance of writing for the composition of early Mahāyāna texts and of
the use of these written texts within monastic communities in North-West India.

The Production of Chinese Buddhist Manuscripts at Dunhuang: An
Overview
Teiser, Stephen F. (Princeton University, USA)The Chinese Buddhist manuscripts from Cave 17 at Mogaoku near Dunhuang(Gansu province) constitute the world’s largest cache of premodern Buddhist
manuscripts, capable of answering a veritable Indra’s net of questions andproblems in Buddhist studies. The Dunhuang manuscripts have been known
for over 100 years since their discovery by the local priest Wang Yuanlu
around the year 1900. They have been the object of study by an internationalgroup of scholars (European, Asian, American) for several generations, andtheir close study is entering a new era owing to recent advances in digitaltechnology and the renaissance of scholarship in China.
This paper offers a broad overview of the conditions under which Chinese
Buddhist manuscripts were produced at Dunhuang over five centuries. Startingwith the manuscripts themselves, it first offers an analysis of the content of themanuscripts. The paper considers such questions as: How many Chinesemanuscripts are there in the Dunhuang corpus? What is their content, and how
many texts are in each category? What accounts for the relatively large amount62

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of non-canonical Buddhist texts, documents concerning social and economic
life, popular literature, and other non-Buddhist texts at Dunhuang? The paper
next turns to the Sitz im Leben of the manuscripts, reflecting on the religious
and educational institutions that produced the manuscripts and the broader
trends in writing, literacy, and textual production in medieval China. It asks
questions like: Who produced (wrote, copied) the manuscripts? In what
institutions: scriptoria of local monasteries, local schools, temple schools,
individual monks, individual local officials, or monasteries located elsewhere?
The paper ends by considering trends in secondary scholarship of the lastcentury against this documentary and social background, suggesting somefruitful avenues for future research.

Gilgit Manuscripts and the Role of Writing in Mahāyāna and in Canonical
Sūtra Literature
von Criegern, Oliver (LMU, München, GER)The Gilgit manuscript corpus is unique among findings of ancient Indian
Buddhist manuscripts in so far as this large collection has been recovered as awhole from that very building where it was left more than 1200 years ago.
These manuscripts therefore not only provide a lot of Buddhist Sanskrit texts
that are lost elsewhere, but they may also be considered representative of the
Buddhist literature as it was present in Gilgit around the 7th century. A more
recently found manuscript of the Dīrghāgama that comes from the same areaand probably from the same site may be added to this corpus. An examinationof these manuscripts reveals differences regarding script, language, diligence ofwriting etc., which can be related to differend kinds of texts, as especially old
canonical sūtras vs. Mahāyāna sūtras, and which may shed light on thedevelopment of Buddhism in that area and to the role of writing in Mahāyāna incontrast to non-Mahāyāna Buddhism.

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Compassion in the Āgamas and Nikāyas
Analayo, Bhikkhu (University of Hamburg & Dharma Drum Buddhist College,
Jinshan, TWN)
The paper will explore two main aspects of the description of compassion in theearly Buddhist discourses found in the Pali Nikāyas in comparison with theircounterparts preserved in the Chinese Agamas and, whenever extant, in
Sanskrit fragments and Tibetan translation:1)“Compassion in action”, which is usually referred to with the term
anukampā. Such early Buddhist compassion in action seems to find its
expression predominantly in teaching activity. This in turn provides significant
indications on the conception of compassion within the framework of early
Buddhist thought.
2) “Meditative Compassion”, karuṇā, which nearly always occurs within thecontext of the four brahmavihāras. The paper will the standard description of
meditation practice of karuṇā as a boundless radiation. This points to a form ofpractice without a specified object and thus appears to be quite different fromthe descriptions in later manuals that have influenced modern day practice.

The Four Immeasurables in
the Bodhisattvabhūmi and Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and their
Implementation in a Study of Brain Imaging
Bhikshu, Huimin (Dharma Drum Buddhist College, New Taipei City, TWN)First, this paper investigates the implications of the four immeasurables(catvāry apramāṇāni) in the Bodhisattvabhūmi and Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra,
concluding that these two texts approach the four immeasurable states of mind
from two different points of view. Based on the three groups of sentient beings,
the immeasurables of kindness, compassion, and empathic joy arise accordingly
on relating to sentient beings in states of neither-suffering-nor-pleasure(kindness), suffering (empathic), and pleasure (empathic joy) respectively. On
the other hand, delusion, hatred, and greed can also be aroused when one

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experiences these three kinds of states (neither-suffering-nor-pleasure,suffering, and pleasure). Consequently, bodhisattvas generate a strong intention(adhyāśaya)—the mind state of equanimity, the fourth immeasurable—to guidethese three groups of sentient beings to abandon defilements. This
interpretation goes beyond the traditional definition of the four immeasurables
in earlier Buddhist thought.
Second, based on the above conclusion, we are trying to establish a newmeasuring scale through the use of brain imaging measurements of
MRI/DIT/fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). This measuring scale
is being designed in the context of an integrated project developed at Dharma
Drum Buddhist College in collaboration with other Taiwanese universities,
which is entitled “Imaging Benevolence and Compassion: An Experiment with
Meditation in Religious Education.”‘Great Compassion’ in Indian Buddhism
Dhammadinna, Samaneri (Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Jinshan District,
New Taipei City, TWN)
This paper presents a historical study of textual sources testifying to theemergence of a soteriology of ‘great compassion’ (mahākaruṇā) in Indian
Buddhism. This development both reflects and plays a part in several doctrinaland religious changes that eventually will provide the signature of Mahāyāna
practices, where ‘great compassion’ becomes paramount within the‘augmented’ meditative and experiential field of the bodhisattva.
The historical excursion through a selection of texts to be presented in thepaper – ranging from Abhidharmic sources to a number of bodhisattva texts of
the Middle Period, Mahāyāna sūtras as well as meditation scriptures such as
the so-called Yogalehrbuch – begins with the extrapolation of compassion(karuṇā) out of the fourfold scheme of the immeasurables (apramāṇas) or
divine abodes (brahmāvihāras) and the projection onto compassion and then‘great compassion’ of an apriori motivational function in the spiritual path. The
primacy of this new mode of compassion entails a major soteriological shift.
The notion of teaching the Dharma for liberation – the main aspect of thecompassionate solicitude (anukampa) of the Buddha and the arhats – is largely
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replaced by the (great) compassion of the bodhisattva, functional to a salvificprogramme comprising all beings. Here the attainment of great compassion
possesses a unique meditative power towards the achievement of omniscience(sarvajñā) as an essential characteristic of a Buddha. With mahākaruṇā
gaining philosophical and religious primacy within Indian Buddhism, related
meditative objects and areas of investigation such as emptiness andconditionality come also to be philosophically requalified.
With doctrinal and religious changes of such magnitude in place, the key role
performed by ‘great compassion’ in the Mahāyāna ideological discourse, withregard to rhetorical and polemical discourses vis-à-vis the Śrāvaka-/Hīnayāna,
and the core identity itself of the Mahāyāna movement, i.e., the undertaking of
bodhisattva vows and precepts, becomes easier to understand historically.

Neuroscience of Compassion: Challenges and Opportunities
Hangartner, Diego (Mind & Life Institute Europe, Hadley, MA, USA)
Most recent scientific research has been focusing on mindfulness, compassion
and even the social benefits of meditation. While the tools of modern science
are by nature reductionist, the findings have had a major impact on thedefinitions of, to name a few, focused attention, altruism, compassion, andkindness. This has far reaching consequences for training and application, andhas implications for the understanding of these concepts so central to
Buddhism.
This presentation will explore how modern research and the natural sciences
are shaping these concepts, how they instrumentalize such important topics,
and how experience risks being reduced to mere baseline “well-being.” This
paper will look at the consequences of the findings by brain sciences, clinicalsciences, as well as other investigations on the understanding andimplementations of practice, and how neuroscientific research per se is looking
at mental states. It will also present the experiences of an active participant inscientific studies of meditation (in the role of a guinea pig), and how thisparticipation has informed the presenter’s understanding of meditation
practice.

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One of the most critical insights in the scientific exploration of mental states isthe emerging shift from an exclusively objective, third person perspective to theinclusion of the subjective, first person perspective. This has far-reaching andimportant consequences with regard to the foundations of scientificmethodology. Using the Brahmavihāra of Compassion, it will be argued thatany study of mental states, be that scientific or Buddhist, needs to consider theinsights that have emerged from most recent research data: be that with regard
to methodology, with regard to context, or to the limitations and feasibility ofobjectivity.

Immeasurable Devices: Their Treatment in the Damoduoluo chanjing and
Further Distillation in Japanese Zen
Mohr, Michel (University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA)This paper examines the Damoduoluo chanjing 達摩多羅禪經 (T 15 no. 618), a
meditation sutra translated in the early fifth century. Its fourteenth section (修行四無量三昧第十四) provides a minute description of the samādhi resulting
from the practice of the four immeasurables (apramāṇa). I will introduce thecommentary on this sutra composed by the Japanese Rinzai teacher Tōrei Enji
東嶺圓慈 (1721–92). First published in 1784 and available only in a woodblock
edition, his commentary in six volumes entitled Darumatara zenkyō settsū kōsho
達磨多羅禪經説通考疏 allows us to broaden our understanding of how theimmeasurables were emphasized in both scholastic Buddhism and the Chan/Zen
traditions. Tōrei distinguishes between these two approaches while ultimately
highlighting their nonduality. After having discussed the shortcomings of Zen
teachers who failed to encourage the practice of the four immeasurables, in a
passage titled “the Way of the Patriarchs” (祖師之道) Tōrei examines
examples of those who valued the immeasurables.
While building on the legacy of Fori Qisong 佛日契嵩 (1007–1072) and his
Chuanfa zhengzonglun 傳法正宗論 (T 51 no. 2080, Treatise on the Dharma
Transmission’s True Lineage), Tōrei offered his own insight into thesignificance of this practice and in particular into the ability of theimmeasurables to serve as devices pushing the mind to overcome its discursive
limitations. Such writings, where Japanese Zen teachers utilize the legacy of67

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Chan luminaries active in the Song dynasty, always beg the question whether
they were merely replicating the teachings of their Chinese predecessors or
trying to innovate. This commentary illustrates both continuity anddiscontinuity. Yet, while demonstrating a high level of textual scholarship, thesolidity of Tōrei’s approach is occasionally weakened by sectarian agendas,
such as his attempt to argue for Bodhidharma’s authorship of the sutra.
The delivery of this paper will coincide with the production of the first English
translation of section 14 of the Damoduoluo chanjing, which should encourage
the scholarly community to reexamine this neglected source and to movebeyond unproductive discussions about who the enigmatic Dharmatrāta may
have been.

Confluence: Adoption and Adaptation of Lovingkindness and Compassion
Practice in Buddhist and Secular Contexts
Neal, Dawn (Institute of Buddhist Studies and Sati Center for Buddhist
Studies, San Francisco, USA)
Contemporary Buddhists are adapting lovingkindness and compassion praxis.
Using a few specific vignettes, I will explore how the distinct practices oflovingkindness and compassion are being borrowed and adapted both in
Buddhist religious traditions, and in secular environments.
This discussion examines the adaptation process from two perspectives. First, I
will explore how some teachers adapt lovingkindness and compassion
practices. Second, I will highlight some textual sources used by those adapting
or secularizing lovingkindness and compassion practices, including the Mettā
Sutta and the Visuddhimagga, perhaps the most influential Theravāda
compendium in contemporary Buddhism. The phrases and categories oflovingkindness praxis in the Visuddhimagga now appear nearly verbatim inteachings of secular compassion practice. This cross-fertilization occurs
directly between Buddhist traditions as well. For example, the Mettā Sutta has
been adapted for use in American Soto Zen communities.
In short, this paper provides a small amount of primary research documenting
the adaptation of praxis and textual sources within contemporary Buddhism
and the secular practices of lovingkindness and compassion derived from it.

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Why Is the kaṭhina Robe So Called?
Gombrich, Richard (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Oxford, GBR)
Every Theravādin monastery is supposed to hold a ceremony soon after the endof the annual rains retreat, at which a monastic robe is made and offered to amonk who has been considered by the abbot to be particularly deserving. The
decision to award it is one of the very few formal acts of the Saṅgha laid downin the canonical Vinaya, and the only one which is prescribed to happen
annually. The robe (cīvara) is known as the kaṭhina cīvara, and the namekaṭhina also attaches to the ceremony as a whole. However, the etymology ofkaṭhina has been forgotten.
This article describes the modern ceremony, in which a large new cloth is cut
into pieces, which are then sewn together to make a robe. Comparing thekaṭhina ceremony with funerals, I trace the origin of making monastic robes outof pieces stitched together to the earliest times. This reveals that kaṭhina mean
“rough”, because originally that is what the robes were. Though nowadays lay
piety demands that monks wear the finest cloth, the kaṭhina ceremony reflects
the prestige of the archaic.
Finally I garner some corroborative evidence from the Pali Vinaya section on
the kaṭhina, though I show that a section of the account of how the ceremonycame into being has been lost. The Ven. Analayo has kindly checked for me theparallel sections of the Vinayas surviving only in Chinese, but they turn out tobe of little use. Though itself damaged, the Pali version is clearly the oldest.

Flower Garland: The Transmission of a Vinaya Commentary in Tibet
Liu, Cuilan (Harvard, Montreal, CAN)This paper discusses the transmission of the Vinayakārikā in Tibet. The
Vinayakārikā is a versified compilation of Buddhist monastic rules of the
Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition. In the colophon of its Tibetan translation,Viśākhadeva, the author of the text, identified himself as a disciple of a certainĀrya Saṅghadāsa and gave the full text title as Vinayakārikā Mālākāra (’Dul ba

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tshig le’ur byas pa me tog phreng rgyud), “Verses of Vinaya: Flower Garland”.
Hence, Tibetan authors often quote this text in abbreviation as Flower Garland.
The self-identification and the full title, however, are absent in the Chinesetranslation.
This text was translated in China and Tibet but was received differently. Yijing(635-713) translated it into Chinese in 710 at the Grand Jianfu monastery, yet
the Chinese Buddhists have exhibited little interest in studying or investigating
it. In Tibet, the Newar scholar Jayākara and the Tibetan Sanskritist Prajñākīrti
co-translated it, according to van der Kuijp (2013: 182), most likely in theeleventh century, “at the behest of Lha bla ma Zhi ba ’od (1016-1111)”. Later,
Rong ston Shes bya kun rig (1367-1449) and Vanaratna (1384-1468) revisedand finalized the Tibetan translation.
Evidence from the fifteenth century Tibetan chronicle, The Blue Annals, reveals
that Tibetans were teaching and studying this text in the twelfth century. Extant
commentaries on this text date to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Amongits three major extant Tibetan commentaries, the earliest was composed by theabove-mentioned Rong ston who, in the colophon of the commentary, selfidentified using his religious name Śākya rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po. The
second commentary was written at Snar thang monastery by Bka’ bzhi pa Shes
rab seng ge (1383-1445), who also wrote a short text outlining the chapters of
the Flower Garland. According to the colophon of the outline, the commentary
was composed on the basis of instruction from a concise summary of the Flower
Garland attributed to a Mchims Thams cad mkhyen pa Nam mkha’ grags pa(1210-1285), the seventh abbot of Snar thang monastery. This text is yet to befound. The third commentary was published in 2007 in the thirty-eighth volumeof the Collected Writings of the Bka’ gdams pa. The fifteenth century scholar
Bsam gtan bzang po wrote it on the basis of the second commentary at Snarthang monastery. The fact that two of the three extant commentaries and a lost
commentary were produced at Snar thang monastery’s affiliates suggests thatthe teaching and studying of Flower Garland was popular at this monasteryfrom the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.

Buddhist Monks at the Royal Courts of Ancient India
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This paper examines the status and influence of Buddhist monks at the royalcourts in ancient India. It draws on a set of passages identified in the
Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya which suggests that the presence of the members of
the Saṅgha at the seat of government gave rise to concern among the king’s
counsellors. Some feared to lose access to the king, others grew uneasy about
the monks’ seeming interference in political matters. Some even believed thatthe followers of the Buddha were involved in theft and sexual misdemeanour.
Before long, this tension produced open conflict. Royal discontent led to aseries of monastic injunctions through which the Saṅgha sought to scale backthe prominence of its monks at court, worried about reputation and reprisal. I
examine the passages that describe the events leading to the Buddha’s
intervention and provide context, drawn from Buddhist and brahmanicalsources, to aid us in their interpretation.

The Vinaya of the Bon Tradition
Roesler, Ulrike (Oxford, GBR)
Historically, the monastic life of the Bon tradition of Tibet has developed side
by side with that of the Tibetan Buddhists. However, the monastic code of the
Bonpos is not identical with the Buddhist one. It consists of 250 rules for monks(pho khrims) and 360 rules for nuns (mo khrims), as well as shorter sets of rules
for temporary ordination, for lay people, and novices. It uses its own
terminology (such as drang srong “ṛṣi” for the monks and drang srong ma forthe nuns) and has its own legendary and historical transmission lineages.
Within the canonical collections of the Bon tradition, the “six vinaya
scriptures” (’dul ba rgyud drug) have a special place as one of the few sections
that are considered bka’ ma (transmitted from person to person in an unbroken
lineage), not gter ma (concealed and recovered) texts. An intriguing aspect isthe headings of the canonical vinaya texts in the mysterious “divine language of
Kapita”. Another remarkable feature is the strong Mahāyāna leanings of the
Bon vinaya. My paper is going to give a preliminary survey of the Bon vinaya
as an important component of the vinaya traditions of Inner Asia.

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Reflections on the Chulamani Cetiya in Thai Art
Chirapravati, Pattaratorn (California State University, Sacramento, Davis,
California, USA)This paper examines the history of narratives and physical manifestations of theChulamani Cetiya. According to Buddhist texts, the Buddha’s hair is said to behoused in the Chulamani Cetiya in Indra’s heaven, Tushita. In Thai art a
distinctive type of redented bell-shaped body and superstructure (with square
throne element, a spire made up of a tapering stack of lotuses, and a tall finial)
became stereotypical of this particular type of stupa in Siam from around the15th century. Many temples with the name Chulamani were built at importantancient cities such as Ayutthaya, Phitsanulok, Samut Songkhram, and Bangkok.
The Chulamani stupa also became popularly depicted on mural paintings,
illustrated manuscripts of Phra Malai, and sutra cabinets. In addition, aminiature Chulamani stupa is commonly used as a form of relic casket. Fromthe period of King Borommatri Lokanat of Ayutthaya (1448-1488) to the early
Bangkok period (1782-1851), the Chulamani Cetiya was popularly produced.
Why was the Chulamani stupa very popular and did it have any special
meaning to Siamese rulers and their kingdoms? This paper will investigate
historical documents, structures, and religious purposes of the Chulamani
Cetiya.

Chak Ma Chom Muang (“A City Sojourn on a Horse Back”): A Visit to theTemple of the Emerald Buddha
Chongstitvatana, Suchitra (Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, THA)This paper is an attempt to explore the significance of the description of‘temple’ in Thai literature focusing on a text of modern poetry by Naowarat
Pongpaiboon, Chak Ma Chom Muang (“A city sojourn on a horse back”).
The temple described in the text is the temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of themost important royal temples in the country. It is found that the poet isharmonizing various conventions of Thai poetry in this text. The description of72

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the temple and its garden is a well balanced mixture of modernity andconvention. The text reflects an image of a great temple as well as Buddhist
philosophy through the arts and architecture of this temple, which could be
regarded both as a center of sacredness and the power of arts as a path to thespiritual perfection of wisdom.

The Four Tooth Relic Stupas in 13th Century Pagan, Myanmar
Handlin, Lilian (Independent Scholar, Cambridge, USA)The Buddha Gotama’s post cremation career in Myanmar is linked to the storyof the Tooth Stupas, enshrining four of the so-called perfect relics the Buddha
was believed to have left unburned during his cremation. Their Pagan cultbecomes evident by the end of the 12th century when the Four Tooth stupas areincorporated in endowments’ decors and contextualized within various
structures’ broader narratives. Their images, always showing appropriate
worshippers, illustrated each stupa’s location – whether in Tavatimsa, guarded
by Sakka, down below, property of the Nagas, or in their two terrestrial locales– one in “China,” the other in “Sri Lanka.” Late 12th century contacts with Sri
Lanka that in 1181 saw the return of four Pagan monks, reordained in Sri
Lanka during their stay, intertwined with another periodic attempt to purify the
Pagan sangha. The monks’ homecoming generated a new, though short lived,
additional sangha lineage, encouraged the recovery and reintegration ofhitherto neglected rituals and texts, and perhaps the introduction of newpractices. The cult of the Buddha’s Tooth Relics is the most permanent result of
these ideational and institutional upheavals, evident in the stupas’ 13th century
popularity. Attention to their presence broadened the spacial scope of the
Buddha's post parinirvana biography, was linked to Pagan’s complex
cosmography and enabled 13th century monarchs to reinscribe theirceremonial center's geography in association with the Buddha’s remains.
The paper will show how the Tooth Stupas’ presence illuminates post 1200
changes in Pagan's conceptions of the sasana and its maintenance, and theirarchitectonic embodiments.

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Persian Flowers and Chinese Fragments on a Thai Monastery: Material
Culture of Wat Arun’s Architecture
Kerekes, Susanne (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA)This paper presents a preliminary study of the architecture of Bangkok’s
famous Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn). The exterior embellishment of themain chedi consists of fragments (and sometimes whole pieces) of multi-coloredporcelain ceramics. This illustrates, as most scholars assert, an exclusively
Sino-influenced design. The unique mosaic layout of these porcelain shards
surrounding the central prang and sundry may, however, suggest a connection
to Persia, in spite of its materially Chinese provenance. An exploration of sucha nexus would look beyond the predominance of Chinese porcelain use, as wellas King Rama III's supposed obsession with Chinese art and architecture andactually suggest an architectural pastiche and multivalency that might not be soeasily defined architecturally.

Some Visual and Architectural Evidence on the Interrelation between
stūpa, dharmakāya and Prajñāpāramitā
Kozicz, Gerald (Independent Researcher, Graz, AUT)
This paper seeks to shed light on the cult of the stūpa as dharmakāya and theimportance of Prajñāpāramitā for the over-all understanding of the religiousart, architecture and practice of Buddhism in the western Himalaya during the
11th-12th centuries. In his 1991 study of textual sources, Daniel Boucher(JIABS vol. 14, no. 1) addressed the interchangeability of texts and relics of the
Buddha as representations of the dharma and how, through their subsequent
enshrinement in stūpas, the stūpa may be understood as a dharmacaitya.
Boucher particularly referred to the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā),personified by the goddess of the same name. Unlike in the cases of othergoddesses such as Uṣṇīṣavijayā or Mārīcī, there appears to be no direct linkage
in art and architecture between Prajñāpāramitā and the stūpa.
The proposed paper provides art historical and, to some extent, architecturalevidence in support of the conclusions drawn by Boucher. The presentation will

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be based on the documentation of one Prajñāpāramitāmaṇḍala mural inside a
stūpa and several wooden doorframes bearing central depictions of the
Perfection of Wisdom, all of which were documented at the Alchi Compoundand related monuments in today’s Ladakh. Two of the carved figures have astūpa as an additional attribute in one of their left hands. In addition, a
depiction of the dharmacakra is part of the iconographic program of the mostimportant door under discussion, namely that of the Alchi ’Du khang (alsonamed Vairocana Temple). Interestingly, the central figure of the
Prajñāpāramitāmaṇḍala does not display the book as her main attribute.
However, the book and the dharmacakra were incorporated into the maṇḍala ina surprising and hitherto unknown way as a structural component, throughwhich the book was visually superimposed upon the dharmacakra. The
significant position of this maṇḍala within the iconographic program of the
stūpa once again unites these three aspects.

A Journey into Suvaṇṇabhūmi with Special Reference to Phra Pathom
Chedi, Nakhon Pathom
Revire, Nicolas (Thammasat University/Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle, Bangkok,
THA)
Over the centuries, different parts of mainland Southeast Asia have claimed
Suvaṇṇabhūmi or the “Golden Land” as their own. Suvaṇṇabhūmi is a fanciful
term found in early Pāli literature linked with the introduction of Buddhism to
the region. The term’s locus classicus is the Sri Lankan Mahāvaṃsa chronicle(5th or 6th century CE) which states that two monks, Soṇa and Uttara, weresent to Suvaṇṇabhūmi for missionary activities in the time of King Asoka (3rdcentury BCE). Although no one today knows for sure where the fabled Golden
Land really was, or whether it even existed, provocative issues remain
regarding why the “name” and the “concept” needs to be appropriated inmodern times. This paper examines the case of Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakhon
Pathom (Central Thailand), presumably an ancient stūpa of the firstmillennium CE. This site has been identified since the mid-late 19th century byThai royal and religious figures as the centre of Suvaṇṇabhūmi and Theravāda
Buddhism in Thailand. To examine this appropriation, the paper focuses on themodern mural paintings at the site which powerfully capture the legend of theintroduction of Buddhism to Nakhon Pathom.

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Early Pāla Architecture in Bihār and its Connection to Dvāravatī Stūpas
in Central Thailand
Tingsanchali, Chedha (Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University,
Bangkok, THA)This article is a part of the research on “Pāla and its influences to Thai Art”
which was funded by the National Research of Thailand Council (NRTC) in2011.
Early Pāla architecture in Bihār, especially the Temple no. 3 and no. 12 atNālandā, for instance, is marked by its complicated plans and moldings. Temple
no. 12, for example, is of the rectangular plan with bold projections at thecorners and sub-projections on each side. The moldings of this temple were
noticeably conceived as a Prāsāda, or multi-tiered building, comprising a
Vedībandha base supporting the body (Jaṅghā) which is decorated with a
Mañcī (the lower molding of the body) and series of niches and pilasters. ThisJaṅghā is topped by a series of Kapota (sloping eaves) decorated with
Chandraśālās (or Kuḍus) to complete the topmost member of the Prāsāda
architecture. Despite of being composed of niches and pilasters as that of theenterable Prāsāda, this massive base is extraordinarily conceived to be a solid
non-enterable structure.
Some of Dvāravatī Stūpa massive bases, such as Wat Klong at Khu Bua, arealso conceived as Prāsāda, or multi-tiered buildings, yet solid and nonenterable. These characters are reminiscent of those at Nālandā. In the case ofmoldings, Wat Klong consists of a Vedībandha base and Jaṅghā, with anothermolding in between, which presumably coincides with the Mañcī. The Jaṅghā isornamented with series of pilasters and niches which are very similar to thoseat Temple no. 12 at Nālandā. Moreover, this Jaṅghā is solid and non-enterable.
The plan of Wat Klong is rectangular, with the only staircase at the front
leading to the top of the platform. The plan and the moldings of Wat Klong arevery similar to those of Temple no. 12 at Nālandā, which allows me to assume
that the structure at Wat Klong is possibly a copy of that at Nālandā.
Stūpa no. 1 Kubua and Stūpa at Cha-Am, are of a square plan with boldprojections at the corners. At the central portion, there is a central multi-subcornered projection (or Bhadra offset). This kind of plan reminds me of thesmall brick base decorated with a floral motif at Sārnāth, which is decorated
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with a bold projection at the corner and a sub-projection at the center of thebase.
The cruciform temple of Wat Pra Men, with four enterable doors, at Nokorn
Pathom is of special interest. Despite of having been assigned by scholars toresemble to Somapurī Vihāra at Pahārpur, recent research shows that thistemple is also close to the main temple at Sārnāth, or so-called
Mūlagandhakuti, which has a cruciform plan with four enterable doors. The
Buddha images discovered inside Wat Pra Men sit in Bhadrāsana posture andshow the Vitarka gesture, which, in Dvāravatī iconography, is equivalent to thegesture of turning the wheel of the law (Dharmacakrapravartanamudrā),referring directly to the first sermon.
Conclusively, these coincidences between Dvāravatī and Early Pāla stūpas andtemples in Bihār testify the relation between these two regions between the 6th10th centuries A.D. This also allows us to speculate about the relation of thepeople of the two regions. Possibly, there were Dvāravatī monks who travelled
to Bihār for studying Buddhism at Nālandā and also went on pilgrimage to
Sārnāth and other places. Because of this, the style of Early Pāla architecture
came to be introduced in central Thailand.

Milk and Milk Products in Indian and Chinese Buddhist Texts
Kong, Man-Shik (King's College, London. Theology & Religious Studies,
London, GBR)
Even though the ethical dietary issues surrounding the consumption of meat andpungent vegetables have been examined in relation to East Asian Buddhism,
and are relatively well known, the related issue of milk consumption has so far
evaded notice.
In Buddhist vinayas, which originated in India, the consumption of milk
products is mentioned in a number of rules, indicating that it was part of thenormal diet of Indian monks. There are, however, two exceptions. One is
Pācittiya 39th, which prohibits monks from requesting sumptuous food items
including ghee and fresh butter. In other words, it is a rule preventing the77

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expression of desire and indulgence. The other rule is not among the
Pātimokkha rules, but mentioned in the medical, Bhesajja, section of the
Mahāvagga. It says that medicines made of milk products may only be
consumed when a monk is ill.
Generally, then, Indian monks included milk products in their diet, and theevidence from the vinaya is confirmed both by Indian Buddhist texts and by theeye-witness accounts of Chinese pilgrims.
Looking at the textual evidence of sūtras, we find that even though the
Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra is opposed to meat-eating, unlike thevinayas, it in fact supports the consumption of milk. After the Buddha has
finished preaching against meat-eating the monk Kassapa responds bysuggesting that they should therefore also avoid milk. The Buddha is critical ofthis approach, identifying it as a Jain attitude. Jains had banned milk becauseof the micro-organisms within it. This attitude in Indian Mahāyānasūtras thatare pro-milk consumption but against meat-eating is in stark contrast to theattitude found in some Chinese Buddhist writings.
The so-called ‘apocryphal’ Chinese sūtra, the Shoulengyan jing (首 楞 嚴 經),
appears to be the first sutra to prohibit the use of milk products, breaking withthe previous tradition. This text, which perhaps dates to the 8th century CE, hasbeen highly influential and many commentaries were written on it. These
commentaries take up its prohibition on milk. They explain it as harmful to theanimals concerned and also as being the same as taking life, given that milk is
to be considered a part of the body.
The Shoulengyan jing and its commentarial corpus had a pivotal andunparalleled role in the shaping of Buddhist monastic cuisine. As a result, milk
products do not feature in Chinese monastic cooking, which is therefore not justvegetarian, but vegan. This paper looks at the details of these contrasting
approaches to milk consumption in Indian and Chinese Buddhism.

The Metaphor of Lotus Flower in Medieval Chinese and Japanese Texts
Lin, Peiying (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ISR)78

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The symbolic value of the lotus flower in East Asian Buddhism cannot be
overstated. One need only think of the title of the Lotus Sūtra. Love of the lotus
flower began in India, even before Buddhism, for its sun-like splendour andheavenly fragrance. In various Buddhist writings, it is admired for its beautyand spontaneous generation. It symbolizes a newly created world.
This essay focuses attention on the rationale behind and conceptual shifts in thesymbolic value of the lotus blossom. In relatively early Chinese writings, suchas that by Chinese Master Daoxuan (596–667), it represents Buddha-natureand purity. In the other context, however, the lotus flower is praised for its
unlimited ability to grow and grow. This conceptualisation was widely adopted
by the Tiantai School, Pure Land Buddhism, and Chan Buddhism, and was
taken up in a text written by Saichō (767–822), the founder of the JapaneseTendai School. Later on, the radical thinker Nichiren (1222–82) renamed
himself as “sun and lotus” with an extreme emphasis on his Japanese identity.
Reading through a range of commentaries by Chinese and Japanese monks andliterati, this essay discusses how the feminine characteristics of the lotus flower
transcend gender and how the conception of the lotus seed became connected toconsciousness in accordance with Buddhist scriptures such as the Flower
Garland Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.

Tea Ceremonial Practices and Zen Monasteries in the Meiji Era (18681912)
Oshikiri, Taka (The University of the West Indies, Mona, JAM; History &Archaeology, Kingston, JAM)
A Buddhist monk, Eisai, introduced Zen Buddhism and tea to Japan in the 13th
century. Since then, the practice of Zen and the consumption of powdered greentea (matcha) have developed a close relationship. This presentation focuses on
the production and consumption of powdered green tea in the Meiji period(1868-1912). Among the places where the tea producers in the Meiji era
targeted consumers of powdered green tea were Zen monasteries. This
presentation highlights the cultural practices in Zen monasteries by exploring
the relationship between the production of tea and the practice of tea drinking
in the Meiji era.
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New Research on Five Pungent Vegetables (wuxin)
Shi, Yifa (Rosemead, USA)This talk focuses on the five pungent vegetables (alliums) wuxin 五辛, singlingout important discrepancies between authoritative texts, comparing the wuxinwith other Chinese traditions, and seeks new approaches to research based on
insights from modern nutritional and chemical sciences. Although someconclusions must be left less than certain, this paper addresses some of themany misconceptions about the five pungent vegetables.
The first section of my paper compares the definition of and reasoning behind“the five pungent vegetables” in the Vinaya and early Mahayana sutras andprecept texts. There are many reasons given in different texts, including that it
causes unfortunate breath odor or that it arouses sexual passions. The Vinaya
do not discuss wuxin, and only four of the five wuxin were known with certainty
in China. I suspect that the origin of some of these beliefs is in Central Asia. On
the basis of this research, together with the below work on Bencaogangmu, I
speculate on the identity of the mysterious fifth pungent vegetable, ch. xingqu 興
渠, as asafoetida. Other important distinctions must be made between the
Vinaya proper and later Vinaya commentaries. Furthermore, there are several
interesting exceptions in the Vinaya made for the use garlic, including as
medicine for arthritis. The second part of this paper compares the Chinese
Buddhist wuxin with the other Chinese traditions of Daoism and Chinese
medicine to suggest the complicated relationship between native traditions andChinese Buddhist practices. In addition to comparisons with the
Huangdineijing 黃帝内經 and Bencaogangmu 本草綱目, I am interested inclarifying the original use of the term huncai 葷菜. Though the character hun
葷 is often used as a synonym for non-vegetarianism, the original term in its
Daoist context referred to some pungent vegetables and had no relation to meatand meat-eating practices.
The third part of my research summarizes recent research in the fields of
Nutrition Sciences and Chemistry that is focused on allium. This modern
research indicates that some early Mahayana explanations concerning theaphrodisiac qualities of garlic are not backed up by science, while the researchof onions is ambiguous. This contrast between tradition and science creates theopportunity to discuss the place of tradition in our modern world.

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Food and Efficacy: Porridge, Milk, and Beans in the Shishi liutie, aBuddhist Encyclopedia from Tenth-Century China
Toleno, Robban (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CAN)
Scholars of Chinese Buddhism have given far more attention to historical
processes vilifying foodstuffs such as meat and pungent vegetables (alliums)
than to those celebrating foods such as porridge, which is enshrined in thewording of mealtime rites in Chinese monastic communities. While
proscriptions are highly important, we should not overlook celebrations offoods and claims of karmic, numinous, or health-promoting efficacy, since theseclaims inform normative practices. Sources as temporally and geographicallydistanced as the Pali canon’s Porridge Scripture (Yāgu Sutta) and Mujaku
Dōchū’s (1653-1744) Zenrin shōkisen (禪林象器戔) agree that porridge is afood with special significance to Buddhists. Nonetheless, the ingredients of
Buddhist porridge transformed in the wake of Mahāyāna revisionism andthrough cross-cultural reinterpretation (i.e., substitutions), shifting from dairy
and meat to mold-cultured and bean porridges. Analyzing 10th-century
citations on porridge, milk, and beans, and also referencing the Sutra Spoken
by the Buddha on the Five Advantageous Rewards Reaped from the Bestowal of
Food (Foshuo shishi huo wufubao jing 佛說食施獲五福報經), I attempt in thispaper to offer the beginnings of an historically informed answer to a basic
problem: Why would Buddhist authors idealize some foods over others?

Sthiramati and the Thesis of Mental Awareness Accompanying Sensory
AwarenessChu, Junjie (Leipzig University, Leipzig, GER)
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the Chinese materials concerning
Dignāga's theory of mental perception (mānasaṃ pratyakṣam). Quite different
from the interpretation of Dharmakīrti, in Xuanzang's Chen wei shi lun andKuiji's commentary thereof, Dignāga is interpreted, along with Sthiramati, as
holding the opinion that mental awareness arises simultaneously with sensory
awareness as its companion (°sahānucara/°anucara). This kind of mental

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awareness is often referred to briefly as “mental awareness accompanying thefive [groups of sensory awareness]” (Wu ju yi shi, 五俱意識).
This interpretation has its background in the Yogācāra thesis of mental
awareness accompanying sensory awareness derived from the doctrine of thesimultaneous arising of multiple kinds of awareness, which can be traced backto the early sources of the Yogācāra system such as the Yogācārabhūmi and theSaṃdhinirmocanasūtra. This thesis consists of two aspects: (1) The sensory
awareness can last for more than one moment, since it is always accompaniedby the mental awareness which can be the searching thought (paryeṣakaṃ
cittam) and discerning thought (niścitam cittam); (2) The mental awarenessarises simultaneously with the sensory awareness and thus accompanies thelatter and shares with the latter the same object-support (ālambana).
According to Kui Ji, this thesis is also advocated by Sthiramati. This attribution,in fact, can be attested in Sthiramati's available Sanskrit works; additionally,
Sthiramati holds that this kind of mental awareness accompanying sensory
awareness has the nature of being mental construction (vikalpaka) and has theclearness (spaṣṭa) in its content.
All these points will be examined in detail through comparing the Chinesematerials with the relevant available Sanskrit and Tibetan materials. By doing
so the author of this paper tries to prove that, in the Chinese Yogācāra
tradition, Dignāga is interpreted in light of the Yogācāra thesis of mental
awareness accompanying sensory awareness.

A Re-examination of Dharmakīrti’s Dating
Franco, Eli (Leipzig University, Leipzig, GER)
Already Wassili Wassiljew in Der Buddhismus, seine Dogmen, Geschichte und
Literatur, St. Petersburg 1860 (Russian original 1857) dated Dharmakīrti in theseventh century. The current and widely accepted dating (ca. 635-650),
however, has been established by Satish Chandra Vidhyabhushana in the
posthumous publication A History of Indian Logic (1920: 303). The commonly
found dating of 600-660 goes back to Erich Frauwallner who simply repeated82

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Vidyabhushanas dating without acknowledging it. Both Vidyabhushana andFrauwallner base their dating on the fact that Hsuan Tsang does not mention
Dharmakīrti, though I Tsing who travelled in India during 671-695 does. Thisdating of Dharmakīrti has been challenged several times, notably by Lindner,
Kimura and most recently by Krasser. This new dating by Krasser (ca 550) has
been accepted by leading scholars such as Ernst Steinkellner and Vincent
Eltschinger. However, as I will try to show, Krasser’s dating raises
considerable problems that have not been seriously addressed yet.

The Proof Formulae Used in the Fangbianxinlun
Katsura, Shoryu (Ryukoku University, Kyoto, JPN)
The Fangbianxinlun (方便心論 T 1632) attributed to Nāgārjuna (2nd century)and translated by Jijiaye (吉迦夜) around 472 and the Rushilun (如實論
T1633) attributed to Vasubandhu (4th-5th century) and translated byParamārtha (眞諦 499-569) had been the only two texts of Buddhist logic
before Xuanzang introduced Dignāga’s New Buddhist Logic by translating the
Nyāyamukha and the Nyāyapraveśa that gave a strong impact upon Chinesestudies of Buddhist logic (hetuvidyā 因明). I have been working with Prof.
Brendan Gillon (McGill University) on producing the first English translationof the Fangbianxinlun for some time by now and we now have the first draft ofthe complete translation of the text. Thus, I would like to present the basic
structure of the Fangbianxinlun and to discuss the characteristics of proof
formulae (prayoga) utilized by its author in order to locate the text in thehistory of Indian logic.

Candrakīrti’s Absurd Syllogisms
Lang, Karen (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA)
Much has been written on Candrakīrti’s criticism of Bhāviveka’s use of formal
logic and independent inferences and his criticism of Dignāga’s
epistemological and logical views in the sixth chapter of his

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Madhyamakāvatara and in the first chapter of his Prasannapadā. Candrakīrti’s
rejection of his opponents’ methodology does not indicate his ignorance of theset of rules that determine whether one side or another prevails in debate. He
knows the formal criteria set down in Dignāga’s logical works and in the
manuals of the Nyāya school for judging the soundness of an argument andapplies these criteria to demonstrate the flaws in his opponents’ arguments.
This paper will primarily focus on the syllogisms Candrakīrti constructs in his
commentary on Catuḥśataka V.23 to ridicule a Mīmāṃsaka opponent who
argues against Buddha’s omniscience.

Dignāga’s Opponents in Pramāṇasamuccaya, Chapter Two
Lasic, Horst (Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, ÖAW,Vienna, AUT)
Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya, the foundational text of the Buddhist
epistemological tradition, exerted considerable influence on Buddhist and nonBuddhist philosophical schools in India and was held in high esteem by Tibetan
Buddhist scholars, too. Unfortunately, this important text has not yet been
discovered in its Sanskrit original. The most important sources of informationthat we have at our disposal are two Tibetan translations of
the Pramāṇasamuccaya, one Tibetan translation of Jinendrabuddhi'scommentary thereon, a few Tibetan commentaries as well as quotations andother references in some Sanskrit texts. Only recently another source joined thisgroup, a Sanskrit manuscript of Jinendrabuddhi’s commentary that has beenpreserved in the TAR for centuries. An international team of scholars, among
them the present author, is working on a diplomatic and also a critical editionof this material. The first two chapters were already published in 2005 and2012.
Jinendrabuddhi’s text not only helps the student of Indian philosophy
contextualise many of Dignāga's statements, but provides the philologist with afair number of literal quotations from the Pramāṇasamuccaya.
Taking advantage of these new circumstances, the present author, who is
working on a reconstruction of Pramāṇasamuccaya, chapter two, will try to get

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a more precise picture of the competing positions Dignāga dealt with andthereby improve our understanding of his contribution to the field of inference.

Middle Way of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Paramārtha (499-569) andTaehyŏn 大賢 (ca. Eighth Century CE)
Lee, Sumi (Los Angeles, USA)
East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism has been traditionally divided into two strands
according to its association with the tathāgatagarbha doctrine, i.e., the “old”
Yogācāra group that combined the Yogācāra system withthe tathāgatagarbha doctrine, and the “new” Yogācāra group that excluded theconcept of tathāgatagarbha from the Yogācāra system. In medieval East Asia,
there were contrasting viewpoints between those who defended the “old”
Yogācāra positions, such as universal Buddha-Nature inherent in all sentient
beings, and those who held the “new” Yogācāra views, such as “five distinct
spiritual lineages” (五種性; pañcagotra). Based on this historical dichotomy,
modern scholars have established two doctrinally antagonistic Yogācāra
lineages, and the question as to which group succeeded the original Indian
Yogācāra tradition has consequently been controversial. The attempt todetermine the authentic Yogācāra lineage among the two groups, however,appears to have doctrinal and historical problems, because we have a series ofstudies that challenge the bifurcated categorization of the Yogācāra tradition.
In the traditional bifurcation of East Asia Yogācāra, traditional Buddhist
exegetes as well as modern scholars have had difficulty in identifying thescholarly position of Taehyŏn 大賢 (ca. eighth century CE), the putative
founder of Pŏpsang (C. Faxiang 法相) school of Silla Korea. Taehyŏn adheresto the main tenets of the new Yogācāra, refuting the consciousness system of theold Yogācāra on the one hand, but advocating the concept of Buddha-Nature,
the universal capability for enlightenment in all sentient beings, on the other.
Taehyŏn’s “dualistic” attitude that understands the tathāgatagarbha doctrine
inside the Yogācāra system cannot be explained in the antagonistic frameworkof East Asian Yogācāra.

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Although typically known as a representative of the old Yogācāra group,
Paramārtha (499–569), Indian scholar-monk and translator, shows a doctrinal
affinity with Taehyŏn. In the bifurcated framework, scholars have considered
Paramārtha as having integrated the Yogācāra teaching into the superior
teaching of the tathāgatagarbha theory. Paramārtha’s consciousness system,
however, contains both elements of the tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra
perspectives without hierarchical difference. Paramārtha’s position is also
reflected in his explanation of the notion of tathatā (眞如), and thisunderstanding exactly conforms to Taehyŏn’s perspective. Paramārtha’s theory
of Buddha-Nature also parallels Taehyŏn’s Yogācāra understanding of
Buddha-Nature.
Paramārtha and Taehyŏn have been interpreted in the bifurcated paradigm ofEast Asia Yogācāra as belonging to the old and new Yogācāra grouprespectively. But Paramārtha’s neutral position between
the tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra views and Taehyŏn’s Yogācāra
understanding of Buddha-Nature both suggest the need for a new paradigm for
the East Asian Yogācāra tradition. The spirit of the Indian exegete
Paramārtha’s Yogācāra may be said in this sense to have continued to Taehyŏn
in Silla Korea, despite the temporal and geographical distance between them.

Theory of Four Types of Pramāṇa in Sixth-Century China
Lin, Chen-kuo (National Chengchi University, Taipei, TWN)
The earliest Chinese indigenous writings on pre-Dignāga epistemology arefound in the Dunhuang manuscripts, S4303 and S613, which are identified as
the works of the Dilun School (Early Chinese Yogācāra School) in the sixth
century. In this paper I will examine these small texts to see how NorthernChinese Buddhists of the sixth century interpreted the means of valid cognition(Skt. pramāṇa, Ch. liang). Briefly speaking, the issue of pramāṇa in the Dilun
School was contextualized within the religious paths which are designed inparallel to the different doctrinal systems. In these small texts, pramāṇa wasdivided into four types: perception, inference, testimony, and teaching. The
special function of each type is assigned to the different stage of practice in thepath of cultivation. Accordingly, those Dilun masters did not conceive86

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epistemology as a mundane project only. By contrast, they employed it toexplain the cultivation of cognition that leads the practitioner to reach thetrans-mundane state of mind. Moreover, as the texts show, the Dilun masters
also developed a holistic theory of mind that makes sense only from theperspective of enlightened cognition. In this paper, I will also provide anannotated English translation of the sections of “Four Means of Valid
Cognition” in S4303 and S613 with an introductory study.

Dharmapāla’s Commentary on Ālambana-parīkṣā: Debate, Epistemology,
Logic and Hermeneutics
Lusthaus, Dan (Harvard University, Brookline, MA, USA)
Paramārtha, Xuanzang and Yijing each translated Dignāga’s Ālambanaparīkṣā (AP). Yijing’s version was embedded in his translation of
Dharmapāla’s commentary Guan suoyuan lun shi 觀所緣論釋 (T.31.1635). It isa remarkable text and foundational for later interpretations of AP in India,
China, Japan and, indirectly through Vinītadeva in Tibet who cites it constantly
in his own AP commentary (dmigs pa brtag pa’i ’grel bshad, Derge #4241). At
least two commentaries on the Yijing-Dharmapāla AP were written during theMing dynasty (by Mingyu 明昱 and Zhixu 智旭) and several more in thetwentieth century (e.g. by Ouyang Jingwu 歐陽竟無, Lü Cheng 呂澂, etc.),
attesting to its continued importance in China, especially during revivals ofinterest in Yogācāra.
Dignāga’s AP, consisting of eight verses with autocommentary, is a critique of
atomism, entertaining and refuting three atomic theories. Dharmapāla unpacks
Dignāga’s text in several interesting and instructive ways. First, by treating AP
not simply as an epistemological exposition, but more importantly as a debate
text, Dharmapāla prominently discusses the strategic and tactical maneuveringDignāga and his opponents deploy to advance their arguments, step by step,
move by move, explaining why one concedes one thing (for the moment), thus
forcing another concession from the opponent, and so on, i.e., the strategy
behind debate tactics. This is very revealing about the practice of debate in preDharmakīrti Buddhist hetu-vidyā. Second, Dharmapāla unpacks several explicit
and implicit syllogisms in AP, adding some of his own to further the argument(Vinītadeva discusses these in his AP commentary—calling them vaidharmya
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[Tib. chos mi mthun pa] proofs—and adds more syllogisms of his own). Third,
since the opponents are primarily Sarvāstivādins of different types, we get tosee a crucial moment in the development of hetu-vidyā in which “philosophy”
of the type which came to be called pramāṇa-vāda was still in earnest
conversation with and working its way through Abhidharma, which was its
Buddhist hetu-vidyā and debate predecessor. Dharmapāla provides detailed
arguments for all sides debating theories about atoms, perception, mental
activities, and so on. Fourth, Dharmapāla displays a sharp hermeneutic
sensibility, cleverly blending epistemological, logical, and strategic issues byfocusing on and highlighting seeming incidentals, such as the ādi (deng 等 =“etc.”) in cakṣur-ādi-vijñāna (literally: “eye etc. consciousness”), in AP’s first
sentence, constructing a series of arguments based on his contention that
this ādi is limited to the first five sensory consciousnesses, and not any of themental consciousnesses beyond them, in order to explain why Dignāga would
concede “atoms” as an acceptable prasiddha (mutually agreed upon legitimate
item for debate) in the first place, seeming to go against the debate tradition of
the day.
My paper will discuss all of these topics, focusing primarily on the light it sheds
on debate strategy and tactics, the most intriguing aspect of Dharmapāla’s
treatment.

Justification, Credibility and Truth: Sucaritamiśra on Kumārila’s Intrinsic
Validity
McCrea, Lawrence (Cornell University, Ithaca, USA)It has long been recognized that the theory of intrinsic validity or svataḥ
prāmāṇya represents the most important and distinctive contribution ofMīmāṃsā, and of the great seventh century Mīmāṃsaka Kumārila in particular,
to Indian pramāṇa theory. But what exactly Kumārila meant by this doctrine
has been the subject of considerable controversy almost since it was first
propounded in Kumārila's Critical Commentary in Verse (Ślokavārttika). The
three commentators on the relevant section of the Ślokavārttika whose works
survive explain Kumārila's position in markedly different ways, all of which canclaim some support from Kumārila's own brief and often cryptic formulations.

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Several recent studies (Taber 1992, Arnold 2005) have sought to explore thedoctrine of intrinsic validity through the lense of these commentaries, taking theearliest and latest of these commentators, Umbeka and Pārthasārathimiśra, as
forming the principal poles of argument. The views of the third, Sucaritamiśra,who falls chronologically in between these two, have been by comparison
almost totally neglected, though there is good reason to believe that in somerespects his far more epistemologically radical reading is closer to Kumārila's
own intention. This paper will seek to explain and evaluate Sucaritamiśra's
reading and the light it sheds on Kumārila's pramāṇa theory.

On dharmisvarūpaviparītasādhanaMoriyama, Shinya (Shinshu University, Matsumoto, JPN)
This presentation will discuss a logical fallacy
called dharmisvarūpaviparītasādhana, one of the four kinds of “contradictoryreason” (viruddha), documented in Śaṅkarasvāmin’s Nyāyapraveśa(ka). The
topic of the “four kinds of the contradictory reasons” (四相違) was recognizedby Japanese inmyō (因明, *hetuvidyā) scholars as one of the most difficult
sections of the treatise partly due to a complex exposition by Kuiji (窺基) in
his Great Commentary (大疏, 《因明入正理論疏》, T. 1840) on Xuanzang’stranslation of the text 《因明入正理論》 (T. 1630). This section deals withsome complex proofs composed by Brahmanical opponents like the Sāṅkhya
and the Vaiśeṣika, which superficially fulfill triple conditions of valid reason
but contain a contradiction to what the author of the proof intended to claim. Of
the four kinds, the third one, dharmisvarūpaviparītasādhana, is particularly
problematic because Dignāga mentioned it very briefly in
his Nyāyamukha and Pramāṇasamuccaya and Dharmakīrti completely
neglected it. It is only Śaṅkarasvāmin’s text and its Indian and Chinese
commentaries that we can use for its full understanding. The target proof that isaddressed by a certain Vaiśeṣika opponent is the following: “Existence (bhāva)
is neither a substance nor an action, nor a quality, because it possesses one
substance [as its locus] and because it resides in qualities and actions, likelower universals (sāmānyaviśeṣa)” (Tachikawa 1971: 126). To this proof,Śaṅkarasvāmin points out that the reason concludes the non-existence of theexistence (bhāvasyābhāvatva), namely, the conclusion that contradicts the locusof the opponent’s thesis, the existence. Although previous studies by H. Ui and89

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M. Tachikawa tried to explain the proof and its fallacy, there are still
ambiguous points regarding the background reasoning of the proof. The aim of
this presentation is to reevaluate Chinese and Japanese Buddhist logicians’
approaches to the proof, which will provide a new perspective on preDharmakīrtian Buddhist logic.

Buddhist Logic and Its Transformation in Korean Zen Buddhism
Park, Jin Y. (American University, Washington, USA)
Buddhist logic, as it was developed in India and early Chinese Buddhism,
demonstrated a unique way through which Buddhism reasons about the worldand existence. As Buddhism evolved, however, the idea represented by Buddhist
logic and epistemology met challenges by other Buddhist schools, which
considered the very mode of thinking involved in Buddhist logic as a limitation
to attaining the goal of Buddhist practice itself. In the context of Korean
Buddhism, this challenge is especially visible in Huayan and Zen Buddhism.
This paper discusses how Buddhist logic was employed and, at the same time,transformed in Ŭisang’s (625–702) Huayan Buddhism and subsequently by
Chinul’s (1158–1210) Zen Buddhism. What were the fundamental concerns ofthese two Korean Buddhist thinkers in their dealings with traditional Buddhist
logic and what were their proposals to remedy the problems? The paper
concludes with the invitation to think about how the pramāṇa thinkers might
respond to Zen logic and whether Zen Buddhist revision of Buddhist logic cansustain itself in facing challenges from the thinkers of the early Buddhist logic.

Universally Valid Logical Principles in Gomyō’s 護命(749?-834) Theory of
Reason. Also an Example of the Transmission of hetuvidyā from India via
China to Ancient Japan.
Paul, Gregor (Karlsruhe University, Karlsruhe, GER)90

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Why should one take over the trouble of discussing the question “Are there
universally valid logical laws?” One should do this, because many scholars,
politicians and journalists have answered the question in the negative. Someeven maintain that “Eastern logic” would deny the universal validity of suchprinciples as the laws of identity, non-contradiction, excluded middle, andtransitivity. More importantly, such – erroneous – denials have fatal
implications. Imagine for instance that there would in fact exist two
incompatible classes of logical laws that are equally valid. As a matter ofconsequence, people differing in their acceptance of such classes, say
Europeans and Asians, would regularly derive different conclusions fromidentical premises. Any effort of reaching an understanding between the twogroups of adherents would then be virtually impossible even in questions ofmathematics – which would neither be compatible nor in keeping with generalhuman experience overall, to say the least. To put it another way; if one canshow that there are universally valid logical principles this might prove an
efficient antidote against exotism, esotericism, fanciful ideas of “cultural
otherness,” and against the invention of unbridgeable cultural differences.
By analysing the fundamental doctrines of logic put forward in Dignāgean Skt.
hetuvidyā and its Chinese and Japanese versions yinming and immyō, I shouldlike to show, or at least to strongly indicate, that (1) Indian and Sino-Asian
Buddhist scholars developed, defended or applied the same basic notions of
non-contradiction and logical conclusion and that (2) these notions constituteversions of a logic deductively equivalent with so-called Aristotelian logic. I
shall try to argue for my hypothesis by providing evidence from what I regard
as an exemplary case, namely the chapter on immyō included in Gomyō’s
treatise Daijō-hossō-kenjin-shō 大乗法相研神章 (T, vol. 71. no. 2309).

Dharmakīrti and svataḥprāmāṇya
Taber, John (University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA)In two verses in the Pramāṇasiddhi chapter of his Pramāṇavārttika (206-207)
Dharmakīrti states, while demonstrating how it is possible for knowledge touproot the defilements once and for all, (a) that it is the inherent nature of a
cognition to apprehend an object as it really is; (b) that a cognition’s deviationfrom that nature can be explained only by the influence of an extrinsic factor;and (c) that an erroneous cognition (that is, one that deviates from its
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inherently veracious nature) is dependent on another cognition for its removal.
This sequence of ideas is structurally very similar to the Mīmāṃsā doctrine of
intrinsic validity (svataḥprāmāṇya), as defended for example by Kumārila.
(This was, I believe, first noted by Eli Franco.) The passage even has certain
linguistic affinities with statements of Kumārila and the Mīmāṃsāsūtra. In thispaper I shall consider (1) whether this passage is another instance where
Dharmakīrti deploys a Mīmāṃsā teaching in service of his own agenda and (2)whether it proves that Dharmakīrti was acquainted with the works of Kumārila.
While answering (1) in the affirmative, I conclude that we must suspend
judgment about (2), especially in light of recent work by Yigal Bronner thatsharpens the criteria for determining the relative chronology of authors on thebasis of a comparison of their writings.

A Study of Gomyō’s Exposition of Hetuvidyā (2): The Determination of
the Argument for Consciousness Only
Tang, Mingjun (The Institute of Philosophy, Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences, Shanghai, CHN)
Gomyō 護命 (750–834) was the representative figure in the South Temple
Tradition (Nanji-den 南寺伝) of Hetuvidyā studies in the early history ofJapanese Buddhism, as his elder contemporary Zenjū 善珠 (723–797) was therepresentative of the North Temple Tradition (Hokuji-den 北寺 伝 ).
Gomyō’s understanding of Hetuvidyā is reflected in his “Brief Exposition of theDoctrine Introducing the True Principle of Hetuvidyā” (Ryakken- immyōnisshōri-mon 略顯因明入正理門, T 2309, 29a 5– 36b24). It is the 10th chapterof his Chapters Investigating the Essence of Mahāyāna Dharma
Character (Daijō - hossō - kenjin - shō 大乘法相研神章). As indicated in thetable of contents at the beginning, this chapter can be divided into four sections.
The first section (29a9–29b13) explains the separate meanings of “Hetuvidyā”
and “Nyāya”. The second section (29b14–29c17) is on the doctrine of six
reasons. The third (29c18–30c27) is a clear and impressive exposition of
Dignāga’s theory of hetucakra. And the fourth (30c28–36b24) is on
demonstration (sādhana) and refutation (dūṣaṇa). However, just a few passages
after the beginning of the fourth section, we find a quite distinct and92

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independent portion (31c1–the end) focusing on Xuanzang’s famous argument
for consciousness only (唯識比量), and this portion at its starting point has
been given the separate title “The Determination of the Argument for
Consciousness Only” (唯識比量決). This seems to suggest that there must be a
separate and probably “fifth” section of our text, although its title has not beenhighlighted at the beginning of the whole chapter.
Gomyō’s “Exposition of Hetuvidyā” bears the following two salient features.
First, Gomyō’s arrangement of the materials handed down from his Chinese
predecessors explicitly and unambiguously brings the theory of reason,
especially the hetucakra, into the central place of Hetuvidyā. Second, when
explaining Xuanzang’s argument for consciousness only, Gomyō has paid a lotof attention on the philosophical background of this argument, e.g. the doctrineof two truths of the Yogācāra School, the representational theory of perception(sākārajñānavāda) of the Sarvāstivāda School, as well as Dharmapāla’s four
arguments for consciousness only in the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiśāstra (成唯識論) and so on. Meanwhile, what is also interesting in this “fifth” portion of our
text is that there is an explicit reference to his elder contemporary Zenjū in thediscussion of Jayasena’s argument for the authority of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
All those clues will meaningfully help us spell out a vivid picture of the practiceof Buddhist logic around the 7th century India.
The present paper, as the second in my serial studies of Gomyō’s text on
Buddhist logic, will provide a critical text with an annotated translation as wellas an analysis of the “fifth” section, namely, Gomyō’s “Determination of theArgument for Consciousness Only”.

Moongye and Kuiji on the Definition of pakṣa
Woo, Jeson (Dongguk University, Seoul, KOR)
The Nyāyapraveśa (因明入正理論) is a work composed as an introduction to
Buddhist logic by Śaṅkarasvāmin, who is said to have been a disciple of
Dignāga (ca. 480-540). Ever since Xuanzang (ca. 602-664) made a Chinesetranslation of this work, at least ten scholars, such as Shentai (神泰), Moongye(文軌), Kuiji (窺基) and Wonhyo (元曉), have provided their own

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commentary on it. Among them, Moongye’s and Kuiji’s commentaries, the ‘Old
commentary’ (古疏) and the ‘Great commentary’ (大疏) respectively, are still
extant. These commentaries laid the foundations of so-called yinming (因明,
hetuvidyā) in East Asia.
The aim of this paper is to deal with the definition of the pakṣa in the
Nyāyapraveśa. As the first factor of the three-membered syllogism, the concept
is an important one in debates between Moongye and Kuiji. Their dispute isover how to understand Śaṅkarasvāmin’s definition of the pakṣa, namely:“prasiddho dharmī prasiddhaviśeṣaviśiṣṭayā svayaṃ sādhyatvenepsitaḥ.” Themain issue is how to interpret the phrase “prasiddhaviśeṣaviśiṣṭayā.” Moongye
takes this phrase to suggest the pakṣa ‘as being qualified by a recognized
qualifier (差別爲性).’ On the other hand, Kuiji takes it to denote the pakṣa asbeing such ‘on account of being qualified by a recognized qualifier (差別性故).’ In this paper, I will discuss the issues at stake in Moongye’s and Kuiji’s
divergent readings of the definition of the pakṣa, as well as considering whatkind of effect their different readings may have had upon the development of
Buddhist logic in East Asia.

On Mental Consciousness and Its Objects: Yogācāra versus Sautrāntika
Yao, Zhihua (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, HKG)
The current paper addresses the following issue: whether mental consciousness
has direct access to physical objects. According to the Sautrāntikas, only senseorgans have direct access to their respective sensory or external objects;
neither sense consciousness nor mental consciousness is able to directly grasp
these objects. This is usually labeled “indirect realism” and taken to be one of
the Sautrāntika innovations. We have plenty of evidence for the SarvāstivādaSautrāntika debates on this issue.
Now how do the Yogācāras, being closely associated with both groups, treat
this issue? Are they taking the side of Sarvāstivāda or Sautrāntika? Recently
some scholars claim that as early as in the Yogācārabhūmi, it alreadypropounds the view that “the mental faculties of manas and manovijñāna do nothave direct access to rūpa, to physical objects.” But I will argue that the early

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Yogācāras mainly follow the Sarvāstivādins on this issue of the objects ofmental consciousness; only some late Yogācāras, e.g., Dharmapāla, accept the
Sautrāntika idea, probably through the influence of Dignāga.

Hetu-vidyā Transmitted or Only Translated? Some Remarks on ChineseInterpretations of the Distinction between Two Types of Negation
Zamorski, Jakub (National Chengchi University, Taipei, TWN)
In contemporary studies on East Asian hetu-vidyā (yinming 因明) theterm zhequan (遮詮) (literally “revealing by negating” or “negating-andrevealing”) has usually been mentioned as the antonym of biaoquan (表詮) (apositing statement or an affirmative statement of truth). As such, it has beenpresented as the closest counterpart of the Western notion of negation within
the system of the so-called Buddhist logic. However, in Xuanzang’s 玄奘 (602–664) translation of Dignāga’s Nyāya-mukha the word zhequan is used incontradistinction with zhilan (止濫 lit. “stopping the overflow”) in a passage
referring to two kinds of negation – paryudāsa and prasajya-pratiṣedha – wellknown in South Asian grammatical and philosophical traditions. The aim of thepresent article is to analyse how these two terms were interpreted by theauthors of the earliest Chinese commentaries on hetu-vidyā texts: monks
Shentai 神泰, Wengui 文軌, and Kuiji 窺基. It appears that while thosecommentators were at least to some degree acquainted with Dignāga’s
semantic theory, they also relied on their own ingenuity in interpreting themeanings of Chinese compounds employed by Xuanzang. The relevant passages
from their works provide an illustrative case study of difficulties involved intransmission of the Indian “science of reasons” to a Chinese linguistic andcultural sphere in the 7th century.

Reading Indian Buddhist Iconography through a Newar Lens: Issues ofContinuities and Particularities
Bangdel, Dina (Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Doha, QAT)95

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Nepal’s entry into Western scholarship can best summed up in the 19th century
French Sanskritist Sylvain Levy’s quote “Nepal is India in the making,” — as
the last remaining vestige of medieval India unscathed by the vicissitudes ofIslamic and colonial hegemonies. I argue that for the scholars of Buddhist art,
Nepal and more specifically Newar Buddhism, continues to occupy a particular,
often uneasy space between the legacy of the original Sanskrit Buddhist
tradition, and a regionalized periphery that is simply derivative of Indian
Buddhism. In this context, it would be useful to consider the framing of Newar
Buddhist iconography within the broader historiography and scholarship on
Indian Buddhist art, and within the local construction of knowledge.
Broadly, the paper focuses on the methodology of constructing the past throughthe present, in contextualizing how contemporary Newar Buddhist ritual
practices and art serves as a framework to explore the issues of cultural
production and authority. The paper will examine the ways in which these
expressions offer a space for the construction of paradoxical definition ofauthenticity, faithful to the “original” textual tradition of Indian Buddhism. To
this end, the paper will consider the continuities and particularities that are atonce celebrated or contested in the contemporary context. In short, how does
scholarship play a role in the construction and revival of Newar Buddhism andits visual and material expression, in this search for authority and authenticity?

The Goddess Vāruṇī or Surā in Newar Buddhism
Bühnemann, Gudrun (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin,
USA)
This paper presents research on Tantric forms of Vāruṇī, goddess of spirituous
liquor. Also known as Surā(devī) and identified with Māmakī, the goddess isinvoked by Tantric practitioners into spirituous liquor or rice beer which has
previously been filled in a skull-cup and is then consecrated as part of ritual
worship. The paper analyses descriptions of the goddess extracted from Tantric
texts and discusses representations in Newar art. The textual sources include
chapter 26 of the Samvarodayatantra together with ritual texts and Newar
Buddhist Tantric songs. The paper explores the link between iconography andritual and shows the interconnectedness of Tantric traditions in Nepal.

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Prescription, Description, and Memory in Buddhist Newar Menarche
Ritual Manuals
Emmrich, Christoph (University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN)This paper will analyze liturgies pertaining to a religious practice called bārhā
pikayagu that ends a period of seclusion undergone by Newar girl children
mostly before menarche. Looking at manuals currently used by Buddhist priests
in Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur (all Nepal) respectively, the paper will
try to place these manuals at the conjunction of other ritual textual genres suchas prescriptions for domestic rituals for women that include cosmological,
demonological and pregnancy-related aspects and attempts to explore theircomposition, their intention and their place within the textual history of thiskind of manual and within Buddhist domestic ritual literature more generally.
The paper will point at the opportunity these manuals offer in reconstructing
past precursors of current practice in the mode of their prescription and at thelimitations posed by specialization, participation, and gender. At the same time
it will try to explore the methodological difficulties in determining whether past
manuals indeed still pertain to the kind of ritual practice that seemingly similar
manuals currently attempt to regulate. By confronting material pertaining toearly manuals with first-hand accounts of rituals in chronicles, the paper will
try to contribute to our understanding of what kind of texts ritual manuals are,how they are deployed, and how the historical memory they contain may differ
or overlap with that of other textual genres.

The Concept of Vasundharā and Vasudhārā: Focusing on the Newari
Buddhist Literatures
Shakya, Sudan (Shuchiin University, Kyoto, JPN)
Vasundharā is often confused with Vasudhārā, though they possess different
origins. Firstly, Vasundharā is regarded as the deity of earth. The literalmeaning of ‘vasundharā’ is earth, kingdom, soil, ground etc. The word
‘vasundharā’ or ‘asuṃdharā’ first appeared in Hindu texts and was adopted in
the Buddhist pantheon as an earth deity in a later period. Again, the word
‘vasundharā’ is composed of ‘vasu’ (earth, wealth) and ‘dharā’ (holding),
derived from the verbal root ‘dhṛ’ (to hold; tib. ḥdsin pa). This supports the97

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understanding that Vasundharā is the holder of the earth or wealth. In Tibetan
texts, it is translated as Nor ḥdsin ma or Saḥi lha mo, which have the same
meaning.
Secondly, Vasudhārā is popularly known as the deity of wealth. In this context,
the word ‘vasudhārā’ literally means ‘the flow of wealth’ as the word ‘dhārā’ isderived from the verbal root ‘dhan’ (to flow; tib. ḥdsin pa). It is noteworthy that‘dhan’ does not have the meaning ‘to hold’, which ‘dhṛ’ has. Interestingly, theTibetan texts also translate Vasudhārā as ‘Nor rgyun ma’ (the flow of wealth).
This shows that Vasudhārā cannot be regarded as an earth deity, and that she isnone other than the deity of wealth who eradicates poverty and provides
prosperity. This interpretation can be seen in most of the Buddhist Literatures
as well.
There are several individual texts related to the sādhanas, dhāraṇīs andavadānas of Vasudhārā. In some sādhanas, she appears as the consort ofJambhala, the deity of wealth. The Ācāryakriyāsamuccaya of Jagaddarpaṇa
(12th-13th c. CE) gives the details of a Vasudhārā-maṇḍala, where the onefaced, six-armed Vasudhārā presides as a central deity. Again, there are some
texts of Nepalese origin related to Vasudhārā, which are very influential texts in
Newar Buddhism. On the contrary, there is no single individual text that deals
with Vasundharā.
In some manuscripts we find Vasundharā in the title, whereas the content is on
Vasudhārā. In this way, Vasundharā and Vasudhārā are mistakenly usedinterchangeably. This kind of mix up can be especially seen in manuscripts of
Nepalese origin. Focusing on Sanskrit and Sanskrit-Newari manuscripts, thispaper will distinguish the origins of these two deities, and also discuss theirroles as well as their appearances in Buddhist literature.

Between Ritual Prescription, Historical Record and Literary Production.
Newar Buddhist Ritual Chronicles
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Besides guarding the literary heritage of Indian Mahayana Buddhism the
Newar Buddhist tradition has also produced its own works, both in Sanskrit andin the local vernacular, Newari. This includes a sizable body of manuscriptsthat chronicle the performance of particular rituals and related events. They
range from carefully structured and elaborate records to simple notebook
jottings by individual priests. Among this hitherto hardly explored corpus, thetalk focusses on the production of ritual chronicles recording the performanceof renovations of the Svayambhu-caitya of Kathmandu. Written by participating
Newar Buddhist vajracarya masters, these chronicles are both descriptive
records of historic ritual events and prescriptive, serving as guidelines for
future renovations (an argument I have made before in an article dedicated tothis theme). I will examine how such chronicles were produced, and—drawing
on the chronicle documenting the renovation of Svayambhu concluded in
1758—I will show how they could also assume features of literary productions,drawing on other accounts and on ritual compendia (sometimes as a substitutefor missing records of actual events), and incorporating mythologicalnarratives.

The Fruition in a Comparative Perspective
Esler, Dylan (Institut Orientaliste, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)If “all roads lead to Rome” (or did so in the days of the Roman Empire), allpaths do not lead to enlightenment – at least not to the same enlightenment.
This, in any case, is the conclusion we must derive from reading gNubs-chenSangs-rgyas ye-shes’ doxographical work, the bSam-gtan mig-sgron (Tibet,
10th century). In it he presents four distinct ways to reach enlightenment thatencompass both sūtra-based and tantra-based doctrinal formulations: thegradual approach of the classical Mahāyāna, the simultaneous approachof Chan, the method of alchemical transformation of Tantra and the path ofself-liberation, rDzogs-chen. These four different paths lead to distinct forms offruition (’bras-bu; Skt. phala). It is the latter that will be the focus of the present
paper.

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Locating the Madhyamaka Doctrine in Tantric Buddhism
Kyuma, Taiken (Mie University, Tsu-shi, Mie-ken, JPN)
As I have already pointed out (cf. Superiority of Vajrayāna - Part I: Some
Remarks on the *Vajrayānāntadva¬ya¬nirā¬ka¬ra¬¬ṇa (rDo rje theg pa’imtha’ gñis sel ba) Ascribed to Jñāna¬śrī¬-, in: Genesis and Development ofTantrism, Tokyo 2009, pp.469-485, esp. p. 479), a kind of tension between thevehicle of mantra and the Madhyamaka doctrine is found in the*Vajrayānāntadvayanirākaraṇa (rDo rje theg pa’i mtha’ gnyis sel ba), which is
ascribed to Jñānaśrīmitra in Tibetan tradition. According to this text, thepractice of māyopamadṛṣṭi is shared by both the vehicle of mantra and the
Madhyamaka doctrine. However, this meditative condition is not easy to keep
without the power of pledge (dam tshig) of the mind, and this is the crucial
reason why the vehicle of mantra is regarded as superior to the Madhyamaka
doctrine. By inquiring into some other materials relevant to this type ofargument, this paper will, it is hoped, give a better understanding of how tolocate the Madhyamaka doctrine in tantric Buddhism. A few preliminary
remarks on the main focus of our panel will also be made at the beginning of
this presentation.

Ratnākaraśānti’s Uses of “Madhyamaka” and “Yogācāra”
McNamara, Daniel (Emory University Graduate Division of Religion,
Sunapee, USA)The 10th-11th century scholar-siddha Ratnākaraśānti is a somewhat enigmatic
figure in Buddhist thought. While his contributions to tantric literature havebeen studied extensively (particularly by Harunaga Isaacson), a broad-ranging
treatment of Ratnākaraśānti’s philosophical views has yet to appear. This paper
will briefly consider the different ways in which indigenous and academic
scholars place Ratnākaraśānti’s thought into available categories before
considering alternative means of understanding Ratnākaraśānti’s intellectual
projects.

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The earliest and most influential study of Ratnākaraśānti’s thought in English is
Ruegg’s The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy inIndia, which devotes a short appendix to what he calls Ratnākaraśānti’s“vijñapti-madhyamaka” (1981, 122-124), a label which continues to be used todescribe Ratnākaraśānti’s philosophy. Ruegg also appears to be the first
Western scholar to describe Ratnākaraśānti as explicitly arguing against
Candrakīri, a theme expanded upon significantly in Kevin Vose’s recent work
(Vose 2009, 34-35).
The problem with Ruegg’s argument is that the evidence for both the name“vijñapti-madhyamaka” and the apparent rivalry with Candrakīrti appears to
rests on the translator’s colophon in the Tibetan translation of
the Madhyamakālaṃkāropadeśa, rather than the author’s own colophon, which
mentions only that he “composed this [treatise] for those who rely on valid
knowledge (pramāṇa).” It provides no clue regarding Ratnākaraśānti’s
scholastic alignments. In the translator’s colophon, however, we find significant
clues, particularly at the very end: “[T]his is the Instructions on the Ornamentof the Mahāyāna Cognition-Middle Way, well-composed with reasoning which
destroys Candrakīrti. Later, the text was edited by the Kaśmīri Amogha and thetranslator ’O-ru.”
If I am reading them correctly, Ruegg and Vose conflate the translators’
descriptions of Ratnākaraśānti with the author’s own self-presentation. The
influence of Ruegg’s work on more recent studies of Ratnākaraśānti’s thoughthas been significant, and this error alone should prompt scholars to revisit themanners in which Ratnākaraśānti’s thought is viewed and classified.
This paper will attempt to shed some light on how Ratnākaraśānti deploys theterms “madhyamaka” and “yogācāra,” in both philosophical and tantric
literature (the latter including his commentaries on
the Guhyasamāja and Hevajra tantras) in an effort to discern what these terms
may have signified to himself and to the immediate readership of his time. It will
also address the feasibility of the claim that Ratnākaraśānti was aware of both“tantric” and “non-tantric” Candrakīrtis and praised the latter whilecriticizing the former. It is my hope that this work will give scholars new
grounds to re-consider how we discuss late Indian Buddhist philosophy

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On the Tantric Works of Aśvaghoṣa Cited in Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna’s Works
Mochizuki, Kaie (Minobusan University, Yamanashi, JPN)
Though Aśvaghoṣa is well known as a Buddhist poet, we know also tantric
works under this name, not only in Sanskrit but also in Tibetan and Chinesetranslations. These tantric works are said to be written by a different Aśvaghoṣa
who is later than the author of the Buddhacarita.
I have already reported a problem of the transmission of these works that we
can see in a work of Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. That is to say, the contents of the
Tibetan translation of the Daśākuśalakarmapathanirdeśa of Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
are completely identical with those of the Sanskrit version and the Chinesetranslation of the Daśākuśalakarmapathadeśanā of Aśvaghoṣa. Only the
Tibetan translation of the latter is translated in verse style with an intention toattribute it to the famous poet.
Here I will point out another textual problem of another tantric work ofAśvaghoṣa, the Vajrayānamūlāpattisaṃgraha. Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, in his
commentary on it, the Mūlāpattiṭīkā, never refers to the author of the basic text.
In its colophon it is not attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, but to Bhavideva. While wecannot identify who wrote it, it tells us that the basic text was not acknowledged
as a work of Aśvaghoṣa in Tibet. The later Tibetan master, ’Phags pa Blo grosrgyal mtshan, wrote a commentary on the Gurupañcaśikā, which latter is known
as a work of Aśvaghoṣa, but he refers to Bhavideva as the author of the basic
text. Further, Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna explains the teaching of the root downfalls(mūlāpatti) in his Mūlāpattiṭīkā with many citations from the Gurupañcaśikā.
This tells us that he acknowledges that both works are written by the sameauthor, but it is not obvious whether Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna acknowledges theauthor of them as Aśvaghoṣa or not. And the author of the colophon of
the Mūlāpattiṭīkā and the author of the commentary on
the Gurupañcaśikā acknowledge their author as Bhavideva.
This means that the tantric works of Aśvaghoṣa have some problems of theirtraditions at least in the period of Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna or later Tibetan
Buddhism. In the Tibetan Tangyur there are some works attributed to famous
Indian Buddhist masters, namely Nāgārjuna, Candrakīrti, etc., which seem tobe written by other tantric masters. This may tell us that some later tantric102

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masters wished they would have written tantric works as well. And we canconfirm this also in the tantric works of Aśvaghoṣa.

‘Developmental’ versus ‘Revelatory’ Soteriology in the Kālacakra Tantra
Newman, John (New College of Florida, Sarasota, Florida, USA)
“Sentient beings are buddhas...” (Śrī Kālacakra 5.66a). In what sense, if any,
does buddhahood preexist in sentient beings? Tibetan emic scholars andbuddhologists both consider this to be one of the key doctrinal issues in theirreconstructions of late Indian Buddhism. One line of interpretation—which I
designate as the ‘revelatory model’—holds that buddhahood is innate tosentient beings, and the path is primarily a process of removing impediments tothe full manifestation of a primordially awakened condition. Another school ofthought—advocating a ‘developmental model’—believes that sentient beings
have a natural capacity to achieve buddhahood, but buddhahood itself islargely newly created, and the path centers on the transformation of an
ordinary person’s constituents into a perfected state.
In Tibet various forms of these two models were expressed in a broad spectrumof doctrinal positions, and now buddhologists are beginning to explore the
Indic roots of these views. The present paper examines the Indian texts of the
Kālacakra tantra tradition, with an eye towards the gzhan stong interpretationof Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan. Dol po pa asserts that the Kālacakra is afoundational source for his view that “sentient beings are buddhas” in a strong
sense, in line with his ‘revelatory model’ reading of Indian tathāgatagarbha scriptures. We will examine key portions of primary Indian Kālacakra
texts to determine whether they suggest a ‘revelatory’ or a ‘developmental’model of the actualization of buddhahood. In doing so we will need to besensitive to context and the different uses of language—declarative,
argumentative, philosophical, mystic-poetic, etc.—employed in these texts.
The primary objective of this paper is an initial assay of the original Indic
Kālacakra tradition’s position with respect to the two models of the soteriologyof buddhahood. However, we hope that it will also contribute to broader
research into this problem in late Indian Buddhism as a whole. Insight into thisissue has major ramifications for our understanding of the basic nature of the103

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Vajrayāna form of Mahāyāna Buddhism (mantra-naya), as well as its structuraland historical relationships with non-tantric Mahāyāna (pāramitā-naya).
With respect to the Vikramaśīla mahāvihāra in particular, legends recounting
the initial reception of the Kālacakra suggest that some masters—notably
including Ratnākaraśānti—rejected this tantra. By the end of the eleventh
century, however, leading Vikramaśīla authorities such as Abhayākaragupta
had incorporated the Kālacakra into the mainstream Vajrayāna tradition.
Further investigation of the Kālacakra should help to illuminate both thedoctrinal and the institutional history of late Indian Buddhism.

The Formation of Esoteric Buddhism within Mahāyāna Buddhism: An
Interpretation of the Subāhuparipṛcchā
Sugiki, Tsunehiko (Nihonbashi Gakkan University, Chiba, JPN)
The Subāhuparipṛcchā (“Subāhu’s question”) is an esoteric or Tantric
scripture of Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition compiled in around the sixth
century. Since it was composed in the early stage of the history of Tantric
Buddhism, it gives information on some aspects of the process in which the baseof esoteric Buddhism was formed. The scripture begins with a Bodhisattva
Subāhu’s question to Lord Vajra-holder or Vajrapāṇi, the king of Yakṣas, why
practitioners of mantra and vidyā cannot attain their aims in spite of their great
efforts. Vajra-holder answers that no recitation of mantra or vidyā would be
effective without observance of the principles (such as the production of theawakening mind, the ten good precepts and other rules) that are fundamental in
the Mahāyāna system. Subsequently he teaches many varieties of idea andpractice: Some of them are the same as or derived from traditional Buddhist
teachings, some of them are very likely to be from outside the Buddhist saṃgha
or monastic society, and some of them have been on the border between theinside and the outside of the saṃgha. Some of them are contradictory to eachother.
The Subāhuparipṛcchā has not been studied enough. There are only a few
comprehensive studies of it. According to a recent study comprehensively
conducted in Japan, the scripture was compiled by a group of practitioners

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outside Buddhist monasteries who were from low castes; who had once been
disciplinants of non-Mahāyāna Sectarian Buddhism and converted to
Mahāyāna later; and who behaved as seekers for enlightenment and liberationin public but had a liking for magical practices bringing mundane successes intheir hearts. In this presentation I will challenge the interpretation of the
Subāhuparipṛcchā mentioned above and put forward a more naturalinterpretation. This is to clarify how “exoteric” elements and “esoteric”
elements were related in the early stage of the history of Tantric Buddhism,
when the concepts “pāramitānaya” and “mantranaya” had not been developed
yet.
My interpretation can be summarized as follows:[1] The Subāhuparipṛcchā was probably compiled by monks inside Buddhist
monasteries. Those monks were not necessarily practitioners of thisscripture. Rather, they argued how practitioners should be when they engaged
in what was taught in this scripture.
[2] It appears that one of the main objectives of the compilation was tointegrate varieties of belief and practice outside monasteries into, and those on
the border more into, the traditional system of Mahāyāna Buddhism. What was
set up as the base for the integration was the observance of the principles of the
Mahāyāna system (such as the production of the awakening mind, the ten good
precepts and so on). The diversity of practices, and hence the diversity of typesof practitioner, were acknowledged in so far as the practitioners observed the
Mahāyāna principles and had in mind their practices’ connection with theprinciples. In this system the Mahāyāna principles serve as the source ofeffects, the moral base and legitimization of the practices.
[3] Vajrapāṇi, the king of Yakṣas, is the lord protector of Buddhism. He
protects what is inside Buddhism and faces what is outside. He is positioned
between the inside and the outside of Buddhism and, for this reason, is the best
figure as the lord instructor of the Subāhuparipṛcchā whose objective is tointegrate elements outside Buddhist monasteries into and elements on theborder more into Buddhism. The Subāhuparipṛcchā classifies the practitionersof this scripture as belonging to the Vajra lineage (vajrakula), which is thelineage of Vajrapāṇi. The practitioners of the Subāhuparipṛcchā were given
the identity as practitioners of the Vajra lineage, by which they weredifferentiated from others.

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Progress Report on the Edition of the Śaṃvara
Szántó, Péter-Dániel (University of Hamburg/University of Oxford, Hamburg,
GER)
In the summer of 2013, a discovery was made that seems to be of somesignificance for students of tantric Buddhism. In the library of the Institut
d'Études Indiennes (Collège de France, Paris), among the manuscripts
bequeathed by Sylvain Lévi, there is a witness of
the Sarvabuddhasamāyogaḍākinījālaśaṃvara (or Śaṃvara/Saṃvara, as it isoften referred to). The original of this fundamental text for the development of
mature tantric Buddhism was generally assumed lost and thus far only the
Tibetan translation has been studied. With the help of Alexis Sanderson, we(Szántó and Arlo Griffiths) are currently preparing an edition.
The paper is intended to share the results of this joint venture obtained thus-far,with special reference to the provenance of the manuscript, the possible reasonsfor its lying undiscovered, contextualization of the text itself (the influence ofearlier literature on the text as well as the influence of the text itself on later
literature), the doctrinal and practical innovations introduced by it, the relative
chronology of classical exegesis on the scripture, and the significance oftestimonia in the works of authors that can be associated with Vikramaśīla. Astrong emphasis will be placed on the presence of exoteric Mahāyāna concepts
and the way the text tries to blend these into its teachings.

Abhayākaragupta on Tantric PracticeTanemura, Ryugen (Taisho University, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa, JPN)
It is well-known that tantric Buddhists claim superiority of tantric Buddhism to
non-tantric Buddhism, but it is still uncertain in many respects how they madethis claim. As heretical practices were taken into Buddhism and they formed themainstream of late Indian Buddhism, the Buddhist followers of these practices
had to explain not only why tantric practices are Buddhist but also why andhow they are superior to traditional Buddhist practices.

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One of the ways for tantric Buddhists to demonstrate that tantric practices are
Buddhist is to claim that they are supported not only by tantric scriptures but
also by non-tantric ones. The purpose of this paper is to examine what
scriptures tantric Buddhists use to justify their practices in what contexts,
mainly based upon works by Abhayākaragupta (1064 – 1125), especially theĀmnāyamañjarī, a large commentary on the Saṃpuṭa-/Saṃpuṭodbhavatantra.
Through this examination, the present writer would like to offer some materials
to investigate the relationship between tantric and non-tantric Buddhism in late
Indian Buddhism.

Bhavyakīrti on Tantric Meditation and Means of Cognition
Tomabechi, Toru (International Institute for Digital Humanities, Tokyo, JPN)
At the XVIth IABS congress in Taiwan, we presented a paper introducing
Bhavyakīrti's (10th-11th century?) subcommentary on the Pradīpoddyotana, acommentary on the Guhyasamājatantra, focusing on its doxographical aspects.
As a sequel to it, the present paper will examine Bhavyakīrti's position
concerning the relationship between Tantric practice and pramāṇa in his work.
As a follower of the so-called Ārya School of the Guhyasamājatantra,
Bhavyakīrti tries to demonstrate that each stage of the niṣpannakrama system
expounded in the Pañcakrama can be ascertained as valid practice throughpramāṇa. After presenting a pūrvapakṣa that the validity of tantric meditation
cannot be established by either direct perception (pratyakṣa), inference(anumāna) or any other means of cognition, Bhavyakīrti argues that the fivestep meditation of the Ārya School is indeed ascertained as valid by means of
two types of direct perception, i.e. svasaṃvedana and yogipratyakṣa. In thispaper, we shall analyse Bhavyakīrti's argument and focus upon the question as
to how non-Tantric doctrines are used for supporting Tantric practices.

Luminosity in Late Indian Yogācāra: Is Reflexive Awareness Nondual?
Yiannopoulos, Alexander (Emory University, Atlanta, USA)107

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In his Pith Instructions for the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitopadeśa),Ratnākaraśānti—also known as the Mahāsiddha Śāntipa—explicitly links thefour yogas of Yogācāra with the four stages of meditation described in thecommentarial literature for the Guhyasamāja Tantra. While his presentation of
the four yogas in the Pith Instructions for the Ornament of the Middle Way(Madhyamakālaṃkāropadeśa) does not make any direct reference to tantra, itclosely follows the same pattern laid out in the former text. Crucial to his
account of these stages is the notion of “luminosity” (prakāśa), an epithet orsynonym for reflexive awareness (svasaṃvitti). Thus, for Ratnākaraśānti,reflexive awareness has two overlapping valences. First, it is an essential
element of Buddhist pramāṇa theory; and second, it is a key facet of
meditation—including tantric forms of meditation—on the nature of reality(tathātā).
A question thus emerges in relation to recent engagement with the concept ofreflexive awareness among Western-educated scholars of Buddhism, namely: inlight of this relationship between pramāṇa epistemology and meditation, towhat extent is an understanding of reflexive awareness as intentional, i.e. as
structured by subject-object duality, intelligible? Whether or not one follows
Williams (1998) and Arnold (2005) in maintaining that reflexive awareness isanalogous to the Kantian unity of apperception, and therefore necessarily
entails the existence of a transcendental subject, the dominant trends ofcontemporary interpretation generally cast reflexive awareness as anintentional or object-oriented feature of consciousness. Thus, as Coseru (2012,264) writes, “Even assuming that Dignāga has in mind a nonobjectifying or
intransitive type of experience when he describes [reflexive] awareness… it isstill the case that this is an intentional experience… Even assuming, on
metaphysical rather than phenomenological grounds, that there could be nonintentional modes of awareness, these could not serve as the basis forintentional experience.”
However, as my paper will demonstrate, while such a view may be in accord
with the insights of the Western phenomenological tradition, it is simply
irreconcilable with the Buddhist understanding of the nature of the mind, atleast as promulgated in Indian Buddhist pramāṇa theory and developed by thescholar-yogis of Vikramaśīla such as Ratnākaraśānti. Simply put, according toŚāntipa, not only can non-intentional modes of awareness (specifically,reflexive awareness) serve as the basis for intentional experience—they do form
the basis of intentional experience. Moreover, it is precisely this non-intentional

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basis that forms the bridge between sūtra and tantra, since recognizing thenondual, luminous nature of experience ends up being the ultimate form of
meditation on the nature of reality. As Ratnākaraśānti writes, “The experienceof the luminous nature of all phenomena, empty of duality, is the authentic
realization of the ultimate” (chos thams cad kyi gsal ba’i lus gnyis kyis stong pa
myong ba gang yin pa de nyid don dam pa yang dag par rtogs pa yin). Dualistic
or intentional interpretations of reflexive awareness therefore additionally failto account for the key role svasaṃvitti plays in mediating between sūtric
philosophy and tantric meditation.

Differentiating the Middle from the Extremes: Tibetan Scholasticism andthe Non-Sectarian (Tib. Ris med) Tradition
Brownell, Paul (The Australian National University, Hackett, AUS)
In this paper, I will discuss a number of issues on the changing nature of
Tibetan monastic curricula in the early 20th century and reformulations of
Yogācāra in Tibet. The key areas of discussion will be: (1) Yogācāra (Tib. rnal
’byor spyod) Buddhism, specifically the text Differentiating the Middle from The
Extremes (Tib. Dbus dang mtha’ rnam par ’byed pa; Skt. Madhyāntavibhāga);(2) doxography; (3) the non-sectarian tradition; and (4) the 19th/20th century
Tibetan Buddhist polymath Khenpo Shenga (Tib. mkhan po gzhan dga’, 18711927). This paper will focus on Yogācāra (Tib. rnal ’byor spyod) Buddhism andTibetan scholasticism in the 19th and 20th centuries. I will demonstrate howvarious issues from within the four categories listed above allowed one key
Yogācāra text to re-enter Tibetan monastic curricula. My argument will be thatthe contemporary inclusion in Tibetan monastic curricula of the text
Differentiating the Middle from the Extremes and other Yogācāra texts (in the
Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu traditions, which was different to how Yogācāra
treatises were studied in the Gelugpa tradition) occurred as a result of the reshaping of Tibetan scholasticism by Khenpo Shenga, who was influenced by thenon-sectarian tradition and some of its key proponents. Consistent with myanalyses of parts of the commentaries of Vasubandhu and Khenpo Shenga on
the Yogācāra text Differentiating the Middle from the Extremes as a meditation
manual (which is in line with the so-called emphasis that the non-sectarian
tradition placed on meditation practice), connections between the text and thenon-sectarian tradition will be made.

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Gotra in the Abhisamālaṃkāra: Reflections on a Tenets-Based Approach toInterpretation
Gilks, Peter (I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, TWN)
The Abhisamālaṃkāra (AA) I:36~37 is an important textual source for
Madhyamaka presentations of the substratum (ādhāra) of Mahāyāna practice,otherwise known as lineage (gotra). In contrast with texts such as the
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, which teach a doctrine of three distinct lineages
corresponding to three final enlightenments, the AA identifies lineage with thesphere of undifferentiated reality (dharmadhātu), thereby teaching a doctrine of
one final vehicle (ekayāna). Taking (AA) I:36~37 as the textual focus of thispaper, I then compare and contrast a number of Tibetan commentaries,
particularly those by Tsongkhapa, the Eighth Karmapa Mikyo Dorje, andShakya Chogden. Attention is given to the way in which these writers use ahierarchy of tenet systems as a hermeneutic framework with which to interpretthe verses, thereby distinguishing what they see as the highest form ofMadhyamaka from Yogācāra. Some of the limitations associated with theirexegetical approach are highlighted. The problems are further accentuatedwhen writers attempt to classify Indian Buddhist śāstras such as the AA as
belonging to one system or another. The discussion in this section concludes
with a consideration of some further criticisms of the doxographical genre thathave been expressed by several contemporary scholars. Next, some the genre's
positive aspects are considered, including the way in which it has enabled someTibetan thinkers to define their own philosophical positions and even create
new interpretive frameworks through their unique systematisations of tenets.
With an awareness of how text, reader and interpretive framework cometogether to create meaning, it is argued that modern scholars can also make useof tenet systems to help understand and explain passages such as AA I:36~37.
Ultimately, however, I argue that the scholastic nature of the genre means thattraditional and contemporary commentators tend to focus on saying what texts
are (e.g., classifying them as Yogācāra, etc.) at the expense of seeing what theydo. Stepping outside of the tenets-based approach, I argue that we can gain abetter insight into the AA not by trying to view it (as a number of prominent
scholars have done) as a Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Mādhyamika text, but bylooking at its function. Instead of seeing it as a synthesis of Madhyamaka andYogācāra doctrines, some of the mystery surrounding this important andinfluential text can be reduced by seeing it as an attempt to supplement the
Prajñāpāramitā sūtras by delineating a distinct Mahāyāna path where none is110

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expressed, thereby constructing a Mahāyāna worldview that is at least as
encompassing as any presentation of tenets.

Phywa-pa Chos-kyi-seng-ge’s Depiction of Yogācāra Philosophy
Werner, Eric (Hamburg University, Hamburg, GER)
Widely known as an abbot of gSang-phu Ne’u-thog, Phywa-pa Chos-kyi-sengge (1109 – 1169) rose to fame for his achievements in the field of Pramāṇa. His
scholarly and literary activities, however, show clearly that this was not hissolely concern. As descendant of the tradition of Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla,who were mostly (but not exclusively) identified by the Tibetan tradition as
proponents of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka, Phywa-pa’s works exhibit familiarity
with and discussions of typical Yogācāra notions.
The paper seeks to explore Phywa-pa’s assessment of Yogācāra-Philosophy,
and thus offers a glimpse into its treatment in early twelfth-century Tibet.
Beginning with the doxographical perspective, I shall summarize Phywa-pa’s
treatment of Yogācāra philosophy in his bDe bar gshegs pa dang phyi rol pa’igzhung rnam par ’byed pa (i.e. Phyi nang gi grub mtha’ ), including his schemeof Yogācāra sub-schools and the prevalent terminology employed by him—from
the Abhidharmic scheme of the five topics of knowables (shes bya gzhi lnga), to
the triple-mind scheme (blo gsum), which latter is held to be Phywa-pa’s own
invention. Hence, Phywa-pa’s depiction shall be put in a larger context of thehistory of the reception and transmission of Yogācāra philosophy in Tibet,
particularly beginning from the tenth century to the times of the sNar-thangscholars bCom-ldan Rig-pa’i-ral-gri (1227 –1305) and dBus-pa-blo-gsal(fourteenth century).
Phywa-pa’s treatment of and his points of criticism towards the Sākāravāda –and Nirākāravāda – branches are not restricted to his doxographical work
alone, but are also found in his other works, for example the dBu ma shar gsum,
his commentary on the Madhyamakālaṃkāra, or his Yid kyi mun sel, hisrenowned synoptic work on Buddhist logic and epistemology. His further
depictions of and objections raised against various Yogācāra notions — suchas his assessment of the Three Nature Model, or his discussions related to thequestion of cognitive images (rnam pa: ākāra) – will be examined and its
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sources traced. In addition, the paper also intends to look into how Phwya-pa’s
works and ideas have been received by or transmitted in later Tibetan works,
such as disciple mTshur-ston gZhon-nu-seng-ge’s (1150 – 1210) Tshad ma shesrab sgron ma, or Klong-chen-pa’s (1308 – 1363) Grub mtha’ mdzod.
The paper will thus provide a concise sketch of a depiction of Yogācāra
philosophy by a bKa’-gdams-pa master of the twelfth century, a time ofconsiderable scholarly activity, whose influence for later developments is yet toshine through.

Conventional Truth and Epistemology for Jñānagarbha − The
Relationship between Conventional Truth and the Means of Valid
Cognition
Akahane, Ritsu (Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia,
Vienna, AUT)

Jñānagarbha’s (ca. 700) Satyadvayavibhaṅgavṛtti, which deals with the Two
Truths Theory, the most important concept for the Madhyamaka school, had astrong impact on later Indian Mādhyamikas such as Śāntarakṣita andKamalaśīla, who assumed a key role in transmitting Indian Buddhism into
Tibet. It is well known that Jñānagarbha’s exegesis on “conventional truth” isinfluenced by the epistemology of Dharmakīrti (ca. 600−660). In the final
analysis, Jñānagarbha defines conventional truth as “something just likeappearance” (yathābhāsa/yathādarśana), which is the object of directperception (pratyakṣa) and produces effective action (arthakriyā). At the sametime, Jñānagarbha claims that one should not examine conventional truth
through inference (anumāna) or reasoning (nyāya/yukti).
Nevertheless, Jñānagarbha uses inference in his text, and thus he seems to
examine conventional things by means of inference. How should we come toterms with this contradiction? Or rather, by which means of valid cognition(pramāṇa) can we grasp “conventional truth”? Concerning such questions,
Jñānagarbha claims as follows: “My explanation of the conventional truth is
not a contradiction. If the two means of valid cognition are contradictions then112

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inference is not correct. Therefore the conventional truth is that which can be
grasped through direct perception, but need not be examined through inference.
Inference should be used in order to merely deny ‘real things,’ which opponents
insist on.”My paper will investigate passages of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttikasvavṛtti(PVSV: comments on verse 20ab) and Pramāṇaviniścaya (PVin: second
chapter) on which Jñānagarbha bases his discussion of this topic. These
passages, which have not so far been brought to the fore in modern research,focus on the relationship between the two means of valid cognition. This
investigation will give us a clue to the process of integration of Madhyamaka
thought and Buddhist logic in the early eighth century. Moreover, my paper
intends to explore the question of whether we should describe Jñānagarbha as a
Svātantrika when we examine Jñānagarbha’s particular usage of inference.
Finally, I would like to present my views on the question of Jñānagarbha’s
affiliation to a specific Buddhist school.

A Legacy of “Pure” Madhyamaka: Atiśa and Early Kadampa’s on the
Relations/Non-Relations between the Middle Way and Epistemology
Apple, James (University of Calgary, Calgary, CAN)This paper examines the tensions between Buddhist epistemology andMadhyamaka-oriented views of reality as expressed through Atiśa’s (982–1054
C.E.) “Entry to the Two Realities” (Satyadvayāvatāra) and recently identified
early Kadampa (bka’ gdams pa) commentaries on the two realities(satyadvaya). An issue for a number of Indian Buddhist thinkers was thequestion of the role that the means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa) had in
Buddhist soteriology. This paper argues that Atiśa and his Kadampa
commentators upheld a traditional pre-sixth century Buddhist separation of‘reasoning’ (yukti), an ‘internal’ Buddhist form of critical analysis, from hetuvidyā, the ‘external’ epistemological devices used to defend Buddhist Dharmaand defeat non-Buddhist opponents. The tension between Buddhist
epistemology and Madhyamaka for these authors was mitigated throughemploying epistemological devices to refute opponents but not for realizing
ultimate reality. Atiśa and his followers emphasize that direct realization ofultimate reality comes from non-conceptual meditative cultivation and not
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through means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa, tshad ma). As these authors neverdirectly cite or reference either Dignāga or Dharmakīrti regarding reasoning
procedures, the paper concludes that the processes of yukti followed by thesecommentaries represents a “pure” Madhyamakan lineage tradition derived
from the Prajñāpāramitā and the works of Nāgārjuna to realize emptiness.

Self-Awareness and the Integration of Pramāṇa and Madhyamaka
Duckworth, Douglas (Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Buddhist theories of mind pivot around two distinct interpretative strands: (1)an epistemological tradition in which the mind, or the mental, is the foundationfor valid knowledge and (2) a tradition of deconstruction, in which there is no
privileged vantage point for truth claims. The contested status of these two
strands is evident in the debates surrounding the relationship between
epistemology (pramāṇa) and madhyamaka that extend from India to Tibet. This
paper discusses this relationship between these two theoretical approaches andtheir implications for a Buddhist theory of mind, with reference in particular to
the works of Śākya Chokden (shākya mchog ldan, 1428-1507) and Tsongkhapa(tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419).
Śākya Chokden and Tsongkhapa both claim to integrate madhyamaka andpramāṇa, but the ways they do so are quite distinct. Their theories reveal the
distinctive foundations of pramāṇa and madhyamaka upon which their systems
are built. Following Dharmakīrti, Śākya Chokden represents the Buddhist
tradition of epistemology, and affirms self-awareness as the only valid
cognition. In contrast, Tsongkhapa follows Candrakīrti in denying selfawareness. He does not partake in phenomenology; rather, his pursuit is one ofcritical ontology.
Tsongkhapa attempts to integrate pramāṇa and madhyamaka by introducing athird alternative to the dichotomy of valid and invalid – an unreflective stance.
Śākya Chokden tries to integrate pramāṇa and madhyamaka by delineating therespective claims of the traditions into different registers of truth, and byinserting a third category of truth, ultimate self-awareness, beyond the dualityof subject and object. The role that this third category of ultimate self-

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awareness plays for Śākya Chokden is paralleled in Tsongkhapa's third
category, where something is neither correct nor incorrect. In both cases, thiscategory of truth becomes an incontrovertible “foundation.” While Tsongkhapa
evokes an unreflective stance of commonsense to avoid unwanted foundational
assumptions of epistemology, he reinserts the conventional as foundational in
the same breath.
In this paper, I will show how a third category functions in both Śākya
Chokden's and Tsongkhapa's integration of pramāṇa and madhyamaka as not
only a foundation, but the end of their epistemology. For Tsongkhapa,
commonsense is the starting point and end of his philosophy, as it is the natureof the conventional (and by implication, ultimate) truth. For Śākya Chokden,
self-awareness is the cornerstone of his philosophy: it is the starting point of
epistemology in that it is the transcendental condition for experience. It is theend, too, because for him ultimate self-awareness (a.k.a. gnosis) is the only
thing that is real in the end.

Dignāga, Bhāviveka and Xuanzang “On the Restriction of the Thesis”(*pratijñāviśeṣaṇa)He, Huanhuan (Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
Beijing, CHN)
It is well known that the terms tattvatas and paramārthatas as epistemologicaland ontological limiters or restrictive clauses are one of the remarkablecharacteristics of Bhāviveka’s (ca. 490-570) thought. Much work has been
published on these terms from the perspective of the two-truth/two-reality
theory of the Madhyamaka traditions. In Bhāviveka’s Jewel in the Hand (Dasheng zhangzhen lun, *Mahāyāna-hastaratna-śāstra, hereafter Zhangzhenlun ),the expression “in reality / in truth” (*tattvatas) – Chinese zhenxing, can reflect
both tattva and tattvatas – is used to restrict the thesis (*pratijñā) of anargument, jianbie lizong (*pratijñāviśeṣaṇa).
What is of further interest is that in a famous debate held in the city Kānyakubja
in 642 CE under the auspices of King Śīlāditya, Xuanzang (600/2-664) not onlyused the term “in reality / in truth” (zhengu, *tattvatas – the Chinese affix gu inzhengu corresponds to the ablative case-ending –) to restrict the thesis or115

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proposition. He also used the term “agreed upon” (jicheng, *prasiddha) torestrict the dharmin, as well as “I accept” (zixu, *svamata) to restrict theargument’s reason (hetu) or justifier.
In this paper, I will begin my discussion with an analysis of the way in which
Xuanzang and his main disciples understood and made use of the technical termzhengu (*tattvatas) to restrict the range of the content of the thesis or
proposition. I then argue that the inference Xuanzang seems to have used in thecourse of a debate in which he was engaged while he was in India appears tohave been deeply influenced by Bhāviveka. I will not discuss here the ways inwhich Sthiramati, Dharmapāla and Candrakīrti criticized this notion, but I willnote its possible relationship with Dignāga’s (ca. 480-540) theory of the logicalargument.

Reframing Dharmakīrti. On Some Aspects of Phya pa’s Blending of
Epistemology and Madhyamaka
Hugon, Pascale (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
While the Madhyamaka works of the Tibetan scholar Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge(1109–1169) display a pervasive integration of the tools from his
epistemological system, his epistemological works conversely encompass thediscussion of typically Madhyamaka philosophy-related topics such as the proofof emptiness. The combination of the two fields is not superficially a matter ofterminology, argumentative technique or shared topics of discussion, but
extends to a more significant blending. As I will discuss in my paper, Phya pa is
attempting to craft an epistemological system liable to range over the usual
respective frames of reference of Indian epistemology (pramāṇavāda) andMadhyamaka, which notably allows valid means of cognition to be applied to
the realization of the ultimate. This endeavor leads him to carry out substantial
modifications of Dharmakīrti’s system, a significant one undertaken in the very
definition of valid cognition. While Phya pa’s predecessor rNgog Blo ldan shesrab (1059–1109) was reportedly reading Dharmakīrti as a Madhyamaka, Phyapa appears to be deliberately adapting Dharmakīrti’s system to his own
philosophical project.

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Building upon a previous discussion of Phya pa’s definition of valid cognition
and the circumscription of its object (P. Hugon, “Phya pa Chos kyi seng geʼs
Views on Perception,” in Religion and Logic in Buddhist PhilosophicalAnalysis, Vienna, 2011, pp. 159‒176), my paper will examine two further
issues: (i) Phya pa’s reframing of Dharmakīrti’s distinction between ultimate
and conventional reality as two subtypes of conventional reality to which a
redefined ultimate reality is appended as well as the valid cognitions associatedwith both, and (ii) his discussion of the various philosophical positions relative
to the nature and mode of cognition of objects. Regarding the latter, I will
examine in particular whether the direct realist position supported by Phya pa
in this context can be considered Phya pa’s final position in the overall
framework of his system (hence a position within Madhyamaka) or whether itshould, like Dharmakīrti’s adoption of representationalism that is forsaken atsome point for idealism, be apprehended as an intermediate step in an
ascending scale of analysis culminating in Madhyamaka.

All Dharmakīrtis are not Created Equal: A Tibetan Madhyamaka/Pramāṇa
DebateKassor, Constance (Smith College, Northampton, USA)
Gorampa Sonam Senge (go rams pa bsod nams seng ge, 1429-89) is renowned
as one of the greatest thinkers in the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, as
well as one of the fiercest philosophical opponents of Tsongkhapa (tsong kha
blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419), founder of what later came to be called the
Gelug school. In spite of their philosophical differences, both Gorampa andTsongkhapa rely heavily on the Prāsaṅgika-Madhyamaka interpretation of
Nāgārjuna put forth by Candrakīrti, and they are both influenced by
Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇa tradition. They disagree, however, with respect to theways in which Dharmakīrti’s epistemological concerns can be said to align with
Candrakīrti’s Madhyamaka project.
This disagreement concerning epistemology is informed by each thinker’s
primary epistemological influences; Tsongkhapa understands Dharmakīrti
through the lens of Chapa Chokyi Senge (phya pa chos kyi seng ge, 1109-69),
and Gorampa relies on the interpretation of Sakya Paṇḍita (sa skya paNDi ta
kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, 1182-1251). As a result of these different influences,117

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Gorampa and Tsongkhapa come to radically different conclusions about therole of reason on the path to enlightenment, as well as about the nature ofenlightenment itself. For example, Tsongkhapa contends that reason extends on
the Buddhist path all the way to buddhahood. A fully enlightened Buddha can –and in fact must – engage in rational analysis. Gorampa, on the other hand,argues that reason is essential on the Buddhist path, but that eventually, reason
is abandoned in favor of a state that is “free from conceptual proliferations”(spros bral). As such, a Buddha is incapable of engaging in rational analysis.
This paper addresses one way in which Gorampa utilizes both Madhyamaka
and Pramāṇa arguments to argue against the philosophical views ofTsongkhapa. Specifically, I focus on the debate in Tibetan Buddhist thought
regarding the distinctions between Svātantrika-Madhyamaka and PrāsaṅgikaMadhyamaka, showing the ways in which Gorampa’s interpretation ofPramāṇa in his encyclopedic text Synopsis of Madhyamaka (dbu ma’i spyi don)influences his criticism of Tsongkhapa’s “eight difficult points” (dka’ gnad
brgyad) that distinguish the Prāsaṅgika view from that of the Svātantrika.
Gorampa argues that while Svātantrika and Prāsaṅgika differ with respect tomethods of rational analysis, these two traditions do not differ with respect totheir views of the ultimate. Although the final result of the Buddhist pathinvolves a state that is free from conceptual proliferations, Gorampa argues
that analytical reasoning is nevertheless essential in order for a practitioner toarrive at this state. In other words, the methods of reasoning employed by the
Svātantrikas and Prāsaṅgikas are different, but both claim that these methods
lead to spros bral.
Tsongkhapa, on the other hand, argues that Prāsaṅgikas are different than (andtherefore superior to) Svātantrikas – not only with respect to methods ofrational analysis, but also with respect to views concerning the ultimate. This isbecause Tsongkhapa’s interpretation of epistemology lends itself to a viewwhich insists that a realization of the ultimate truth involves the cultivation of acertain concept of emptiness, rather than the complete cessation of concepts.
The key to understanding these different interpretations of Svātantrika andPrāsaṅgika lies in understanding the ways in which Gorampa and Tsongkhapa
attempt to unite Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa. Tsongkhapa’s attempt to unify
Candrakīrti and Chapa results in a view that emphasizes conceptual thought,

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while Gorampa’s synthesis of Candrakīrti and Sakya Paṇḍita results in a viewthat negates conceptual thought in its entirety.

And Ne’re the Twain Shall Meet: Candrakīrti’s Critique of the Logical–
Epistemological School
MacDonald, Anne (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
In the Prasannapadā and other of his works Candrakīrti uncompromisingly
critiques fundamental theories of the logical–epistemological school, deeming
them unfit for use by Mādhyamikas, and in many cases, inapplicable even
within the context of the logical–epistemological school itself. It is especiallywith regard to Dignāga’s (and subsequently Dharmakīrti’s) presentation ofpratyakṣa that Candrakīrti expresses disapproval, in the Catuḥśatakaṭīkā
brazenly asserting that the epistemologist, like a young child, requires basic
training in the means of valid cognition. Of greater consequence to the positionof his interlocutor is Candrakīrti’s claim that the epistemologist’s
understanding of perception contravenes teachings of the Buddha.
The paper aims to outline Candrakīrti’s main objections to the views of thelogical–epistemological fold and to elaborate on the reasons behind them, and,in doing so, to provide a historical–philosophical backdrop for other papers on
the panel which deal with later discussions related to either the melding ofMadhyamaka and logical–epistemological theory or the deliberate segregationof the former from the latter.

Sensitive Cognitive Episodes, Emptiness, and the Goal of Knowledge
Stoltz, Jonathan (University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, USA)This essay examines one point of intersection between Nāgārjuna’s account of
emptiness and Dharmakīrti’s account of knowledge. More specifically, I discuss
one way in which “emptiness of intrinsic existence” is related to the question ofwhether a given cognitive episode is an instance of pramāṇa. Though there are

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potentially many connections between these two items, my presentation will
focus on just a single issue – the thesis that, in contemporary epistemology, iscalled the “sensitivity” of beliefs. A belief (i.e., an instance where S believes
that p) is said to be sensitive if and only if “Had p been false, S would not havebelieved that p.” In the Buddhist tradition the thesis of sensitivity is frequently
captured in one particular use of the notion avinābhāva (med na mi ’byung).
The claim is that, in order for one to have knowledge, it must be the case that if
the object of cognition had not existed, the cognition would not have occurred([don] med na [blo] mi ’byung). In my talk I will discuss the connection that
this application of avinābhāva has to both pramāṇa theory and to the emptinessof intrinsic existence.
My discussion will focus on the role that avinābhāva plays in Chaba Chokyi
Senge’s (phywa pa chos kyi seng ge) account of knowledge (pramāṇa, tshadma). I will explain how this thesis is connected to the contemporary doctrine ofsensitivity in the analytic tradition of epistemology, and will explain why
sensitivity is sometimes thought to be a necessary condition for knowledge.
Finally, I will discuss how the thesis of sensitivity is connected to the doctrine of
emptiness espoused by Nāgārjuna and his followers. I will argue that this use ofavinābhāva connects up with criticisms that Nāgārjuna raised against thepossibility of pramāṇa in his Vigrahavyāvartanī.

Inference for All Mādhyamikas: Pa tshab’s Alternative to Svatantra
Vose, Kevin (College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, USA)We know well that the dominant strain of Madhyamaka in Tibet rejects the useof svatantra inference to establish or realize the central teaching of emptiness.
Whether or not svatantra inference can be equated with the form of inference
adduced by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti has occasioned significant debate both
among Tibetan Buddhists and contemporary scholars. Among the issues atstake in this debate is the possibility that—having rejected svatantra
inference—Mādhyamikas might employ some other kind of inference. The wellrehearsed dGe lugs pa answer, that svatantra need not mean Dharmakīrtian
inference, allows this tradition to yoke together Candrakīrti’s interpretation of
Madhyamaka with Dignāga-Dharmakīrti epistemology. This route, however,120

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was not taken by Tibet’s first Prāsaṅgikas, who saw Candrakīrti’s rejection ofsvatantra to be aimed squarely at the Buddhist epistemological tradition.
This paper examines the writings of Pa tshab Nyi ma grags (c. 1055-1145) to
explore how this pivotal figure understood a Mādhyamika’s use of inference. Pa
tshab translated Candrakīrti’s Prasannapadā and Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya
into Tibetan and wrote commentaries on the Prasannapadā and Nāgārjuna’s
Mūlamadhyamakakārikās. In these commentaries, he offers a thoroughexamination of the problems with svatantra, with reference to passages in
Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Pramāṇaviniścaya that are infrequently
brought to bear on this issue. After briefly surveying that analysis, this paper
focuses on Pa tshab’s discussion of a kind of inference that can be useful in
inducing realization of emptiness. Pa tshab’s preferred form of logic only
negates an opponent’s false conception, making no attempt to establish
emptiness. Yet, in doing so, the logical form gives rise to the opponent’s
knowing emptiness. We can see, then, that Pa tshab offers what may be theearliest attempt (beyond Candrakīrti’s own tender of asmad-anumāna) to offer
an alternative to svatantra inference. Further, Pa tshab’s presentation of alogical form intended to induce knowledge of the final nature of things suggeststhat considering his work to be a form of skepticism may miss importantfeatures of his thought.

The Formation of Canons in the Early Indian Nikāyas or Schools in theLight of the New Gāndhārī Manuscript Finds
Allon, Mark (University of Sydney, Sydney, AUS)
The new Gāndhārī manuscript finds from Afghanistan and Pakistan, which datefrom approximately the 1st century BCE to the 3rd or 4th century CE, are theearliest manuscript witnesses to the literature of the Indian Buddhist nikāyas or
schools. This includes texts whose parallels are found in the various Tripiṭakas,
or what remains of them, preserved in other languages and belonging todifferent nikāyas, including sections of āgamas such as the Ekottarikāgama and
Vana-saṃyutta of the Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyuktāgama, besides commentaries,
story literature, poetical and scholastic works that are not generally classed as“canonical.” These very early text collections raise questions concerningcanon-formation, such as whether the Gandhāran communities that produced
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these texts had fixed āgama collections and closed canons or whether thismaterial witnesses a stage in which collections and canons were still relatively
fluid and open, and whether these manuscripts, which span several centuries,
witness a shift towards fixity.
This paper will address these issues and re-examine our understanding of theformation of the canons of the early Indian nikāyas, in particular that of the
Pāli canon, in the light of the new Gāndhārī manuscript finds.

Revealed (gTer-ma) Texts in the rNying ma rgyud 'bum and Authentication
Strategies as Witnessed in Their Colophons
Almogi, Orna (University of Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)The Issues of authenticity and authentication of the gTer-ma, or Revealed,
literature of the rNying-ma school have been discussed in numerous occasions
in the past from both emic and etic perspectives. The present paper seeks tofocus on one aspect of authentication strategies to which less attention has been
paid so far: It will discuss some of the colophons of such revealed texts found in
the rNying ma rgyud ’bum and explore the authentication strategies foundtherein for which either the gTer-stons themselves or the rNying ma rgyud’bum compilers and editors were in most cases responsible. The authentication
attempts found in the colophons may be considered “silent strategies” as they
commonly do not have any apologetic nature and do not resort to any explicit
means towards these ends, but they do so implicitly by providing “historical”
accounts related to the individual texts and their transmission. In my talk I shallpresent several such examples and point out to the various strategies foundthereinRethinking Canonicity within Theravāda in the Light of Sarvāstivāda
Scriptures
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Despite several studies by eminent scholars on canonicity within the
Mahāvihāra fraternity of the Theravāda school, the exact position that the Pālicanon occupies in the history of Indian Buddhism requires further
understanding through comparative research. In this presentation, I shalldiscuss canonicity within the Mahāvihāra around the fifth century CE bycomparing it with the Sarvāstivāda school.
I will first consider all references to the structure of the Pāli Tipiṭaka in the Pālicommentaries. While some of these commentaries give the list of texts of theTipiṭaka that is almost similar to the canon that came down to us, they also
quote source materials describing a structure partly different from it. A similarlack of unified definition of the canon is also found in Sarvāstivādin sources.
I will then focus on the definition of mahāpadesa in commentaries of the
Mahāvihāra and Sarvāstivādin materials. While the former gives the authority
only to sutta and vinaya, the latter makes a place for dharmatā as well. This
point is arguably one of the most important differences between Mahāvihāraand Sarvāstivāda views of canonicity, which might have impacted, for example,
the former’s rejection of the Mahāyānasūtras.

“The Canonisation” of the Mahāyāna Scriptures: When did the Mahāyāna
Sūtras come to be called as such?
Karashima, Seishi (IRIAB, Soka University, Tokyo, JPN)
Each Mahāyāna scripture must have its own complex background and history.
Probably, many of the early ones were originally transmitted in Middle Indic(i.e., Prakrits, colloquial languages) or in a mixed variety of languages, basedon Middle Indic, including Sanskrit elements, which were later “translated”
gradually into (Buddhist) Sanskrit. This means that when we attempt tounderstand early Mahāyāna scriptures properly so as to draw nearer to their
original features or trace their transmission, if we restrict ourselves only toextant Sanskrit manuscripts, most of which date from the eleventh century
onwards, the explanatory value of such studies is rather limited. In addition to
Sanskrit texts, we should investigate all other available materials in order toflesh out their history. The Chinese translations, particularly those which weremade between the second and the sixth century, thus antedating most of the123

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extant Sanskrit manuscripts, are indispensable sources as, in most cases, theexact periods of their translations are known.
It is interesting that, except for the Achu Foguo jing (Akṣobhyasūtra), all of theoldest Chinese translations of the so-called “Mahāyāna” sūtras, which are
generally accepted as being translated by Lokakṣema (fl. c. 168-189 CE), do
not start with “Thus I have heard. At one time”, though the Chinesetranslations by Zhi Qian (fl. 222-252 CE) usually have such opening phrases.
Lokakṣema entitled the texts “... jing” (經), the word jing, which was used inlater periods exclusively to render the Sanskrit word sūtra, had been usedearlier to render the word dharma and, hence, it does not necessarily mean
“scripture” but rather “teaching”. Therefore, it is not clear whether
Lokakṣema and his contemporaries recognised these texts as being “sūtras” ornot.
Further, the texts, which later came to be entitled Mahāyānasūtra, are notcalled as such in Lokakṣema’s Chinese translations. For example, in histranslation of the so-called Kāśyapaparivarta –– though it should rather becalled Mahāratnakūṭa(dharmaparyāya) as this name is referred to in the text
itself ––, the text is entitled *Vevulla-maṇiratna-dharmaparyāya and*Mahāratnakūṭa vevulla-dharmaparyāya. Vevulla is a vernacular form
corresponding to the Sanskritised forms vaitulya and vaipulya. In the second
Chinese translation of the same text by an anonymous translator, probably in
the Jin Dynasty (265-420 C.E.), it is entitled *Mahāyāna-Ratnakūṭadharmaparyāya (or -sūtra). I assume that the earlier composers of the so-called“Mahāyāna” sūtras had named their texts vevulla / vaitulya / vaipulya (cf.
Pāli vedalla, vetulla, vetulya, Buddhist Sanskrit vaidalya, Gāndhārī vehula),
and only later were these titles changed to mahāyānasūtra. There are also some
Mahāyāna sūtras which are never labelled as such, for example various texts of
the Prajñāpāramitā. By investigating the earlier Chinese translations as well as
the Chinese Buddhist catalogues, we may be able to trace the transition
from vevulla to vaitulya, and then to vaipulya and finallyto mahāyānasūtra. Also, in this context, I should like to point out that it isnatural that the name mahāyāna does not occur in early Indian inscriptions,because the composers and followers of the Mahāyāna sūtras did not callthemselves “mahāyānists” in early times.

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Chinese Shadows: The Formation of the Taoist Canon in the 5th C. and its
Buddhist Models
Palumbo, Antonello (SOAS, University of London, London, GBR)A Taoist canon takes shape in southern China in the 5th c. AD, first with Lu
Xiujing's production of a catalogue of scriptures in the Lingbao tradition (theone closest to Buddhism) in 437, then with the compilation by the same priest of
a tripartite collection of Taoist scriptures in 471. It is generally acknowledgedthat this happened under Buddhist influence, notably Mahāyānist, although thenature and extent of the latter are disputed. On the other hand, the Taoist
criteria of scriptural authentication were quite different from their Buddhist
counterparts. This talk will revisit the cultural background of the first Taoist
canon and the Buddhist models that inspired its formation. It will thus explore
both outsiders' and insiders' perceptions of the Buddhist canon in 5th-century
China, and reassess in their light some commonly held views on what is and isnot ‘mainstream' in the history of Buddhist scriptural corpora.

The Domains of Canonicity in Buddhism
Silk, Jonathan A. (Univ. Leiden, Leiden, NED)
Scholars of Biblical traditions in particular have devoted much attention to thenotion of ‘canon.' The multivalencies of conceptions of ‘the canonical', as
important as they may be for appreciations of Buddhist traditions, andespecially textual traditions, remain, however, little explored or exploited bymodern scholars. This presentation aims to introduce some key ideas which will
help us structure our considerations of ‘canon,' ‘the canonical' and‘canonicity' in regard particularly to Buddhist literature in a Pan-Asian
context, and both diachronically and synchronically. Eschewing the stipulativeand normative, it attempts to provide tools for recognizing, conceptualizing andcreatively appreciating implicit and explicit emic categories and schema.

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The Expanding Canons of the Mahāsāṃghikas
Tournier, Vincent (SOAS, University of London, London, GBR)
Notwithstanding spectacular discoveries of Gandhāran manuscripts thatprovide scholars with a glimpse at the early phase of textual production,
forerunner of what would be called the Mahāyāna-sūtras, the religious milieux
in which these scriptures originated is still largely unknown. While the
Mahāsāṃghikas and Dharmaguptakas are often mentioned in scholarship as
likely candidates, no wholly compelling evidence has been presented so far,either to favour or reject such nikāya affiliation of early Bodhisattvas and theirscriptural production. In fact, the fascination for origins and authorship has
tended to hide other historical issues of major importance, such as that of the
trajectories of texts promoting the Bodhisattva Path, and the impact they had on
canonical formation of the nikāyas, in a period—the “Middle Period”—
marked by the crystallisation of Buddhist identities.
The present paper aims at presenting a coherent, if incomplete, scenario for the
integration of some of these scriptures within various canons of the
Mahāsāṃghikas. Information gathered from a wide variety of sources(manuscript remains, historical accounts, scholastic texts) and the results of astratigraphic analysis of the preserved portions of the Mahāsāṃghika canons,converge to establish the progressive expansion and re-negotiation of canonicalborders between the 4th and 6th century CE. I shall stress, in particular, thediversity of strategies adopted by various branches of the Mahāsāṃghikas tofilter and accommodate newer scriptures. This will lead me to consider the
discursive devices, used by zealous Bodhisattvas involved in the transmission of
their inherited canon, to establish the authenticity of newer scriptures. Finally,
we shall see how this dynamic at work within the extended Mahāsāṃghika
canons relate to the claims found in polemical literature in favour of thecanonicity of Mahāyāna discourses.

The Authenticity Issue of the Vidyādharapiṭaka
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It is unknown when and by whom the term vidyādharapiṭaka (rig pa ’dzin pa’i
sde snod or rig sngags ’chang gi sde snod) was employed for the first time inIndia. The earliest known Indian source seems to be the Tarkajvālā of the sixthcentury Madhyamaka exponent Bhavya. The term Vidyādharapiṭaka
(“Sorcerer’s Basket”) came to be employed by later Indian and Tibetan
scholars as a generic term for the corpus of Buddhist Tantric scriptures,
although it meant different things to different people at a given point in timeand place.
The superiority of the Vidyādharapiṭaka in the sense of the corpus of Buddhist
Tantric scriptures has been recognized by most followers of Vajrayāna in India
and Tibet. The claim alone that the Buddhist Tantric scriptures are superior totheir non-Tantric counterparts, however, did not seem to have at all functioned
as a guarantee against charges of inauthenticity. On the contrary, the higher ascripture or system is claimed to be, the more questionable its authenticity
seems to become, and greater is the pressure and the desire on the part of its
proponents for establishing its legitimacy. What I mainly wish to attempt in thispaper is to look into some of the allegations of inauthenticity made against the
Buddhist scriptures associated with Vajrayāna, that is, the Vidyādharapiṭaka, ingeneral, and against some specific Buddhist Tantric scriptures such as the
Hevajratantra, Kālacakratantra, and *Guhyagarbhatantra, and examine thevarious argumentative strategies employed for their authentication.

The Dawn of the Dazangjing: Tracing the Cultural Background of theChinese Buddhist Canon
Zacchetti, Stefano (University of Oxford, Oxford, GBR)
In the present paper, which is part of a larger research project aimed at
exploring the complex cultural and intellectual history of the unique scriptural
corpus known as the Chinese Buddhist Canon, I will try to assess the influenceexerted on early Chinese Buddhist ideas about canonical scriptures by Chinese
indigenous pre-Buddhist bibliographical traditions.
The main focus of my investigation will be the rich body of documents includedin scrolls 6-12 of Sengyou’s Chu sanzang ji ji (Collection of documents on the
production of the Tripiṭaka), which constitute the most important sources we
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possess on early Chinese Buddhist conceptions of canonical literature. Morespecifically, I will discuss the prefaces to translated scriptures, paying
particular attention to their formal and structural features, which will beanalysed (building on research by Kogachi Ryūichi and Mark E. Lewis) in thelight of the work of the Han bibliographers Liu Xiang and Liu Xin.

On the Discernment of Reality (bhūta-pratyavekṣā)Adam, Martin (University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, CAN)This paper addresses the question of Kamalaśīla’s understanding of the
Sanskrit compound bhūta-pratyavekṣā, as employed in the author’s wellknown Bhāvanākrama texts. I attempt to demonstrate the inadequacy of awidely accepted translation of this term, namely, correct examination (orcorrect analysis), while arguing for an alternative translation: the discernmentof reality. The former translation is potentially very misleading, lending itself toan understanding of the nature of meditation that does not conform toKamalaśīla’s own explanations. In particular it suggests a conception ofliberating knowledge whose means are limited to intellectual wisdom(cintamayī-prajñā), and not also based in meditative wisdom (bhāvanāmayīprajñā). Given the historically important role that these texts played in theformation of Tibetan Buddhism, the implications of such a misconception arepotentially far-reaching.
The argument has two parts. In the first I put forward a particularinterpretation of Kamalaśīla’s understanding of the ‘discernment of reality’(bhūta-pratyavekṣā) – a technical term he identifies with insight (vipaśyanā). I
provide a rationale for its translation, examining the Sanskrit compound and its
usual Tibetan equivalent, yang dag par so sor rtog pa. Translators have often
understood the compound as a karma-dhāraya. I argue that such a reading fails
to take Kamalaśīla's own explanations into account. These suggest that thecompound should be taken as a ṣāṣṭhī-tatpuruṣa.
In the second part I examine the implications of adopting such anunderstanding. The overall effect is to lead us away from a simple either-or
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respective views regarding the necessity of meditation in the process leading up
to the moment of liberating knowledge. While Kamalaśīla clearly believed there
to be a necessity for philosophic analysis, his understanding of bhūtapratyavekṣā was that it includes a special kind of meditative process in whichmental objects are directly perceived. Philosophical analysis on its own was notconsidered sufficient. The argument proceeds with reference to Kamalaśīla’s
reading of key passages of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. In addition I discuss bhūtapratyavekṣā in relation to other important technical terminology employed in
the course of Kamalaśīla's arguments against Mo ho yen (e.g. dharmapravicaya, yoniśo-manasikāra, smṛti). Just as it is probably unfair to paintKamalaśīla's Chinese rival as an outright antinomian who would have rejected
all the benefits of morality and practical reason, so too it seems inaccurate toportray Kamalaśīla as having held the view that liberating knowledge can bereached through philosophical analysis alone. A close reading of thethree Bhāvanākrama texts shows that Kamalaśīla held the process of meditation
to involve a special kind of cognition that is not simply a case of ordinary
reasoning. Nor is it a matter of “serial alternation” between ordinary
reasoning and non-conceptual samādhi. It is a process that is at once bothconceptual analysis and one-pointed meditation.

Echoes of Samyé on the Path through an 11th Century Defense of theGreat Perfection
Di Zinno Sur, Dominic (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA)The reverberations of the Samyé debate resonated deep into the 11th century. In
that transformative era, in which sectarian religious identity coalesced aroundnewly established religious institutions and genres of literature, there wasvehement criticism of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen), a tradition that had
sprung up in Tibet between the breakup of the empire (ca. 842 CE) and therenaissance of the 11th century. This criticism was bound up with tensions
connected with the Samyé debate concerning, inter alia, the path: i.e., the ideathat a sattva can be qualitatively transformed into a buddha. The basic debate
between concerned theorists was whether emphasis on the distinction between
sattva and buddha evinces a soteriologically unbridgeable gap, or whether
over-emphasis on the immanence of bodhi risks collapsing the foundational
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Perfection thus targeted over-emphasis on immanence by prominently damning
it as a "teaching of Hashang." This paper seeks to further our understanding of
how the themes of the debate shaped the theories, arguments, and sources usedin the first Nyingma text to answer such critics, "Entering the Way of the Great
Vehicle" (theg chen tshul 'jug), by the 11th century Tibetan paṇḍit, Rongzom
Chökyi Zangpo. The text provides Rongzom's elaborate and idiosyncratic
discussion of religio-philosophical authority, one that mixes the unique rhetoricof the Great Perfection discourse with those of abhidharma, pramāṇa, andguhyamantra. With reference to the concept of transmutation (pariṇāmanā),this paper examines how Rongzom argues that the gradualism at the heart ofcompleting (rdzogs) the Buddhist path should not understood as being inpractical opposition to the spontaneous perfection (rdzogs) lying at the heart ofthe spiritual freedom that is that path's culmination (rdzogs). Instead, wesuggest that the apparent conflict between teleocratic (rims gyis) and endotelic(cig car) models of Buddhahood in Rongzom's text mark less an opposition
between two mutually exclusive theories than two poles on a horizon ofexegetical tensions endemic to the play of Buddhist path hermeneutics. Througha close reading of the text, I will present and assess the significance andcogency of Rongzom's presentation.

Some Bka’ brgyud Responses to Sa skya Paṇḍita’s Critique of “Present Day
Mahāmudrā” as Equivalent to Mo-ho-yen’s System
Draszczyk, Martina (Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde,
Wien, AUT)
Among the many outcomes of the famous 8th century Tibetan Bsam yas debate,
the most influential was certainly Sa skya Paṇḍita’s (1182-1251) broad-based
critique of certain “present day” non-gradual Mahāmudrā teachings that in hisview encouraged their followers “to not think or do anything at all” in amanner similar to the teachings of the Chinese master Mo ho yen as presented
in debate chronicles.
While the historical background and reasons for Sa skya Paṇḍita’s pointed
criticism has been well-documented by D. Jackson, the extensive and often
illuminating responses by Bka’ brgyud pa scholars of the classical period were
not taken into account. Only the response by Shākya mchog ldan (1428-1507)
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who had close ties with the Bka’ brgyud pas was taken up. While Shākya mchog
ldan states that there is an alikeness between Mo-ho-yen’s theory and this Bka’
brgyud pa approach, he at the same time justifies the theory of the ‘selfsufficient white remedy’. He emphasizes that while it does not denigrate theneed of merit, by means of the mahāmudrā methods the goal will be achieved
without resorting to additional remedies. This paper takes a look at responses
by certain renowned Bka’ brgyud pa masters from the 15th and 16th century to
Sa skya Paṇḍita’s critique of Mahāmudrā teachings as formulated in his Sdom
gsum rab ’byed. Karma pa Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-1554), for example,
understood the critique as aiming at Maitrīpa’s teaching of mental
disengagment (yid la mi byed pa; amanasikāra) which Sgam po pa had
integrated in his teaching system. Zhwa dmar chos grags ye shes (1453-1524)
shows that the rejection of mental disengagement amounts to a disapproval ofteachings given by Atiśa in his Madhyamakopadeśa and the Gītis bymahāsiddhas such as Saraha. Dwags po Bkra shis rnam rgyal (1511-1587)
rejects Sa skya Paṇḍita’s critic by tracing the Indian Buddhist background of
Sgam po pa’s way of teaching mahāmudrā and by establishing that Bka’
brgyud-mahāmudrā is not in contradistinction to the insight of distinct
investigation (so sor rtog pa; pratyavekṣā) favoured so highly by Kamalaśīla.

The Sudden and Gradual Sūtric (and Tantric?) Approaches in the Rim gyis
'jug pa'i bsgom don and the Cig car 'jug pa rnam par mi rtog pa'i bsgom don
Gruber, Joel (Corona, USA)The Indian tāntrika Vimalamitra is said to have composed two texts that
support the central arguments presented in the alleged eighth-century Samyédebate. The Cig car ’jug pa rnam par mi rtog pa’i bsgom don (Cig car ’jugpa) is believed to outline the efficacy of the Chinese sudden approach, andthe Rim gyis ’jug pa’i bsgom don (Rim gyis ’jug pa) sets forth the Indian
gradualist path to liberation. Despite the purported Indian victory over the
Chinese at Samyé, some maintain that Vimalamitra’s texts present both
approaches as being equally valid. But did Vimalamitra compose these texts?
Are they from the late eighth/early ninth centuries? And do they outline views
sympathetic to a Chinese sūtric approach to enlightenment?

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Multiple scholars have worked with the Rim gyis ’jug pa and the Cig car ’jugpa, but previous studies have not considered the genealogy of early narratives
describing Vimalamitra’s time in Tibet. As a result, scholars have examined theauthorial issues central to understanding these works without accounting forthe gradual standardization of competing Vimalamitra biographies. In addition,
the scope of past studies has been limited to sūtric works, excluding the dozens
of tantric texts ascribed to Vimalamitra that were previously unattributed or
attributed to another author/translator. This presentation reevaluates the Rim
gyis ’jug pa and the Cig car ’jug pa and incorporates a more robust body ofevidence to account for the role a distinctly Tibetanized Vimalamitra played inlegitimating indigenously composed texts.
By extending the scope of analysis, my presentation abandons assumptions
based on fixed notions of authorship, which in turn allows the conspicuous
absences of the Rim gyis ’jug pa and the Cig car ’jug pa from Tibetan histories,
contemporaneous texts, and textual catalogues (prior to the fourteenth century)
to be better explained. Moreover, this presentation can then readdressquestions as to why the Rim gyis ’jug pa and the Cig car ’jug pa are primarily
interpolations of other works that do not stylistically resemble the remaining
sūtric works ascribed to Vimalamitra. Incorporating tantric works into theanalysis also enables the methods used to construct the Rim gyis ’jug pa andthe Cig car ’jug pa to be compared with the methods employed to “author”
tantric texts from the Nyingma tradition. Furthermore, the passages fromthe Cig car ’jug pa that are found in tantric works encourage comparisons withthe sudden and gradual approaches emphasized in Nyingma tantric exegesis.
Each of these findings enables us to better understand whether the Rim gyis ’jug
pa and the Cig car ’jug pa were ascribed to Vimalamitra for the same reasonsthat dozens of tantric texts bear his name.
In short, my presentation utilizes a more extensive body of data to determine
whether the Rim gyis ’jug pa and the Cig car ’jug pa should also be included
among a list of numerous tantric works that were attributed to Vimalamitra inorder to establish the authenticity of “Indic” views and practices that became
central to the Nyingma tradition.

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Uniting the Streams: Epistemological Cross-Currents in the Wake of
Tibet’s Great Debate
Higgins, David (Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Wien,
AUT)
The eighth century Tibetan Samyé debate has traditionally been represented asa veritable confrontation or “clash of civilizations” between two idealogically
opposed views regarding the Buddhist goal of awakening. At issue was whether
goal-realization occurs gradually through analytical meditation, as argued by
the Indian participant Kamalaśīla, or all at once through contemplating thenature of mind, as proposed by his Chinese Chan counterpart He shang Mo hoyen. The account of the debate preserved in Tibetan historical sources has
Kamalaśīla roundly defeating his opponent, thereby securing Indian Buddhism
as the official state religion and sanctioning the banishment of Chinese Chanpractitioners and their suddenist teachings from Tibet. This narrative soon
assumed the status of a comprehensive founding myth (Bretfeld) within the
Tibetan cultural memory, one that has since been used, in various rhetoricalcontexts, both to valorize a standard Indian Buddhist scholastic model ofreason-guided gradualism and to ostracize as ‘non-Buddhist’ (chos min) any
non-gradualist elements – especially among Mahāmudrā and Rdzogs chentraditions – that were thought to advocate a Chinese He shang style ofmeditation.
While it is now generally acknowledged that a debate (or series of debates) did
occur and that it was organized according to Indian Buddhist principles offormal debate well-known to Tibetans since early in the 8th c., contemporary
scholarship has raised probing questions about the nature and legacy of thecontroversy itself. It has been observed that terms for ‘gradual’ and‘simultaneous’ were long employed in Indian and Chinese Buddhist sources,
not primarily to demarcate religious schools but to distinguish, within a given
system, more or less direct methods of propounding and/or internalizing ateaching in line with the differing capacities of individuals. It has also beensuggested that the alleged incompatibility of approaches presupposed instandard debate narratives has served more to conceal than reveal theperennial epistemological and soteriological issues and tensions at the heart ofthe debate: the role of conceptual analysis in nonconceptual realization and therelative efficacy of conceptual and nonconceptual kinds of meditation(Tillemans).

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This paper will demonstrate how various Tibetan scholars (from 9th century
onward) challenged the view that the gradualist/subitist distinction should beframed as an either/or choice between mutually exclusive approaches. It will
briefly assess some attempts by influential Rnying ma, Bka’ brgyud and Sa skya
scholars to reconcile the two competing paradigms by arguing that the Buddhist
path is best viewed as neither exclusively gradual nor sudden but asincorporating elements of both. Central to their commensurability thesis was
the idea that the gradualist/suddenist dyad reflects a tension between more andless conceptually-mediated cognitive styles that turns out to be constitutive of
the path of awakening itself. Within their different interpretive stratagems, thewhole tangle of soteriological tensions or antinomies that had increasingly
become the focus of debate and controversy in India, China and Tibet – viz.,gradualism/subitism, causal/acausal attainment, rational inference/direct
acquaintance, conceptual/nonconceptual realization, nature/nurture – end up
being reframed as binary expressions of a basic structural polarity between
reflective and pre-reflective awareness.

The Embodiments of View: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches in theContemplative Typology of “The Great Perfection”
Laish, Eran (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Kiryat Tivon, ISR)
The tension between gradual and simultaneous approaches to the realization of
the unconditioned is well attested in Buddhist history. For example, this tension
was the focus of the 8th century Samye debate, in which proponents of both
approaches participated. Although most traditional accounts of the debate
asserted that the simultaneous approach was finally condemned as “nonBuddhist” (chos min), some of its motifs, like the undermining of intellectual
analysis and developmental progression, persisted in certain Tibetan traditions,such as the non-dual traditions of “The Great Perfection” (rDzogs pa chen po)
and “The Great Seal” (Phyag rgya chen po; Mahāmudrā). Due to theiremphasis on the natural liberation of mind-itself, these traditions challenged
the usual notions of progression and development while advocating therecognition of one's own nature in an immediate manner.
Although the non-dual traditions asserted the original purity of mind-itself, theyalso accommodated certain gradualist motifs that admitted the varying interests
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and abilities of practitioners. A clear example of such an integrative vision isfound in the writings of kLong chen rab 'byams pa, the famous 14th century
Tibetan teacher. kLong chen pa incorporated simultaneous and gradual motifs
by utilizing a long-established classification scheme concerning the different
capacities of practitioners to uphold authentic view and praxis. According tothis scheme, some practitioners were already suited for actualizing
simultaneous instructions while others were still required to apply a gradualapproach that included purification and deliberate efforts. Moreover, thedistinct capacities were identified with varying degrees of self-receptiveness tothe basic nature of awareness as revealed in the sphere of direct experience.
Consequently, instead of presenting the simultaneous and gradual approaches
as excluding one another, kLong chen pa treated those within a single
contemplative scheme that culminated in the immediate realization of mind-assuch. Finally, the intimate relation between the contemplative approaches andthe degrees of self-receptiveness revealed a novel philosophical vision, whicharose from lived experience and not from logical argumentation.

’Gos Lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal’s (1392-1481) Conceptual and Direct
Approaches to Ultimate Reality
Mathes, Klaus-Dieter (Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde,Wien)
The ultimate reality that Mahāyāna Buddhists characterize as emptiness, theperfect nature, the nature of mind, or buddha nature, (to name their major
concepts), was never considered to be self-evident to ordinary sentient beings.
It must be determined either logically, usually as something “free from mental
fabrications” (niṣprapañca), or experienced directly in advanced yoga
practices, which mainly rely on non-conceptual types of insight. This latterapproach enables, in addition to niṣprapañca or emptiness, positive
descriptions of reality, which are found in the sūtras and commentaries related
to the third dharmacakra (i.e., Yogācāra texts, the Ratnagotravibhāga and soforth). This raises the question whether the second dharmacakra points to thesame ultimate reality as the third one, and/or whether both of them havedefinitive meaning. Such an approach was propagated, for example, by the
Tibetan ’Bri gung master ’Jig rten gsum mgon (1143-1217). Following thelatter, ’Gos Lo tsā ba gZhon nu dpal points out that the second and third135

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dharmacakrasdo not contradict each other. It is only that the teachings of thesecond dharmacakra do not clearly formulate what ultimate truth really is. The
superiority of the third dharmacakra results from its ability to lead to a direct
realization of one’s nature of mind. In other words, when following the path ofanalysis, all one can do is to deny all reifications and thereby establish theemptiness of all phenomena (second dharmacakra), but in direct realization, thetrue nature of these phenomena can be experienced as being luminous (third
dharmacakra).
Based on a comparison of various Mahāyāna models of reality, the present
paper tries to contextualize gZhon nu dpal’s hermeneutics and look into thepossibility of whether or not the differences between the second and third
dharmacakra can be reasonably explained as a result of various approaches tothe same ultimate reality. In other words, one might ask: Could the authors of
the analytical Madhyamaka texts have had the same reality in mind as the
Yogācāras and followers of the tathāgatagarbha doctrine, but preferred not tospeak of it positively while propagating an inferential path? That such anassumption is not entirely out of question is suggested in the colophon of
Bhavya’s (490-570) Prajñāpradīpa, which states that people who are used toimagining truly existent things apprehend reality mainly by inferential
cognitions, but this is not the way the Buddha apprehends reality.

A Socio-religious Study on the Debates of bSam yas, Focusing on Dun-wuda-cheng-zheng-li-jue and the Background of the Early Chan School in
China
Yi, Kyoowan (Seoul National University, Seoul, KOR)
The Tibetan bSam yas debate may be regarded as the outcome of three related
factors: 1) internal power dynamics between rival aristocratic clans in Tibet, 2)
religious conflicts between the sudden enlightenment school rooted in theteachings of Musang (無相), later Wu-zhu (無住) and Mahāyan (摩訶衍), andthe gradualist school represented by Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and 3) the
assimilation and institutionalization of Buddhism in Tibet. Three influential
parties of the debate, including King Khri srong lde tsen, the Śāntarakṣita

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school, and the Mahāyan school, respectively allied with Tibetan politicalgroups to establish their blueprints for the future of Buddhism in Tibet.
According to Bu-ston Chos 'byung and Dun-wu-da-cheng-zheng-li-jue (頓悟大乘正理決) of Wang Xi, following the rapid spread of Mahāyan's Chanteachings among the Tibetan royals and the public, Khri srong lde tsen and thefollowers of Śāntarakṣita attempted to block the expansion of Chan practiceleading to serious conflicts. In the debate itself, Kamalaśīla and Mahāyan drewattention to the potential misunderstandings caused by their cultural andscholastic differences and language barriers. Mahāyan distinguishes thesuperior truth of the enlightened from the secular truth of sentient beings, andacknowledges that practitioners of dull capacity require such practical meansof meditation and six pāramitās. Therefore, the criticisms in
the Bhāvanākrama that the Mahāyan school rejected any practice at all andonly clung to "no thought arising" (念不起) cannot be justified. In brief, theproblems criticized in Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśīla is rather close to thescholastic standpoints of the Pao t'ang school (保唐宗) of Wu-zhu while thearguments advanced in the Dun-wu-da-cheng-zheng-li-jue echo the teachingsof Musang of the Ching-chung-si Temple (淨衆寺) in Chengtu (成都). It is also
worth taking note of the conciliatory approaches of the Śāntarakṣita school to
the Tibetan Buddhist communities. It paid careful attention to the practicalneeds and spiritual growth of the Tibetan society so that the propagation of its
teachings harmonized the divergent systems of Buddhist thought, including
Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna. Śāntarakṣita, who is said to have recommended theinvitation of the tantric master Padmasambhava to safeguard the transmissionof Buddhism in Tibet, was himself reluctant to teach Tantric Buddhism to theearly Tibetan Buddhist community for fear of it being misunderstood andleading to fruitless or deviant practices. I shall argue that Mahāyan's followers,
by contrast, failed to recognize the potential dangers of the Tibetan immediate
enlightenment school, which became very similar to the teachings of the Paot'ang school, significantly diverging from the Chan practice that Wuzhu himself
claimed to have learned from Musang. Li-tai-fa-pao-chi (曆代法寶記) betrays
how Wuzhu altered the Three Verse teaching of Musang to create his theory ofNo-thinking (無念) and absolute No-action (無作). If taken literally such ideas
would inevitably lead to anti-intellectualism and even ideoclasm.
These factors help to account for why the Tibet’s fledgling Buddhist community
would have favoured the Śāntarakṣita school over its rival in the debates at
bSam yas monastery. After all, the debate was not just about determining
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Buddhist scholastic superiority but also about responding most pragmatically tothe socio-historical demands of Tibetan society.

The Iconographic Distribution of 9th to 12th Century Buddhist Imagery
from Bihar and Orissa
Behrendt, Kurt (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA)This study attempts to characterize Buddhist sculptural production in Bihar andOrissa from the 9th to 12th century period on the basis of recovered sculpture
from the sites of Nalanda, Antichak, Kurkihar and Ratnagiri. At thesemahaviharas 759 stone and bronze sculptures were recovered in the course of
excavation; a body of evidence that I contend provides a picture of the broad
ideological interests as reflected in their iconographic distribution. By
considering the specific image production at each site we can get an idea of thepatronage of certain iconographic formats and how this differed regionally.
While the chance survival of a given image is perhaps arbitrary, a similar
image distribution is observed when considering the sites individually orcollectively. In other words, it appears that enough survives to give us astatistically valid sample reflecting an important aspect of stone and bronze
image production that can help us characterize the nature of the Buddhist
tradition in north India at this time. Perhaps not surprisingly the Buddha ismost often depicted, followed by Avalokitesvara and Tara – together they
comprise 65% of the imagery. In contrast, while a wide range of esoteric deities
associated with the Tantras and Vajrayana practices are found at these sites,
significantly they comprise only 11% of the total production. When the data is
broken down by site it is clear that esoteric imagery was more important ineastern Bihar and Orissa. This evidence is interesting in light of the textual
evidence, which would seem to indicate a greater importance of esoteric
practices at these monastic centers. The data examined in this study does
however reveal some specific contexts where esoteric deities are particularly
emphasized. While giving us only a part of the larger picture, the total
recovered stone and bronze imagery from Nalanda, Kurkihar, Antichak andRatnagiri does provide a significant body of data that is geographically andtemporally specific. While this evidence undoubtedly reflects ideologicalinterests of the Buddhist communities active in Bihar and Orissa in the 9th to12th century, how this information should be interpreted is a topic that I hope138

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might elicit a productive discussion among the assembled scholars at the IABS
conference in Vienna.

The Development of Colossal Images within the Buddhist Tradition
Brancaccio, Pia (Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA)The introduction of colossal images within the Buddhist tradition and thetremendous popularity they engendered across diverse cultural regions is atheme often neglected in the discourse surrounding the development andsuccess of cult images in Buddhism. The present paper investigates the
emergence of colossal icons in the northwest of the Indian Subcontinent anddiscusses possible links between the development of such icons and specificreligious practices. It will also examine how the diffusion of colossal images
may be linked to the widespread popularity of particular artistic media in
Buddhist art such as stucco and living rock. Finally, this paper will explore themechanisms that may have led to the southward diffusion of Buddhist ‘colossi’
towards the Deccan Plateau and Sri Lanka.

Kingship, the Kanheri Caves, and the Development of the Buddhist Image
Cult in the Western Deccan
DeCaroli, Robert (George Mason University, Arlington, VA, USA)In discussing the rise and spread of the Buddhist image cult, insights can begained by examining the physical contexts into – and through – which thesepractices spread. This paper will explore the expansion of image-based
practices into the Western Deccan with special attention given to the Kānherī
caves. These artistic innovations will be shown to have taken place under therule, if not the direct patronage, of the Sātavāhana rulers. This study reveals
parallels between Buddhist developments in the Deccan and in the Mathurān
heartland. In both cases the rise of image-center devotion coincides with acontemporaneous diffusion of the use of royal portraiture and an expanded useof imagery in Hindu and Jain contexts. Therefore, the rise and development of139

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the image cult in South Asian Buddhism must be understood as only one aspectof a larger societal and cultural shift towards the increased public use of figuralimagery. Buddhist literary discussions of images and of the Buddha’s bodily
form may therefore be better understood as justifications of practices which findtheir inspiration in developments located partially, even primarily, outside theBuddhist tradition.

A Poetic Inscription from Ajaṇṭā and the Image Cult in Early Medieval
Indian Buddhism
Morrissey, Nicolas (University of Georgia, Athens, USA)This paper will take as its point of departure a fifth century CE inscription fromthe Buddhist caves at Ajaṇṭā which contains an explicit description of benefits
to be gained by those who have made an image of the Buddha. The inscription –or rather, painted record – is unfortunately partially abraded, which hasconsequently resulted in several variant readings with significant discrepancies.
This paper will revisit these readings in order to establish, to the extent
possible, a viable interpretation of the record. The terminology of the record isof substantial interest not only due to the manner in which it refers to the image
cult, but also because it may also contain the terms “mahāyāna”,“śākyabhikṣu” and a version of what has been identified as a “mahāyāna
donative formula”. This paper seeks to explore the implications of a mahāyāna
affiliation of the record, if indeed one can be established, in addition to
pursuing possible textual sources for the vocabulary, syntax and ideology of theposition articulated with regard to the image cult. A discussion of comparative
textual, epigraphic and art historical parallels will also be included in order toprovide a historical context for this interesting record.

The Bodhisattva in the First Meditation in Early Indian Images
Rhi, Juhyung (Seoul National University, Seoul, KOR)140

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The Bodhisattva’s First Meditation under the Jambu tree is a theme treatedwith relatively high importance in early Indian Buddhist art, and several iconic
images of the theme are known from both Gandhara andMathura. Furthermore, it is highlighted in an intriguing manner in theliterature of Mulasarvastivada. This paper explores the significance of thetheme in early Buddhist imagery especially in relation to the conception of
bodhisattva images.

Evolution of Buddhist Image Cult Represented in Early Andhran
Sculpture
Shimada, Akira (State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, USA)
Early Buddhist sculpture created in the ancient Andhra region of Southeastern
India includes a variety of representations of the Buddha in symbolic andanthropomorphic forms. By exploring this extensive corpus of sculpture dated
to between ca. 150 BCE and 300 CE, this paper intends to discuss how Andhran
Buddhists evolved their interest in the anthropomorphic representation of the
Buddha and eventually established their own style of Buddha images as a cultic
object. Main issues for discussion would include:- Evolution of the symbolic signs to represent the Buddha in Andhra and its
relationship with the anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha.
- Images of monks and their chronological and iconographical relationships
with Buddha images.
- Divergent iconographies of Buddha images as the protagonist of narrative
reliefs versus independent icons, and the possible implications of thesesignificant differences for understanding the early stages of Buddhist image
worship in Andhra.

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Bodily Care: An Identifying Marker in Buddhist Monasteries of AncientIndia and China
Heirman, Ann (Ghent University, Ghent, BEL)
Buddhist monasteries in both Ancient India and China have developed indialogue with their wider (Buddhist and) non-Buddhist environment. The
importance of this constant dialogue on the Buddhist articulation of theirmonastic practices, precepts and identity has rightfully attracted the attention of
Buddhologists studying the historical, institutional and social development of
Buddhist monasticism. Still, some aspects of monastic life that are best studied
within these interactive contexts have not yet received the attention they
deserve. One such essential but often overlooked aspect of monastic life are thepractices and objects regulating bodily care. This paper will critically examine
the various practices and objects of bodily care, more specifically, this paper
looks at their codification in various Vinayas of Ancient India and how they
were subsequently understood and applied in the different cultural context ofChina. For monastic authors, bodily care primarily involves bathing, washing,cleaning, shaving and trimming the nails, activities of everyday life that are
performed by lay people and monastics alike. In this sense, they are all highly
recognizable and, while structuring monastic life, equally provide a potential
bridge between two worlds that are constantly interacting with each other:monastic people and their lay followers.
As it will be shown, the dynamic processes of codification, implementation andrecodification (in respectively India and China) of these Buddhist practices andobjects of bodily care are both a result of and means for interaction with the laycommunity. Bodily practices might be viewed as relatively simple andelementary, but it is exactly through their triviality that they give us a clear
insight into the structure and development of Buddhist monasteries. This paper
displays how, over time, Buddhist monks and nuns have, through theirpainstaking effort into regulating bodily care, defined the identity of the
Buddhist saṃgha, overtly displaying it to the laity.

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Annoying Lay-People: Public Opinion and Vinayic Concerns in Tibetan
Monasteries (12th to 20th Century)
Jansen, Berthe (Leiden University Institute of Area Studies, Leiden, NED)
In the vast corpus of Vinaya texts, the concern for the reputation of the Sangha
is regularly expressed. Behaving badly in full view of the laity is one of thethirteen Saṅghāvaśeṣa dharmas (dge ’dun gyi lhag ma’i chos bcu gsum), listed
in the Prātimokṣa. The reason commonly given is that if monks misbehave intheir presence, the householders will lose faith in the Dharma. While thisVinayic worry over the Saṅgha’s good name is found throughout the Buddhist
world, the kind of monastic behaviour that annoyed the lay-people varied
according to the time and place. Public opinion was crucial for those monastic
communities that were economically dependent on the laity. But how important
was this there where monasteries became important players in the local
economy? The Tibetan monastic guidelines (bca’ yig) also echo the Vinaya in
this, but at the same time these texts, ranging from the late 12th to the 20th
century, are often reactions to the realities on the ground. These works convey
the problems that the monks sometimes caused in lay-society and how they weresolved by certain figures in authority – sometimes with the help of the reasoning
found in Vinayic texts, but also by coming up with purely pragmatic solutions.
The monastic guidelines then are sources in which orthodoxy and orthopraxy
come together.
In this paper, I will firstly explore the reasons for the emphasis on
accommodating lay-people and further argue that these works show the way
certain Vinayic concepts were adapted and transformed so as to fit the Tibetan
context. Furthermore, the lay-people’s reactions to the monks and vice versa
show the contemporary and local lay-sensibilities. The way that the monks
responded with new rules and other measures demonstrates that – unlike what
is sometimes argued – the relationship between the Tibetan monastery andsociety was not simply hegemonic, but one in which it was crucial to reach aconsensus.

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Friend or Enemy? A Critical Examination of the brāhmaṇa Presence in
the Pāli Vinaya
Maes, Claire (Ghent University, Ghent, BEL)
It goes without saying that the various ascetic movements present during theformative stages of the early north Indian Buddhist monastic community (5th to
1st century BCE) had a significant influence on the development of both theearly Buddhist monastic precepts and structures, and on the early Buddhist
identity rhetoric.
Any study aimed at understanding the history of the early Buddhist monastic
community must, therefore, necessarily try to reconstruct the nature of theinteraction of the Buddhists with their ascetic others, and consider the questions
how this interaction influenced the development of their organization, or also,
how these ascetic others were perceived and dealt with and how already theirmere presence affected the self-perception and definition of Buddhists.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our current understanding of the
dynamic and dialectical role of the early Buddhists’ ascetic others by criticallyexamining the various references made to brāhmaṇas in the Buddhist monastic
code of the Theravāda school, the Pāli Vinaya. For brāhmaṇa ascetics
constituted one important but difficultly understood category of ascetic others.
Throughout the various narratives of the Pāli Vinaya brāhmaṇas are explicitly
referred to quite frequently. First, to better apprehend the complex category ofbrāhmaṇas, the reference field of the denomination brāhmaṇa itself is criticallyscrutinized. For who exactly falls under the denomination brāhmaṇa; is theterm having an unambiguous one-on-one correspondence, or is it an umbrellaterm denominating various different groups of people? Second, I ask to thenarratological level of the Pāli Vinaya how it refers to these brāhmaṇa others
and what it establishes with these very references. Finally, our findings areinterpreted against the two current but diametrically opposed theories that the
Buddhist movement either originated as a heterodox reaction against theculturally dominant Brahmanic tradition or that, conversely, it originated in the
non-Brahmanic culture of “Greater Magadha”.
This critical examination of the brāhmaṇa presence in the Pāli Vinaya will bothenhance our understanding of the dynamic and dialectical role of ascetic
others, and throw some more light on the important but vexed question of the144

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role brāhmaṇas played on the development of the early Buddhist monastic
tradition.

Guṇaprabha, the Vinayasūtra, and the Changes in Buddhist Monastic
Beliefs and Practices in 7th-8th Century India
Nietupski, Paul (John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)In the seventh and early eighth centuries north Indian Buddhist monasteries
responded to widespread changes in local communities and reductions in state
support by allowing new rituals and reformulated rationales in the monastic
curriculum. Admission to the community was granted to a broader range ofreligious practitioners. These changes are described in the Vinaya texts ofGuṇaprabha (ca. 550-630), Śākyaprabha (ca. seventh century), and Vinītadeva(ca. 630-700). The new parameters can be measured by the expandeddefinitions of the terms mantra and tantra, here not “esoteric,” or“antinomian” as known elsewhere in later centuries, but as elaborations ofearlier Buddhist monastic beliefs and practices. These included medical
therapies, problems of theft, or “taking what is not given,” worshipping nonBuddhist deities, engagement with emanated deities (sprul), engagement withwomen, and others. These definitions and discussions in the texts contribute toour understanding of Indian Buddhism of the seventh to eighth centuries, andthe gradual changes in allowable theories and practices. The method is to use
ca. third century CE Mūlasarvāstivāda monastic texts to define the key terms
and ideas, and compare these definitions with those described by Guṇaprabha,Śākyaprabha, and Vinītadeva. Then, thirteenth to fifteenth century Tibetan
Vinaya commentaries by Tsonawa (13th century), Butӧn Rinchendrup (12901364), and the First Dalai Lama (1391-1475) will be used to highlight
retrospective understandings and changes implemented in Tibetan Buddhist
monastic life.

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Hume as a Western Mādhyamika: The Case from Ethics
Garfield, Jay L. (National University of Singapore, SGP); Silbert, Doris(University of Melbourne, Melbourne, AUS)
Many philosophers looking for homologies to Buddhist ethics in the West haveturned either to the tradition of Aristotle or to that of Mill. And many
philosophers who have noted affinities between Hume's views and those ofsome Buddhists (whether Śrāvakayāna or Madhyamaka) have referred to his
metaphysics. These affinities are real. And they suggest affinities between
Humean ethics and Buddhist ethics, which turn out also be be real and to bequite profound. I discuss the relation between Hume’s ethics and his
metaphysics and how Humean ethics can help us to understand the structure of
Buddhist ethics, especially as articulated in Madhyamaka.

Personal Identity and Moral Philosophy in Recent Interpretations of
Buddhist Thought
Hanner, Oren (University of Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)
Contemporary Western philosophers who adopt a skeptical approach topersonal identity, such as Derek Parfit, Charles Taylor and Galen Strawson,
develop their ideas already informed by the Buddhist critique of the unified self.
At the same time, we can see that their works shaped in many ways theterminology and philosophical methods used by Buddhist scholars, like
Matthew Kapstein, Mark Siderits and Charles Goodman, to analyze themes in
Buddhist ethics and personal identity. This bilateral influence is an interesting
feature of what we may call the late post-contact period. We thus find in theinterpretations offered by Buddhist scholars who write in a Western
philosophical style the two components: the influence of the Buddhist concept ofanātman, seen through the eyes of modern Western philosophy.
This paper focuses on the relation between ethics and personal identity in theserecent interpretations, primarily in Charles Goodman's defense of his
consequentialist reading. Here, the deconstruction of the unified self serves, on
the one hand, to establish ethical theory; for example, when used to support

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altruism as a rational attitude. But on the other hand, it challenges the very
core of ethics – be it our ability to stay committed to morality over time or our
responsibility for past actions. These problems and others are addressed inWestern philosophy by defining criteria of personal identity. They were also
discussed, from a somewhat different perspective, in Buddhist texts. By tracing
the ways in which the concept of anātman was channelled into ethicalreasoning, I will examine the extent to which the Western interpretations reflect
Buddhist ethical principles, and in particular, the manner in which they choose
to deal with the tension between personal identity and ethical theory based on
the principle of anātman.

Non-Self and Ethics: Kantian and Buddhist Themes
O'Hagan, Emer (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CAN)
My presentation begins by making a case for a Kantian version of the Buddhist
distinction between ultimate and conventional truths about the self, and offeringa demonstration of how this distinction operates within Kant’s ethicaltheory. We can see a clear account of this distinction in Kant’s discussion of
the duty and nature of self-knowledge. Kant’s position on the self has strong
parallels with a Buddhist view of the self, especially once it is acknowledgedthat self-knowledge plays a significant role in moral development. A study of
the relation between non-self and ethics is illuminated by Kant’s discussion of
the limits of self-knowledge and its role in self-purification. A defense of thesignificance of these parallels requires that some concerns about relevant
dissimilarities be addressed. In general terms the issue is whether Kant’s viewof the self involves metaphysical and ontological, or pragmaticcommitments. This is relevant to the question of whether Kant’s account of
moral agency can be grounded in practical reasons. If the anatta doctrine
requires a commitment to the view that there is no ultimate self then it seems
unlikely that Kant’s appeal to the standpoint of agency can be maintained. Or,
to put the worry in other terms, if Kant’s view is that the self is “merely”
pragmatically real, then it is not part of an ultimate ontology and does notexist. I argue that this worry is groundless and that Kant’s position cannot bedismissed so readily. Kant’s position is in step with the Buddha’s refusal toanswer the question whether or not there is a self when asked directly (“Ananda(Is There a Self?)”, Samyutta Nikaya). Moreover, the significance of practical147

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reason in Kantian philosophy has broader implications for discussions about
self and ethics, for it is from that standpoint that reasons for moral action are
established. I argue that this consequence of the Kantian position is a strength
which poses deep problems for accounts of Buddhist ethics which divorce
themselves from the practical standpoint.

A Leitmotif of Buddhist Sacred Landscape: Mount Wutai and the Creationof Sacred Sites across the Japanese Archipelago
Andrews, Susan (Saint Joseph's University, San Francisco, USA)In the seventh century Mount Wutai 五臺山emerged as the foremost sacredplace in Tang China (618-907). Its holy status was rooted largely in scripturalclaims that the mountain was home to the Buddhist deity Mañjuśrī 文殊. While
the scholarship of Lin Yunrou 林韻柔 (2009) and Raoul Birnbaum (1983, 2004)
among others has revealed much about the mountain’s history within China’s
borders, it has had considerably less to say about the territory’s later andlarger East Asian significance. Taking as my starting point Mount Wutai’s
replication at Kōchi’s 高知Godaisan 五臺山, in this paper I endeavor tosuggest what the mapping of Mount Wutai’s landscapes—real and imagined—
onto Japanese soil accomplished in the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura(1185-1333) periods.
As the statuary, inscriptions, temple gazetteers, and monastic biographies
around which this paper is built establish, the practice of linking structures
outside Tang and Song China to Wutai “originals” was not restricted to
Godaisan. Quite the opposite, tradition recorded in Seiin’s 静胤 (c. 1197)
twelfth-century Tōnomine ryakki 多武峰略記 (A Brief History of Mount
Tōnomine) and documents discovered within the cavity of the famous Seiryōji
shaka nyorai zō 淸涼寺釋迦如來像 (The Seiryō Temple Sculpture of Śākyamuni
Tathāgata), for instance, holds that the mountain served as a template for thecreation of structures atop Mount Atago 愛宕山 and Mount Tōnomine 多武峰.
With Mount Wutai’s replication at this triad of Japanese sites—Godaisan,
Atago, and Tōnomine— at the center of my inquiry, in this paper I will examine
relationships between the past and the present; reception and re-presentation;148

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the local and the translocal contexts of religious practice and belief. The typesof broader questions that will orient my exploration of Mount Wutai’s
replication across the Japanese archipelago between the seventh and fourteenth
centuries will include: How do local religious communities differently interpretand strategically apply received traditions? What relationship obtains between
the creation of local holy place and the fashioning of religious identities thatare not territorially bound? What does the writing and rewriting of the pastaccomplish for successive generations of practitioners? Highlighting the rolethat replication played in the growth in scale and geographic reach of the
Wutai world, this investigation should call attention to the value of examining
local traditions in their larger East Asian context.

The Literary WutaishanCartelli, Mary Anne (Hunter College, New York, USA)
Mount Wutai is a destination to be ascended and worshipped in word andimage. In the Mount Wutai literature, the mountain is a synthesis of geography
and iconography and of matter and spirit, simultaneously representing both themundane and transcendental worlds. The literary motifs of the Mount Wutai
literature are based on the numinous traces (lingji 靈跡) of the mountain as
described in the early travel records, such as the Gu Qingliang zhuan 古清涼傳and the Guang Qingliang zhuan 廣清涼傳. These traces reflect the religious
themes of Chinese Buddhism and articulate the extraordinary characteristics
associated with the mountain as the pure land of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. They
are also associated with the sutra literature and the wall-painting of themountain in Cave 61 at Dunhuang. My talk will focus on the imagery andthemes of the steles, gazetteers, poems, tales, and other Chinese literatureassociated with the mountain from the Tang through Qing dynasties.

Sacred Geography: New Perspectives on the Study of Mount Wutai
Chen, Jinhua (The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CAN)

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This article proposes to study a marchmount of exceptional importance for East
Asian Buddhism. It is Mount Wutai (Lit. Mountain of Five Terraces), located incentral China and widely venerated by Buddhist believers from all over East
Asia. It will not treat sacred space as a dead and immobile entity; nor will it
isolate it from sacred time or religious, intellectual and socio-politicalbackgrounds. But rather, it will treat Mount Wutai as a sacred site in specifichistorical and intellectual contexts. It will be carried out around three foci: (1)the ways legends and local histories represent the perceived sacrality of thissacred site, and the role that (2) relics and (3) images (including paintings,
statues, and maps) played in creating, recreating and sustaining thismountain's status as a key Buddhist sacred site.

Visions in Translation: Zhangkya Rölpé Dorjé’s Guidebook and theReinvention of Qing-dynasty Wutai Shan
Chou, Wen-shing (Hunter College, New York, NY, USA)The late 18th and early 19th century witnessed an unprecedented increase in
the production of Tibetan and Mongolian language guidebooks to Wutai Shan,
attesting to the mountain’s growing popularity among Mongol and Tibetan
pilgrims in this period. This paper considers one particularly instrumental
Tibetan guidebook to Wutai Shan initiated by Zhangkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717–
1786), the resident Tibetan Buddhist master in the Qing Court and one of themost prodigious Buddhist scholars of the 18th century. That Chan and Huayan
Buddhist tales of encounter with the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, along with preBuddhist legends of immortals, are carefully preserved and re-interpreted inthis work calls into question how Tibetan Buddhists, and in particular Gelukpa
hierarchs and scholars from Mongolia and Amdo Tibet, re-imagined Chinese
Buddhist history and the place of the Gelukpa tradition therein. As this text
became one of the primary sources for pilgrims from Tibet and Mongolia, it
also served as an important agent in mediating and dictating pilgrims’
experience of Wutai Shan. Rölpé Dorjé’s guidebook therefore invites areevaluation of Gelukpa scholasticism and the formation of Wutai Shan’sreligious identity for the Pan-Tibetan Buddhist world from the 18th century
onward.

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The Role of Wutaishan in the Religious Practice of Huayan Buddhism
Hamar, Imre (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HUN)The Huayan Buddhism has a close relationship with Wutaishan. As it is widely
known one of the canonical sources for Mañjuśrī’s presence on Wutaishan is
the Avataṃsaka-sūtra. Kojima Taizan claims that Wutaishan was the centre of
Huayan Buddhism, as several outstanding Huayan scholars lived on Wutaishan,and their teachings had special features in contrast with the scholars in theother centre at Zhongnanshan. One of them was Chengguan 澄觀 (738-839),
the fourth patriarch of the Huayan school who lived there for ten years andauthored his commentary on the Huayan jing on the request of monks residingin the Da huayan si. He emphasised that the sacred land of Wutaishan had agreat impact on him. His work was associated with dreams and auspicious
signs. Huayan Buddhism is regarded as a philosophical school of Chinese
Buddhism which advocates the interrelatedness of all phenomena. However, in
this paper we are going to show that Huayan Buddhism is also connected withpopular beliefs and practices. Several collections of miraculous stories about
the Avataṃsaka-sūtra were written, and some stories are connected with
Wutaishan. The earliest extant collection is the Account of Stimuli and
Responses Related to Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra (Dafangguang fo huayan
ganying zhuan 大方廣佛華嚴經感應傳, hereafter Ganying zhuan), compiled
shortly after 783 by Hu Youzhen 胡幽貞 (?-783+). This collection must havebeen based on The Collection of Avataṃsaka-related Numinous Tales (Huayan
zuanling ji 華嚴纂靈記), which has been lost since the 14th century, thoughcitations by Chengguan, Purui 普瑞 (1254-1329), Zongmi 宗密 (780-841),
Yongming Yanshou 永明延壽 (904-975) and Tan’ei 湛叡 (1271-1346) havesurvived. The other early source of the miraculous stories is The Record of theTransmission of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra (Huayan jing zhuanji 華嚴經傳記)
compiled by Fazang 法藏 (643-712). Although Huayan Buddhism declined after
the Tang dynasty three further collections are extant: the first is the Short
Record of Account of Stimuli and Responses Related to Avataṃsaka
(Huayanjing ganying lüeji 華嚴經感應略記) by Zhuhong 祩宏 (1535-1615), thesecond is Hongbi’s 弘璧 (1598-1669) Causes of Stimuli and Responses Related
to the Avataṃsaka-sūtra (Huayanjing ganying yuanqi zhuan 華嚴經感應緣起傳), and the third is the Chronological Account of the Efficacies of Huayanjing(Lichao huayan chiyan ji 歷朝華嚴持驗記) written by Zhou Kefu 周可復 underthe Qing dynasty.

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Development of the Wutai Cult during the Silla Dynasty
Lee, Sangyop (Stanford University, CA, USA)The depiction of the initiation and development of the Silla Wutai (Kr. Odae)
cult as given in the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms can be summarized asfollows: Chajang (fl. ca. 650), who made a pilgrimage to Mt. Wutai during his
study in China, first identified a group of five mountain peaks in the present day
Kangwŏn province as the Korean counterpart of the Mañjuśrī abode. A few
decades later, two princes of the Silla Dynasty, Poch’ŏn and Hyomyŏng,retreated to the Mt. Odae and experienced visions of myriad buddhas andbodhisattvas in each mountain peak. Poch‘ŏn stayed in the mountain and later
developed his vision into a complex system of religious practice thatincorporated sūtra reading, divination, repentance ritual, and devotional beliefin Mañjuśrī, Guanyin, Kṣitigarbha, Maitreya, Śākyamuni, and Amitābha.
This paper will attempt to reconstruct the development of the Silla Wutai cultthrough a critical reading of these accounts. First, it will introduce some of the
major controversies regarding the historical reading of these records. Second,
it will challenge the understanding that Chajang was the actual initiator of the
Korean Wutai cult who solely introduced the tradition into the country. This
will be argued from some contextual discrepancies and a particular narrative
idiosyncrasy found in most of his stories related to Mt. Odae that seems to help
bolster only the authorities of the mountain’s local Buddhists. Third, acomparison between Poch‘ŏn’s practice system and contemporary Chinese
Wutai cult will be made, and it will be argued that Poch‘ŏn’s Odae cult can bebetter understood within the context of indigenous developments of Silla
Buddhism than in connection to the Chinese Wutai cult. These discussions willlead to the conclusion that the advent of the Silla Wutai cult serves as anotherinteresting example of “idea diffusion” in cultural transmission.

A Transposable Sacred Mountain: Flying Mañjuśrī and Moving Mount
Wutai
Lin, Wei-Cheng (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA)152

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Unlike an icon or relics, both portable objects of sacred power, a sacred site
fixed in place resists relocation. Indeed, as Jonathan Z. Smith once argued,“there is one mode of transposition [of the sacrality] that is most difficult for
ritual praxis and thought: the transposition of space marked as sacred.” Asacred site thus entails a physical journey of the pilgrim that overcomes the
distance between the sacred and the profane. Mount Wutai, as its sacred
mountain cult spread in medieval East Asia from central China to its
neighboring regions and countries, however, defied the concept of anunmovable sacred site.
This paper investigates the dissemination of the sacred mountain cult in thewestern border around Dunhuang, as well as the Western Region to its west,
from the tenth century (of the Guiyijun period) into the Xi Xia period (10381227). In particular, it explores the critical role of “sacral image” indeveloping and shaping the cult once it was transmitted outside the sacred fieldof Mount Wutai. A primary example of this investigation is a silk painting thathas been titled “Mañjuśrī of Wutaishan on his lion” (ca. late 10th c.), from the
Library Cave in Mogao near Dunhuang and currently in the collection of the
Musée Guimet (EO3588). With its style showing influences from the Uigurs andTanguts, the painting provides evidence for the reception of the sacred
mountain cult in the bordering region as to how cultic belief was appropriatedin the regional visual culture and tradition. Drawing from other available
visual and textual sources, I argue that rather than a simple depiction of thebodhisattva, the image of Mañjuśrī riding his lion in this regional visuallanguage and convention was meant to re-envision the sacred presence of thebodhisattva. In this revisioned presence, the flying Mañjuśrī straddling his holy
beast was regarded as capable of transposing in vision the sacred mountain to
the border region, thus reversing the usual relations between the unmovable
mountain and peripatetic pilgrims. Eventually, this paper demonstrates that it isthe vision of the bodhisattva’s true presence that takes primacy in the religious
imagination of Mount Wutai that made possible “the transposition of the spacemarked as sacred.”First Mongols at Wutai: The Peregrinations of Sumpa Khenpo Yeshé
PeljorSullivan, Brenton (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CAN)153

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In the year 1743, the illustrious Mongol lama known as Sumpa Khenpo (17041788) was suffering from a terrible, long-term illness. He thought to himself,“were I to die, it would be meritorious to do so at Five-Peaked Mountain.”
Such a wish resembles the well-known practice among Mongols of interring theremains of their deceased at Mount Wutai with the hope of securing a better
rebirth for their loved ones (Charleux 310). Sumpa was denied permission to go
there and was told instead that he had better return to his home monastery toconvalesce. It was not until 1750 that he finally made the trek from his base innortheastern Tibet (Amdo), through Inner Mongolia, to Mount Wutai.
Sumpa Khenpo’s pilgrimage to Wutai is important for a number of reasons. To
begin, he was one of the earliest Mongols to have made pilgrimage to Wutai forwhich we have record (Charleux 276). In fact, his three distinct journeys to themountain—in 1750, 1767, and 1774—marked the beginning of the historic
wave of Mongol patronage to Wutai that reached its zenith in the nineteenth
century (Elverskog 250; Charleux 282). Other scholars of Tibetan andMongolian Buddhism have suggested that pilgrimage to major sites such as
Wutai facilitated the strengthening of cultural unity and the development of
ethnonationalist identities among Tibetans and Mongols (Kapstein 1998;
Elverskog 2011). Sumpa’s detailed account of his pilgrimage to Wutai thus
gives us concrete examples of the communal activities in which Mongols andTibetans engaged while at Wutai.
Second, Sumpa’s detailed descriptions of his multiple visions of Mañjuśrī aswell as the specific sites he visited along his pilgrimage circuit bothcomplement and alter the vision of pilgrimage to Wutai derived from Chinesesources. For instance, Sumpa’s pilgrimage circuit shows a definite bias toward
the Tibetan Buddhist institutions on the mountain, while his encounters with
Mañjuśrī were imbued with Chinese culture insofar as the clothes thebodhisattva wore and the gifts he offered derived from a Chinese context.
Finally, during Sumpa’s two later trips to Wutai he visited with the Dynastic
Preceptor, the famous Changkya Rölpé Dorjé (1717-1786). The meetings
between these two eminent lamas were not inconsequential or merely
ceremonious. On the contrary, they discussed important “political” or“administrative” affairs, such as the appointment of abbots at majormonasteries and the selection of the rebirths of important lamas. Thus, Sumpa’s
account illustrates the cosmopolitan, political networks that formed at Wutai
beginning in the eighteenth century.
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Beyond Seeking for Sacredness: Carving the Jiaxing Canon嘉興藏 atMount Wutai
Zhang, Dewei (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CAN)
It has attracted much scholarly attention in recent years to explore how themobilization of resources has affected the development of Chinese Buddhism.
By examining the result of a particular mobilizing project, we can detect theinterplay of various elements involved and thus are able to well appreciate thevitality of Buddhism. As a huge project that required tremendous human andmaterial resources to carry through, the making of the Buddhist canon in premodern East Asia provides us with a rare opportunity in this regard. Among
more than twenty printed versions of the canon, the Jiaxing canon deserves
particular attention for two reasons: it was the biggest one, consisting of about
12,000 fascicles of Buddhist texts; its creation was most time-consuming,
requiring more than 200 years to finish. Scholars have tended to view thecreation of this canon as a story of courage and commitment, but they fail toexplain a significant and meaningful fact: the project was originally planned tocomplete within ten years. So, why were the organizers of the project soambitious to produce the canon in such a short time period in the first place?
What caused the procrastination of about 200 years? Was it accidental? How
could the project still be finished after experiencing such a delay? Whatchanges happened over the course of time?
This paper examines the early stage of making the Jiaxing canon at Mount
Wutai in hope of discovering the elements that were at work and how theirinteraction affected the project. That phase lasted only four years, from Wanli
17 to 20 (1589-1592), but the result has proved most fruitful. This paper reveals
that Mount Wutai was deliberately chosen as the site for the project for bothsacred and secular reasons. Religiously, as scholars have recognized, thisarrangement was to enhance the attractiveness of the project by borrowing
sacredness from Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. A more important but oft-ignored fact,
however, is that the mountain was actually seen by the organizers of the projectas an ideal location to draw resources from Beijing, especially from the innerand outer court. Such a strategy resulted in the failure to get the local people of
Shanxi, in which Mount Wutai was located, involved in the project, even though
they had already shown strength and enthusiasm enough for supporting thiskind of project. That the coordinators of the Jiaxing project mostly came fromSouth China might be a contributing factor to this strange ignorance. This155

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heavy dependence on the court proved disastrous: when the supporting force atthe Wanli court collapsed as consequence of intense court strife, the project wasforced to move from Mount Wutai to south China, thereby marking the gloomy
end of the early stage of producing the canon. Afterwards, the Jiaxing projectcontinued slowly, and only with local support it obtained from Jiangnan
societies was it finally brought to a completion more than one hundred years
later than planned.

Where is the Buddha Located? Buddhist Deities and Their Avatars in theForm of ‘Auspicious Statues’
Anderl, Christoph (Ruhr Univ. Bochum, Bochum, GER)This paper will investigate textual and iconographic narratives attached toruìxiàng or ‘Auspicious Statues’, which became very popular from mid-Tángtimes onwards in the Khotan region and the cave paintings of Dūnhuáng. Not
only Śākyamuni was ‘reproduced’ in this way, but also a number of otherbodhisattvas and deities. The popularity and veneration of these images and thenarratives attached to them entail several interesting questions: What role didthey play in the transmission of Buddhism and the historiographical projections
on these processes? Why is there such a great emphasis on their mobility andtheir ability of fast movement through the air? What function does theveneration of these images fulfill, as opposed, for example, to relics or ‘regular’
Buddha icons.
There are also a number of questions concerning the ‘identity’ of the Buddha
arising: Supposedly created face-to-face with the Buddha or deity, the statues
incorporate on the one hand the supernatural powers and the dharma of the‘original’, and at the same time manifest individual will-power and the abilityof decision making (e.g., the decision to move and transfer the dharma to
another location), and develop specific features in local contexts.

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Sanctifying a Country, Disuniting Believers: The Buddha’s PhysicalPresence as a Contested Property
Bretfeld, Sven (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, GER)
In many Buddhist cultures, the significance of the (or a) Buddha is not reduced
to his function as a source of teachings. A large number of studies has been
devoted to the important function of his physical presence as “embodied” inrelics, bodily descriptions and depictions, and narratives of the Buddha’s visits
to other countries.
Relics and Buddha visits play a special role in fashioning collective religious
identities in countries regarding themselves as remote from, or even peripheral
to, the genuine centers of Buddhism. “Where the Buddha trod”, thus, extends
the narrow territory of North-Eastern India and turns to a potentially global
space sanctified by his bodily presence. By bridging time and space, the moving
and traveling Buddha—alive or dead and in pieces—helps to “emplace” hisTeaching on a new territory and to form “excentric identities.”
This also has a negative side. Matter—even the powerful material of the
Buddha’s bones—is by nature exposed to destruction, theft (bone-napping), andexclusive property claims. For example, the LTTE bomb attack on the Daḷadā
Māḷigāva (Temple of Tooth) in Kandy 1998 demonstrates the relationshipbetween the vulnerability of religio-national feelings and the destructibility of
religious objects. Assaults and disappropriation of religious objects andnarratives have been successful demoralizing strategies in political andreligious contests throughout history. Places empowered by a visiting Buddha
have become a focal point of competing religious authority claims. This paper
will explore some of these events in Sri Lankan religious history and draw
conclusions on the vulnerable and contested aspects of the “objectified” natureof the Buddha.

Images of the Buddha’s Omniscience in the Pali Commentaries
Heim, Maria (Amherst College, Amherst, USA)

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This paper explores images of the Buddha’s omniscience advanced by the Pali
commentators, Buddhaghosa and Dhammapāla. I argue that the commentators
attempt to assert and depict the Buddha’s omniscience by demonstrating how it
worked in practice; rather than offering a theory or definition of it, they sought
to show where and how it found expression. I explore two sites in which thecommentators saw the Buddha’s omniscience expressed and performed: thenidānas (the opening contexts of suttas), and the Abhidhamma. I argue that theyinterpret his omniscience as both knowledge of particular facts (the singular
histories and circumstances of his audiences) and as modes of knowing
universal truths (the workings of causal interrelations of the Abhidhamma).
Surprisingly, very little work has been done on the Pali tradition’s conceptionof the Buddha’s omniscience. My paper will explore how central this theme wasfor the commentators and how it was developed through concrete images that
explore a traditional conception of both the miraculous and wondrous nature of
the Buddha’s achievement, as well as the extraordinary potential for (andconstraints of) human knowledge.

“The Buddha does not live here, does he?” The Significance of Buddha
Statues as Religious Objects
Krüger, Madlen (CERES-Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-University
Bochum, Germany, Bochum, GER)
Buddha statues are an integral part of different Buddhist traditions and areimportant objects within the Buddhist symbol-system. Their usage and meaning
as religious objects have faced certain transformations during recent centuries,
especially during the process of globalisation and in the different conceptions of
Buddhism that have emerged. In this paper I would like to present diverse viewsof the purpose that Buddha statues serve in Sri Lanka. As important religious
objects the function of these statues are a much-discussed topic. With the casestudy of the so-called “Akon incident” I would like to show how different
concepts of Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lanka provoke discussion of theutilization and significance of Buddha statues. These discussions include inparticular the impact of the “Western” perception of Buddhism and the usageof Buddha statues as ornaments. The “Akon incident” took place in March
2010. The American rapper Akon was refused permission to perform a concert
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in Colombo because of his music video “Sexy Bitch” in which two bikini-clad
girls were dancing in front of a Buddha statue. The original announcement thatthe concert would take place provoked demonstrations that ended in mobs
attacking the MTV head office in Colombo and the rejection of Akon's visa
application. The music video was seen as vilification of Buddhism. This
presentation highlights some aspects of the discussion in which laity and monks
debate the “true” understanding of the Buddha’s teaching, the impact of“Western” Buddhism and the meaning of Buddha statues.

Pleasing the Female Buddhas
Meinert, Carmen (Universität Bochum, Bochum, GER)
A main feature of Tantric Buddhist ritual practice is the evocation of Buddha
icons through a process of visualisation. In fact, the representation of such an
evoked deity is not regarded simply as an external presence, but as an internal
reality. It is approached with respect and might even be seen as a close friend
accompanying the adept on her or his spiritual journey. The intimacy of therelationship between Tantric practitioner and the deity may be seen in ritual
manuals dedicated to pleasing those deities and in their visual representations
indicating a certain degree of individualisation.
As Tantric Buddhism spread throughout Eastern Central Asia around and after
the turn of the first millennium, Tantric ritual texts were translated into various
languages. Textual and visual evidence which hints to a strong presence ofTantric communities in the Tangut Empire (982-1226) are among the findings
from Khara Khoto. Several Chinese Khara Khoto manuscripts dedicated to thefemale deity Vajravārāhī also include offering rituals to the female Buddha, e.g.
including details of feeding processes and multiple internal presences of thedivine icon.
Moreover a number of visual representations of Vajravārāhī in thangkas andcave sites further enable us to fathom the outer ritual space which literally
created a home for the deity. Internal and external dwelling places may
demonstrate the reality (and not just the external presence) of the deity.

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The paper aims to contribute to the discourse on Buddha images, its potency
and reality.

The Buddha in Light of Upaniṣadic Metaphysics
Shulman, Eviatar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ISR)
Buddhism, as it exists and existed in South Asia, is a specimen of Indian
religion and many of its practices are reminiscent of the ones popular in thereligions we call Hinduism. Although the Buddha is technically not defined as agod, he effectively functions as one, serving as an object of devotion, a grantorof blessing and a possessor of the power to alter reality at will. Yet although the
deep relation between the Buddha – as the focal point of the Buddhist religion and his Indian setting is widely acknowledged, the Buddhist understanding of
the Buddha is commonly discussed mainly on the basis of conceptualizations
developed within the Buddhist tradition, which hinge on “the logic of theempty” or define him positively as a form of awareness. These approaches
focus on the nature of the Buddha's attainment and provide no metaphysicalframework for understanding his omniscience and omnipotence.
This paper will argue that there is good reason to understand the metaphysics
behind the figure of the Buddha in light of non-Buddhist, primarily Upaniṣadic,
thought. For example, the cosmogonies of the Upaniṣads explain the evolutionof the universe as a process that is generated by the primordial movements ofan original, purified, conscious substance; they place such a perfectedconsciousness at the heart of the universe and see physical reality as its
external expression. This original being is the knowledge and power thatremains at the pole of existence. Such a metaphysical paradigm can be seen tounderlie the approach to the Buddha's presence in diverse Buddhist texts andcontexts, which suggest that the Buddha is understood as an ontologicalprinciple, thoroughly purified and aware, while his personal existence is only
an exemplification of this deeper, more essential type of being. The Buddha isfirst and foremost a purified conscious presence, and his potency derives fromthe ontological priority attributed to consciousness over the more material andexternalized aspects of reality. Reading the Buddha in light of Upaniṣadic
metaphysics may thus inform us about the way the Buddha was understood in

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classical India and help us bridge the gap between Buddhist philosophy andBuddhist religion.

The Lotus Sutra Needs Us
Kubo, Tsugunari (JPN)
Traditionally, the Lotus Sutra is seen as being taught by the historical
Shakyamuni Buddha. Yet, in the chapter concerning the lifespan of the Buddha,
we find that the sutra has always been taught by the Shakyamuni of eternalpresence. I believe that this kind of “layered structure” appears throughout the
Lotus Sutra.
Shakyamuni, in chapter two of the sutra, says that buddhas, including himself,
appear in a world for one particular purpose, and the text infers that abuddha’s intention will be the fuel for the task. That task is to make all living
beings be on the road to becoming a buddha. Shakyamuni also says in chapter
two that what buddhas are doing is instructing and nurturing bodhisattvas. Yet,in chapter four, the text says that those in the sangha tend to overlook theintention of the Buddha’s work—that bodhisattvas must make the people grasp
the road to becoming a buddha.
The stories of the text, in my opinion, indicate a recognition that buddhas, by
their own actions alone, cannot create the road to becoming a buddha for every
being. In this regard, for example, the stories of the prophecies indicate that thetask of the buddhas can be accomplished through the actions of bodhisattvas,
i.e., by the actions of all of us as human beings. Thus we are the ones who must
accomplish the buddhas’ task. Given this discernment of the sutra, I will
endeavor to probe the layered structure of the sutra in light of the question,“What is the Buddha?”—especially from the perspective of human beings.

‘God’ in the Lotus Sūtra: A Question of Function
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The existence and concept of God is a frequent topic for Buddhist/Christiandialogue, with the Triune God of Christianity being compared at various times
to the historical Buddha, any number of bodhisattvas, and even with the conceptof śunyatā. In this paper, I take a different approach. I propose to examine theconcept of God in the Lotus Sūtra, not from the perspective of ontologicalphilosophical arguments for or against God’s existence, but rather from theperspective of a functional understanding of the word “God,” based on Ludwig
Wittgenstein’s language philosophy. Wittgenstein famously argued that themeaning of a word comes in its use: that is, how it functions in the context of a
specific “language game.” In this vein, I argue that rather than asking thequestion: “Is Buddhism a theistic religion,” it is both more fruitful andconstructive to ask “In the ‘language game’ of The Lotus Sūtra, is there isfunctioning concept of God?” The answer to that question, I argue, is “Yes”—
without making any further claims either identifying or distinguishing thisunderstanding of God from that found in Christianity. Thus, in this paper, I
develop a concept of God in the Lotus Sūtra by looking at how the Buddha
describes his own activity in divine terms vis-à-vis not only humanity but indeed
the whole cosmos. Specifically, I examine the following actions that are
typically associated with divinity, showing how, according to the Buddha’s own
descriptions of his activities, he functions as “God,” even if he does not use thatspecific language to describe himself. The first action is creation, and by that I
refer not merely to the creation of a world per se, but rather “creation”
understood more broadly, including the creation of various realms and the
manifestation of bodhisattvas. The second is salvation, and the specific actionsof the Buddha that result in enlightenment and an attainment of Buddhahood.
Here I pay special attention to chapter 25 and the teachings of Avalokiteśvara.
Also included here for special consideration are the stories of those who arepromised “salvation” even though their state in life would seem to preclude
them from such consideration. The third is revelation, specifically the way inwhich the Buddha reveals himself in different appearances throughout time andspace, embodying [might one even say “incarnating”?] the divine principles oftruth and compassion. I conclude the paper with several specific challenges andinsights that this understanding of God in the Lotus Sūtra might pose for further
Buddhist/Christian dialogue.

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Considerations on the So-Called Eternal Buddha
Matsumoto, Shiro (Komazawa University, JPN)
It is generally admitted that the existence of “the eternal Buddha” is taught inthe “Life-span” chapter of the Lotus sutra. But, what is the meaning of theadjective “eternal”? Does it mean “beginningless and endless” or simply“endless”? Or, is it possible to consider that the Buddha, although he has anextremely long life hereafter, will finally enter nirvāṇa some day in the future?
Based on the interpretation stated in Vasubandhu’s commentary on the Lotus
sutra, “the eternal Buddha” has been generally considered to be a sāṃbhogikakāya. Therefore many Buddhist thinkers like Chi-tsang (549-623) and Nichiryū(1385-1464) have explained that the life-span of “the eternal Buddha” has its
beginning when he was enlightened quite long ago, although some thinkers,
influenced by tathāgatagarbha thought, have asserted that the Buddha is not
only endless but also beginningless because of his being a dharma-kāya, which,being permanent, has neither beginning nor end.
However, the method to apply the three-bodies (trikāya) theory, which wasformed later than the Lotus sutra, to the interpretation of “the eternal Buddha”
does not seem to be valid. By carefully reading the original Sanskrit text and its
Chinese translations, I hope to elucidate the real meaning of “the eternal
Buddha” in the Lotus sutra.

Nichiren’s Interpretation of the Universality of the Lotus Sutra
Sekido, Gyokai (Institute of Nichiren Buddhism, Rissho University, Tokyo)
Based on the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra as translated by Kumārajīva andwhich he considered to be the most supreme of Śākyamuni Buddha’s teachings,
Nichiren (1222-82) believed that Śākyamuni Buddha came to save the people of
the Sahā world. Among the many important doctrines of the sutra, Nichiren
contended that the concepts of “Attainment of Buddhahood by Those of the Two
Vehicles” from chapter two and “Attainment of Enlightenment in the Eternal
Past” from chapter sixteen were of particular importance and were pillars

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supporting the sutra’s universal indications. Prabhūtaratna Buddha’s role
during “the sermon in the sky,” which began at chapter 11 and ended inchapter 22, was another great influence on Nichiren’s interpretation. As an
additional consideration, he noted the importance of the vow to protect allpractitioners of the Lotus Sutra by heavenly divinities in chapters 23-28. And
although Amitābha Buddha is not a leading player in the Lotus Sutra, hissudden appearance in chapter 23 and the assurance that female practitioners
who hear and practice according to the sutra’s teaching will reach his worldprovides another clue to Nichiren’s thinking.

Universality in Buddhism
Tola, Fernando (Institute of Buddhist Studies Foundation, Buenos Aires,
ARG); Dragonetti, Carmen (Buenos Aires, ARG)
Dr. Shin’ichi Tsuda has explained in his Abstract for the Panel The Universality
Of The Lotus Sūtra, of which he is the Convener, in a very scholarly andoriginal way, “an aspect of the Universality of the Lotus Sūtra in its theologicalcharacter”, and affirms that “Since the time of Gautama Siddhartha, Buddhism
has consistently had the concept of God as its foundation, and without
reaffirmation of that concept, Buddhism cannot convey the real meaning of its
philosophy”. In our paper for this Panel we shall refer to two theses: 1. Many
philosophical conceptions and ideas appear in the texts that are presented as
produced by Gautama Buddha himself; these ideas show a great originality
having being taught many centuries before they were brought to the rest of theworld; these ideas are not banal but they have a very important philosophicalvalue, and will constitute the philosophical foundations of Buddhism forever,even if they were taught by Him (and not only by His Abhidharmic disciples
who only put to them a systematical form, which is not necessarily what makes
philosophy what it is) in a non-systematical way. 2. Among these ideas there is
one that marks the difference between Buddhism and its own Hindu tradition
and also all the other world religions. In this point let us allow to differ from thethesis of Dr. Tsuda. Even admitting the eternity of the Buddha in the Lotus
Sūtra it is difficult or even philosophically contradictory to consider Him asGod. Becoming a Buddha is a possibility open to everybody who follows thePath shown by the Master, Gautama Buddha: there have been many Buddhas in
the Past, there are many in the Present, and they will be many in the Future.
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Consequently there will not be one God in Buddhism, but an infinite number ofGods, fact that we are sure Dr. Tsuda would not admit. By the way, thepossibility of making the Buddha a God is for us not something else but rather“something less”. The atheistic position of Buddhism from its very beginning
contributed, just for instance, to its non-violent expansion in the rest of theworld, a fact that other religions cannot attribute to themselves.

Adhiṣṭhāna of the Tathāgata of the Lotus Sutra and the notion ofGegenwart Gottes of Karl Barth – Their Correspondence and a Difference
Tsuda, Shin’ichi (International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies, Tokyo,
JPN)
In the history of Buddhism, the notion of an anthropomorphic God emerges,
after all, in the Āyuṣpramāṇa chapter of the Lotus Sutra. For example, we findthere the sentence, tatrāpi cātmānam adhiṣṭhahāmi sarvāṃś ca sattvāna
tathaiva cāham (verse 4a,b), which is to be translated as follows: “I am, as
ever, presenting my existence to this (Sahā world) itself and, at the same time,to each of the living beings therein, in the same manner, that is, with my whole
existence respectively.” This sentence, showing impressive correspondence with
the notion of Gegenwart Gottes of Karl Barth, which comprises three phases:
eigentlich (intrinsic), besonders (exceptional) and allgemein (universal),
thereby shows us an aspect of the universality of the Lotus Sutra as a religiophilosophical text. What, then, is the difference between these two?

Are Early Chinese Translations Translatable?
Boucher, Daniel (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA)The past couple of decades have seen a significant increase of interest in theearliest Chinese translations, particularly of Mahāyāna sūtras. Thesetranslations date several centuries before almost all of our Indic source
materials and Tibetan translations and are thought to derive from recensions
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attention, it is striking that there have been very few attempts to translate any ofthese texts as our earliest witnesses to the rise of the Mahāyāna. My paper willattempt to reflect on the hesitation to translate these texts in relation to my own
encounters with one of the early translators in China. I will reflect on what
scholarly translations generally attempt to accomplish and whether these early
efforts in China are suited to these goals.

Putting the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa into English: A Progress Report
Gomez, Luis O. (Ann Arbor, USA); Harrison, Paul (Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, USA)We will present a progress report on the state of our joint translation of theVimalakīrti-nirdeśa, tracing the history of the project since its initial stage as atranslation seminar and workshop at the Mangalam Centers in the summer of
2011. We will discuss briefly our experience with the dynamics of grouptranslation at the workshop, in the team translations that followed theworkshop, and the subsequent work by a team of two translators (Harrison andGómez) responsible for producing a final version.
The Report will describe our experience with some common problems
encountered in translations generally and specific issues in the translation of
Buddhist texts, particularly the translation of Mahāyāna-sūtras. We (Gómez
and Harrison) will take turns addressing as many of the following issues as time
permits:—The “hybrid” nature of our source texts and of the English idiom
conventionally adopted to translate those texts. Does hybridity make translation
impossible or does it demand special strategies of translation?
—The state of the text and the challenges presented by a text that is, for thetime being, a codex unicus.
—Previous attempts at Sanskritizing the Tibetan and Chinese versions or using
them as a key to access a putative Sanskrit original. Our use of those sources.
—Problems in the translation of technical terms and consecrated formulas,
including the question of deciding when a formulaic translation is in order andwhen a term is to be taken as part of a word play that crosses the boundaries

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assumed to separate technical jargon, literary conceit and poeticalimagination?
—The artistry of the text and the relationship between literary interpretationand translation strategies.

Translating the Buddha’s Body
Gummer, Natalie (Beloit College, Beloit, USA)
What exactly are Mahāyāna sūtras, and how should we read them? In thispaper, I want to explore the implications of our answer to this fundamental
question for contemporary translation practices. The scholarly tradition we
have inherited generally interprets these texts as repositories of doctrinal
teachings, but the sūtras themselves, with their visions of cosmic
transformation, elaborate self-referentiality, and striking performative
elements, resist (or at least exceed) this characterization. Indeed, I haverecently argued that some Mahāyāna sūtras figure their own performance as anaesthetic, dramatic form of sacrificial ritual, one that offers a verbal substitutefor the bodily self-sacrifice of the bodhisattva, as well as the flesh offerings ofBrahmanical ritual. But how, then, are we to interpret these sūtras? How might
historical Buddhist readers (and perhaps more saliently, auditors) haveexperienced these overtly performative works? How does one read, recite, orhear the ritual body of the Buddha? The obvious fact that these questions resist
any definitive answer should not prevent us from asking them. Indeed, if we failto do so, we are bound to impose uncritically and ahistorically our own
assumptions about what a text (not to mention a Mahāyāna sūtra) is, and how it
ought to be read—and translated.
Given that our conceptions of what a sūtra is and how to interpret it are
historically situated, which understandings do we privilege when we translate,
and why? Translating a sūtra as a doctrinal work is quite a different
undertaking from translating the aesthetically pleasing, ritually recited body of
the Buddha, and such different modes of translation further enable andconstrain particular avenues of interpretation for subsequent audiences. Our
understanding of Mahāyāna literature would be greatly enriched through amore explicit and deliberate exploration of different interpretations of
Mahāyāna sūtras, and the different modes of translation that they warrant.
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Translating a Translation: Methodological Issues in Working with Early
Chinese Buddhist Texts
Nattier, Jan (Prachuapkhirikhan, THA)
Several decades ago it was common for scholars to assume that the earliest
Chinese translators did a very poor job of rendering Indian Buddhist texts into
Chinese. The great sinologist Erik Zürcher, for example, characterized theworks of An Shigao as “erratic, crude, full of vulgarisms, often chaotic to thepoint of unintelligibility.” A number of other scholars, both western and Asian(a leading figure in this regard being the Japanese scholar Ōchō E’nichi)
accused Kumārajīva of abbreviating the content of his Indic-language sourcesin order to produce a more accessible and appealing Chinese version. The
treatment of individual words by early translators, too, was often criticized—
not only in modern times but already in the medieval period, as reflected inworks such as the Yiqiejing yinyi (T2128) completed by Huilin in 807 CE—with
early translators being criticized for erroneously transcribing the sounds (orerroneously translating the meaning) of the underlying Sanskrit terms.
The spectacular new manuscript finds of recent years, however—above all,those in Gāndhārī—have put us in a much better position to make an accurate
assessment of the nature of the Indic-language scriptures on which these earlytranslators based their work. We now know, for example, that early recensionsof Indian Buddhist texts were often much shorter than those previously known,
which (if Sanskrit versions had survived at all) were generally preserved only inmanuscripts dating from many centuries after the earliest Chinese translations.
We also know that most—perhaps all—of the texts transmitted to China during
the formative period of Chinese Buddhism were not in classical Sanskrit, but invarious Indian vernaculars (the best known of these now being Gāndhārī), or ata slightly later point, in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.
Using this new scholarly perspective as my point of departure, I will examine
two early Chinese translations of what I have elsewhere referred to as the“smaller Buddhāvataṁsaka,” i.e., the core text out of which the voluminous text
by that name appears to have grown: those produced in the late 2nd century CE
by Lokakṣema and members of his community (T280, 282, 283) and in the mid3rd century CE by Zhi Qian (T281). Having discussed the general character ofthese works in brief, the bulk of my discussion will be devoted to how each ofthese two very different texts might best be translated into English.
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In considering how to go about this project I will engage a number of topics
related to the translation enterprise more broadly, in particular the following:(1) how to choose which version of a given scripture should be translated (hereengaging in dialogue with other members of this panel as to whether suchworks should be translated at all); (2) methodological problems specific to thetask of translating a text which is itself a translation, when we have access to acertain amount of information—but not as much as we would like—about thenature of its source-text; and (3) the question of the audience for which ourtranslation is intended (reflecting, at the same time, on the question of theaudience envisioned by the original Chinese translator himself). While there issurely no such thing as a perfect (or even an ideal) English translation of any
Buddhist scripture, I will argue that by reflecting carefully upon our choices at
each step of the way, we will have a better chance of producing a final productthat will be accessible to the broadest possible audience while at the same timeadhering to the highest scholarly standards of accuracy, transparency, andmethodological rigor.

Some Reflections on the Translation of Mahāyāna Sūtras
Osto, Douglas (Massey University, Palmerston North, NZL)In 1981, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
published an article by Paul Griffiths titled ‘Buddhist Hybrid English: Some
Notes on Philology and Hermeneutics for Buddhologists’ (JIABS, 4:2 (1981),
pp. 17–32). In this piece, Griffiths writes, ‘I would suggest, therefore, that alarge proportion of the surviving sūtra materials in Sanskrit is better left
untranslated’ (p.26). While focusing his attention on Sanskrit texts, Griffiths
makes it clear that much of what he is saying may be applied to Mahāyāna
sūtras in other languages as well. In the first part of this paper, I discuss thereasons Griffith gives for his suggestion, and argue that these are no longer (ifthey ever were) good reasons not to translate Mahāyāna sūtras into modern
languages. After making the case for the academic utility of translation work on
Mahāyāna sūtras, I make some suggestions as to which sūtras we may wish toprioritize in our translations and the audiences we should consider whentranslating. Following this I propose some guidelines for translation based on
general semiotics theory, consider which version of a sūtra is best suited fortranslation, and discuss the utility of critical editions. Finally, I address the169

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issues of modern technology and electronic/web-based versions of texts, andconjecture about how the use of hypertexts may best serve our future translation
work on Mahāyāna sūtras.

Scenes from the Life of the Buddha before His Enlightenment in the
Murals of the Kucha Region
Arlt, Robert & Hiyama, Satomi & Arlt, Robert (Freie Universität Berlin,
Berlin, GER)

While biographical representations of the life of the Buddha are a main themeof Buddhist art in the Gandhara region, Buddhist mural paintings in Kucha do
not follow this theme. Kucha’s narrative paintings mainly show scenes of the
Buddha’s sermons or the jātaka tales. However, there are depictions of somestages of the life of Śākyamuni that focus on episodes shortly before and after
his enlightenment; they occupy a significant space in the temples’ décor. The
chronological order of narration that characterises Gandharan Art in the
depiction of the life of the Buddha can only be found in two of Kucha’s nearly
600 temple sites. This fact suggests that the life stages prior to theenlightenment of the Buddha are of minor interest to the Buddhist saṃgha in
Kucha. The representations that refer to events taking place before Śākyamuni’s
enlightenment also appear in different contexts than those life stages that are
chronologically represented. Despite the impression that the scenes arecomparatively insignificant, they seem to appear, for example, amongst the
Buddha’s preaching scenes. Even the better-known narratives of preenlightenment events from the Buddha’s life are reproduced in unique pictorial
compositions. In order to reveal the exceptionality of these narrative
illustrations within the Tocharian Buddhist tradition, this paper will analyse
Kucha’s Buddhist murals and their representation of Śākyamuni’s life stages
before his enlightenment. The three following factors will serve as amethodological approach to the analysis of Kucha’s representations:

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the context in which the scenes are depictedc
the scenes’ iconographic repertories in comparison to their precedents
and coevals in India and Gandhara

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their interactive relationships with textual sources (Sanskrit /Tocharian)

The Rendering of Buddhist Phraseology in Tocharian from a Linguistic
Point of View
Hackstein, Olav (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GER);
Bross, ChristophPrevious scholarship has shown that the Tocharian translation of Buddhist texts
often varies between direct and free translation. Our presentation will
investigate the question of linguistic factors that caused the Tochariantranslator to rephrase or even paraphrase the source text.

The Legends of the Buddha in Tocharian Texts
Habata, Hiromi (LMU München, München, GER)
Tocharian texts provide us with valuable witnesses to the transmission of
Buddhist texts in Central Asia. Located between India and China, the area inwhich Tocharian Buddhism flourished played a role not only as a transit route,but as a center for Buddhist treasuries of Sanskrit texts and translation projects.
Their translations, being their interpretations, are of great importance foranalyzing Buddhist texts of which the Indian originals are lost but which werepartly transmitted to China.
Focusing on the Buddha-legend in Tocharian texts, this paper aims to elucidate
the transmission and the development of the Buddha-legend along the northern
Silk Road. For this aim, a linguistic and philological-comparative analysis of
Tocharian texts will be carried out through comparing Central Asian paralleltexts and especially Indian texts on the life of the Buddha which weretransmitted among the Tocharians.

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In order to demonstrate the issues, some fragments from the Udānālaṅkāra andfrom a text of which the title is unknown will be investigated in details.

Sanskrit Word Forms Written in Brāhmī Script in the Old Turkish
Buddhist Texts
Kasai, Yukiyo (Turfanforschung, BBAW, Berlin, GER)In the Old Turkish Buddhist texts some Buddhist Sanskrit terminologies appear.
Those terminologies were borrowed through Tocharian into Old Turkish. Thus
they have forms which correspond well to the Tocharian ones. In some texts
those words are written in Brāhmī, and most of them probably stem from theMongolian period. Where the Uyghur Buddhists borrowed this Indian scriptfrom is a crucial question. The analysis of the Sanskrit word forms written in
Brāhmī script may give an important suggestion for the origin of the use of thisscript amongst the Uyghurs.

Hindu Deities in Buddhist Wall Paintings of Kızıl in Kuca
Konczak, Ines (Berlin, GER)
The Buddhist site of Kızıl in Kuča comprises a small number of wall paintings
that depict Hindu deities surrounding the Buddha. Besides the gods Indra(Śakra) and Brahmā, who can often be encountered accompanying the Buddha
in depictions, various other Hindu deities are represented in these paintings,
such as Maheśvara together with his consort Umā on his bull, Viṣṇu on Garuḍa
and Kāmadeva with his bow made of flowers. The depiction of these Hindu
deities is very rare in the Buddhist murals in Kızıl and the reason for theirrepresentation is not yet clear.
The paper aims to give an interpretation of the depiction of Hindu gods in thewall paintings of Kızıl based on Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Tocharian
languages found in that region. Besides that, the paper aims to verify visualmodels for the depiction of the Hindu deities in the paintings. Since special
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iconographic features of Hindu gods have been introduced in a certain region
during a certain period the analysis of visual models can give us clues onchronological issues regarding the date of the paintings. For this reason the
iconography of the Hindu deities in the painting will be compared with
depictions in India, Kashmir and Central Asia.

A Contrastive Survey of the Buddhist Texts Written in Tocharian A and B
Malzahn, Melanie (Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Wien, Wien,AT)The Tocharian elites of the third through the tenth centuries CE were Buddhists,
and thanks to their support Buddhist monastic life and Buddhist learning
flourished in the Tocharian-speaking community during this period. Already atthe end of the third century CE, speakers of Tocharian B adapted the IndianBrahmi script for the purpose of rendering their own language and started bothtranslating Buddhist literature into their own vernacular and also composing
Buddhist religious works of their own that were not based on any specificoriginal text in some other language. Two or three hundred years later,
speakers of Tocharian A started doing quite the same with respect to their own
language. Today nearly ten thousand fragments of Tocharian manuscripts are
known. Just one fifth of these is written in Tocharian A, whereas the main bulk
consists of documents in Tocharian B. Since to date only a small percentage ofthese texts is accessible via editions containing translations, it is difficult to get
a comprehensive picture of the contents of Buddhist Tocharian literaturepreserved. In my paper I want to give an overview of the various types of thiskind of literature, basing myself on the on-going edition project “AComprehensive Edition of Tocharian Manuscripts” (CEToM) (FWF Y492). An
emphasis will be laid upon what seem to be the most fundamental divergences
between the respective Tocharian A and Tocharian B texts.

Transmission of Buddhist Texts to Tocharian Buddhism
Ogihara, Hirotoshi (Renmin University of China, Beijing, CHN)173

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Previous studies have already revealed that the school affiliation of Tocharian
Buddhism should be (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin. Among others, the late Prof. Kudara
Kogi pointed out that the tradition of the Sarvāstivādin of the Kaśmīr region
appears in the Udānālaṅkāra, a Tocharian commentary to the Udānavarga in
Sanskrit which is said to be compiled by Dharmasoma.
However, the present author’s researches on Vinaya texts in Tocharian A and B
allude that some traditions different from the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins have been
accepted by Tocharian monks at different periods from 5th century onward. It isnoteworthy that those Vinaya texts in Tocharian B unearthed in Turfan, which
belong to the late stage of Tocharian B, show a close affinity with the so-called
Mūla-Sarvāstivādins, a fact which can be also confirmed by the Sanskrit
fragments found in the same region.
On the other hand, a close affinity with the Mūla-Sarvāstivādins has rarely
been detected in the fragments found in Kucha, although Dr. K.T. Schmidt
recently identified most of the mural paintings in Cave No. 110 of the Kizil
grottoes as belonging to the tradition of this school.
In this paper, the present author introduces the fragments found in the Kizil
grottoes which seem to have belonged to one and the same manuscript. This
manuscript can be classified as the classical–late stage of Tocharian B on
linguistic and paleographic grounds. Given that these fragments containavadānas or jātakas, this manuscript will be called the “Avadāna manuscript”
here. The identified stories can be related to the tradition of the MūlaSarvāstivādins and the style of the Tocharian B version indicates that they arean adaptation of these stories in Tocharian Buddhism. It is also worthy ofnotice that no compilation in Sanskrit of avadānas or jātakas is known which
has the same stories as the “Avadāna manuscript” in Tocharian B, a fact whichsuggests the possibility that the “Avadāna manuscript” was compiled within
Tocharian Buddhism or was based on a lost compilation in Sanskrit.

The Contribution of Tocharian Texts to the Buddhist Belles-Lettres
Pinault, Georges-Jean (EPHE/Sorbonne, Paris, FRA)174

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The large majority of texts in both Tocharian (A and B) languages belong to
Buddhist literature. This corpus can be classified according to the categories ofgenres that are recorded for other Buddhist languages. Besides works thatbelong to the three parts of every Buddhist canon (Vinaya, Sūtra, Abhidharma),
and which are mostly well identified, the texts in the two Tocharian languages
belong to the large array of Indian Belles-Lettres, as reflected in Buddhist
literature. In the past decades significant progress has been made in collecting,editing, translating and analysing Buddhist works that were composed in
Sanskrit. This has been summarised by Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn in “The
Buddhist contribution to the Indian Belles-Lettres”, Acta Orientalia Academiae
Scientiarum Hungaricae 65.4, 2010, pp. 455-471. Several Tocharian texts havedefinitely their sources in the types of Sanskrit texts which have been classified
as follows: prose compositions, verse compositions, mixed style. The paper will
give examples of such texts. In addition, some Tocharian compositions which
are not based on any clearly identified Sanskrit text can be attributed to a
precise genre, through the analysis of their stylistic features. It will be shownthat the Tocharian writers have favored specific genres of verse compositions,such as several sub-types of stotra, and various types of mixed (prosimetric)style, used in dramas and narratives in campū style.

Reflections on the Purpose of the Kucha Paintings
Zin, Monika (Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GER)
The real purpose of the Kucha paintings and the impact of the separate scenes
and the entire decorated programme within the caves is still far from being
identified. Based on painstaking studies on the representation of particularsubjects and the arrangement of painted decoration in many of the better
preserved caves, it is only gradually becoming clear that the decorative
programme follows certain clearly conceived ideas. However, we do not yet
know if the purpose of the representations was to create a conducive
atmosphere for meditation, invoke themes for sermons to be delivered to visiting
merchants, or perhaps simply create splendidly decorated sites, financed by theruling elite, to induce the prosperous Silk Road caravans to visit the Kingdomof Kucha.

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Even if the knowledge at our disposal today does not provide answers to thesequestions, the paper will offer material for further reflection. By way ofillustration, I shall opt not for the carefully executed paintings in Kucha but for
the hastily – and undoubtedly cheaply – produced ones, which often lead one toassume that the paintings do not contain any recognisable iconography. This isan erroneous assumption, for even though the paintings look more like gaudy
wallpaper than narratives conceived for a place of sanctity, a comparison withsimilar depictions reveals in them iconographic characteristics that were
probably easily understood.

Becoming Buddhist Anew. Some Remarks about a Buddhist Ritual
Initiation
Brac de la Perrière, Bénédicte (CNRS, Paris, FRA)In this paper, I will examine a ritual of initiation involving Burmese Buddhist
laypeople, men or women, on their way to enter in a Buddhist esotericcongregation. The ritual will be analyzed against existing anthropologicalanalysis of transitional rituals in order to show how belonging to a specificcommunity of practitioners is built in the ritual to create the realization of a
new “truly” Buddhist identity. This realization may be said to be equivalent toan “internal” conversion. Furthermore, the contrastive use of ritualism will becommented upon with the aim to identify a tendency in the Burmese religious
field to differentiate in a marked way specific fields of practices qualified in
Burmese as “lines” or “paths”.

The Buddhist Gift and the Making of Moral Worlds: Perspectives on
Different Forms and Modes of Giving in a Tibetan Context
Caple, Jane (University of Manchester, Manchester, GBR)
Anthropological and historical studies of Buddhism have shown the Buddhist
gift to be central to our understanding of Buddhist societies. A significant
strand of this work has examined the social and economic functions of religious

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donation, conceptualising it as working according to the moral logics of an‘economy of merit’, a regime of value that reproduces and reinforces social andeconomic hierarchies (see e.g. Spiro 1982, Mumford 1989, Clarke 1989, Cole
1998, Gutschow 2004, Rozenburg 2004, Berkwitz 2006). This paper aims tolook beyond the political and economic stakes of religious donation to consider
its moral stakes, in other words the ways in which practices of giving (as acts ofmoral consequence) relate to the (re)making of local moral worlds. It thus
follows the recent ‘moral turn’ in anthropology by seeking to take morality
seriously as a distinct aspect of the human condition and of social life (see e.g.
Barker 2007, Heintz 2009, Fassin 2012). It approaches this through the situatedlocal context of a contemporary Tibetan society in the People’s Republic ofChina and is based on the analysis of narratives collected 2008-2014.
Narratives, as Zigon (2008) argues, both shape and are shaped by local moral
worlds and give us a rare opportunity ‘to see and hear the articulation ofcompeting and contesting moral perspectives’.
Firstly, the paper will examine the range of practices understood by local
people as forms of giving to ‘their’ monasteries. These include practices which
the existing anthropological literature has widely understood to be religious
donation, such as the sponsorship of a new temple or large-scale monastic
ritual or the gifting of food to monks. However, they also extend to practices
that have as yet been little explored, such as shopping in a monastery shop.
Within these different forms of giving we can also discern a range of modes,
from spontaneous acts of giving to highly organised and collective
contributions. Secondly, the paper will explore how these different forms andmodes of giving are being understood, evaluated and/or distinguished by monks
and lay people. What are the moral logics, underlying values, tensions andcontradictions that their perspectives can reveal? How do these fit with ourexisting understanding of the ethics of the ‘Buddhist gift’? What are the framesof reference within which ethical reflections and moral judgements are being
made? Finally, what is at stake? My interlocutors are living through a time of
rapid social and economic change, perceived by many to be morally troubled.
Based on previous studies, such as those by Robbins (on the Urapmin) andZigon (on Russia), we would therefore expect to see actions bearing a strong
sense of moral weight. Is this the case? If so, is the moral significance ofdifferent forms and modes of giving limited to processes of individual ethicalself-cultivation? Or does it extend beyond the individual to the making ofinstitutions and communities into the kind of moral beings people feel and hopethat they should be?

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The Paradoxical Place of Meditation in South Korean Lay Buddhism
Galmiche, Florence (Université Paris Diderot, Paris, FRA)The development of meditative practices among lay people is regarded
worldwide as one of the characteristics of contemporary Buddhism. South
Korea is by no means an exception to this trend. The spirit of the so-called“Buddhist modernism” has significantly influenced Buddhist practices andvalues in Korea and meditation is widely praised – both by monastics and thelaity – as a rational form of religious engagement, compatible with modernity.
An ethnographic study of this phenomenon shows however a very contrasted if
not paradoxical position of meditative practices among lay Buddhists.
The main (and monastic) Buddhist institutions are now actively promoting the
Kanhwa sŏn (看話禪) form of meditation as the hallmark of Korean Buddhism.
In line with this orthodox view and discourse, temples are urging lay devotees
to “become real and correct Buddhists” and to turn to meditation. Among thelaity, meditation is undoubtedly lauded and attracts a lot of attention: thebooks, broadcasting programs, conferences, classes and retreats that deal withthis topic are quite successful. However, one can also hear many expressions ofembarrassment and dismay among Buddhists when it comes to their actual
practice of meditation. For the general temple public, mostly women over 40,
meditation is praised and can be a common topic of discussion, but it is also
kept at distance as something intimidating, even sometimes regarded as “out of
one's reach”. For the public of meditation classes – which represents a
different balance in terms of age and gender – this meditation practice has been
more directly experienced but remains nonetheless frequently described as
something difficult to access, whose instructions are not completely available toa lay audience. Whether or not they are doing meditation themselves, a majorityof lay Buddhists still associate this activity with a monastic lifestyle andregularly point out the gap between its requirements and their everyday“mundane” life.
Through ethnographic research conducted in South Korea, this presentation
aims at exploring the ambivalent place of meditation among lay devotees. It willshow that meditation has become a reference for popular Buddhism and has
partly reshaped some of the practices generally associated with it like
propitiatory prayers and ceremonies. It will also try to shed light on thecomplexity of a movement, which aims at popularizing a practice and178

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knowledge that have a very elitist background and are deeply connected withthe definition of religious authority. Finally, it will also present how other formsof meditation, beside central Kanhwa sŏn, are emerging and developing amonglaity.

Introduction: Towards an Anthropology of Buddhism
Ladwig, Patrice (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale,
GER); Sihlé, Nicolas (Center for Himalayan Studies, CNRS, Villejuif, FRA)
Through a recent series of panels/workshops, in Asia, America and Europe, theproject of an “anthropology of Buddhism” as an ethnographically based,comparatively and theoretically informed shared endeavour of a community ofscholars (in the way that we have seen the recent formation of an“anthropology of Christianity”) is starting to emerge, and this panel aims at
contributing in a visible way to this dynamic. In the present introduction we willoffer a brief overview of the existing anthropological scholarship on Buddhism
and Buddhist societies, on the basis of its major themes, approaches andcharacteristics. Looking at the example of the relatively robust and vibrantanthropology of Christianity, we will suggest both certain sources of inspirationthat specialists of Buddhism could take into consideration, and specificities of
the anthropology of Buddhism. Finally, we will consider two indispensable twin
dimensions (besides institutional or organizational challenges) that a proper“anthropology of Buddhism” needs to develop if it is to fulfil its promise: acomparative outlook (still largely lacking in the existing scholarship), and amore consistent engagement with larger theoretical discussions within
anthropology.

The Transnationalism of Merit: Diaspora Communities and CambodianStudent Monks, Pilgrims and Building Projects in South Asia
Marston, John (El Colegio de México, México, MEX)179XVIIth Congress of the IABS
When socialist restrictions on Cambodian Buddhism were loosened in the early
1990s, Cambodian monks began traveling to Sri Lanka and India, as well asother Buddhist countries, to study. Eventually a pattern emerged whereby thestudy of many young monks was supported by individual sponsors from
Cambodia or, more commonly, the Cambodian diaspora communities ofEurope, the U.S., Canada and Australia. This corresponded with the newphenomenon of Cambodian groups going as pilgrims/religious tourists to thetwo South Asian countries in trips organized by Cambodian monks andprominent lay figures. This likewise impacted the situation of the student monks
to the degree to which pilgrims sometimes became sponsors of student monks or
publicized their need for sponsorship. These trips, and the videos generated bythem, also served to generate support for projects to build Cambodian-style
temples in India and Sri Lanka, especially since most of the Indian temples wereclose to sacred Buddhist sites. The paper will attempt to give an overview ofthese processes and explore the complex negotiation of religious and national
identities taking place among Cambodian and South Asian actors.

Revisiting a Tibetan Bonpo Ceremony in Highland Nepal: An Essay in
Uncompromising Anthropology
Ramble, Charles (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford,
GBR)
In 1992 Maurice Bloch published an article entitled “What goes without
saying: the conceptualization of Zafimaniry society”. The article proposed areworking of his own previous ethnography from the point view of the
Madagascan Zafimaniry themselves. The resulting presentation, Blochsuggests, would differ substantially in terms of both structure and content froman account produced by an alien, professional anthropologist. “Buddhism”, inthe formulation “Anthropology of Buddhism”, is of course metonymic for“Buddhist societies” or “Buddhist institutions”. Classical anthropology has
had an uneasy relationship with literacy, an “intrusive element” (in Jack
Goody’s phrase) for which various kinds of accommodation have been
proposed by different authors (Cohn’s advocacy of treating historical sources“the way an anthropologist treats his field notes” is one example). In spite ofthese adjustments, in practice most anthropological studies of Buddhist
societies (at least, those that engage with texts and doctrine) entail hybrid180

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approaches that involve philological and historical components. What would astrictly anthropological investigation, a rigorous “anthropology of Buddhism”,
yield? Taking its cue from Bloch’s experiment, this paper will revisit aceremony that the author has previously examined from a multidisciplinary
perspective, and will consider what the outcome might be if all the facets of thisceremony were examined from a more conventionally anthropologicalstandpoint. The ceremony in question is the Dögyab, a week-long composite of
Bonpo tantric performances and secular rituals, involving a substantial literary(scriptural and administrative) component, celebrated in a Tibetan-speaking
part of highland Nepal.

Rethinking Buddhist Authority and Secular Power in Modern Myanmar
Schober, Juliane (Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA)The complex tensions between Buddhism and politics have been the subject ofanthropological writing for decades (Mendelson 1975; Tambiah 1977;
Ferguson 1976, among others). More recent work has explored the history of
relations between monks and political power as well as the history ofscholarship on the subject. We have come to understand how colonial scholars
constructed an “orthodox” Buddhism that was pristine, “other-worldly” and“non-violent”. Their interpretations of the Pali literature resonated with
cultural hegemonies in the Theravada world to represent essentialized truths.
Such idealized conceptions of “otherworldly” Buddhist authority and practicealso informed Burmese Buddhist revivals during the U Nu and later militaryeras of nation-building.
Against this history of the anthropology of Buddhism in Burma, my paper
examines recent contestations when monks publicly asserted their moral
authority in the face of political tensions over the nation’s future. Specifically, I
explore two monastic movements in Myanmar that gained world-wide attention.
They are the pro-democracy demonstrations of 2007 and the anti-Muslim 969
movement that continues to foment violence. These ethnographic examples
present two divergent articulations of modern Buddhist authority that haveengaged the world of secular politics in order to shape political realities andnational ideologies. How must we rethink the anthropology of Buddhism in lightof these contemporary monastic efforts to reshape secular politics?
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From the Anthropology of Buddhism to a Buddhist Anthropology
Tuladhar Douglas, Will (University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, GBR)
There have been numerous excellent studies of Buddhist societies present andpast conducted under the rubric of anthropology. Anthropology, however, is thestudy of human societies and it presumes—indeed, imposes—a number ofpresuppositions that deserve robust interrogation. Asad, Latour, Masuzawa,
McCutcheon and others have exposed the European genealogy of ‘religion’ andshown that it depends on implicit theories about what constitutes persons andknowledge. The reflexive methodology of anthropology demands that we takeseriously challenges to our own methods and frameworks that emerge throughconversations with our collaborators, informants and teachers.
What would happen if we undertook research in a Buddhist milieu, but took
seriously just one aspect of Buddhist doctrine: society is made up not of
humans, but persons? I will argue that in the case of conservation
anthropology, this is not a theoretical gambit but a wholly practical shift thatliberates us from oppressive norms and implicit collaboration with powerfulauthorities.

The Hermit as Modern Saint in Contemporary Eastern Tibet
Turek, Maria (Universität Bonn, Bonn, GER)
Since the 1980s, ethnic Tibetan regions of the Sichuan and Qinghai provinces ofpost-Dengist China have become the scene of a vibrant religious revival. Also
revived today is the traditional practice of hermitism, widely spread in all
Tibetan societies, but seriously underrepresented in scholarship.

The foremost objective of this paper is to bring up the ritual and social
implications of Tibetan hermitic practices in general, and especially theirrevival in the post-traumatic, secularized and colonized landscape of peripheral
China. In the current revival, hermits are not only important leaders; they arealso often looked up to as “saints” in emic terms, they are revered as perfect

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embodiments of tradition, fields of merit, sought-after religious instructors andpopular role models. For this contextual richness, observing the revival of
Tibetan hermitism offers an opportunity of approaching this complex
phenomenon from different theoretical perspectives and with the help of
methodologies rooted in multiple fields.
I will present the case of a religious career of the contemporary hermit Tsultrim
Tharchin, to show how he evolved from a village cadre to a local saint, anembodiment of the legendary yogin Milarepa, but with a global allure.
Following the narrative of Tsultrim Tharchin’s life provokes importantquestions about the nature and meaning of Tibetan hermitism, especially today.
Why do people, who live in a decosmologized world, choose the radical path ofan ascetic? What is it about their liminal status that has them develop into
embodiments of tradition? What role does renunciation play in theirempowerment, also on the social plane? How is renunciation understood by thecontemporary Tibetan hermits and how is it lived?
The lifestories of Tsultrim Tharchin and his disciples also allow to recognize anumber of paradoxes connected with hermitism - some of them played up by the
Buddhist doctrine and the ascetic ethos, others arising from the specificsituation of Tibetans living under the authoritarian Chinese state. The perceived
transformation of the body into an embodiment of tradition is crucial to thehermit’s ability to reconcile these contradictions, insoluble for other membersof society: both the ontological dilemmas of human existence and the specificquandaries of Tibetans in a time of crisis.
The case of Tsultrim Tharchin also shows that through becoming embodimentsof tradition, virtuoso hermits are empowered to perform paradoxes. Thus, they
become active in the world they abandoned, attract large communities ofenthusiasts seeking a life in solitude, may apply tradition to introduce reform,
and in spite of their renunciate lifestyle, might subliminally embrace social andeven political, collective hopes of contemporary Tibetans in the PRC.
The case study material was collected in the Yushu Autonomous Prefecture in2007 and 2008; its results were published in a broader framework of mydissertation (“In This Body and Life: The Religious and Social Role of Hermitsand Hermitages in Eastern Tibet Today and during Recent History,” Humboldt
University of Berlin, 2013).

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An Understanding of Buddha-Nature in the Theg chen rgyud bla'i don bsdus
pa
Cha, Sangyeob (Geumgang University, Nonsan-city, Chungnam, KOR)
In the 12th century, the Tibetan Buddhist master rNgog Blo ldan shes rab(1059-1109) wrote the Theg chen rgyud bla'i don bsdus pa, the first Tibetan
commentary on the Buddha-nature, in order to introduce his Tibetan students tothe theory of tathāgatagarbha. Modern scholarship has focused on the facsimile
reprint from a xylograph version, but has neglected rNgog Blo ldan shes rab’scommentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga that is included in the collection of thebKa ʼgdams gsung ʼbum. I shall here present the various meanings of Buddhanature in the text published in the bKa' gdams gsung 'bum.

The Tibetan Reception of Āryadeva’s Catuḥśataka in Tibet: Transmission
and Interpretation
Dorjee, Choying (Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute, Chauntra, HP,
IND)
The Catuḥśataka is the main work of Āryadeva, Nāgārjuna’s disciple. It is
composed of sixteen chapters and represents one of the major early treatises ofIndian Madhyamaka. This important text has been commented by Candrakīrti
and Dharmapāla, the former criticizing the latter for having deviated fromĀryadeva’s intended meaning. Although the Catuḥśataka has been lesscommented than other major Madhyamaka works in Tibet, a few commentariesof this treatise have been composed over a period of 500 years by Tibetan
scholars, such as Red mda’ ba gZhon nu blo gros (1349-1412), rGyal tshab
Dar ma rin chen (1364-1432), gZhang dga’ gZhan phan chos kyi snang ba(1871-1927), Kaḥ tog mkhan po Ngag dbang dpal bzang (1879-1941), and Bod
sprul bsTan pa’i nyi ma (1898?-1959). Tibetan commentaries generally follow
Candrakīrti’s Catuḥśatakavṛtti. However, in some particular instances theyoccasionally present various interpretations of some specific technical term orimportant concept (e.g., nirvāṇa), or use slightly different classification
schemes, offering a glimpse into the complexities of the Tibetan hermeneuticaldebate regarding the understanding and presentation of the notion of emptiness184

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in the context of Mādhyamika philosophy. The objective of this paper is to
identify and present some key issues related to the dynamic concept of lineagetransmission and transference of ideas in the Tibetan commentaries ofĀryadeva’s Catuḥśataka.

Entangled Textual Genealogies and Spiritual Lineages in the Tibetan
Hermeneutical Discourse: The Transmission, Transformation, andAppropriation of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka Ideas by ’Ju Mi pham rnam rgyal
rgya mtsho
Forgues, Gregory (University of Vienna, Vienna, AUT)
This paper deals with the transformation and appropriation by ’Ju Mi phamrnam rgyal rgya mtsho (1846–1912) of Śāntarakṣita’s (8th c.) YogācāraMadhyamaka (i.e., a synthesis of Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and Pramāṇa).
Tibetan scholars interpreted Indian Buddhist systems of thought throughvarious hermeneutical approaches involving processes of inclusion or
exclusion. Mi pham, one of the greatest scholars of the rNying ma tradition of
Tibetan Buddhism, is famous for having skillfully integrated various
philosophical systems that were traditionally perceived as incompatible. His
approach to Madhyamaka was strongly influenced by Śāntarakṣita as well as byhis experience of rDzogs chen. His project therefore raises important questions
as to why he went against the mainstream Tibetan interpretations of his time bygiving to Śāntarakṣita’s syncretic approach such a prominent position in his
own system. The aim of this paper is not simply to retrace the textual genealogy
of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka concepts from a philological and historicalperspective in order to show the flow of ideas between Mi pham andŚāntarakṣita. It is also to determine through corpus-linguistic discourse
analysis the ‘lines of dispersion’ of Madhyamaka ideas in space (between
Himalayan regions), in time (between the 8th and 19th centuries), and in ‘mind’(between Buddhist traditions) as well as the specific processes of culturaltransmission and transformation, resemantization, and cultural appropriation
taking place in Mi pham’s philosophical project. Cultural transfers, in thepresent context, are multifaceted. The objective of this presentation is to show
how the play of ideas in Mi pham’s work deals with hermeneutical tensions
related to theoretical and soteriological issues resulting from the social,
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interactions contributed to shape Mi pham’s exposition of the two truths(satyadvaya).

Luminosity from India to Tibet According to Sgam po pa Rin chen
dpal’s Bstan bcos lung gi nyi ’od: A Case Study for Tracing Back
“Philosophical” Doctrine over Time and Space
Kemp, Casey (University of Vienna, Vienna, AUT)
In general, this paper will present a diachronic process of semantictransference through a philological analysis. This transference not only took
place over time and space between two distinct geographic regions (India andTibet), but parallel to this terrestrial process another transference occurred in
the ephemeral scape of Buddhist hermeneutics in which the dynamic between
doctrine and practice were forced to be renegotiated in a new cultural climate.
Through analyzing the Indian sources directly quoted by a primary Tibetan
figure on the doctrine of luminosity, the mind as naturally luminous, thispresentation will map the process of legitimation, institutionalization, andhybridization of Indian sūtric and tantric concepts into a cohesive paradigm
that shaped perceptions of practical and philosophical values in the Tibetan
religious realm.
The Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā tradition is widely regarded to have beensystematized by Sgam po pa Bsod nam rin chen dpal (1079-1153), who
combined the monastic institutional system of the Bka’ gdams pa lineage withthe tantric and Mahāmudrā oriented yogic tradition of the early Bka’ brgyud
masters. Texts attributed to him are generally considered to outline thenormative views of the Dwags po Bka’ brgyud tradition. During his time, great
effort was made to legitimize “philosophical” views as authentically“Buddhist” through tracing Indian antecedents that supported such assertions,particularly in regards to contested interpretations such as those related to thenotion of buddha nature. Luminosity, or the luminous mind, makes for aparticularly interesting case study since the defining characteristics anddoctrinal relations associated with the concept continues to be a point of debate
among various Tibetan traditions.

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Referring back to Indian textual material has shaped the doctrine behindconcepts and continues to be a primary methodology employed in Tibetanized
religious communities. This presentation will critically examine this method forstudying Buddhist transference in the Tibetan realm by looking at one passage
from Sgam po pa’s Bstan bcos lung gi nyi ’od (“Sunlight of Treatises andScriptures”) which is dedicated to presenting the concept of luminosity. This
text is 27 folios in length, and includes over 254 quotations from authoritative
Indian scriptures. From this work that Kragh (2013) has termed a florilegium,
three folios are dedicated to the concept of luminosity.
Sgam po pa’s extensive use of Indian citations ascribed to the Buddha, as wellas his own position of authority as a realized master for Dwags po Bka’ brgyud
adherents, demonstrates a notable process of standardization of religious ideas.
It is therefore necessary to investigate the transference of Buddhism throughexamining this method of legitimation and its implications in order to explore
how semantic frameworks are formed in a Tibetan Buddhist Indo-centric system
which is reliant on a direct lineage transmission that can be traced back to a
fully awakened omniscient being.

Bonpos’ Absorption and Development of the Buddhist Theory: From
Abhidharma to Mādhyamika Thoughts
Kumagai, Seiji (Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN)
The Bon religion had existed in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism, and it
later absorbed Buddhist doctrine and created its own doctrine. The following
questions need to be answered: (1) How were Buddhist doctrines adopted by
the Bonpos? (2) Which part of these doctrines come from Buddhist theories? (3)Which parts are the unique theories of the Bonpos? This paper analyzes theprocess of the adaptation of Buddhist theories, from Abhidharma to
Mādhyamika.
As for the Abhidharma theories, this paper presents the characteristics of
Bonpo doctrine. In his Bon sgo gsal byed, Tre ston rgyal mtshan dpal (14th cen.)presents Abhidharma theory which resembles that of the Buddhist Yogācāra
school rather than that of the Vaibhāṣika school, as for instance in the number

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of each Abhidharmic category. However, its contents differ in the details fromthose of the Buddhist Yogācāra school.
Concerning the Mādhyamika thoughts, this paper focuses on the theory of two
truths: the absolute truth and the conventional truth. The paper presents two
types of Bonpo scripture: one gives the theory of two truths of the Svātantrikamādhyamika school and the other gives that of the Prāsaṅgika-mādhyamika
school. Because this classification of Svātantrika and Prāsaṅgika developed in
Tibet, it would seem that Bonpos took most of their theory of the two truths from
Tibetan Buddhism, rather than from Indian Buddhism. However, Bonpos seemto have referred not only to Tibetan Buddhist scriptures but also to Indian
Buddhist ones, because they cite some passages directly from Indian Buddhist
texts. On the other hand, the remarkably detailed subdivisions of the two truths
are found in neither Indian nor Tibetan Buddhist scriptures. In this respect,
Bonpos also seem to have developed their own original ideas.
This paper thus presents the process how Bonpo thinkers created their own
doctrine by absorbing and arranging Buddhist philosophical thoughts.

A Seventeenth Century Criticism on the Tibetan Reception of Buddhism– Tāranātha’s Ornament of Gzhan stong Madhyamaka
Scheuermann, Rolf (University of Vienna, Vienna, AUT)
Works such as his famous History of Buddhism in India (Rgya gar chos ’byung)have placed Jo nang Rje btsun Tāranātha Kun dga’ syning po (1575–1634)
among the highest regarded religious scholars of the Tibetan Buddhist
community. Opinions are however divided on his activities to revive Dol po pa
Shes rab rgyal mtshan’s (1292–1361) contested presentation of a Great
Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po) or Madhyamaka of the Emptiness of Other(gzhan stong dbu ma). Tāranātha was not only a historian, controversial
philosopher, and reformer, but also lived during a time of political unrest that
posed a serious threat to his Jo nang tradition, culminating in its nearlycomplete decline with the rise of Dge lugs supremacy. His monastery Rtag
brtan phun tshogs gling was forcefully converted to the Dge lugs tradition

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shortly after his demise, and the associated printing house was thus closed
down and sealed.
This paper centers on Tāranātha’s Ornament of Gzhan stong Madhyamaka(Gzhan stong dbu ma’i rgyan), a short work of 107 verses written in 1604. It issaid to have been inspired by a meditative experience and vision of Dol po pa,
and the author therein attempts to delineate and defend his controversial
Madhyamaka system. A commentary by ’Brog dge kun dga’ dpal bzang (1629–1686) seems to have existed, but is presently unavailable. There exists however
a companion text by Tāranātha called Scriptural Support Connected to theOrnament of Gzhan stong Madhyamaka (Gzhan stong dbu ma’i rgyan gyi lungsbyor) containing various quotations meant to support the ideas expressed in
the Ornament of Gzhan stong Madhyamaka.
The study will mainly focus on Tāranātha’s critical remarks concerned with thereception of Buddhism in Tibet. A Sanskrit scholar and translator, Tāranātha
had contact with Buddhist and non-Buddhist Indian pundits, which is quite
extraordinary for a Tibetan scholar of his time. Owing to his keen interest andknowledge of Indian literature, he openly challenges notions already acceptedby the Tibetan intellectual mainstream, such as the Tibetan doxographic
classification for major Indian Buddhist philosophical trends, and the approachof equating Yogācāra with the so-called Cittamātra. Based on selected excerpts
from the Ornament of Gzhan stong Madhyamaka, this paper will give an
overview of Tāranātha’s main criticism with respect to the Tibetan
appropriation of Indian Buddhist traditions. Serving as an outstanding example
for cultural transfer between India and Tibet in the 17th century, his attempted
re-negotiation between source and target culture will be closely examined.

What Was Vimalakīrti’s Room Empty of? : Reconsidering the Meaning of
Emptiness in the Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra
Saito, Akira (Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University ofTokyo, JPN)
The Sanskrit text of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra is composed of 12 chapters intotal. Of them the 4th chapter titled “Visiting [Vimalakīrti] to inquire after his
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health” is no doubt pivotal in that Mañjuśrī, bodhisattva of the best
intelligence, visited and talked with Vimalakīrti over the meaning of emptiness(śūnyatā) in rather an enigmatic way. Although the three Chinese and one
Tibetan translations of this scripture give us no decisive clue to solve thisquestion, the present paper will cast a new light on the hitherto undecided
meaning of emptiness used in the above passage on the basis of a newly
discovered Sanskrit manuscript.

An Entangled Buddhist History: Shangs pa Lineage Networks,
Transmission Strategies, and Their Records of Reception in Tibet
Sheehy, Michael (Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, Cambridge, MA, USA)The Shangs pa Bka’ brgyud lineage, as Matthew Kapstein has described, is like“some vine that adorns a whole forest without being able to stand by itself,” somuch so that it “may strike one who follows its twists and turns as being
virtually an omnipresent element in Tibetan Buddhism.” Continuing with thisanalogy, this paper begins to trace the twists and turns of the Shangs pa’s
entangled history from its reception in India and formidable institutional
origins at the time of its founder, Khyung po Rnal ‘byor (1050-1127), to its
later assimilation into mainstream Buddhist traditions with virtually no
institutionalized presence of its own in Tibet. In so doing, we look at the
networks and strategies that the Shangs pa employed to transfer their lineage of“philosophical” knowledge through the generations and across the Tibetan
plateau.
Though the hagiography of Khyung po Rnal ‘byor reputes that he founded one
hundred and eight monasteries throughout Tibet, only a few historical sites of
the Shangs pa are known to exist today, many of which lie in ruins. Considering
this history, this paper seeks to address critical questions such as, “Why did theinstitutional presence of the Shangs pa wane?” and “What forces bothcontributed to this waning, as well as to the continuity of the Shangs pa lineagetransmissions?”
To begin the processes of untangling Shangs pa history, we investigate
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and esoteric knowledge, and how such negotiations formed social networks thatsustained the Shangs pa. Special attention will be given to how the transmissionof the Shangs pa lineage of thought and praxis continued without the support ofmonastic institutions.
While drawing from a range of Shangs pa historical sources, we highlight thelineage networks recorded by Kun dga' grol mchog (1507-1565) in his work on
the transmissions that he received (gsan yig) titled Bstan pa'i Nor bdzas (ABounty of Teachings). By looking at this rare work, that has only recently
surfaced from Tibet, we investigate how the Tibetan literary genre of gsan yig
or “records of reception,” serve as particularly rich sources for understanding
the sociology of Buddhist knowledge and Buddhist transmission history. In sodoing, this paper concentrates on the recompilation of Tibetan knowledge about
the early Shangs pa lineages in order to begin the processes of untangling
select knots that have come to inhibit a better historical vision of the receptionof this Buddhist tradition’s philosophical import from India, and its
continuation in Tibet.

Modernizing the Vinaya Pitaka? A Historical Review of the Paradoxes
and Dilemmas of Modifying the Practice of the Vinaya with Scriptural
Basis in the Contemporary World
Yang, Che-ming (Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National
Cheng Kung University, Tainan, TWN); Bhiksu Shih Fa-tzang (Abbot, Wan-fo
Monastery, The 46th Patriarch of the Tian-Tai Lineage)
With the rapid development of transportation and electronic communication(e.g., internet) in modern times, people’s nature, thought, and karma havechanged enormously when compared with people in the Buddha’s times.
Therefore, while skillfully preaching the Dharma to people in the contemporary
world, all the Buddhist monasteries worldwide are facing great challenges intheir endeavor to maintain the essence of the Vinaya—the foundation ofpracticing the Dharma—in terms of helping practitioners to consummate
detachment from desire and cessation of dukkha. Given the basis of “OnlyBuddha Vehicle” (Mahayana), this paper aims to incorporate and consult both
Mahayana and Theravada Tripitaka (Sutra Pitaka, Vinaya Pitaka, Abhidharma
Pitaka) to re-examine the Buddha’s original ideas of “honoring the culturespecific Vinaya,” “renouncing the minor precepts,” and so on, as recorded in

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the earliest Vinaya texts, in the hopes of re-confirming four “orthodox”
approaches recognized by the Buddha to renouncing and modifying the Vinaya
according to the Dharma practitioners’ differences in time, region, andcondition. More importantly, departing from the Buddha’s original teaching,
this paper re-examines three occasions, twelve principles, and five defects to beprevented, for conducting an orthodox renunciation and modification of the
Vinaya in order to bring about new perspectives on practicing the Vinaya for
all Dharma practitioners in contemporary society. Meanwhile, this paper
surveys four paradoxes/dilemmas of “updating” the Vinaya that Buddhists
worldwide, religious and secular, are facing in order to arouse the awarenessof those who are devoted to solving the possible challenges to prevailing
Buddhism. Solving these challenges could help us achieve the objective ofrendering the Dharma eternally abiding and prevailing.

“Mind-Only” as a Strategy for Yogic PracticeEckel, Malcolm David (Boston University, USA)In the introduction to his commentary on the Triṃśikā, Sthiramati draws adirect connection between “mind-only” and the removal of “obstructions”(āvaraṇa) that prevent the attainment of liberation and the development ofomniscience. This paper will explore the practical connections between “mindonly” and the goals of the bodhisattva path in the two major Indian
commentaries on the Triṃśikā (by Sthiramati and Vinītadeva) and in the“Analysis of External Objects” (bahirarthaparīkṣā) by Śāntarakṣita. The
purpose will be to understand the fundamental epistemological and ontologicalcommitments of the Yogācāra tradition through its distinctive strategy of yogic
practice.

Yogācāra Metaphysics as a Model for the Interpretation of Scripture
Gold, Jonathan (Brooklyn, USA)192

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This paper argues that Yogācāra’s characteristic metaphysics (trisvabhāva,vijñãptimātra, etc.) must be understood in the light of its primary concern,
which is to integrate the totality of Buddhist scripture into a comprehensive
view of the path to liberation (nirvāṇa). I begin by rooting the Three Natures
doctrine in its originary context of the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel in
the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra. It is clear from this passage that the Three Natures
are initially proposed as three kinds of “lack of own being” (ngo bo nyid ma
mchis pa nyid) or emptiness, each associated with one set of teachings of the
Buddha and one stage of his students’ intellectual and moral development. The
Three Natures doctrine itself is the final set of teachings (the Third Turning),
which explains the “good distinctions” that allow one both to differentiate thedoctrinal levels and to inoculate oneself against a mistaken reification of
emptiness.
In the second half of the paper, I apply this reading of the Three Natures
doctrine to Vasubandhu’s Three Natures Exposition (Trisvabhāvanirdeśa),arguing that Vasubandhu’s purpose in these verses is to express the “deep”(gaṃbhīra) unity in the Buddha’s teachings. He does this through two methods.
One method is to foreground the “emptiness” resonant within the teaching ofDependent Origination (the First Turning), as expressed through the analogy ofthe magical illusion. The point that emptiness is implicit in the early Buddhist
teachings is also made in the Twenty Verses (Viṃśatikā). The other method is todisplay how the Three Natures are themselves “non-dual,” since each relies
upon the others for its proper elucidation. Yogācāra, under this view, integrates
Buddhist scripture into a single, conceptual whole.

The Mahāyāna of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra: Śamatha-Vipaśyanā andPhilosophy in the Mahāyāna
Iwamoto, Akemi (D. T. Suzuki Museum, Kanazawa-shi, JPN)
In this paper, I investigate the relationship between Mahāyānistic śamathavipaśyanā practices and the central philosophical theories of the
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (MSA, circa 4th c. CE). I aim to clarify the meaning of
the Mahāyāna of the MSA, and to show how the MSA's unique writing style andstructure are related to its Mahāyāna.

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Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions both designate the MSA as one of theso-called “Five Treatises of Maitreya.” The MSA is an innovative work:
unconstrained by old traditions and structured on a highly elaborate design. Its
first chapter includes one of the earliest detailed arguments against theconservative Buddhists of the time, who denied that the Mahāyāna was thelegitimate teaching of the Buddha. Even though scholars have carefully
examined this argument (or defense) for a decade, the meaning of the
Mahāyāna of the MSA remains unclear.
In modern Buddhist Studies, the MSA has been classified as belonging to theearly Yogācāra school. The way of Mahāyānization of the early Yogācāra texts
is not the same. What version of the Mahāyāna does the MSA advocate? Inorder to answer this question, we need to thoroughly analyze the whole text of
the MSA from various perspectives. Here, I will explore the MSA’s version of
the Mahāyāna by focusing on the praxis system of the MSA.
The MSA constructed an innovative praxis system of the Bodhisattva path. The
central practices of this system are a wide variety of yogic practices consistingof śamatha and vipaśyanā; there are both newly created Mahāyānisticśamatha-vipaśyanā practices, and traditional practices, such as the nine typesof mental stabilization. Furthermore, in order to grade or categorize its
practices, the MSA uses the Mahāyāna theory of the ten stages of a Bodhisattva
and traditional frameworks.
In previous articles, I have pointed out that the MSA presents the whole processof its new praxis system in Chapters 13 and 14. Citta-mātra—a key term in
Yogācāra idealism—appears in one stage of the MSA’s praxis system.
However, as I will demonstrate in this paper, the citta-mātra concept does notplay a central role in the MSA.

Vasubandhu through a Mahāyāna Looking Glass? Or, Why Vasubandhu
Believes Ordinary Language Can and Does Take Care of Itself
Kachru, Sonam (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Forum
Transregionale Studien, Berlin, GER)194

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Vasubandhu’s works are often cited by philosophers seeking to reconstruct aconvincing target of the critique of philosophers like Nāgārjuna, whose own
views are taken to have exposed presuppositions concerning language and truth
fatal to a project of fundamental metaphysics often associated with
Vasubandhu. But what were Vasubandhu's philosophical views concerning
language and truth? No philosophically and exegetically self-evident answer isto hand. Using the Treasury of Metaphysics (Abhidharmakośabhāṣya), thisessay offers a few signposts on the way to a re-consideration of Vasubandhu’s
views. In particular, this essay asks: does it make sense to speak, as isfrequently done on Vasubandhu’s behalf, of an “ultimate form of description”,
wherein the word ‘description’ is taken resolutely? I seek here to follow
concrete instances of Vasubandhu’s analysis: in addition to considering
Vasubandhu’s practice of assigning truth-makers to ordinary language
sentences, his apparent practice of re-casting ordinary language sentences tomake perspicuous their referential commitments, and his arguments against thestringent correspondence principle of the Kashmirian scholars of the
Sarvāstivāda tradition, this paper is centrally guided by the need to make senseof the following two aspects of Vasubandhu’s practice that any account must
explain together: (a) Vasubandhu’s explicit statement (and arguments) to theeffect that language, as used in ordinary contexts of communication, andunderstood to derive meaning from usage, does not deceive; and (b)Vasubandhu’s commitment to revising the referential commitments acquired byordinary language as ordinarily used.

Mere Names – The Bodhisattvabhūmi’s Reinterpretation of nāmamātra
Lugli, Ligeia (Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages, Berkeley,
CA, USA)This paper identifies the Bodhisatvabhūmi as a turning point in theinterpretation of scriptural claims that dharmas amount to mere names(nāmamātra). It proffers that the Bodhisatvabhūmi's discussion of nominalism
can be seen as a pivot between the primarily ontological conception ofnāmamātra that emerges from early Prajñāpāramitā and Madhyamaka
literature, and the later Yogācāra interpretation of language as a trigger of
epistemic distortion.

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In order to highlight the doctrinal shift and the hermeneutical manoeuvre thatcharacterize the Bodhisatvabhūmi’s take on ‘nominalism’, this paper focusses
on the Tattvārthapaṭala's quotation of the second stanza of the
Bhavasaṃkrāntisūtra. First, it analyses the different purposes that the stanza
serves in its original context and in the Bodhisatvabhūmi. Second, it proposes
an outline of the likely motives for this re-interpretation. Finally, it addresses
the question of intentionality. While the Tattvārthapaṭala shows indications of aconscious hermeneutical effort to re-interpret the Bhavasaṃkrāntisūtra’s
stanza, it is unclear to what extent this re-interpretation might also derive froma gradual shift in the Indic discourse on language that had taken place in thetime between early formulation of ‘nominalism’ and the compilation of thischapter of the Bodhisatvabhūmi.

Does Early Yogācāra Have a Theory of Meaning? The Case of
Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā and Sthiramati’s bhāṣya
Tzohar, Roy (Tel Aviv University, Berlin, GER)
Can the early Yogācāra be said to present a systematic theory of meaning? In
this paper I argue that Sthiramati’s bhāṣya on Vasubandu’s Triṃśikā, where it
is stated that all language-use is metaphorical, indeed provides such a theory,both in light of the text’s adherence to the wider Indian philosophicalconversation regarding reference and meaning and by virtue of the questions it
addresses and its motivations. The paper briefly explores the main sources ofinfluence on this understanding of language and meaning, tracing its relations
to its immediate Buddhist textual context (that is, to texts such as theAbhidharmakośabhāṣya, Bodhisattvabhūmi and the Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī,among others) as well as to the theories of meaning put forward by its
contemporaneous non-Buddhist schools. I then proceed to show how, in an
attempt to link causal ontology and linguist meaning, Vasubandhu andespecially Sthiramati made use of the Yogācāra understanding of the causal
underpinning of language in the store-house consciousness to present
something akin to a (non-realist) figurative causal theory of reference. This
theory, I argue, sat well with the Yogācāra’s soteriological and theoreticalneeds, as it enabled the school to 1) maintain a notion of discourse in whichhighly diversified descriptions of reality, not all of them true in the ultimate
sense, were considered meaningful under the same referential principle, and 2)
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to contend that some descriptions are more meaningful and true than others.
This in turn allowed the Yogācāra to distinguish between different epistemic
points of view correlating to different levels of discourse within theconventional realm, and by implication, to defend the meaningfulness of its
discourse in the face of Madhyamaka’s radical conventionalism.

The Saccasaṅkhepa and its Commentaries
Cousins, L.S. (Wolfson College, Oxford, GBR)
The Saccasaṅkhepa (Sacc) is a verse manual of the Pali abhidhamma traditionof uncertain date, but in any case earlier than the twelfth century A.D. Since atleast the thirteenth century its authorship has been variously attributed to
Dhammapāla and Ānanda. The date and authorship of both Sacc and its two
extant commentaries are discussed and its place in the history of Theriyaabhidhamma literature explored.

The Sarvāstivāda Doctrine of the abhisamaya
Dhammapala, Bhikkhu (Malaysian Buddhist Academy, Hong Kong, HKG)
In the Sarvāstivāda schema of the path of spiritual cultivation, arguably themost critical stage is that featuring the direct-comprehension (abhisamaya) into
the four Noble Truths, known as the ‘Path of Seeing’ (darśana-mārga). The
initiation of this insight marks a definite qualitative transition of thepractitioner, whose spiritual grade (‘lineage’ - gotra) transforms instantly intothat of an ārya, never again to descend into the realm of the ordinary worldling.
In this stage cognitive views (dṛṣṭi), doubts and all but the most tenacious andsubtle of defilements are eradicated completely and absolutely in a process
which lasts only 15 moments, and which is both inevitable and irreversible fromthe very last moment of the Worldly path, the laukika-agra-dharma. By the 16th
moment, the ārya has entered into the Supramundane Path of Cultivation,
wherein the gradual abandonment of the residual, obstinate defilements not

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completely abandoned in the Path of Seeing constitutes the final task before
ascension into arhat-hood - the final destination of spiritual ascension.
While the notion and key significance of abhisamaya was a common doctrine insectarian Buddhism, its articulation, in particular its objects or the constituent
moments of the Path of seeing were subject to considerable variation amongst
the abhidharmic schools. The Sarvāstivāda teachings of abhisamaya also
opposed many contemporary traditions through the advocacy of its
characteristic doctrinal position of ‘gradual,’ sequential direct-comprehension.
Amongst the growing body of modern research focusing on abhisamaya there
has been extremely little attention given to the Sarvāstivādin articulation of the‘gradual’ nature of direct-comprehension into the four Truths, and in particular
its central theoretical foundation – the ‘three types’ of abhisamaya. In thisessay, these issues will be examined in two parts: Firstly, based on quotations
from the Mahāvibhāṣa-śāstra (MVS), Nyānānusāra, the Vyākhyā and Chinese
commentaries, a preliminary discussion of the Sarvāstivāda articulation anddefense of the three types of abhisamaya shall be presented, with emphasis
placed on the functioning of the third abhisamaya – ‘abhisamaya as enterprise’(kārya-abhisamaya) – as a key counteragent to the doctrine of ‘abrupt’ or
immediate direct-comprehension. Secondly, an overview shall be presented,
based mainly on the MVS and Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya, of the additional
miscellaneous arguments and rationales forwarded by Vaibhāṣika scholars that
refute the doctrine of ‘abrupt’ direct-comprehension.

Some Critical Remarks on Robinson and Hayes’ Criticism of Nāgārjuna’s
Treatment of the Abhidharma Concept of svabhāva
Kardas, Goran (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University ofZagreb, Zagreb, HRV)
Buddhist scholars R. H. Robinson and R. P. Hayes have expressed certain
objections regarding Nāgārjuna's reasoning procedure and the manner inwhich he treats his opponent's (Ābhidharmika’s) basic concept of svabhāva.
Thus, Robinson asserts that the validity of Nāgārjuna's refutations depends
upon whether his opponents really upheld the existence of a svabhāva as hedefines or understands the term. His answer is negative: Nāgārjuna's “trick”,
according to him, “consists of reading into the opponent's views a few terms
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[e.g. svabhāva] which one defines for him in a self-contradictory way”.
Similarly, Hayes believes that Nāgārjuna and his followers constantly
misrepresent their opponent’s positions, thus refuting the “man of straw”.
Moreover, Hayes believes that he has found a systematic error in Nāgārjuna’s
reasoning (refuting) procedure through which his key arguments only appear tofunction. Specifically, Nāgārjuna’s reasoning is corrupted by the (informal)
fallacy of equivocation upon the term “intrinsic nature” (svabhāva) thatconsists of his intentional playing upon two meanings of svabhāva, those ofidentity and causal independence which are in no way interconnected in thesense that one presupposes the other. Only by playing with these two meanings
is Nāgārjuna able to expose the absurdity of the notion of svabhāva.
Furthermore, this means that Nāgārjuna uses the term “svabhāva” differently
than the followers of the Abhidharma tradition, to whom Hayes claims the term
meant only the nature (bhāva) belonging to a thing itself (svasya), referring
thus to the identity of a thing.
My presentation will attempt to use textual evidence to show that Nāgārjuna,contrary to opinion of these scholars, did not actually read unacceptable
meaning(s) of svabhāva into his opponent's (Ābhidharmika’s) views. It will also
attempt to show that he did not commit the fallacy of equivocation through thesimple fact that Ābhidharmikas (Vaibhāṣikas) actually defined svabhāva interms of identity and causal independence, as is evident from the *AbhidharmaMahāvibhāṣa-śāstra, a text that was most likely circulating in Nāgārjuna’stime. Nāgārjuna and Ābhidharmikas (Vaibhāṣikas) held exactly the same initial
understanding of the concept of svabhāva, however, it led them to draw
completely opposite (doctrinal) conclusions. Hence, Nāgārjuna can also not be
accused of construing his opponent’s view differently from the way it was
intended (the fallacy of vākchala).

Two Different Names: Abhidharma and Abhidhamma
Kim, Kyungrae (King's College London, University of London, London, GBR)
Sanskrit and Pāli traditions established differing doctrinal interpretations of the
Buddha’s teaching: Abhidharma and Abhidhamma. These scholastic traditions
share external similarities: 7 fundamental treatises, etymological terms,
analytical disposition etc. Hermeneutical differences, however, are found in
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them. It is the case even in the definitions of the compound terms, abhi-dharma
and abhi-dhamma, which reveals that they developed within a heterogeneouscontext.
According to the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and Nyāyānusāraśāstra, two aspectsof the term abhi-dharma, ultimate and secular, should be analyzed. The
ultimate (pāramārthika abhidharma) consists of ‘pure wisdom (prajñā-amala)’and ‘its followers (anucara).’ On the other hand, ‘defiled wisdom (sāsravā
prajñā),’ ‘its followers (anucara),’ and ‘seven treatises (śāstra)’ are within the
secular (sāṃketika abhidharma).
The compound abhi-dhamma, on the other hand, is interpreted as ‘supremeteaching.’ This teaching is designated as the Seven Books (satta pakaraṇāni)transmitted by the Mahāvihāra fraternity in Laṅkā. It is quite different from thecase of abhi-dharma in which treatises are just expedients for pure wisdom(saṃbhāra).
The tradition of Abhidhamma as a supreme teaching originated from thedistinctive context of Laṅkā. Whether historical fact or not, the Pāli chronicles
and commentaries tried to describe Laṅkā Theravāda as being divided intomonastery schisms. According to them, 2-3 leading fraternities built quite
different doctrinal systems until the 12th century CE. Mahāvihāra, one of themonasteries, authored its own Abhidhamma Books, and projected its religious
identity into the writings.
The abhi-dhamma definition as ‘supreme teaching’ eventually assumed thedesignation “Mahāvihāra’s supremacy” for it was this fraternity which handed
down the very Seven Books.

Śrīlāta's Theory of the Atom
Lee, Gilsan (Department of Philosophy, Seoul National University, Seoul,
KOR)
Nowadays the identity and origin of the Sautrāntika school is under contention.
However, this school itself left no writings on their own doctrinal positions.

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XVIIth Congress of the IABSSaṅghabhadra(衆賢)’s Nyāyānusāraśāstra (順正理論) provides important
evidence to investigate the character and doctrines of the early Sautrāntika. The
author, an orthodox Sarvāstivādin, mentions Sautrāntika and especially
Sthavira Śrīlāta, along with Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya for the
purpose of opposing them. However, Śrīlāta’s whole theoretical position has
not been clearly elucidated until now. I will examine the atomist theory of
Sthavira Śrīlāta, which I believe to be a critical clue for understanding histhought. He presents an atomist argument of rejecting the cognitive faculties
and their corresponding objects (處, āyatana) as being provisionally existing (假有, prajñaptisat) using the famous metaphor of the blind. However, he does
not clarify his theoretical position about the existence and nature of the atom (極微, paramāṇu) in here, while refusing to accept the atom’s nature ofpartlessness (無方分, niravayava). This poses a paradox because of his
advocacy of a ‘partite atom.’Here we are reminded of one of the famous debates in Indian Buddhist
philosophical discussions around the atom since its introduction in the
Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra (大毘婆沙論) until Dignāga’s practically final refutationof external realism. So I will refer to related passages to reconstruct Śrīlāta’s
theory of the atom.
On the other hand he claims that the five sensuous cognitions (五識) takeconventional things (世俗, saṃvṛti) as their objects because of their being nondiscriminative (無分別, nirvikalpa), which seems very strange for other
Buddhist schools. By examining his positive conception of vikalpa, I will try tobridge his theory of the atom and his soteriological position, which I believe
will show the important role the atom plays in his theoretical scheme.

What is a Whole According to Abhidharmic Philosophers: A Pure
Accumulation of Atoms or Something Different from it ?
Lysenko, Victoria (Institute of Philosophy, Moscow, RUS)
In this paper, I argue that there are two ways of explaining the relationshipbetween the atoms and the gross things formed by them (or between parts andwhole) suggested in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya:201

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According to the first one, the properties of materiality, ability to contact(entering into combinations) and perceptibility are contained not only in grossthings, but in atoms (paramāṇu) as well; however, they are perceptible only inthings, not in atoms. This is the model of the Vaibhāṣika School. I call it
accumulativist. In accordance with this model, due to the increased number ofatoms, i.e. their accumulation up to some critical mass, they become manifested
to the point of becoming perceptible. The smallest atomic aggregate is a dust
particle in a ray of light. As per some late Buddhist calculations, it contains
1.379 atoms.
According to the second explanation, the atoms have the mentioned properties
only in agglomerations (saṃghāta), not individually. In this way, theseproperties are a kind of systemic impact, i.e. they are emergent. Therefore I callthis model the emergent one. Apparently, it belongs to the Abhidharmic Schoolof Sautrāntika. This is not such an obvious case of emergence as in theVaiśeṣika Atomism wherein atoms are absolutely lacking those properties(“grossness”, “perceived size”, etc.) which are characteristic of the things they
compose. Nevertheless, what matters for me is the fact that Abhidharmikas
raised a problem of certain system properties in relation to atoms although they
did not designate those properties by special terms.

The Sautrāntika Notion of Ālambana and its Dārṣṭāntika Precursor
Park, Changhwan (Geumgang Univ., Nonsan, KOR)
As Mimaki (1975) has observed long ago, the Sautrāntika tradition has been
one of the most enigmatic systems of thought in Indian Buddhism in that
although it is counted by later doxographical traditions, Indian or Tibetan, as
one of the four major philosophical schools in Indian Buddhism, no single text
ascribed to this particular school has survived to this day except somefragmented citations found in Vasubandhu’s AKBh. More enigmatic is themodern scholarly practice to try to identify “Sautrāntika” elements in what theycall the “Sautrāntika-Yogācāra school” represented by such Buddhist logiciansas Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. It is enigmatic because there is no explicit
reference to the designation “Sautrāntika” in the texts ascribed to thesethinkers per se. That is to say, they never explicitly identified their sectarianaffiliation or identity.
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For these scholars, the Sautrāntika represents phenomenalistic realism as
opposed to Yogācāra’s idealism. The typical description of the Sautrāntika
epistemological position is that the Sautrāntika assumes the existence of an
external object outside the mind, even though the images (ākāra) that appear toour cognition may not be the way actual objects or atoms exist. This is aposition that John Dunne (2004) calls “Sautrāntika externalism”. Despite thewide acceptance of this standard view of the Sautrāntika as a realist, actual
texts sometimes tell different stories that the Sautrāntika may not have been a
realist to begin with.
In the chapter on perception (pratyakṣapariccheda k. 194-230) of hisPramāṇavārttika, Dharmakīrti deals with an issue of Abhidharma
epistemological proposition: “Five kinds of consciousnesses have congregated[atoms] as their objects (sañcitālambanāḥ pañca vijñānakāyāḥ).” Tosaki
Hiromasa (1978) attributes Dharmakīrti's view on this issue to the Sautrāntika
on the basis of its similarity to the position ascribed to the Sautrāntika in K'ueichi's commentary (二十唯識論述記) on the Viṃśatikā of Vasubandhu. Despite
Tosaki's claim, however, Dharmakīrti's realist understanding of a sense-object
shows a marked difference from K’uei-chi's account of the Sautrāntika view.
The Sautrāntika, as K’uei-chi describes it, puts much emphasis on theaggregated and thus unreal aspect of the sense-object, denying the causal roleof atoms (paramāṇu) themselves in its formulation. As I shall argue in thispaper, the Sautrāntikas were rather anti-realists in the beginning, perhaps adisappointing result to those who hold the above-mentioned standard view of
the Sautrāntika as being a realist.
To be sure, these scholars try to corroborate this standard view of the
Sautrāntika by culling some textual evidence, but their references arepractically confined to Vasubandhu’s accounts of Sautrāntika positions in theAKBh. The problem is that the recent scholarship has brought into question the
sectarian origins of Vasubandhu’s Sautrāntika theories, extensively discussing
their Dārṣṭāntika or Yogācāra-connections. That is, we are no longer in aposition to naively subscribe to the standard understanding of the Sautrāntika
dogmatics and of their sectarian identity.
Most notable in this respect is Śrīlāta, actual founder of the Sautrāntika school,
whose ideas, as represented in Saṅghabhadra’s Nyāyānusāra, had exercisedenormous influences on the formation of Vasubandhu's accounts of Sautrāntika.

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Thus, Śrīlāta’s views may deserve to be called “proto-Sautrāntika” as opposed
to Vasubandhu’s rather modified accounts of the Sautrāntika positions.
What this paper aims to demonstrate is that this so-called standard view of the
Sautrāntika as a realist is neither in line with K’uei-chi’s account of the
Sautrāntika nor with Śrīlāta's proto-Sautrāntika positions but rather reflects
Vasubandhu's own accounts of the Sautrāntika positions.

Why Did Buddhism and Jainism Develop Differently in India?
Bronkhorst, Johannes (University of Lausanne, Pully, CHE)
Buddhism and Jainism arose in the same region of India, roughly during thesame period. Both of them offered solutions to the same problem: how does one
put an end to potentially endless rebirths. Both of them put the remains of theirfounders in stūpas, or so it seems. Both exerted a profound influence on one
another during the early period. Buddhism incorporated what we may safely
consider jaina practices in its own arsenal of practices at an early stage, even
before its Sūtras had attained their classical form. Influence the other way
round, from Buddhism onto Jainism, becomes visible at a time when Buddhism
had elaborated its Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma: a number of its features can berecognized in Śvetāmbara canonical texts.
With so many features in common, how do we explain that the developments of
Buddhism and Jainism on the Indian subcontinent are so radically different?
Indeed, one of the striking differences is that Jainism only developed on the
Indian subcontinent, whereas Buddhism developed both there and elsewhere.
But as striking as it is, this difference does not appear to explain all. Already on
the Indian subcontinent Buddhism developed in a manner quite different from
Jainism. I therefore propose to consider some developments of Buddhism andJainism that took place on the subcontinent, and what is more: in geographicalregions that the two religions shared.
This paper will draw attention to a number of divergences between the tworeligions that become manifest during the Kuṣāṇa period, especially in andaround Mathurā.

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Discovery of a Text Comparing the Three Teachings Written in the Tang
Dynasty in Japan
Fujii, Jun (Komazawa University, Tokyo, JPN)
Comparing the advantages of the three teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, andBuddhism) is one of the famous topics in Chinese philosophy in the Tangdynasty. However, there are few texts that deal with this topic other than the
Bian zheng lun, Discriminating Which Teaching is Correct, written by theapologistic Buddhist monk named Fa-lin (572-640). A manuscript treating this
topic, Sanjiao buqilun, The Three Teachings are not of Equal Value, wasidentified by me in the Tokyo Metropolitan Library. I published it in 2011. HereI will present this text and contribute further research in this field.
The text was written by an aristocrat named Yao-bien in the 8th century. Yaobien was not an aristocrat of high status, and he does not seem to have been afamous person because there is no record about him in historical documents.
The text was introduced into Japan by the famous Japanese monks Saichō and
Kūkai in the early Heian period, ca. 800 AD. Both of them noted this text intheir catalog of books imported by them from China. Studies in the modern era
said that this text was missing or identified it as one Dunhuang text, S5645(Makita Tairyō, 1912-2011). However, the new discovery proves thisidentification to be false. After I found this text, another two manuscripts
written between the 15th and 19th century have come to light. One waspreserved in the Ishiyama temple and another in one temple of Koyasan inJapan.
The text was written under the following circumstances. Around 724 AD, under
Xuanzong’s reign, female Taoists advocated that there is no difference between
Buddhism and Taoism. But Yao-bien refuted this idea and evaluated Buddhism
higher than Taiosm.
The text discusses the advantages of each by comparing the family lineage andthe number of disciples from biographies of Confucius, Laozi and Buddha, thefounders of the teachings. Because Buddha is described as a superhuman in
Buddhist scriptures, compared with Confucius and Laozi, Buddha is thegreatest and Buddhism is best according to this text.

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As the author was an aristocrat or layman, not a monk, his text has a few
pecularities. First, Yao-bien emphasizes the rule to acquire good fortune, andto remove misfortune and calamities, something mainstream Buddhism does notnecessarily emphasize. Second, Yao-bien recognizes the rule of discriminationby which Buddhism gives a negative sense or has an affirmative recognition,compared with orthodox Buddhist ideas. Third, Yao-bien frowned upon the
Taoist’s idea of being born in heaven, but praises the idea of being reborn inthe paradise of Buddhism. I will introduce the outline of this discovered text inthis presentation.

Buddhism and the Religious ‘Other’: Six Responses in Text and Tradition
Harris, Elizabeth (Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, GBR)
In this paper I argue that Buddhist responses to the religious ‘other’ can be
categorized into six broad areas: adherence to a code of conduct predicated on
respect for the ‘other’, co-existence and non-violent yet rigorous debate; therobust teaching of ideas that opposed or challenged those taught by otherreligious leaders; ridicule of the practices/beliefs of the ‘other’; the demotion
or subordination of these practices/beliefs; the appropriation and modificationof practices and symbols from the religious ‘other’; polemical defence of
Buddhism if a perceived threat to the dhamma from the ‘other’ is identified. The
first five responses can be seen both in the texts and in the lived tradition. The
sixth emerged most visibly during the period of European colonial
expansionism in the nineteenth century and continues to the present.
To illustrate these responses, I take examples from the Pali texts and from the
lived Buddhist tradition of Sri Lanka. With reference to the latter, I emphasize
particularly the co-existence that developed in the country between Buddhists
and Saivites, and Buddhists and Muslims, rooted in the first and the fourth of
the above responses (although the third emerged occasionally). This coexistence, however, was threatened in the twentieth century by ethnic conflict,and continues to be threatened by nationalist Buddhists seeking to create sacredareas that are peopled by Buddhists alone. I illustrate this with reference toDambulla, a town in the central province of the country that is home to aprestigious and ancient Buddhist temple complex, the ‘Golden Temple ofDambulla’. In 2012, the mosque in Dambulla was attacked by Buddhists and206

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demands were made that it should be moved further away from the Buddhist
temple. In 2013, a similar attack was made on the Hindu kovil with a similar
demand: that the kovil should be moved.
The paper builds on my contribution on ‘Buddhism and the Religious Other’ ina forthcoming book: Understanding Interreligious Relations (Eds. Douglas
Pratt, David Cheetham & David Thomas, Oxford University Press, 2014). It
adds to this the case study of Dambulla as an illustration of the theoreticalframework proposed.

Criticism of Heretics in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra: Towards Constructing a
Philosophy of Multicultural Coexistence from the Point of View of
BuddhismHoriuchi, Toshio (Toyo University, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo, JPN)
The Laṅkāvatārasūtra (hereafter LAS) is a Mahāyāna scripture composed at
the time of the middle period of the Mahāyāna in India. We have the Sanskrit
original, three Chinese translations and two Tibetan translations (one is atranslation from Chinese).
There are two Tibetan commentaries on the LAS. One is Jñānaśrībhadra’s,
from the 11th century. The second commentary is Jñānagarbha’s, which cites
Jñānaśrībhadra and must therefore have been published later. Although they
have a Tantric point of view, they are invaluable when one wishes to read theterse phrases and tough compounds that appear in the sūtra in the Indian andTibetan traditions.
The sūtra is unique in several aspects. One of the most unique characteristics ofthis sūtra is that Mahāmati, interlocutor of the sūtra, sometimes dares tocondemn the Buddha by identifying his teachings with those of heretics(tīrthakara) or asks the difference between the similar teachings of heretics. The
sūtra also criticises heretic teachings such as those of Sāṃkhya, Vaiśeṣika, andLokāyata, referring to their names. Thus, we can know how the sūtra
differentiated the doctrine of Buddhism from that of heretics and how it thoughtof the innate characteristics of the Buddhist doctrine. We can also read these207

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arguments as a dialogue with heretics as suggesting how Buddhism faces theheretics. Fortunately enough, thanks to the two Tibetan commentaries, we canfurther know which doctrines of the heretics this sūtra criticised.
In this presentation, I would like to take up some of the criticisms of heretics
and investigate their characteristics from the textual point of view by the guideof the two Tibetan commentaries. And further, I investigate if there is any
possibility to extract the wisdom of cultural coexistence from the point of viewof Buddhism from these arguments.

Buddhism and the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra
Maas, Philipp (University of Vienna, Department for South Asian, Tibetan andBuddhist Studies, Vienna, AUT)
The Pātañjala Yogaśāstra (PYŚ), a work of the philosophical system ofSāṅkhya-Yoga that can be dated with some confidence to the early fifth century
CE, reflects a rather ambivalent attitude of its author(s) towards Buddhist
religion and philosophy. On the one hand, the work contains harsh polemics
against philosophical positions that are associated with the Sautrāntika schoolof Śrāvakayāna Buddhism and with the early Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna
Buddhism. On the other hand, as was shown in several publications by Senart,
La Vallée Poussin, Larson, and others, many yogic key terms and conceptions
are assimilations of corresponding Buddhist counterparts. Moreover, as wasshown by Wezler, also the treatment of the philosophical problem of causationin PYŚ 2.28 is based on conceptions that have a close parallel in Asaṅga’s
Abhidharmasamuccaya and in Vasubandhu’s Madhyāntavibhāgabhāṣya. In
addition, the PYŚ contains an assimilation of the Sarvāstivāda doctrine that allentities exists throughout the three time periods of past, present and future inPYŚ 3.13 and 4.12. A fresh look at this doctrine will be the main topic of thispresentation. First, I shall scrutinize the teaching of existence throughout thethree time periods in the contexts of the PYŚ and its commentaries, after which I
shall compare this teaching with its Buddhist parallels as far as they areaccessible to me in Sanskrit, Tibetan translations or translations from Chinese
into modern western languages. This will lead me to return to the question of
the historical relationship between the Yogic and the Buddhist versions of thedoctrine of existence throughout the three time periods. Finally, I shall try to208

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arrive at a preliminary characterization of the nuanced intellectual attitude of
the author of the PYŚ towards Buddhism, which, I hope, will contribute to abetter understanding of the complex interrelation between Hinduism andBuddhism in pre-modern South Asia.

Buddhist and Jaina Stories of Śreṇika Bimbisāra and Kūṇika Ajātaśatru:
Parallels and Divergences
Wu, Juan (University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN)As two prominent contemporaries of the Buddha and Mahāvīra, the Magadhan
king Śreṇika Bimbisāra and his son Kūṇika Ajātaśatru are widely featured inboth Buddhist and Jaina literature. In comparing Buddhist and Jaina sources,
scholars have generally focused on the shared episode of Kūṇika Ajātaśatru’s
causing the death of his father, with rather less attention given to other stories
concerning the two figures. For instance, so far as I know, almost no previous
study has looked closely into the parallels between Buddhist and Jaina accountsof Kūṇika Ajātaśatru’s previous life, his conception and birth. Also, there seems
to have been little exploration of the remarkable divergences between Buddhist
and Jaina attitudes towards the salvation of the two figures.
In this paper, I will take an overall look at Buddhist and Jaina stories of Kūṇika
Ajātaśatru and Śreṇika Bimbisāra, investigating into the afore-mentioned
parallels and divergences. In particular, I will consider how the divergences
may tell us about different karmic views and soteriological emphases of
Buddhists and Jainas who composed the stories. Remarks will also be made on
Buddhist and Jaina accounts of Kūṇika Ajātaśatru’s political activities, whichhave not been given enough attention in previous studies.

Oirot Prophecy: Arrested Buddhism in the Altai Area, 1890s-1920s
Znamenski, Andrei (The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA)209

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The paper discusses a little-known case of the advancement of Tibetan
Buddhism in southern Siberia (Mountain Altai) at the turn of the twentiethcentury. Known as Ak-Jang (White Faith), it represented an attempt of “selfconversion” to Buddhism. Having emerged in opposition to local shamanism,
the movement heavily borrowed from Mongolian Buddhism. It was also
centered on the prophecy about Oirot-khan, a legendary prince that was
expected to come from Mongolia and save the Altaians from Russian land
encroachment. For political reasons, earlier scholarship stressed the uniquenature of the “White Faith,” downplaying its links with the Mongol-Tibetan
world. In contrast, this paper suggests that, culturally and spiritually, the Altai
indigenous nomadic population was under the heavy influence of Mongol
Buddhism, moving toward the adoption of Tibetan Buddhism – a process thatwas terminated by the advance of the powerful secular Communist prophecy
that arrested this process. The paper is based on archival sources.

The “Installation of the Lord(s) of the Teaching” (bstan pa'i bdag por
mnga' gsol): Remarks on an Enthronement Rite in Sa skya
Caumanns, Volker (Lumbini International Research Institute, Dinslaken, GER)
Rituals, ceremonies and religious festivities have always formed an importantpart of Tibetan Buddhist life. Serving various religious and worldly purposes,
and ranging from simple ritualized acts of devotion to elaborate monastic
ceremonies, they permeate almost every aspect of Tibetan culture and, among
other factors, shape reality as it is culturally experienced. Some of these rituals
and ceremonies—and, one might add, their descriptions in written sources suchas hagiographies, treatises, etc.—play a significant role in displaying andestablishing religious and political authority, and thus the various “ways ofritualizing” should play an important role when it comes to analyzing thedifferent ways in which religion and politics were intermingled in traditional
Tibetan society.
In my paper, I would like to focus on an enthronement rite that was held incertain intervals at the “great monastic residence” (tib. gdan sa chen po) of Sa
skya (i.e. the spiritual and administrative center of the aristocratic ’Khonfamily). 17th century sources, mainly stemming from the pen of the Sa skya
throne holder A mes zhabs (1597-1659), provide us with some very detailed
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accounts of this ceremony during which one or several of the male scions of the’Khon family were installed as regents on the throne of Sa skya. The
ceremony—variously termed as “installation of the lord(s) of the teaching”(tib. bstan pa’i bdag por mnga’ gsol) or “installation as noble regent(s)” (tib.
rgyal tshab dam par mnga’ gsol)—consisted in its core of a ritualized three-day
Buddhist teaching. However, since the 16th century at the latest the“installation of the lord(s) of the teaching” was only the climax of large-scalefestivities lasting several weeks that included the annually-held mdos ritual (i.e.
the expelling of evil forces via an effigy), ’cham dances, the new-year
celebrations and the entertainment (tib. gzhi len) of the guests.
My paper will give a brief overview of the history of the enthronement rite,
followed by a description of how the different parts of the full festivities were
performed in the 16th and early 17th centuries. As we learn from the Tibetan
sources, the festivities were attended by the saṅgha (including the highmonastic officials from Sa skya and other religious establishments) andaristocratic donors (and possibly lower strata of the laity), and at fixed stages,
extensive offerings and gifts were presented to the new regent(s) but also to thevarious officials of Sa skya. Therefore, I will also discuss some aspects of thissocial interaction since the Tibetan sources allow us to draw conclusions withregard to the different levels of the monastic hierarchy of Sa skya and how, in
this particular instance, they related to each other.

The Winter Visitors: Monks, Devotees and Construction of Bodhgaya as a
Place
Chakrabarti, Bhaskar (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, IND)
Bodhgaya in eastern India is the place where Gautama Buddha attained
enlightenment. Now, it is a site of pilgrimage for thousands of Buddhist
devotees who visit from all over the world. Although the devotees visit
throughout the year, the number increases during the months of winter, when
Tibetan refugees from all over India come and stay in Bodhgaya. Monks fromvarious Buddhist monasteries also come during this period. The place thrives
with activities for the devotees: debates are organised, meditation sessions arescheduled. Many devotees say that during the rest of the year, they look forward
to visiting Bodhgaya for its winter activities. Some of them point to a kind of re211

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enactment of Buddha’s austerities that are associated with these daily rituals
that are organised. Others talk about meeting old friends in Bodhgaya, or
selling things in the winter-market and therefore the business opportunities. In
this paper, I analyse the process of construction of ‘Bodhgaya as the place’ forthe monks as well as the devotees, who visit during the months of winter. I
explore what it means to be a follower of Buddhism in Bodhgaya, and come asa regular visitor every year. Through participant observation and semistructured interviews with visitor’s groups (primarily Tibetan refugees whocome from different parts of India, and the monks from different Buddhist
monasteries), I try to understand the meaning of the place as perceived by themembers of these groups. In particular, I ask: How far is the idea of Bodhgaya
for these winter-devotees restricted to the monasteries, and the daily rituals?
How is the idea of a sacred space in Bodhgaya constructed and defined, and towhat extent does it differ between the monks and the devotees who visit during
the winter? I argue that the sacred in Bodhgaya is not defined through an
opposition of what is not sacred. The elements of sacred/non-sacred areinterwoven in the construction of the place amongst the various participants
through symbols and structures that are bound by socio-political and economic
attributes.

Filial Piety and Political Issues in Ancient China
Guang, Xing (Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong, HKG)
When Buddhism was first introduced into China, it faced many challenges andcriticisms from local Chinese people, particularly Confucian scholars. The
criticisms of Confucian scholars were mainly on ethical grounds, because theBuddhist way of life primarily focuses on individual liberation through moral
perfection, which is very different from Confucianism, which chiefly focuses onfamily and society. In particular, the life of Buddhist monks, who were required
to be celibate, shave their heads, and leave their homes and families, wasincompatible with Confucian practice of filial piety as found in the Confucian
Xiao Jing. This became a political issue in the Eastern Jin dynasty (265-420)
when Huan Xuan came into power. A minister named Yu Bing reported to theemperor that monks should be ordered to pay respect to the emperor by kneeing
down before him, otherwise Li or propriety would be interrupted as they did not212

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do so in the previous dynasties. Thus the debate whether monks should pay
homage to the emperor became a political issue and continued for several
hundred years. This is actually a continuation of the criticism of filial piety
because the Confucian text Xiao Jing discusses filial piety with a focus onpolitics. Thus, filial piety is called loyalty when the object is the emperor.
Chinese Buddhists, both the lay and monastics such as the eminent monk
Huiyuan, on the one hand, debated and argued that monks also paid theirhomage to the emperors in their heart and mind, but not in a manifested way.
On the other hand, the Chinese Buddhists started the practice of paying debts tofour kinds of people: parents, sentient beings, the emperor and Buddhism,
which is taught in the Dasheng ben shengxin di guan jing, translated into
Chinese by Prajñā in 790. But in another scripture, the Zhufo Jingjian
Shezhengshi Jing, also translated by Prajñā, the emperor is placed as the firstamongst the four. This became a regular practice in monasteries throughout
China in the Tang dynasty and the monks also taught their disciples theteaching of paying debts to the four kinds of people. The Chinese Buddhists
practiced the four kinds of kindness in the following ways: first, they made vowsin ceremonies to pay their debts to the four kinds of people, second, they recitedverses in morning and evening chanting of paying the four kinds of debts. Thus
later there was no such a debate as whether the monks should pay homage tothe emperor. This paper is a study of the practices of four kinds of kindness in
Chinese Buddhism.

Buddhist Encounters with Religious Others: Historical Trajectories andContemporary Realities in Sri Lanka
Holt, John (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA)In two previous historical and ethnographic studies,[1] I have examined how theMahayana Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and the Hindu deity Visnu, have been
assimilated into Sinhala religious culture. These case studies illuminated atheory of religious change: elements of one religious culture are often
incorporated into another when rationales are articulated for immediate
pragmatic efficacy on the one hand, and compelling relevance to soteriology on
the other. I also argued (against the grain of the modern socio-political context)that Sinhala religious culture has been historically remarkably inclusive, as
evinced rather spectacularly by the fact that a Mahayana bodhisattva came to213

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be regarded as the tutelary deity of the last dynasty of Theravada Sri Lanka’skings (the Kandyan, 1592-1815), and that a supreme deity of central
theological importance and cultic significance for Hindus came to be popularly
regarded as the chief guardian deity of the Buddhasasana. A third book-length
study[2] focused on artistic and ritual religious projects undertaken by aKandyan king of Tamil Saiva origins, revealed not only rhetorical appeals toroyal discourses rooted in both Buddhist and Hindu classical sources, but
policies of social, economic and political accommodation for Christian andMuslim communities as well.
In this paper, I illustrate that this historic penchant for Sinhala Buddhist
inclusivity is clearly reflected in the annual processions of the asala perahara
in Kandy, reformed and restated during the early years of Kirti Sri Rajasinha’slate medieval reign (1751-82), a ritual articulation left largely intact today andregarded as the country’s signal national pageant. From close observations of
this rite, it is clear that every caste participates in a ranked order, and that thecults of deities emanating from Mahayana Buddhist, Hindu Vaishnava, Saiva
and Sakta origins participate in a hierarchically ranked framework. The
hierarchical inclusivity so apparent in this ritual, a veritable symbolic
articulation of a medieval “socio-cosmos,” was formulated on principles ofverticality denoting perceived degrees of purity. The central focus of this paper
is concerned with how occidental conceptions of political power introduced
during the British colonial period (1796-1948), followed by the establishment ofconstitution-based modern democracies in post-colonial Sri Lanka, havepromoted egalitarian ideals fostering a majoritarian democratic context inwhich relations between various communities (and their respective imaginedcollective identities) are now understood in terms of clearly demarcatedhorizontal relations. Thus, from a conceptuality based on vertically construed
hierarchical inclusivity, reflected very clearly in the symbolism and ritual
articulation of the asala perahara, a horizontally construed understanding ofcommunal boundaries, accompanied by ethics of exclusivity has emerged, an
exclusivity engendering and reinforced by contemporary ethnic conflict.

[1] Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri
Lanka (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) and The Buddhist Visnu:
Religious Transformation Politics and Culture (New York: Columbia University
Press, 2004).
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[2] The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art and Politics in Late
Medieval Sri Lanka (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

Ambedkar's Neo-Buddhism and Social Action
Kumar, Pramod (Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya, Patna, IND)
Buddhism is one of those religious doctrines that have persisted for about 2500
years. During this period, the last century has seen a revitalization andexpansion of Buddhism throughout south and south-east Asia. Ambedkarite
Buddhists espouse an eclectic version of Buddhism, primarily based on
Theravada but with additional influence from Mahayana and Vajrayana. On
many subjects, they give Buddhism a distinctive interpretation. Of particularnote is their emphasis on Sakyamuni Buddha as a political and social reformer,
rather than merely as a spiritual leader. They point out that the Buddha
required his monastic followers to ignore caste distinction. Ambedkar’s
followers do not believe that a person’s unfortunate conditions at birth are theresult of previous karma, an idea which is accepted by almost all other
Buddhist groups.
Ambedkar’s redefinition of Buddhist liberation as the amelioration of material
conditions and social relationship in this life did not find ready acceptanceamong Buddhist intellectuals in India. One of the critics opined that Ambedkar
chose Buddhism for its moral strength and egalitarian principles for a quality
social change and not for its use as a political tool.

Accepting Disability – Karma as Coping Strategy?
Proyer, Michelle (Universität Wien, Vienna, AUT)
Drawing from experiences, interviewees shared about barriers and facilitatorschildren with disabilities face in education in Greater Bangkok, this paper sets
out to explore Buddhism’s role in the ‘Thai perception’ of disabilities. Children
with varied disabilities attending schools in the urban area of Bangkok, their215

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parents and teachers as well as other experts in the field of disability wereinterviewed several times over a period of three years (2010 -2013). One of thepivotal aspects within the interviews was many parents’ reference to Karma
serving as explanation for their child’s disability as well as base for coping withchallenges resulting from the disability. Main questions in relation to
Buddhism’s impact focus on the following areas ranging from the microsphereof personal towards more general accounts. Furthermore, the impact ofadditional, e.g. global agreements and Western-based perceptions of
disabilities and in what way they intersect with or impact ‘traditional’ patternsof understanding will be considered and subject to discussion.






How do Thai parents explain their children’s disability?
Which ‘Thai’-specific patterns can be identified? Which role does
Buddhism play in these?
Which role does Karma as an explanatory pattern in relation todisability play in comparison to e.g. modern medicine and genetics?
What other explanations are there and in what ways do they differ?
Has the importance of Buddhism in relation to understanding
disabilities changed in the course of time? And if so: in what way andwhy?
How do international agreements (above all the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD) and the government’splans and legal steps (e.g. Education Acts) to change society’s
understanding from pity to a rights-based one play a role?

Trying to elaborate on these multi-layered facets, this paper seeks to shed lighton the perception of the phenomenon disability in Thai society. This may lead toan understanding of what determines social attitudes and discriminatory
behaviours and in how far these are linked to the explanatory pattern of ‘cause
and effect’.

“Scientific Evidence” for Rebirth in Contemporary Tibet: The Creative
Appeals of Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro
Sherab, Kunga (University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN)216

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While there is now a long tradition of dialogue between exiled Tibetan
Buddhists and representatives of Western scientific disciplines, little is known
about the evolution of this conversation in Tibetan regions of the PRC itself.
This presentation will introduce previously unstudied sources fromcontemporary monastic leaders on the “scientific” proof for certain
fundamental Buddhist beliefs, such as rebirth. Specifically, I will focus on thework of Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro, a prominent abbot and scholar from Qinghai
Province who has written extensively on this topic in recent years. His works
cite scientific proofs for rebirth in light of classical Buddhist examples, while
generally subsuming the scientific method as a “wrong view” (lta ba log pa)
and asserting the superiority of Buddhist doctrinal positions. I will argue thatnew translations of Western science and the secularization of Chinese society(as this affects younger Tibetans) are the main reasons for these sorts ofcompositions amongst Tibetan Buddhist leaders today. My analysis will also
argue that we ought to pay better attention to the evolving science-Buddhism
dialogue in Asia itself, where the social and political stakes might be quite
different than those usually considered by scholars.

A Mechanism of Social Activism in Japanese Buddhism: An Example ofEngaged Buddhism
Takase, Akinori (Jodo Shu Research Institute, Fuji, JPN)
This presentation reports an example of a new phase in Japanese Buddhism.
Recently a Buddhist group started engaging in the homeless issue. The Buddhist
group, named Hitosaji-no-kai, started feeding and supporting homeless people
in the Sanya district, Tokyo. Though the group was started by some priests in
the Jōdo Shū denomination (the Pure Land denomination), now many
volunteers participate in its social program, regardless of religious affiliation.
This researcher conducted fieldwork and interviews with 12 Buddhist priests in
the group. This study clarified the characteristics of these activities andrevealed that those who get involved in the homeless issue are motivated by the
Buddhist teaching.
In modern Japan, Buddhist traditions are based on ancestral service such as
funeral service and memorial service. People perform Buddhist rituals
primarily for their ancestor worship services. This attitude is entirely connected217

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to a unique management model in Japanese Buddhism. Most temples have agraveyard for their members. In general, Japanese people tend to be buried
with their ancestors and worshiped as guardian spirits of the family after theydie. As a result of that, lay Buddhists and Buddhist priests are connected
through the family grave system. Therefore many temples are preaching more
about ancestor services rather than pursuing individual enlightenment.
Japanese Buddhism has been criticized as “funeral Buddhism” far removed
from people’s daily life.
A new tide, however, has occurred in Japanese Buddhism. Some young priests
have started to engage in social problems. This presentation reports one
example, the Hitosaji-no-kai that Buddhist priests initiated to support homelesspeople in Tokyo. The group has three activities, 1) funeral support, 2) feeding
the needy and 3) promotion of rice donation. Funeral support is a religious
service for homeless people who passed away on the street. Feeding the needy
is material support for the needy. The group goes to the homeless on the street
to provide assistance such as food and medicine. Promotion of rice donationconsists of encouraging other temple priests to donate rice to charitable
activities. These activities, especially the first and the third, take advantage ofthe special resources of Buddhist priests.
There is another problem. In Japan, this kind of volunteer work, supporting andfeeding the homeless, is not appreciated by the public. This is because people
regard homelessness to be a result of laziness or choice. Even though somepeople are aware of the need for such work, the homeless are not welcome intheir neighborhoods. Therefore volunteers who work on the homeless issue
often suffer from a dilemma since they cannot expect social approval.
Through the series of these interviews, however, it was revealed that priests in
Hitosaji-no-kai, have understood their activities as an aspect of the Pure Landteachings and that they have been motivated by a phrase taught by the founder,
Honen (1133-1212). In other words their activities are supported by religious
belief. Through this mechanism, we can see an example of applied theology inJapanese Buddhism.

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Visions of the Copper-Colored Mountain
Bogin, Benjamin (Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA)
Near the turn of the twentieth century, the Tibetan Buddhist scholar andmeditation master, Tsultrim Gyatso (tshul khrims rgya mtsho) composed alengthy commentary on a prayer for rebirth at the Copper-Colored Mountain.
In this text, which bears the poetic title Pure Luminosity (’od snang dkar po),the author attempts to combine maps of the world derived from distinct sources:
the cosmological framework of ancient Indian Buddhism and the images of theHimalayan and South Asian regions derived from modern geography andcartography. In order to understand Tsultrim Gyatso’s approach to thischallenge, it will be necessary to explore the tantric Buddhist epistemology that
underlies his evaluation of the perceptible world, the world of the imagination,and “the real.” David Shulman’s recent book More than Real: A History of
Imagination in South India (2012) provides an excellent model for considering
the ways that early modern thinkers in a different Asian context theorized
imagination. In my reading of Tsultrim Gyatso’s Pure Luminosity, I will
demonstrate ways in which the tantric Buddhist theory of “pure perception”(dag snang) informs his approach to mapping imagined worlds in ways thatdiffer significantly from the South Indian writers studied by Shulman and thecolonial mapmakers who exerted such an influence in the representations ofspace in both India and Tibet. Ngayab, the island upon which the CopperColored Mountain is found occupies a particular kind of space: simultaneously
known to exist in the world (and in the southwestern direction more precisely)
and to transcend the world in a manner that makes it inaccessible to anyone
lacking the sufficient level of spiritual realization. The possibility of locating asacred place both in and beyond the world at the same time provides animportant insight into the theory and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. The islandof Ngayab (Sanskrit: Cāmaradvīpa) is located to the southwest of the
Jambudvīpa continent in traditional Buddhist cosmology and yet the moresalient associations invoked by Tibetan authors are those drawn from Indian
tales of merchant travelers encountering demon-infested islands on their sea
voyages. Using Tsultrim Gyatso’s Pure Luminosity as a starting point, I will
trace out the wide range of literary sources that inform the maps of real andimagined worlds held by early modern Tibetans. With this background in place,it will be possible to ask what choices Tsultrim Gyatso makes in his own workand the criteria that he uses for drawing his own map of the Copper-Colored
Mountain. Beyond the importance of this study for our knowledge of Tibetan

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Buddhism, I am confident that this case will provide very valuable points ofcomparison and contrast for other scholars interested in the Asian encounter
with modernity and the intersections between mythographic and cartographic
epistemologies.

Impartiality and Contemplation: On the Meaning of the Term “Ris med”
in Mahāmudra and rDzogs chen
Deroche, Marc-Henri (Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN)
In his seminal paper (1970, 2001) on the so-called “non-sectarian” (ris med)
movement, the late E. Gene Smith presented the great spiritual heroes of 19th
century Khams. In relation to this historical context of Buddhism in Tibet, thepresent paper is dedicated to analyze the Tibetan expression phyogs ris su med
pa with its variants or abbreviations like phyogs med (apakṣapāta) or ris med,translated more literally as “impartial.” If this term generally designates avirtue of religious tolerance (Smith’s “non-sectarianism”), in the contemplative
literature of Mahāmudrā and rDzogs chen it describes also the state of pureawareness. From this perspective, the meaning of ris med tends to converge
with the expression dmigs pa med pa (anālambana), “without reference point,”
and with the spirit of the middle path: mtha’ med or mtha’ las ’das (ananta),“without or beyond extremes.” I intend here to investigate the relation between
non-sectarianism and contemplation illustrated by the term ris med since therhetoric of contemplation is actually at the heart of the so-called ris med
movement.
As Kapstein (1996, 2007) has exposed, the organizational paradigm of Kong
sprul’s (1813-1899) major collection of the Treasury of Spiritual Instructions(gDams ngag mdzod) is the model of the Eight Lineages of Practice (sgrub
brgyud shing rta chen po brgyad) originally authored by Prajñāraśmi (15181584). I have myself examined elsewhere this master and his Ambrosia of Study,
Reflection and Meditation (Thos bsam dang sgom pa ’chi med kyi bdud rtsi)
where he presents the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Buddhist exegesis andmeditative practice according to three steps of the development of wisdom (shesrab, prajñā). While this progression expresses perfectly how Buddhist philosophia is constituted by both discourse and “spiritual exercise,” Prajñāraśmi

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asserts that the unity of Buddhist traditions is to be realized in thecontemplative experience of gnosis (ye shes, jñāna).
I will present here how the term ris med plays a specific role in discourses oncontemplation through the Tibetan literature of “spiritual instructions” (gdams
ngag, man ngag) or “direct introduction to the nature of mind” (sems nyid ngo
sprod). For example, in his famous Treasury of the Dharmadhātu (Chosdbyings mdzod), Klong chen pa (1308-1364) very frequently uses variants ofthe term ris med in order to describe the perspective of pure awareness (rig pa),
the intention (dgongs pa) or gnosis (ye shes) of the Buddha, the ultimate intent
of all Buddhist vehicles. Karmay (1988), Samuel (1993) and Petit (1999) haveobserved that rDzogs chen with its emphasis on an enlightened all-embracing
state provided the philosophical basis for the eclectic orientation of the ris med
movement. My goal is here to deepen further this observation by examining thesemantics of the term ris med as well as the intertwined rhetoric of impartiality
and contemplative experience in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism.

Buddhist Teachers from Southern Dolpo: Yon-tan rgya-mtsho and Yon-tan
rgyal-mtshan
Ehrhard, Franz-Karl (LMU Munich, Munich, GER)
Biographies and spiritual songs of Buddhist teachers from Dol-po in the
Nepalese Himalayas have become quite accesible by now, and a recent edition,compiled for local distribution, contains a selection of thirteen individual texts.
While most of them have already been studied and translated, the collection
includes a work dealing with Yon-tan rgya-mtsho (b. 1548): this is a teacher
originating from Southern Dolpo and whose religious activities were conducted
for the greater part of his life in the area around Mu-le gangs, i.e. theDhaulagiri Himal. Moreover, a so far unpublished biography, found within the
NGMPP collection, is devoted to a master known as Yon-tan rgyal-mtshan (b.
1592), who was a disciple of Yon-tan rgya-mtsho and also a native of Southern
Dolpo: he is especially remembered for having acted as resident teacher of amonastery called dGon-gsar located in the Bar-bong[s] valley.
The present paper will sketch the constellation of these Buddhist teachers byidentifying individual teaching linages and the religious sites where these221

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transmissions occurred. It would thus be possible to contextualize religious
traditions including those initiated by rJe-btsun Kun-dga’ grol-mchog (15071566), the illustrious abbot of the Jo-nang monastery in Central Tibet; it is
known from his autobiographical writings that he had also been active in Dolpo
in the middle of the 16th cent., and especially in areas regarded as a part of the“country of Mon” (mon yul) at the time.

Notes on the Sacred Geography of Yolmo Gangra
Gelle, Zsoka (University of Vienna, Vienna, AUT)
Yolmo Gangra is identified as an area of east Nepal, situated on the upper
reaches of Melamchi Kola and Yangri Kola, also known as Helambu. It isconsidered to be one of the “hidden lands” (sbas yul) of the Northern Treasure(byang gter) tradition of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. As is wellknown, “hidden lands” refer to remote valleys and hills, which are believed tohave been concealed along with other spiritual treasures by Guru Rinpoche(Padmasambhava) in the 8th century. There is a body of prophetic literature,
discovered by Tibetan lamas, so-called ‘Treasure Revealers’ (gter ston) in later
centuries, that describes the time of decline, the signs of degeneration, and theway to hidden lands, where the Buddhist tradition can be preserved.
The treasure texts related to Yolmo Gangra of the Byang gter lugs kyi rnam
thar dang ma 'ongs lung bstan collection, give a visionary description of thehidden land, and not only suggest ways to get there, but also provide
instructions of how the land could be tamed, in which places temples should bebuilt, or where lamas need to establish a religious community. From the 16th
century on several famous Tibetan treasure revealers visited Yolmo in search of
the hidden land. They did retreats, built temples and some even settled down
and became spiritual leaders for local people. Some also had their biography orliberation story (rnam thar) recorded.
I wish to explore how much impact the instructions of Guru Rinpoche’s
prophecies of the Northern Treasure tradition had on the activities of Tibetanlamas, like Tenzin Norbu, Zilnon Wangyal Dorje, Nyima Sengge and Karma
Chosang, who came to Yolmo in the 17-18th century to find and reestablish the222

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hidden land and start new lineages and clans. My investigation will also
address the question of antiquity and concomitant authenticity of treasure texts
related to Yolmo.

Buddhist Praises – The Role of the bstod-pa Genre in the Writings of the
4th Zhwa-dmar Incarnate
Mojzes, Kamilla Eva (Bonn University, Bonn, GER)
The fourth Zhwa-dmar incarnate of the Karma bKa'-brgyud lineage, Chosgrags Ye-shes dPal bZang-po (1453-1524), an influential yet understudied
historical personage, played a central role in the historical events of 15-16th c.
Tibet. He is generally regarded as the most important actor in the Tibetan
political power structure of the time: a charismatic agent at the dawn of thebKa'-brgyud – dGe-lugs inter-sectarian strife. In his biographies, he isportrayed after the scholar – accomplisher ideal (Tib. mkhas–sgrub), yet
studies on his religious-literary output are scarce in the Western reception.
A clear appreciation of the 4th Zhwa-dmar incarnate's religious writings haslong been anticipated, also since his Collected Writings were published in 2010.
Although one of his works (Dwags-po'i chos bzhi gsal-ba'i sgron-ma) was
published in English (Brunnhölzl 2007) and recently two monographic studies
have been presented at the 2013 IATS conference concerning the 4th Zhwa-dmar(Draszczyk, Mojzes), neither a comprehensive study on his collected writings,
nor a more specific survey on his preferred genres have been conducted.
This paper's objective is to provide a preliminary assessment of his literary
output and offer a detailed analysis on the role of Buddhist praises (Tib. bstodpa, Skt. stotra) in his oeuvre – indeed these poetic pieces make up a substantial
part - one fifth - of his works.
The main focus is thus on these sixty praises – each distinguished with theexpression bstod-pa in their titles. Other related genres, such as long life
prayers (Tib. zhabs-brtan) or eulogies (Tib. bsngags-pa) do not appear among
his writings. Although not grouped together explicitly, they clearly form an
independent subset in his collected writings. Ranging from praises addressed to223

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specific buddha forms and deities, through the admiration of his closest
spiritual teachers and – notably - his zhwa-dmar-pa predecessors, they also
include tributes to sacred geographical places. The main historical sources thatserve as the historical background for this paper are two biographical texts: his
spiritual memoir (rang-rnam) (rTogs-pa brjod-pa'i tshigs-su bcad-pa utpala'iphreng-ba) composed in 1506 at the request of his sponsor Don-yod rdo-rje
and his spiritual biography from the mKhas-pa'i-dga'-ston, an account ofhistory (lo-rgyus) written by his closest disciple, the second dPa-bo rin-po-che
gTsug-lag 'phreng-ba (1504-1566).
In general, analyzing these praises furthers the understanding of the role of thisgenre in 15th -16th c. Tibetan religious literature, while - in specific - theinformation provided in their colophons concerning when, where they were
written and who had requested them provides relevant information not only on
the religious, but possibly also the political objective in play at theircomposition. By considering the historical context and exploring the stylistic
solutions employed this paper sheds light on how these writings served a double
intent.

Transmitting the Words of the Master: On Tibetan Instructional
Literature
Sernesi, Marta (LMU Munich, Munich, GER)
Tibetan instructional literature includes genres such as “instructions” (gdams
pa, gdams ngag, man ngag), “sayings” (gsung sgros, gsung bgros), “mnemonicnotes” (zin bris), “questions and answers” or “response” (dri lan, zhu lan),“teachings to the assembly” (tshogs chos), and “songs of advice” (zhal gdams
kyi mgur). These are supposed to record the words addressed by a master to his
disciple(s) on a given occasion, conveying personal teachings on specific points
of practice or more general advice in the case of sermons delivered to an
assembly of followers. These, usually short, compositions are mostly foundeither embedded within wider texts like life stories (rnam thar), or arranged
within multi-textual compendia, like manuals (yig cha), miscellaneous sayings(gsung bgros thor bu), and collected sayings (bka’ ’bum, gsung ’bum).

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As a matter of fact, the process leading from the first instance of oral, dynamic
interaction between master and disciple to the textual witnesses found in thesecollections was far from being “immediate” or “un-mediated”, but involved
multiple agents, and sometimes occured over an extended period of timespanning generations. Therefore, investigating more closely genres
traditionally portrayed as the direct record of oral instructions delivered by agiven master, their composite nature and collective construction will come tolight. This new insight into the nature and attribution of such texts will also add
to our knowledge of the process leading to the formation of the “Collected
Works” of the revered masters of the past (11th-13th cent.).

Between Politics, Scholarship, and Buddhism: Multifarious Entanglementsin the Eastern Himalayas
Viehbeck, Markus (Cluster “Asia & Europe”, Heidelberg University,
Heidelberg, GER)In the first half of the 20th century, the Eastern Himalayas provided a particularimportant space for encounters between people of varied interests and cultural
backgrounds. Embedded in the events of global histories, Tibet was exposed to
an increasing pressure by its neighbors China, Russia, and British India, which
culminated in the forced establishment of a direct trade connection to British
India and the global market in 1904. In the subsequent economic improvementof the overall region, trading centers like Kalimpong emerged as hubs forexchanging not only consumer goods, but also general information about
worlds that knew only very little about each other. While access to Tibet itself
was still heavily restricted, the influx of Tibetan population in this area
provided an ideal environment for Tibetophiles of various sorts, and in this way
attracted government officials, missionaries, academics, religious seekers, andmany others alike. In the pursuit of their respective goals they relied heavily
upon each other, thus creating and depending on complex networks. While mostof the Western individuals involved in these processes received much attention
in their respective fields, the role of their “local assistants” remained
understudied.
In my talk, I would like to take a fresh look at the intricate entanglements ofthese networks by following the trajectory of a particularly well-connected,
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though not commonly known Tibetan scholar. Originally from Lhasa, Rig 'dzindbang po became a long term resident of Kalimpong, where he acted as a
crucial link in the knowledge that was produced between Tibet and the world
beyond it: as a research assistant to many Western scholars, but also as an
assistant to Babu Tharchin whose Tibetan language newspaper Me longprovided access to global events. It is also this special position, I will argue,that reflected back on his personal life, resulting in a reconsideration of his
cultural background and a new orientation as Buddhist.

’Brug pa Monasteries in Lahul: Mystical Accounts and Art Historical
Evidences
Widorn, Verena (Institut für Kunstgeschichte, University of Vienna, Vienna,
AUT)
The religious legacy of Lahul, Himachal Pradesh, is a long-standing still not
fully deciphered history based largely on legendary and mystical accounts.
Traces of Mahāyāna Buddhism like rock engravings dated to the fifth/sixth
century CE and archaeological evidences attributed to the phyi-dar point to theage-old tradition of Buddhism in this area.
Today Lahul is a stronghold of the of 'Brug pa bKa’ brgyud order. A dozen’Brug pa monasteries overlook the entire Bhaga valley situated within eye
contact of each other on both sides of the river high up the mountains. Somemonasteries are associated with the mythical power of the yogi rGod ts’an pa,
who travelled through the region on his way to Uḍḍiyāna and brought aregeneration of Buddhism to Lahul in the thirteenth century. Several adepts of
the ’Brug pa bKa’ brgyud order followed his lead, longing to complete theinternal and external ritual journey to the twenty-four pīṭha of the vajrakāya,and looking for extraordinary energetic places. Monasteries such as Shashur
and Tayul, both on the right side of the Bhaga valley, are consideredfoundations of sTag tshaṅ ras pa of the seventeenth century, possibly as a direct
result of his one year sojourn and teaching in this region.
The paper aims to identify and analyse the artistic environment of some of themonasteries in order to distinguish between mystical reports and art historical226

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evidences. The study of iconography and style will further help to differentiate
local elements and the influence and inspiration deriving from the ’Brug pa
homeland.

Touring Mount Putuo: Commodification, Buddhism, and State Capitalism
in China
Bruntz, Courtney (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA)
China’s economic reforms following its 1978 opening up have ushered in newmarket strategies and industries that are shaping religious landscapes.
Historically, its four sacred Buddhist mountains have always held interactions
with surrounding market economies, as inns, teahouses, and commercial shops
upheld the pilgrim’s journey. However, with an expansion of China’s economic
market and an establishment of state capitalism, the nation’s Buddhist
mountains are contemporarily commodified in ways that promote certain
practices of Buddhism over others. Using field work I conducted at Mount
Putuo in China’s Zhejiang Province, I argue that in its state capitalist system,
government-owned tourist corporations have revitalized Buddhist practices at
the mountain, with the determining factor being whether or not that practiceresembles values of nationalism.
China’s economic reforms and adaptation of capitalism resulted in a system inwhich markets are tools for national interests – or at least the interests of theruling elite. In state capitalism, the means of production are often privately
owned, but the state has much control over investment and the allocation of
credit. Often the interests of large-scale businesses are advanced and protected– including corporatized government agencies. Pertinent to the study ofcontemporary Buddhism in China, one of these industries that has been
advanced is the tourism one that is dominated by government-owned agencies.
By investing in tourism at China’s four Buddhist mountains, government
companies are in the position to protect the locations as cultural relics andembed the sites with Party ideology, and they are also in the position todetermine which Buddhist locations and practices are more heavily advertisedthan others. This in turn affects the cultural value of a location, and its
associated activities. Investigating Mount Putuo, I argue such government
investments in tourism have resulted in a commodified space where the227

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mountain’s: 1) Buddhist identity and connections to the Bodhisattva Guanyin
are promoted and rebranded under nationalism; 2) abstract and concrete
qualities are secularized; and 3) temple complexes and auspicious locations are
re-configured to meet current standards of tourism.
This work contributes to the panel “Buddhism under Capitalism” reinforcing
the necessity to evaluate the ways that economic structures, and theircorresponding consumerist frameworks, modify Buddhism’s cultural value.
Furthermore, it evidences how the emergence of capitalism in China has
resulted in a competitive market where Buddhist sites compete with one anotherand with other religious and entertainment opportunities. This competition is
generated by a state monopolized tourist industry that institutionally supports
Buddhist landscapes while restructuring locations to meet values ofnationalism. For studies of contemporary Chinese Buddhism, this work
pointedly evaluates where in economic activity restructuring occurs, theexchange parameters through which Buddhism is consumed, and the culturalvalues embedded within such exchanges.

Consuming Nothing: Psychotherapy, Capitalism, and Buddhism
Payne, Richard (Institute of Buddhist Studies, Los Gatos, USA)This presentation explores how from the second half of the nineteenth century
into the present the three way relation between Buddhism, capitalism andpsychotherapy has affected the representations of Buddhism. Althoughfrequently considered a recent development, the interaction between Buddhism
and psychotherapy dates from the earliest popularization of Buddhism inEurope and the United States. Consequently, Buddhism has always been
“psychologized” in its Western representations, which I have addressed
previously. This essay extends this line of inquiry by giving particular attention
to the role of capitalism in the formation of this psychologized Buddhism.
The inquiry will develop over four topics. The first considers “Buddhism as an
Object of Consumption.” This may be the most familiar dimension of therelation between capitalism and religion generally, having been subject toseveral critiques. This section considers aspects of consumption, such as

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commodification, class, communication, and celebrity, as interconnected partsof the marketing of Buddhism.
The second topic, “Instrumentality and the Denaturalizing of Meditation,”
examines the capitalist portrayal of technology as value- and context-neutral.
This understanding of technology molds the representation of Buddhism bytreating meditation as a mental technology. Thus “denaturalized,” that is, both
decontextualized and dehistoricized, meditation is easily integrated into a
medicalized therapeutics. The ironic consequence of the instrumentalization of
meditation is that it reinforces the ego’s sense of being an autonomous agent,
though its control may only be over one’s own emotions. Thus, rather thanmoving toward a realization of anātman, the instrumentalization of meditation
as mental technology reinforces the sense of the ego’s autonomy.
“Puritanism and the Project of Buddhist Self-Help” is the third topic. Puritan
notions regarding the moral obligation for self-improvement provide thebackground for analysing the links between Buddhism as psychotherapy andBuddhism as self-help. The culture of self-help plays an important role in theconstruction of the self under late capitalism. The morally obligatory characterof self-improvement nests with the self as consumer to create a completely
open-ended project of self-perfection through the consumption of morally
acceptable “spiritual” goods. Thus, “transformative experience” becomessocially accepted as an object of desire. Necessarily evanescent, and therefore
requiring repeated consumption, makes this a perfect product. Here we also see
the commercial utility of the Romantic conception of religion as experience,
which dates from the beginning of the nineteenth century, and has become
widely accepted dogma regarding the nature of religion.
Last, the question of how capitalist commodification is transforming systems ofauthority is examined under the fourth topic, “Degrading Hierarchy, Longing
for Authenticity.” While faux-populism degrades traditional hierarchical claims
to authority, e.g., those based in the Vinaya and other monastic codes,
consumer capitalism employs rhetorics of authenticity. Authenticity also
engages nostalgia for an idealized Other. Frequently this is in terms of stability,
harmony and an “enchanted world,” created as the semiotic opposite to thepresent as unstable, conflictual and a “disenchanted world,” i.e.,characterizations of traditional versus modern, employed as claims regarding
authenticity.

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Early Buddhist Critiques of Capitalism in Japan: Sada Kaiseki andUchiyama GudōRambelli, Fabio (University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA)
Japan's process of modernization that began in the second half of thenineteenth century involved the adoption of Western cultural and institutional
formations, including current modes of production. This adoption took place
together with a systematic repression of traditional forms of religiosity,
including Buddhism. Those modes of production can be summed under thegeneral term “capitalism.” At the time, capitalism was almost synonymous withmodernization—a complex process that involved institutional and political
restructuring, transformation (and often, abandonment) of existing trades andmodes of production, and the import of foreign commodities and services (withthe depleting of Japan's resources in currency and precious metals andresulting inflation); this process also accelerated economic differentiation interms of class. This paper explores some of the ways in which Buddhist
intellectuals living in those complex times interpreted and critiqued capitalism
and tried to propose alternative economic models. We will focus in particularon two Buddhist intellectuals, Sada Kaiseki (1818-1882) and Uchiyama Gudō
(1874-1911). Both are now minor figures in the history of modern Japanese
Buddhism, but their works offer us interesting views on the early interpretationsof “capitalism” from a strongly critical perspective. Sada Kaiseki lamented thepotential destruction of traditional modes of production and technologies, withconsequent phenomena of de-culturation; he organized a large-scale campaign
of boycott of foreign imports and wrote books on economics from a Buddhist
standpoint. On the other hand, Uchiyama Gudō came to be involved with therising socialist movement in Japan, and eventually joined the group of
anarchists led by Kōtoku Shūsui. He wrote a scathing critique of private
property, wealth accumulation, and selfishness which he considered related tocapitalist economy and society. The paper will conclude with a critical
discussion of the works of these two authors, by contextualizing their ideas andactivities within the social and historical situation of their times and also bycomparing them with positions expressed by contemporary “engaged
Buddhism,” also as a way to formulate a Buddhist critique of capitalism fromwithin.

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The Statue of the Goddess and the Bodhisattva. Hekate’s Journey fromAthens to the Ganges
Cargill, Angus (Northern Consortium of UK Universities, Beijing, CHN)
If the commentary on the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha in the Pāli
Canon is to be believed, when the young Siddhārtha Gautama looked aroundthe principal assembly hall, or saṃsthāgāra, of his Śākya people, he may haveseen something very unusual: statues from Greece “holding lamps.” What
could this little-known episode in Buddhist history tell us about the culturalenvironment in which the historical Buddha grew up, and could it help to shedlight on the process of iconographical realisation in early Buddhist cultures?
In the late Sri Lankan Professor G.P. Malalasekera’s “Buddhist Dictionary of
Pāli Proper Names,” he tells us that, “Yonakā, statues, holding lamps, wereamong the decorations used by the Sākiyans [Śākyans] of Kapilavatthu [Skt.
Kapilavastu] (MA.ii.575).” (Malalasekera 2003: “Yonā, Yavanā, Yonakā.”)Presumably, “statues…used by the Sākiyans” means that they were displayedin the assembly hall of the Śākyan state in Kapilavastu in present-day southern
Nepal. This is an unexpected and enigmatic piece of information, and merits
closer attention. First, the Śākyan presence in Kapilavastu can be dated fairly
precisely. Towards the end of the life of the historical Buddha, in approximately
400 b.c.e, they were driven out by Vidūdabha of Kosala, and retreated to the
Himalayas (Malalasekera 2003: “Sokyā, Sakka, Sākiyā”). Therefore this pieceof information must derive from the late fifth or early fourth centuries b.c.e, inother words around seventy years before the arrival of Alexander of Macedon
in India in 326 b.c.e. This unexpectedly early use of sculptural decoration inIndia should cause us to reconsider the use of scuptural decoration as part of
Buddhist worship. The partially aniconographic representations of Buddhist
religious themes may in fact reflect the relationship between India and othercultures during this period. The aniconographic representation of the Buddha
during this period may be a reflection of a parallel methodology in Achaemenid
Persia, where Ahura Mazda is represented aniconographically, apparently
uniquely so amongst Persian gods of the period.
This paper draws together the history of the relationship between Achaemenid
Persia and India during the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.e., and argues that thisclose relationship may have helped to set the earliest pattern of image231

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representation in Buddhism, in which all beings except for the Buddha himself
could be represented.

The Representation of Historical Buddhas in Early Nepalese Art, a Case
Study: The Two Buddhas of Kwa Baha, Lalitpur
Graldi, Aurora (University of Vienna, Wien, AUT)
The general aim of this paper is to encourage a discussion on the artistic
sources that fostered a Nepalese ‘school’ of sculpture in its formative period(5th-8th centuries C.E.), referring in particular to the representation of isolated
standing Buddhas. Despite the abundance of primary evidences, stone
sculptures, wood carvings and metal images still preserved in situ or kept inMuseums and Private Collections, the aesthetic and iconographical featuresthat framed its indigenous visual vocabulary are not well-established. Previous
research described the Nepalese ‘school’ of sculpture as a gradual process ofemancipation from the art of North-eastern India. Instead, new art-historical
discoveries lead to a re-evaluation of the artistic matrix of Nepalese art andsuggest a cultural continuity between the Kathmandu Valley and the Westernpart of the Himalayas and Central Asia. Indeed, the sculptural tradition of the
Licchavi period is part of an extended network of pilgrim and trade routes thatconnected the different centers of the Buddhist ecumene.
A couple of standing Buddhas kept inside the main shrine of the Kwā Bāhā,which is the largest monastic complex of the Kathmandu Valley, represents anemblematic case study. The two statues, symmetrical and identical, stand on theproper left and right side of kwāpā-dya, the main deity of the monastery, a lifesize copper image of Buddha Śākyamuni. They have been documented during
my fieldwork in November 2012 and are not on public view, since only initiatedpriests are allowed to enter the shrine and worship them. These statues are oneof the earliest examples of standing Buddhas still preserved inside the originalmonastic foundation and present a unique formal solution, in which different
techniques and materials are combined: the Buddha’s main body is made ofwood while the limbs and the head are in gilded copper. It can be interpreted asa deliberate visual choice made by the artist, unusual in the Nepalese artistic
milieu, but one that can find its ‘conceptual matrix’ in the Buddhist art of theWestern Himalayas and Central Asia.
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On the other side, the iconographical lexicon is common: an isolated Buddha
with the left hand in varadamudrā while the right grasps the robe up to theshoulder is the most popular way to depict standing Buddhas in the Kathmandu
Valley and recurs in different centers of the Himalayas. It is worthy to interpretthe symbolical meaning conveyed by this combined gesture in the Nepalesereligious context, in which it is labelled by specific Newar liturgical terms. This
Buddha, standardized in its iconography since the beginning of the Licchavi
period, developed in a distinctive Nepalese ‘image type’, at first in stone
sculptures and later on replicated countless times in portable metal images.

The Life of the Buddha in Gandhāran Art and Related Narratives
Juhel, Katia (EPHE, PARIS, FRA)
Between the middle of the Ist century A.D. and the Vth century A.D., the regionof Gandhāra has been one of the main centers of a very peculiar artistic
production, that strongly testify to the local diffusion of Buddhism. The
specificity of this artistic school is to represent events, sometimes secondary, ofthe life of the Buddha, and to set them in various chronological sequences.
During the same period, texts narrating the Buddha's life were possibly known,
if not circulating in this very area: among them the Buddhacarita and the
Mahāvastu. They have been used in order to identify a given personage or aparticular aspect of a figurative scene, proceeding thus by some sort ofadmitted correspondence or analogy whereas this approach reveals to be
problematic.
As a matter of fact indeed, the element under investigation, and even if it
apparently denotes a similar meaning, intervenes differently and plays adifferent role in both media.
Our presentation will aim at demonstrating the importance of an in-depth
analysis and identification of the elements and variants specific to each source,
as a propedeutic to their confrontation. Having this hypothesis in mind, we willcompare some scenes and their sequences with the relevant textual passages,
while searching the principles governing the organisation of the singularepisodes.

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A Peculiar Type of Statue from the Dali Kingdom
Kelényi, Béla (Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest, HUN)The Tibetan collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum in Budapest houses thestatue of a wrathful deity, which, due to the indeterminacy of its features, defies
quick iconographic analysis. It is thought to have been made in the declining
years of the Dali Kingdom (937–1253) in what is now China’s Yunnan
Province. The iconographic depiction of this deity goes back to the so-called
Long Scroll (Ch.: Daliguo Fanxiang tu) now in the collection of the National
Palace Museum of Taipei.
Regarding the history of the Long Scroll, it came into the collection of the
Qianlong Emperor; this most likely must have taken place between 1744 and1763. The iconographical characters of the depicted deities are not only related
to Tantric Buddhism, since even Chan patriarchs and many local protective
gods are represented in it. However, it appears that a number of images of theabove mentioned deity came from Tibet, or from nearby lands dominated by
Tibetan Buddhism. Although this fact suggests that the cult of this deity existed
in Tibet as well, its depictions do not fit any iconographical system used in
Tibetan Buddhism. Moreover, in spite of their extraordinary similarity, all of
the known types are a little bit different from each other.
The statuary discussed here can be divided into two groups: those created in the
Dali Kingdom, and those produced during, or shortly after, the reign of the
Qianlong Emperor. The basic type of the deity which appears on the Long
Scroll has a golden body, nine heads, eighteen arms, three legs, and two black
wings. It is surrounded by a halo of fire; its three legs stand on a triangularyantra, and in each corner of the triangle lies an outstretched human body,embraced with snakes.
To my knowledge, the images of four statues with similar iconographic features
have been published, and those four were presumably all made in the Yunnan
province during the Dali dynasty. The statue of the Hopp Museum, analyzed in
my current research seems to be a fifth, hitherto unpublished example of thisparticular style. At the same time, we know of four other statues which show thesalient iconographic features known from the Long Scroll. Still, those four
statues show substantial differences, and they were clearly produced muchlater, probably during the 18th century. This study aims at exploring the234

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variations of this peculiar deity and at determining which of the known pieces
appears to be closest to the image on the Long Scroll.

Picturing the Buddhist Filial Son in Medieval China
Kyan, Winston (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA)A familiar trope in Chinese Buddhism is the Buddhist filial child charged withsaving his or her family. Earlier studies have used representations of thesechildren, typically jataka narratives of the Buddha’s previous lives, to illustrate
how medieval Chinese Buddhists used filial themes from the Buddhist corpus tochallenge Confucian hierarchies. However, the visual function of jataka
narratives within the context of Chinese Buddhist iconography and formal
development has remained relatively understudied. Within this context, thejataka story of the filial son Shanzi is particularly striking. Charged with caring
for his blind parents, Shanzi is mistakenly shot by the king’s arrow while theformer is collecting water for his parents and the latter is out hunting. Notably,
medieval Chinese representations of this story from the sixth- to the seventhcenturies at Dunhuang show the king in postures of submission before Shanzi’s
parents that look back to Huiyuan’s well known treatise of 404 CE “On Why
Monks Do Not Bow Down Before Kings” (Shamen bujing wangzhe lun), whilelooking forward to murals of fully developed filial piety sutras such as the“Repaying Kindness Sutra” (Baoen jing) in ninth- and tenth-century caves at
Dunhuang. Accordingly, this paper explores the relationship between
representations of the Shanzi jataka and later filial piety sutras within the local
context of Dunhuang to argue for a visual function of the Shanzi jataka thatcomplements social, historical, and religious interpretations.

Aspects of Tibetan Geomancy: The Right Timing for the Construction of
Buildings and its Influence on the Environment
Maurer, Petra (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften / LMU München,
München, GER)235

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Looking at texts on Tibetan geomancy it seems quite clear that the main focus ison selecting the right site for buildings. However, a closer look at therequirements for construction outlined by sde srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho(1653-1705) in the Vaidurya dkar po reveals the importance of the right timing.
Any calculation of time in nag rtsis, that is Sino-Tibetan divination, depends onthe elements and their interrelationships as well as the nine sme ba and eightspar kha, divinatory dimensions related to the elements. As time is held to be a
combination of these constituents, there is an interrelation between past,present and future time. The interrelation of the three times is determined – asconcerns the five elements of water, fire, earth, wood and iron – by the
relationship between “self”, mother, son, friend and enemy (rang ma bu dgra
grogs). To achieve success, the elements of the time of birth should be in apositive relationship with those of the day on which any proposed activities takeplace.
Therefore, the future owner of a house needs his date of birth in order to find asuitable time to start the construction. Furthermore, time and space areinterwoven because of the relationship between the elements and the directions:the personal element determines a person’s relationship to the environment.
The presentation will elucidate the calculation of the right time for construction
and analyze the connection between past, present and future according to the
Tibetan nag-rtsis system.

Buddhist Music in the Shingon Schools: A Study of the Transmission of
Vocalizing Kōshiki (Buddhist Ceremonials) on Kōyasan
Mross, Michaela (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, GER)
The liturgical genre of kōshiki developed in the late tenth century in the context
of Pure Land belief within the Tendai tradition. In the following centuries thisgenre spread throughout all Buddhist schools and kōshiki were performed forvarious objects of veneration. The composition of kōshiki reached a high pointin the Kamakura period with Myōe (1173-1232) and Jōkei (1155-1213) as the236

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most productive authors of kōshiki. We can assume that more than 400 kōshiki
were composed. Some of them are still performed today.
The liturgical genre of kōshiki is one of the narrative genres of Japanese
Buddhist chant (shōmyō). Kōshiki texts are written in kanbun and recited in
kanbun kundoku style by a solo singer in a ritual setting. This paper studies themusical side kōshiki using the example of one of the most famous works in thisgenre, the Shiza kōshiki. Myōe composed this work in 1215 for the Jōrakue.
Since the 13th century this kōshiki has been performed on Kōyasan.
I will examine the role of music in the performance of the kōshiki anddemonstrate how the recitation on three different pitch levels empowers thesemantics of the texts by adding an emotional layer to the liturgical text.
Further, I will study how the art of vocalizing kōshiki was transmitted on
Kōyasan and thus demonstrate that learning shōmyō was a central part in themonastic training. Further, I will argue that the shōmyō lineages played an
important role in establishing cultic centers.

Tibetan Stūpas (mchod rten) in Europe: Convert Romanticism andWorship
Seegers, Eva (Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut,
Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)
Stūpas are among the most characteristic and widespread Buddhistarchitectural structures. They have been built in Asia for more than 2500 years
and over the past decades also in many other countries around the world. Since
the early 1980s a striking number of more than 200 contemporary stūpas(mchod rten) have been erected across Europe, highlighting the integration of
Buddhism into Western society. The aim of my interdisciplinary research
approach –art historical, architectural, and religious– is the analysis of theparameters of authenticity and their variations in construction and function.
Based on an analytical survey of stūpas built by Karma bKa’ brgyud andDwags shangs bKa ’brgyud organisations in Europe this paper will try to237

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answer the basic questions which arise when such exotic monuments aretransferred to a new cultural environment.
What are the reasons for erecting stūpas in European countries? Is the
motivation based on a “romantic view of Tibet as Shangri-La” (Lopez, 1998)
which implies the much discussed issue of Tibet as an object of Western
fantasy? If so, do some “romanticists” erect stūpa-replicas because they want
to recreate a “little Tibet” or is there a deeper meaning? How are thetraditional criteria, e.g. laid down in stūpa-manuals, which make a stūpa into
an object of worship, applied to the “European stūpas”?
Another striking topic to discuss is the question how stūpas are used in Buddhist
practice and what the diverse ways are in which they are regarded by Western
convert Buddhists. The question arises: When stūpas are transplanted toEurope, is it likely that the meaning and significance of these stūpas remain thesame?
In this paper new data collected by field-work and critically analysed textual
sources will blend together. This will allow new insights into how cultural andreligious transmissions take place. Thus, not only will a foundation for future
research be laid, but also important materials for Buddhist Studies will be
newly made accessible. This paper is designed to benefit also other academic
disciplines, such as Architecture, Art History, and Religious Studies.

Flowers in a Vase: The Significance of Flower Offering in Thai Buddhist
Tradition
Sounsamut, Pram (Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, THA)
Normally, the main function of flowers is decoration. Flowers have been used invarious occasions to transform an ordinary scene into an adorable space to get
in. However, when flowers are used in religion, they have more function andmeaning than just a decoration object. In this talk, I will survey various
occasions of flower offering, mainly in the Thai Buddhist tradition. Also, I willcompare the idea of using flowers in other Buddhist traditions and some related

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religions, which have influenced the meaning of flower offering in Thai
Buddhism. I will also compare the ideas and the meanings behind the flower
arrangement, both as a symbol and as a practice of ritual. Research found that,in Thai Buddhist tradition, flower offering is a part of normal Buddhist
practice. The belief of attaining the future benefit of a good rebirth is still
strong and continues to pass from generation to generation. Flower offering
also gave Thai women in the past a chance to take part in Buddhist ceremonies.
Moreover, in arts, although flowers are mainly used for filling the gaps in the
picture, they also demonstrate the Buddhist teachings in life and Dharma.

A Buddhist Temple in Mongolia: An Idiosyncratic Case
Tsultem, Uranchimeg (University of California, Berkeley, Albany, USA)This paper will discuss types of architecture of Mongolian Buddhist temples,such as khiid and khüree, analyzing the differences in the function of each type.
The paper then will focus on the central monastery, and the later capital city
Ikh Khüree, which was built in 1639 as the seat of the new reincarnate rulers
known as rJe btsun dam pa. The phenomenon of this monastery was its portablearchitecture and mobile nature as it moved almost 30 times from 1639 to 1855.
While moving from one locale to another, Ikh Khüree never stopped expanding
its architecture and continued with the production of thangka paintings andsculptures. The paper will discuss the migration trajectory of Ikh Khüree, andwill argue that the mapping of the monastery and its mobile nature indicate
political ambitions of the ruler for his outreach to the nomadic peoples topropagate Buddhism outside of nobility circles. The paper will show how suchnomadic architecture was able to emerge into the central authority in the later
dissemination of Buddhism in Mongolia and subsequently became instrumental
in the massive conversion of common population to Buddhism. The paper will
use paintings and maps of Ikh Khüree, manuscript sources and secondary
literature in Mongolian and Tibetan languages as well as texts written by 18thcentury Buddhist scholars from Mongolia.

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An Unprecedented Analysis of Painting: Amdo Jampa and the History of
Buddhist Craftmanship in Tibet
Warner, Cameron (Aarhus Universitet, Aarhus, DNK)
Jampa Tseten, better known as Amdo Jampa, was the most famous Tibetan
painter of the twentieth century. He is credited with pioneering a photo-realiststyle, examples of which include a controversial portrait of the 14th Dalai Lamaat the Tagtu Mingyur Podrang palace within the Norbulingka. This paper will
be based on a close reading of Amdo Jampa's essay A Mind Ornament for
Craftsmen: An Unprecedented Analysis of Painting (Ri mo'i skor gyi dpyad pa
sngon med bzo ba rigs pa'i dgongs rgyan). In his essay, Amdo Jampa considers
a number of questions related to the development of the Tibetan tradition of
depicting Buddha images in two and three dimensions such as the influence ofMenla Dondrup and the use of thig rtsa, and the relationship between physicaldepiction and the Mahāyāna doctrine of the multiple bodies of the Buddha.
Reminiscent of the thinking of his teacher, the great polymath Gendun Chophel,Amdo Jampa attempts to reconcile his personal experience as an artist who
traveled widely and was exposed to a great variety of Buddhist art with thereceived tradition of artistic practice in Tibet and its dependence on related
biographical notions of the Buddha. This paper will place Amdo Jampa's
writing in context with Menla Dondrup's Bde bar gshegs pa'i sku gzugs kyi cha
tshad rab dbye yid bzhin nor bu, Desi Sangyé Gyatso's Vaiḍūrya g.ya sel, andGendun Chophel's Rgyal khams rig pas bskor ba'i gtam rgyud gser gyi thangma (stod cha), and further our understanding of the development of Tibetan
Buddhist cosmology and epistemology, and their interrelation with artistic
practice, in the late twentieth century.

A Problem regarding the Gandhāran Origin of the Buddha Image — On
Kushan Buddha Coins
Zhao, Ling (School of Humanities, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, PRC)
The creation of the Buddha image happened during the Kushan Dynasty inancient India and was a great event in Buddhist history. Although we do notknow the exact time, we can ascertain from archaeological finds that the first240

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Buddha image was made not later than the accession of the Kushan King
Kanishka. When Kushan coins with a Buddha image and the inscription“BOΔΔO” were excavated in Gandhāra, they had attracted the interest of
Buddhist art researchers. Some believed that the Buddha image was firstcreated on certain coins of the Kushan Kings, and that the very first one could
be from the Kanishka era. However, the choice of depicting a Buddha image
on coins, which were to be issued both at home and abroad, must have takenplace after the creation and popularization of the image. Moreover, as far as weknow, there are fewer Kushan coins with Buddha images than withrepresentations of Greek or Brahmanical gods. It is likely that people confused
the Buddha with other gods worshipped in Gandhāra at that time, andrepresented Buddha images on coins only occasionally. It seems that the first
Buddha image was created in Mathurā, as images have been excavatedwith inscriptions dated to the early years of the Kanishka era. The creation of
Buddha images in Gandhāra was possibly influenced by Mathurā.

Zhiyi's Rhetorical Strategy: The Usage of Fanben (Returning to theOrigin)Apple, Shinobu (Institute of Oriental Philosophy, Calgary, CAN)This paper examines the sixth century Chinese Buddhist monk Zhiyi’s (538-597c.e.) use of the term fanben (反本 returning to the origin) as a commentarial
strategy to help his lay followers understand the nuanced and complex context
of an advanced meditative procedure, a technique that appropriates and transvalues the term fanben, found in the philosophical and literary milieu ofChinese textual tradition since the time of the Laozi.
The term fanben, often along with huanyuan, is employed in his Liumiaofamen(the Six Subtle Dharma Gates), which is one of Zhiyi’s three major texts ofmeditative instruction. This text, which was composed for his lay follower, Mao
Xi, is an instructional text centering on mindfulness of breathing, a rudimentary
meditative technique that appears in various mainstream Buddhist texts, yet wasdeveloped by Zhiyi through the Mahayana bodhisattva meditative approach. An
introductory description cites the phrase, “toward nirvana of true Dharma
jewel, sentient beings enter through various gates,” showing this text ischaracterized by its accessibility and instructiveness to practitioners including241

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those who do not belong to Buddhist monastic communities.
The use of the rhetorical fanben as an instructive tool is one of the ostensive
characteristics not only for those who were not monks, but also for lay people
educated in the Chinese literary legacy. In fact, the concept such as “fan(returning) to dao (original primordial state)” and “fan to zhen (true state) andyao (essence)” was already found in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, respectively,
and the compound fanben appears as a fixed term in various texts, such as the
Huainanzi, the Chunquifanlu, the Shiji, among others, including Daoist texts,
since the beginning of the Western Han dynasty. This fact indicates that Zhiyi’s
usage of the terms and concepts of fan and fanben, which have an intellectual
heritage accumulated throughout the history of literary and philosophicalcommunities in China, was most likely familiar to educated men contemporary
to Zhiyi, such as Mao Xi.
Zhiyi appropriates and trans-values this term fanben to the rhetorical device
within the context of his Mahayana meditative practice and sets the usage witha fixed meaning and a function, in particular, in the fifth gate of huan
(returning) out of the six gates in his Liumiaofamen, a doctrinal meaning thatindicates an awareness of the emptiness of both the cognizer and the cognized,
and a practical function that instructs practitioners to overcome theepistemological dichotomy which occurs between the cognizer and thecognized. The fixed usage of this rhetoric is never blurred throughout the ten
major repertoires of the six subtle Dharma gates delineated in the
Liumiaofamen.
Furthermore, Zhiyi’s style of this rhetorical usage of fanben stands out fromany other contemporary Buddhists’ works that use the same compound fanben
without a fixed parameter in its usage. Zhiyi’s rhetoric of fanben, which showsa precisely applied doctrinal meaning and a practical function in its usage, isan example of Zhiyi’s noteworthy instructive technique of meditative practiceamong the sixth century Buddhist communities.

Kwamun, a Framework for the Tradition of East Asian Commentarial
Literature
Cho, Eun-su (Seoul National University, Seoul, KOR)

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As an immense volume of commentarial literature was composed in East Asia, arich tradition of commentary and analysis unfolded. Kwamun is a methodology
and structure that effectively ¬captures this commentarial tradition of analysis
and classification. In simple terms, a Kwamun is an analysis of a commentaryand scripture in the form of a tree diagram, which reduces a multi-dimensional
network of texts, commentaries, and meta-commentaries into two dimensions.
Kwamun, or structural outlines, were a tool to better grasp the logical flow of atext or commentary, and were invaluable in reading, studying, and comparing
the enormous amount of commentarial literature. The development andformalization of Kwamun in turn stimulated the structural organization andstandardization of commentarial literature. I will showcase the results of our
project to digitize and analyze over 150 Kwamun, examining theircharacteristics, forms, choice of subject text, and doctrinal tendencies. By
examining the structure of Kwamun and its stages of development, parallels tothe structural development in commentarial literature come to light.
The QXL has attracted various monk-scholars in the past to leave many famous
commentaries, to which a distinguished mass of kewen diagrams was
subsequently composed. In this presentation, I will analyse a few kewen
diagrams of the QXL extant and available to show the logical structures that tie
the text and its commentaries together, and to illustrate linkages between
commentaries and the original referent texts. I would also like to find out therelational connections and hierarchies of the importance among the phrases
and concepts appearing in the text. Finally I would like to reveal the various
methodological tactics and implicit directions the commentators have intended
to be embedded in the commentaries for the readers. Just as the traditionalcommentators had tried, by analyzing the logical structure of the text, we mightfind deeper meanings in the text.

The Structure of the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (DhDhV)
Denis, Diane (Université Laval, Ste-Sophie-de-Lévrard, CAN)This communication is the result of a study (doctoral thesis recently submitted
at Laval University, Québec, Canada) which analyses the structure and content
of the Dharmadharmatāvibhāgakārikā (DhDhV), one of the five works ofMaitreya. The works of Kawamura (1984, 1989 et 1993), Davidson (1985), Cha
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(1996), Mathes (1996), Robertson (2008) and Brunnhölzl (2012) alreadyprovide discussions around the interpretation of this text within the IndoTibetan and, more recently, Japanese and Chinese traditions, but questions
remain as to the logical structure of this text, its context, as well as to its
practical application. Structure The studies and annotated translations
conducted to date have mostly focussed on the main topics (ex. āśrayaparāvṛtti,nirvikalpajñāna) as they relate to the Yogācāra or Madhyamaka, or in somecases, as they relate to the Dzogchen tradition, but have not yet clearly shownhow they are developed within the structure of the text itself. In this regard, theuse of Vasubandhu's Vyākhyāyukti as a method of analysis in order to bring tolight the logical sequence of the 57 stanzas of the versified version of this text
may be one of the most innovative contributions to the field. Context Between
the iiird and the vth century in India, as is shown by Schopen (2005) – not toname Paramārtha (in Rahula 1971) – the “Mahāyāna” was not as widespreadas previously assumed, though the impact of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra literatureduring this period is undeniable. Therefore, it appears that even without thenotion of emptiness being widespread some practioners were necessarily facedwith this notion in its most radical expression. Can we then consider the
DhDhV as a general response to this situation even before talking about its
classification as Yogācāra or Madhyamaka (a much later or specific concern)?
What does that change in its interpretation? Relationship between philosophy
and practice Most scholars focus on the main topics of this text from a purely
philosophical point of view, due to which some questions about the intention of
its composition are left without satisfying answers or at least unverified
answers. Clues as to what was the intention of this text are given by many
Tibetan commentators. These clues then lead to another question: how can atext like the DhDhV (including all its topics) be considered an oral instruction
within the Indo-Tibetan tradition today? In order to explore these clues andquestions, we use as primary sources Vasubandhu's vṛtti, the Sanskrit
fragments, Mipham's commentary and, as secondary sources, the work of two
French scholars named Bugault and Droit.

What If Madhyamaka Is a Stance? Reflections on Contemporary Buddhist
Hermeneutics
Doctor, Thomas (Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu University,
Kathmandu, NPL)244

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This paper examines Bastian van Fraassen’s understanding of philosophicalpositions as stances rather than truth claims, and it explores the relevance ofthe notion of stance to resolving Nāgārjuna’s seemingly paradoxical “claim ofno claim” as expressed in the Vigrahavyāvartanī. In this way I aim to show thata contemporary understanding of positions as clusters of claims andcommitments can inform our reading of classical Madhyamaka philosophers.
This exercise will, in turn, lead to methodological reflections on the notions of“Buddhist philosophy” and “Buddhist hermeneutics,” spurring a self-criticalassessment of their recent developments and applications.

The Authority of the Fazang Commentary in the Exegetical Tradition of
Qixinlun
Jin, Tao (Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, USA)As one of the most influential works in East Asian Buddhism, the Awakening ofFaith in Mahāyāna, or Qixinlun in its popular Chinese abbreviation, is wellknown for its long and rich exegetical tradition that started almost as soon as
the treatise made its first appearance in 6th-century China. Highlighting thistradition is a 7th-century commentary by the eminent scholar-monk Fazang(643-712), a commentary recognized indisputably as the most authoritativeinterpretation of the treatise.
While such an authoritative commentary naturally occupies the center of the
Qixinlun scholarship, both as a primary source and as a secondary source,scholars have not yet asked what this status of “authority” concretely entails,
or in what specific and technical sense the treatise is identified as the“authority” in the interpretation of Qixinlun. This unexplored issue is, however,
an important one to the study of Qixinlun, particularly to the study of thetransmission of the treatise through its commentators. Facing numerous
commentaries (including translations), past and present, east and west, studentsof Qixinlun must necessarily want to know the main issues, trends and methods
that organize this long and rich exegetical tradition, and the role of this most“authoritative” commentary apparently provides indispensable materials forthe effort to address such a question.

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This paper is thus designed to examine how exactly the Fazang commentary
constitutes the “authority” in the exegetical tradition of Qixinlun (i.e., asagainst its various competing commentaries) and is, in that sense, aimed tocontribute to the study of the transmission of the treatise. Textual in nature, thispaper is focused specifically on the influence of the Fazang commentary on theformation of the so-called “Shu-ji” lineage, an exegetical lineage of Qixinlun
centered on the Fazang commentary (i.e., “Shu” in its Chinese abbreviation )itself, its Zixuan (965-1038) sub-commentary (i.e., “Ji”), and commentaries
that either prepare for, continue, or refine the Fazang work by such famous
Qixinlun exegetes as Wonhyo (617-686), Chuan’ao (fl. 9th century), Zongmi(784-841) and Xufa (1641-1728). By asking questions on the selection ofexegetical topics, composition of text, and doctrinal interpretation in thesecommentaries, this study seeks to identify some of the most important ways inwhich the Fazang commentary dominates, influences and even shapes theexegetical tradition of Qixinlun and, in that sense, constitutes the indisputableauthority in its interpretation.

Fayun's View on the Lotus Sūtra
Kanno, Hiroshi (Soka University, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, JPN)
When we turn our attention to extant Chinese exegetical literature on the Lotus
Sūtra, the oldest surviving commentary is the Miaofa lianhua jing shu of Zhu
Daosheng (ca. 355-434). With the exception of fragments from various Lotus
Sūtra commentaries discovered at Dunhuang, the next oldest commentary after
the above-mentioned work is the Fahua yiji by Fayun (467-529) of Guangzhai
Monastery. The Fahua yiji is a record of Fayun’s discourses on the Lotus Sūtra
as recorded by his disciples. Fayun’s studies of the Lotus Sūtra occupied aprominent place in the North-South Dynasties Period prior to the appearanceof Jizang (549-623) and Zhiyi (538-597).
This paper considers Fayun’s view on the Lotus Sūtra. It is summarized in thefollowing eight points.
1. Fayun gave a detailed analytic parsing of the entire text of the Lotus Sūtra on
the basis of his exact research on it and exerted a great influence on future

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commentaries.
2. As the Fahua yiji is a record of Fayun’s lectures on the Lotus Sūtra, there are
few references to the Mahāyāna Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The indications of later people
that Fayun adopted the five-period doctrinal classification might be correct andFayun’s position that the Lotus Sūtra was inferior in status to the Nirvāṇa Sūtra
was founded in the Fahua yiji.
3. As Fayun adopted the doctrinal classification that evaluated most highly thetrue eternity of the Buddha explained in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, he did not give highevaluation to the idea of the “age-old existence of the Buddha” explained in the
Lotus Sūtra’s 16th chapter (“The Life Span of the Thus Come One”) but didvalue the idea of the “one vehicle” explained in the second chapter (“Skillful
Means”). Further, he showed by the segmentation of the Lotus Sūtra that theidea of “one vehicle” is expounded not only in the second chapter, but also in
the Lotus Sūtra in its entirety.
4. When Fayun interpreted the idea of “one Buddha Vehicle,” he valued thetheory of provisional wisdom and real wisdom and the theory of cause andeffect as the framework for the interpretation of the one vehicle.
5. The theory of provisional wisdom and real wisdom shows that three vehicles
and one vehicle are both based on forms of the Buddha’s wisdom, i.e.
provisional wisdom and real wisdom, respectively, and distinguishes the groundof formation of the three vehicles from that of the one vehicle.
6. Fayun showed the essence of the idea of one vehicle of the Lotus Sūtra as one
cause and one effect, which is subtle cause and subtle effect, and took up thecomparison between it and three causes and three effects, which are coarse
cause and coarse effect preached in the teachings before the Lotus Sūtra.
7. The theory of cause and effect is an interpretation about an aspect of theteachings expounded by the Buddha. Furthermore, it clarifies the Buddha’s
wisdom (provisional wisdom and real wisdom), which is the actual agent of
expounding teachings, and through it it illustrates the ground of the Buddha,
which expounds subtle cause and subtle effect (one cause and one effect) andcoarse cause and coarse effect (three causes and three effects).
8. Fayun thought that the “age-old existence of the Buddha” explained in theLife Span Chapter is different from the true eternity of the Buddha explained in
the Nirvāṇa Sūtra.

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84,000: Calculating the Incalculable from Jingying Huiyuan to Sōboku
Kenney, Elizabeth (Kansai Gaidai University, Kyoto, JPN)In Buddhist texts, the number 84,000 usually means “very very many,
incalculably many.” All major Buddhist dictionaries, traditional or digital, tellus that 84,000 is a symbolic number meant to convey vastness — in effect, not anumber at all. The fact that 80,000 is also used with the same meaning would
seem to indicate that there are not really 84,000 items, whether illnesses orperfections, to be added up. In fact, however, several Buddhist sutras present
simple calculations to arrive at the number 84,000.
The works of Jingying Huiyuan 淨影慧遠 (523-592), a Buddhist scholastic andnumero-maniac, include two slightly different calculations for 84,000: one isfound in Dashengyizhang 大乘義章, Huiyuan’s encyclopedia of Buddhist
doctrine, the other in his commentary on Vimalakīrtisūtra. Interestingly andsomewhat contradictorily, in his encyclopedia entry for 84,000, Huiyuan writes,“The sutras have only the number [84,000], and they do not analyze the term.”
But elsewhere in the encyclopedia Huiyuan provides a calculation. He cites
Bhadrakalpikasūtra 賢劫經 (T. 425) as his source for this calculation, but infact Huiyuan’s calculation is more complicated than the one in the sutra.
We can find calculations of 84,000 in Dazhidulun 大智度論 [T. 1509] and inworks by well-known Chinese Buddhist scholastics, such as Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597), Jizang 吉藏 (549–623), Zhiyan 智儼 (602-668) and Chengguan 澄觀
(738–839). Most of these calculations are somewhat different from and lessdetailed than Huiyuan’s.
Sōboku 僧僕 (1719-1762), a Japanese Pure Land priest, now virtually forgotten
but prominent in his day, made his own investigations into the various
calculations of 84,000, using sutras and the works of Chinese scholastics. After
studying all the arithmetic, Sōboku wrote, “The words of the sutra are
mysterious and profound. If even the ancient worthies could not understandthem, then how can we? How regrettable!” Perhaps Sōboku concluded that
84,000 is, after all, incalculable.
The term “Buddhist scholasticism,” as found in the title of this IABS section,
usually refers to Indian Abhidharma. Chinese monks like Huiyuan, who made248

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lists, correlated terms, organized doctrines and were not afraid of minutiae, areeasily recognized as Abhidharmica scholastics, in spirit if not in name. In
contrast, it has scarcely been noted that Japanese Pure Land Buddhist priests
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries engaged in scholastic pursuits,
studying topics unrelated to Pure Land scriptures or to Pure Land religious
practice.

Hermeneutics in Buddhist Śāstras: The Cases of Candrakīrti and Tsongkha paLi, Shenghai (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)The extremely wide variety of śāstra in both Buddhist and larger South Asian
contexts makes it a very peculiar body of texts to conceptualize. For this reason,previous scholarship has generally avoided the question of śāstra’s identity andprefers to focus on the contents of its numerous instances. In the former subject,
the pioneer work of Sheldon Pollock, who identifies the two basic modalities ofśāstra as scripture, instantiated by the Veda, and śāstra as technical treatises
governing diverse cultural practices and human activities, remains a rareattempt that will serve as our basic reference point. Buddhist catalogs from
China beginning from the middle of the first millennium and later from Tibet
attest to the inclusion of śāstra as a scriptural category—first replacing
Abhidharma as a part in the tripiṭaka scheme, then standing next to the word of
the Buddha in the Bka’/Bstan ‘gyur dichotomy. With the rare exception of a few
authorities, such as Vasubandhu and Rje btsun Chos kyi rgyal mtshan, whoplace the sūtras/word of the Buddha within the purview of śāstra, most Buddhist
writers view śāstras as interpretive works of human authorship that bear aderivative relation to sūtras. From this specific perspective, Buddhist śāstras
function as a bridge between Pollock’s two modalities by remaining derivative
or interpretive in relation to scripture, while standing at the head of all forms ofknowledge, including the technical treatises in various cultural and practicalfields.
This prima facie description, however, does not fully conform to the observationthat in the history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, śāstras appear to haveassumed an increasingly dominant role in the scholastic practices comparedwith sūtras. In reality, what is secondary has indeed become primary. In
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arguing for śāstra’s gradual appropriation of a scriptural role, the proposed
paper presents two lists of scriptural citations gleaned from (1) Tsong kha pa’s
fifteenth-century treatise Lam rim chen mo and (2) Candrakīrti’s seventhcentury philosophical commentary Prasannapadā. The Madhyamaka section ofTsong kha pa's comprehensive Buddhist manual predominantly cites fromśāstra sources; even the small number of sūtra passages used can mostly be
traced in Candrakīrti’s earlier writings, indicating that in this Tibetan caseśāstras functioned virtually as the sole textual authority. In contrast, thescriptural citations used in a chapter of Candrakīrti’s Indian work shows anequal attention to both sūtra and śāstra sources. However, in Candrakīrti’s
case too, sūtra citations perform the subsidiary role of corroborating thepositions taken in the śāstras. The process further places the interpreter in ahermeneutical circle, where “the intention of scripture is ascertained by . . .
śāstras composed by the trustworthy beings.” The evidence from Candrakīrti’s
and Tsong kha pa’s texts, therefore, suggests that the rising authority of śāstra
emerged in a gradual process, in which a śāstric tradition assumed the role ofan arbiter in the matter of interpretation, while defining its own practical canonof scriptures and passages as a part of its hermeneutical apparatus.

Instances, Principles, Silences: Exemplification in the Vyākhyāyukti
Nance, Richard (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA)A striking feature of Vasubandhu's Vyākhyāyukti is its reliance on
exemplification as a pedagogical device. Over the course of the text—andparticularly in its second book—Vasubandhu proceeds to offer briefcommentaries on more than 100 short passages drawn from Buddhist sūtra
texts. There is no indication that he wants his readers to see these passages ascollectively constituting a thematically coherent whole, and in unpacking them,
he does not attempt to connect them to one another. Rather, they are treated as
isolable passages of authoritative Buddhist teaching on which separable
instances of commentary are offered. A would-be commentator, he tells us,
should learn from studying these instances how to proceed when confronted
with other suutra passages. Vasubandhu clearly sees attention to examples as
an important component in the training of those who would be commentators.
Notably, however, he does not tie the examples of commentary he offers back to
explicitly articulated general rules or principles; although he uses certain
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techniques repeatedly, he appears reluctant to take these techniques as topics
worthy of extended discussion. Attention to this point may tell us somethingimportant about Vasubandhu's views on the training of competentcommentators—and, by extension, on the way in which he viewed the practiceof commentary itself.

Relevance and Challenges – Translating Chengguan's Commentaries to
the Avatamsaka Sutra
Shi, Guo Cheen (Federal Way, USA)
With the highest compliments from a wide range of sources paid to the Huayan
scripture, its interpretations and principles, and a monk who championed manyof the most significant doctrines, it is curious and unfortunate that Chengguan’scommentarial literature on The Avatamsaka Sutra (or The Huayanjing, Da
Fangguang Fo Huayanjing 大方廣佛華嚴經 Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka
Sūtra) [i] is missing in English, in many western academic discourses, and inresearch where his treatises are duly acknowledged. Huayan Studies in theWest abound with intellectual and theoretical crevasses given that Chengguan’sCommentaries to the Huayanjing (or the Commentaries, Da Fangguang Fo
Huayanjing Shu 大方廣佛華嚴經疏) [ii] and The Meanings Proclaimed in the
Accompanying Subcommentaries to the Huayanjing (or the Subcommentaries,
Da Fangguang Fo Huayanjing Shu Yanyi Chao 大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔)[iii] are not extant in English and have not been investigated in the West.
Chengguan’s magnum opuses in Chinese are much more important
contributions to the religio-philosophical history of Huayan and Buddhism inChina than western contemporary scholarship has recognized thus far. As
western academicians pay increasing attention to Huayan Studies, and might I
say as Huayan Studies continue their evolution here in the West, a complete
translation of Chengguan’s key works, and further doctrinal, exegetical, andhermeneutical analyses of them are necessary to fill those gaping holes in
Huayan Studies here in the West.
To start this process, this study presents an annotated English translation of one
compiled fascicle of Chengguan’s Commentaries and Subcommentaries to The
Avatamsaka Sutra, complete with an introduction from its historical, doctrinal,
and translational perspectives.
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[i] Da Fangguang Fo Huayanjing 《 大方廣佛華嚴經》, Taisho Tripiṭaka 大正新脩大藏經 T10n0279, trans. Siksananda 實叉難陀, (Tokyo: Dazang chuban
zhushi huishe 大藏出版株式會社, 1988).
[ii] Chengguan 澄觀, Da Fangguang Fo Huayanjing Shu 《 大方廣佛華嚴經疏》, Taisho Tripiṭaka 大正新脩大藏經 T35n1735, ed. Dazheng xinxiu
dazangjing kanxinghui 大正新修大藏經刊行會 (Tokyo: Dazang chuban zhushi
huishe 大藏出版株式會社, 1988).
[iii] Chengguan 澄觀, Da Fangguang Fo Huayaning Suishu Yanyi Chao 《 大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 》. Taisho Tripiṭaka 大正新脩大藏經 T36n1736, ed.
Dazheng xinxiu dazangjing kanxinghui 大正新修大藏經刊行會 (Tokyo:
Dazang chuban zhushi huishe 大藏出版株式會社, 1988).

Reflections towards a Method for the Study of Buddhist Philosophy
Turenne, Philippe (Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Boudhnath, NPL)
This paper provides a critical look at recent resolutions of hermeneutical issues
related to the study of Buddhist philosophy and hermeneutics. Althoughprevious scholarship has focused on justifying the validity and legitimacy of thenotion of Buddhist philosophy and the project of studying it philosophically, it
argues that the issue of how that is best done still needs more reflection.
Through a study of selected passages from Madhyamaka literature and how
they have been interpreted, the paper argues that the academic study of
Buddhist philosophy needs to avoid using philosophy as a method-free
discourse, but should rather define precisely what method it follows and what
results it can yield, especially given the differences between Buddhist
hermeneutical and scholastic cultures and modern approaches to philosophy.

Once Again on the So-Called Predicative Ablative
Yagi, Toru (Osaka Gakuin University, Kyoto, JPN)

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puthujjano...paṭhaviṃ paṭhavito sañjānāti. (MN I 1)
An average person...recognises extension as extension. (Horner)
Buddhaghosa comments on it: tāsu [catubbidhāsu paṭhavīsu] yaṃ kañci ayaṃputhujjano paṭhavito sañjānāti, paṭhavī ti sañjānāti, paṭhavībhāvena sañjānāti,lokavohāraṃ gahetvā saññāvipallāsena sañjānāti. (MN-a I 25)
This ordinary person recognizes any of those [four types of earths] as earth, i.e.
he recognizes it as [follows: This is] earth, he recognizes it [with the quality of
being earth, i.e.] to be earth; [in conclusion,] holding on to conventions of theworld, he recognizes [it as earth] by perversion of perception.
The so-called predicative ablative is defined by Hinüber as follows: “Der abl.
auf -to steht, meist neben dem acc. desselben Wortes, bei Verben desErkennens, Meinens etc., die in der Regel auch mit einem doppelten acc.
verbunden werden können, in der Funktion eines Prädikativums.” To this hefootnotes: “WIJ p. 238 erklärt diesen abl. als ‘notion of view point...which
seems to be closely related to that of abl. of comparison. They have the sense“in terms ofˮ or “asˮ and can be expressed by periphrasis vasena as well’. Fürdie letzte Behauptung wird kein Beispiel gegeben; der prädikative Characterdes abl. ist nicht erkant. Wieso er ‘notion of view point’ bezeichnet und dem
abl. comp. nahe steht, bleibt unklar.”
I agree with Hinüber, whose remark leads us to the following questions. 1. Does
the suffix -to always correspond to the fifth case ending only, not to the others?
2. If there is a one-to-one correspondence between them, why is the so-called
predicative ablative confined to an ablative which ends in -to? For a viewpoint
is naturally included in the apādāna (“a point of departureˮ) [in the form of
viewpoint] to which the fifth case ending refers. In this paper, basing myself on
Aggavaṃsa and Pāṇinīyas, I would like to reconsider these points.

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The Relation between the Two Types of Object of Negation: Jamyang
Shaypa’s Refutation of Taktshang, the Translator
Yi, Jongbok (The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Voorhees, NJ,
USA)
In the chapter on the object of negation in his Extensive Explanation of(Candrakīrti’s) “Entry to (Nāgārjuna’s) ‘The Treatise on the Middle’”,Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419), thefounder of the Geluk Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, explains that clear
understanding of what to be negated in the course of Buddhist practice is an
important step toward realizing suchness. That is, by means of identifying whattrue existence is, according to Tsongkhapa, one can accurately remove what
obscures suchness. Emphasizing the importance of identifying the object ofnegation, Tsongkhapa presents divisions of the object of negation: An
intellectually imbued apprehension of true existence–acquired ignorance
through learning tenet systems–and an innate apprehension of true existence–
congenial ignorance of all sentient beings.
Given that, how do these two types of object of negation—the intellectually
imbued and innate apprehensions of true existence—relate to each other?
Tsongkhapa asserts that the innate apprehension of true existence cannot be
undermined by only negating the intellectually imbued apprehension of true
existence. Regarding his two objects of negation, the translator Taktshang
Sherap Rinchen (1405-?) in the Sakya Sect criticizes this assertion by pointing
out two absurdities from his understanding that lay in Tsongkhapa’spresentation of the object of negation:
1. The two modes of apprehension of true existence—the intellectually imbued
apprehension of true existence and the innate apprehension of true existence—
should be utterly different from each other.
2. Therefore, the reasoning repudiating the intellectually imbued mode ofapprehension could not refute the innate mode of apprehension.
Regarding Taktshang’s criticism, this paper will examine Taktshang’s criticism
from two directions. First, I will examine the validity of Taktshang’s criticism inaccordance with Tsongkhapa’s system. In doing so, I will explain how these two

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objects of negation are related to each other in Tsongkhapa’s system. Second,
this paper will present the way a later Geluk commentarial tradition responds
to Taktshang’s criticism. Jamyang Shaypa (’jam dbyangs bzhad pa’i rdo rje,
1648-1721) pedagogically integrates his refutation on Taktshang’s
understanding into monastic education in Gomang Monastic College in his
Great Exposition of the Middle. By doing so, this paper will explore how a later
commentarial tradition in Geluk Sect of Tibetan Buddhism adopts Taktshang's
criticism for educational purpose.

A Pāśupata ascetic in Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita?
Ferstl, Christian (Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
In the seventh chapter of Aśvaghoṣa’s epic Buddhacarita, a certain Brahmin
ascetic recommends to the Bodhisattva Sarvārthasiddha to go and meet thesage Arāḍa (verses 51-55). The description of the anonymous ascetic who issaid to be “lying in ashes” (bhasmaśāyin) is by all means positive and shows nosigns of sectarian polemics. The presentation will discuss this remarkableapproach to the ascetic and allow for aspects of the literary representation.
Moreover, the possibility of an identification of the bhasmaśāyin as an adherentof Pāśupata Śaivism will be considered.

Tibetan Hagiographies in Buddhist Teaching: Narrative Performances andtheir Reception in Past and Present
Rheingans, Jim (Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)
Tibetan texts entitled rnam thar (often considered a type of hagiography andtranslated here as ‘spiritual biography’) usually narrate the life of a person
considered to be of religious importance in Tibetan culture. Spiritualbiographies have been composed from the beginnings of Tibetan religions up to
today; in fact the genre of what one may call “Tibetan life writing” continues
and changes, new issues (with not only Tibetan protagonists) constantly being

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generated. And the most popular such as Milarepa’s spiritual biography have
not only been the source of historical enquiry, or object of literaryclassification, but have been – and are still – re-narrated in the context ofreligious teachings. This may exhibit some of their perhaps originally intended
functions and uses, namely to engender trust, serve as example, and legitimise a
tradition's authority.
Focusing on some contemporary oral performances of popular Tibetan spiritualbiographies (in Tibetan language) through field studies as well as some textual
clues about their usage in history, this paper attempts to investigate thereceptions, uses, and functions of such texts by analysing the constantrecreating and re-narrating for various audiences. A key element will be thenarrative selection employed by the preacher, the religious functions, and theconcepts of fact and fiction in the process of reception. This research willfurther reflect on whether and how the examination of oral but text-based
contemporary narratives may shed light on the possible function and receptionof rnam thar in earlier periods within Tibetan history and which textual sources
we may use. In conclusion this paper suggests how such an approach can help
to a more general understanding of the Tibetan spiritual biography andBuddhist hagiography.

Reincarnation Perception of Buddhist Women in Two Confusing
Narratives
Tsai, Shu-Hui (Taipei, TWN)
The Buddha's teachings developed and spread with the help of both oral andliterary traditions. The process involved original accounts, recording, editing,translation, revision, redaction, and sometimes recreation. When Sanskrit or
Pāli texts were translated into Chinese, to mention just one example, thetranslators needed to be familiar with two very different languages. The
translators’ interpretations also influenced how the texts developed andtransformed.

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According to a narrative text of the Taisho Tripitaka, there was a king named
Prasenajit, married to queen Mallikā. They had a daughter named Śrīmālā. She
was an exemplum. The Śrīmālā sutra described her ten wishes to be a Buddha.
But the Tipitaka and the Pali Canon record only the king Prasenajit and queen
Mallikā. Mallikā is also named Śrīmālā. The texts does not mention the wise
daughter.
In the Taisho Tripitaka Śrīmālā is very active. But in the Tipitaka and the Pali
Canon she is fiction. I will expound these confusing narratives as the firstexample.
The second example comes from the Tipitaka, Anguttara-nikaya (The Book ofGradual Sayings), Khuddaka-nikaya (Minor Anthologies), and Theri-gatha(Verses of the Elder Nuns), regarding the story of Pazhajiala and Utpalavarṇā.
The plot is similar, so it is easy to make mistakes. I will state the confusing plot
clearly.
Although these female practitioners have different qualities, the images
portrayed are all positive. The reason is that they broke through the limitationsof their lives by learning the Buddhadharma. In modern psychology, narrative
therapy has been shown to be very helpful for certain types of patients. Because
the stories of Buddhist practitioners are attractive, they are retold time andagain, and, as a result, the retellings are subject to change
The process of constructing the stories of these female practitioners involves theconsideration of many stages: their origination, recording, transcription,interpretation, translation, and revision. From the perspective of religious
literature, the texts include examples of moral anecdotes, brief or extended, realor fictitious, which are used to illustrate a point, By reconstructing thesenarrative texts from a literary point of view and pointing out the ways in which
the texts changed, we can understand more about how the Buddha taught
women the path to liberatation and reflect on the relevance of the teachings inour own lives.

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The Story of the Nāgas' Surrender to King Aśoka: An Investigation into
the Source of the Seventy-third Chapter of theBodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā
Yamasaki, Kazuho (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Yokohama,
JPN)Kṣemendra (ca. 990 – 1077) is the author of a Buddhist narrative, theBodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā divided into 108 chapters (pallavas), of which theseventy-third chapter is devoted to relating a unique and interesting story
concerning the surrender of the nāgas to King Aśoka. Three text versions of thisstory are extant: one in a Tibetan translation from a Sanskrit original, the Myangan med pa’i sgo nas klu btul ba’i le’u (Aśokamukhanāgavinayapariccheda),
and two in Chinese texts, the Tiānzūnshuō āyùwáng pìyù jīng 天尊説阿育王譬
喩經 (T#2044) and the Zá pìyù jīng 雑譬喩經 (T#205). A brief summary of the
Tibetan version was given by Adelheid METTE in “Zur tibetischenÜberlieferung der Aśokalegende,” ZDMG Suppl. Bd. 7 (1985): 299–307. The
present paper, taking into consideration the Tibetan and Chinese versions, willattempt to investigate the immediate source of Kṣemendra’s version.
Kṣemendra’s version consists of twenty-eight stanzas written in a highlypolished kāvya style. The narrative elements constituting it can be classified
into three types: (a) narrative elements which are found in all versions, such as
making statues of Aśoka and the nāga-king; (b) elements found in both theKṣemendra and the Tibetan versions, such as the nāgas’ attack on a shipcarrying treasures, and Aśoka sending a copper-plate engraved letter to thenāgas; and (c) those which are peculiar to Kṣemendra’s version only, such as
Upagupta’s sermon in Pāṭaliputra.
A detailed analysis of the type (c) narrative elements indicates that it isplausible that these narrative elements were not due to Kṣemendra’s
embellishments, but were adopted from the source text he used, and that thesource text, which is no longer extant, may have been closest to the Tibetan
version.

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Reflexive Sensibility and the Mādhyamika's View From Nowhere
Coseru, Christian (College of Charleston, Charleston, USA)
Reflexivism is the thesis that consciousness consists in conscious mental states
being implicitly self-aware. Beginning with Dignāga in the 6th c., a group of
Buddhist thinkers accept reflexivism as a descriptive theory about the nature ofconsciousness. Conscious experience, argue these Buddhists, cannot have abasis outside experience itself, that is, in something non-sentient. Dignāga’sreflexivist theory articulates an early version of the view that higher-ordertheories of consciousness are regressive. Following Dharmakīrti, reflexivism
develops into a thesis about the self-presentational character of intentional
mental states. Mādhyamika critics of reflexivism like Candrakīrti take issue withwhat they regard as the characteristically Yogācāra view that the object of astate of metacognitive awareness is not extrinsic to cognition but an aspect ofcognition itself. I argue that Candrakīrti’s critique of reflexive awareness(svasaṃvedana), insofar as it targets the self-presentational character ofmental states, amounts to a view from nowhere. Candrakīrti’s critique ofreflexivism as a statement about the epistemic status of self-presentational
mental states may be justified (as later Buddhist and Brahmanical thinkers
come to admit). But his assumption that consciousness must be an external,
relational property of mental states in order to be intelligible and analyzable
ignores what is most defining about consciousness: its proprietaryphenomenology. While the Mādhyamika’s relational account of the mental does
avoid the insurmountable problem of other minds the reflexivist presumably
faces, it cannot, on my view, account for the binding of self-presentation andthe intentional structure of self-awareness. Dignāga’s dual-aspect theory ofmental states offers one solution to the binding problem. Arguably, it isŚāntarakṣita’s account of svasaṃvedana in terms of sentience that renders thereflexivity thesis (as a thesis about the ineliminably subjective character ofexperience) indispensable to any analysis of the structure of consciousness andits properly phenomenological features.

Buddhists and Bhāṭṭas on Cognition of Cognition
Siderits, Mark (Seoul National University, Paris, FRA)

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We are often aware of our own cognizings. Indian philosophers debated how
this is possible. Dignāga and Dharmakīrti claimed that this is only possible
because when a cognition cognizes its object it also cognizes itself. This is thethesis of svasaṃvedana, the best known argument for which is the argumentfrom memory first formulated by Dignāga and subsequently modified by
Dharmakīrti. I investigate the strength of this argument in light of the criticismsof Kumārila and other Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsakas, who maintain that a cognition isnever itself directly cognized. Parallels with current work in cognitive scienceand philosophy of mind will also be touched on.

Medical Sciences in the Vinaya Piṭakas: A Study Mainly Based on the
Bhesajjakkhandhaka and its Parallel Versions
Sik, Hin-tak (Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong, HKG)The Vinaya Piṭaka is a big treasure for exploring various pieces of information
about ancient India. Medical sciences are among this vast body of information.
The extant Vinaya Piṭakas therefore form a huge mine for studying medical
materials. These medical records – about medical cases (with their treatments
and sometimes equipment) and materia medica – are, however, succinct anddifficult to comprehend. Very few scholars have carried out studies on these
medical materials. They have only focused on one or two Vinaya Piṭakas, or
merely studied certain aspects of these materials. A more comprehensive
perusal and explanation of this ancient medical information found in the VinayaPiṭakas is wanting. The objective of this paper is to examine and interpret suchinformation – to discuss the various medical sciences found in the VinayaPiṭakas and to explore the large corpus of materia medica retained in thesematerials. The main sources used for this study are the extant versions of the
Chapter on Medicine of the Vinaya Piṭakas – viz. the Bhesajjakkhandhaka of
the Theravāda Vinaya, the Bhaiṣajyaskandhaka of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya,
the Bhaiṣajyadharmakas of the Mahīśāsaka and Sarvāstivāda Vinayas, theBhaiṣajyavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, and the relevant vargas in the
Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya. Other medical information scattered in other parts of
the Vinaya Piṭakas is also explored. The approach of this paper is primarily
medical interpretation – to examine the medical materials in these sources andto understand them. The materials are interpreted via three aspects, which are260

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the ancient meanings of the word hermeneutics: narration (by describing
individual diseases/drugs according to the same or similar materials fromdifferent Vinayas), explanation (by using the commentarial and ayurvedic
explanations), and translation (by rendering them into modern medical
terminologies). The medical accounts are categorized and scrutinized by meansof ayurvedic science and modern medical science. Diseases and treatments
pertaining to various medical specialties such as general medicine, toxicology,
dermatology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, and surgery can be identified. Cases
such as autumnal disease, wind disease, water disease, insanity, snakebite, eyeproblems, skin diseases, anal diseases, etc., are interpreted and discussed. The
materia medica retained in the Vinayas – mostly vegetative (such as various
medicines of root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, etc.), as well as some mineral (suchas salts) and animal (fats and meat) – are also examined. Through such an
attempt of interpretation, information on the ancient medical sciences in the
Vinaya sources may be better comprehended. Ancient Indian medical sciences
preserved in the extant versions of the Vinaya Piṭaka, moreover, can be known
and understood by medical historians. The significance of this paper is todemonstrate how the knowledge of different sciences/disciplines, especially thatof modern science, can be used as a tool to interpret and to help understand theancient Indian knowledge.

Throwing Dice for Divining One’s Karma – The Scripture on Divining theRetribution of Skillful and Negative Actions (T.839)
Guggenmos, Esther-Maria (International Consortium for Research in the
Humanities, Erlangen, GER)This paper will present results of my recent research on the Scripture on
Divining the Retribution of Skillful and Negative Actions (Zhancha Shan'eYebao Jing, T. 839) starting from the presentation of its textual basis. It willsituate the sūtra shortly in its cultural context and delineate its cultural history
with a special focus on 20th century and contemporary revivals. The Zhancha
Shan'e Yebao Jing is clearly an indigenous scripture composed in China
probably in the 80ties of the 6th century. While its first chapter describes a
divination ritual that involves throwing dice in order to examine one's own
karma in relation with a repentance ritual, its second chapter concentrates on a
meditation process that unfolds in several stages. The sūtra was seen as of261

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ambiguous origin in its beginning and later was given authoritative status.
While is was practiced in Korea for some time, little is known about Chinese
practice until the late Ming dynasty, when Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655) devotes
himself to its study and practice. In the 20th century the practice of divining
one's karma by throwing dice is revived through Ven. Mengcan (*1915) withthe support of Master Hongyi (1880-1942).

Lay Empowerment and the Ritualization of the Diamond Sutra inMedieval China
Ho, Chiew Hui (The University of Sydney, Sydney, AUS)
The Diamond Sutra is an important Mahāyāna sutra, which remains to this day
one of the most influential Buddhist sutras in East Asia. A substantial body ofnarratives related to it appeared, circulated, and were compiled in Tang China,
which reflected the extent to which it featured in the lives of people in that
period. The writings of the lay compilers of these narratives exhibited an
unusual audacity in articulating their views of Buddhism—traditionally theprovince of monastics—as they assumed greater responsibility for the
propagation of the religion by their creation of Diamond Sutra lore. This paper
explores the empowerment of Tang laity and its extent as demonstrated by theautonomy with which lay Buddhists modified, produced and distributed
religious texts of the Diamond Sutra, which even prompted the monastic
establishment to accommodate itself to the changes they brought about.

The Lotus Sutra Did Not Regard Itself as a Mahayana Text
Ishida, Chiko (Kansai University, Numazu, JPN)
There are basically three views on how the Lotus Sutra positions itself withregard to Mahayana thought. 1) The Lotus Sutra regards itself as representing
the Mahayana (Great Vehicle), which it equates with the Buddha Vehicle andwith the Bodhisattva Vehicle. 2) The Lotus Sutra regards itself as representing
the Buddha Vehicle, and is critical of the Prajnaparamita sutras’ view of262

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themselves as representing the Mahayana, which they equate with theBodhisattva Vehicle. 3) The Lotus Sutra regards itself as representing the
Mahayana (Great Vehicle), which it equates with the Buddha Vehicle but notwith the Bodhisattva Vehicle. The reason that no consensus has yet beenreached regarding which of these three competing views represents the true
position of the Lotus Sutra is, I believe, because the discussion so far has
focused entirely on interpretations of the text as a whole rather than on a close
analysis of the textual materials. Now, however, the careful study of various
alternative readings of the Lotus Sutra, facilitated by recent advances in
research on the Prajnaparamita sutras, has made it possible to reassess thethree positions outlined above and provisionally deduce that the Lotus Sutra’s
consciousness of itself as a Mahayana text was weak.
This deduction draws on evidence that indicates it may be necessary toreconsider certain aspects of the traditional view of the Lotus Sutra’s place inthe development of Buddhist thought (i.e., that it emerged in response to certain
positions expressed in the Prajnaparamita sutras). This evidence includes
disparities between certain prose passages and the corresponding verse
passages with regard to the important concept of the Buddhist vehicles,
disparities found in chapters 2 (“Skillful Means”) and 3 (“Parable”), two of themost ancient chapters in the Lotus Sutra. For example, in the prose section ofchapter 2 the term “Three Vehicles” appears but no explanation of what thisterm means is found, and the term is not mentioned in the verse section; also,
the prose section contains the term “Buddha Vehicle” but not the term
“bodhisattva,” while the verse section contains the term “bodhisattva” but not
the term “Buddha Vehicle.” Such disparities suggest that the Lotus Sutra took
form during the period when the fundamental concepts of the Mahayana sutras(e.g., Three Vehicles, Great Vehicle, bodhisattva, etc.) were still in the process
of formulation. In this presentation I discuss what aspects of the Lotus Sutra I
see as original to the sutra itself (and as thus having arisen independently of
any contact with the Prajnaparamita sutras) and what aspects I consider tohave arisen later in response to Prajnaparamita influences.

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Soteriological Transformation of the Mind-Body Complex in the“Samanta-mukha-parivarta” of the Lotus Sūtra
Tsai, Yao-ming (Department of Philosophy, National Taiwan University,
Taipei, TWN)
This paper employs the “Samanta-mukha-parivarta” of the Lotus Sūtra as themain literary source to discuss, from a philosophical perspective, the unfolding
and transformation of the mind-body complex to its fullest extent by way of
Mahāyāna practices and soteriological applications. Through an analysis of
this important work, this paper will illustrate various limitations andattachments entailed by ordinary or unskilled practices of knowledge
attribution concerning the mind-body complex. It will then emphasize thesignificance of the role played by soteriology in Buddhist intellectual thought,
and analyze how those limitations and attachments can be largely unpacked
and totally transformed in the development of Buddhist soteriologicalparadigms. This, in turn, may open up new ways of understanding the mindbody complex. The structure of this paper is as follows: The introduction
elucidates the theme and outline of this paper, while section two summarizes themain thesis of the “Samanta-mukha-parivarta,” including presenting a
discussion of the structure, title, style, key concepts, and basic ideas of the text
to ground or contextualize subsequent arguments in this paper. Section threedemonstrates that the message conveyed by the “Samanta-mukha-parivarta” isan unfolding style of religious engagement. Section four elucidates how theconcepts of mind, body and abiding-places produce a kindred system or
network of thoughts and practices that can be unpacked through probing
examination and analysis. Section five both investigates the characteristics of
unfolding Bodhisattva practices exemplified by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara
and reflects on the scope of Bodhisattva practices from a philosophicalperspective, probing the possibility of unpacking the mind-body complex to thehighest levels of excellence. The final section concludes the main points of thisinquiry.

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Demythologization as Modernization: Making Pure Land Buddhism
Rational in 1920s Japan
Blum, Mark (University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA)
Beginning in 1941 Rudolph Bultmann began a movement in Christian theologythat argued for the importance of removing myth from how we read the New
Testament. Bultmann is explicit that his purpose is to clarify the true nature of
Christian faith for modern man whose world view is determined by science, andthat through what he called demythologization (Entmythologisierung)theologians can “purify” Christian teachings of its mythical elements in order
to isolate its essential message, or kerygma. It appears to be a coincidence thata parallel movement had begun in Japan in the 1920s among philosophers ofPure Land Buddhism, specifically Yamazaki Ben’ei (1859-1920), Chikazumi
Jōkan (1870-1940), Nonomura Naotarō (1871-1941), Kaneko Daiei (18811976), and Soga Ryōjin (1875-1971). These individuals were both highly
disruptive and attractive to Buddhist intellectual and institutional circles inJapan, but as all of these Japanese-language materials remain untranslated tothis day, we can assume that Bultmann and his community had no knowledge ofthese earlier developments and therefore were not influenced by them. Thissuggests that there was a common felt need to present a new hermeneutic inboth Christianity and Buddhism wherein the rational and the mythic were in
opposition and that the rational declared superior was perhaps a genericfeature of the conflict between traditional religion and modernity in the midtwentieth century among industrially advanced nations. As this aspect ofcontemporary Buddhism has received very little scholarly attention, this paper
will attempt to move our understanding of this topic forward by presenting a
critical analysis this particular movement in 1920s Japan.
Of particular interest in the Japanese context is the fact that the very word for“myth” (shinwa) had only recently been created as a translation of theEuropean concept, and in the 1890s Kiyozawa Manshi had already argued thatthe proper way to understand “Buddha,” even as a salvific agent, should imply
minimal transcendence. Among these thinkers, only Chikazumi spent enoughtime in the West to be influenced by it, so some degree of romanticization ofWestern society as “strong” or “advanced” as a result of its perceived degreeof rationality may have been a factor. But the three thinkers who will be
examined in most detail here will be Nonomura Naotarō, Kaneko Daiei, andSoga Ryōjin. Among this group, these were the men who had the greatest

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political difficulty with their religious institutions, all of them losing their jobs
teaching at their respective Buddhist colleges at this time. In particular I will
discuss A Critique of the Pure Land Teachings by Nonomura and The Idea of
the Pure Land by Kaneko, for these works had the most far-reaching
implications in this context.

Buddhist Mountains’ Plans for Stock Market Initial Public Offerings in
China: Raising Money as Upāya-Kauśalya
Cheung, Kin (Temple University, Philadelphia, USA)
Since Emei Shan, one of the four famous Chinese Buddhist mountains, becamea publicly traded stock in 1997, other Chinese Buddhist sites have made plans
for their own IPOs to raise money, citing the need for maintenance anddevelopment. This has elicited sharp criticism by Chinese officials denouncing
these actions as greed and against the spirit of Buddhism. There is a lack ofscholarly attention towards this modern development in Chinese Buddhism, theplans of the other Chinese Buddhist mountains and Shaolin Monastery to join
Emei Shan, and the implications and assumptions behind the rebukes ofChinese officials.
I investigate whether an argument can be made that this money raising
enterprise may be read as a form upāya-kauśalya, or skillful means,
instrumental to maintaining and spreading Buddhist dharma. I examine the useof upāya-kauśalya in the case of Vimalakīrti the merchant bodhisattva, and in
the parables of the Lotus Sutra and the Nikayas to offer a response to Alicia andDaigan Matsunaga who characterize money raising and prosperity rituals as
exclusively mundane goals, “hopefully [i.e. at best] viewed as upaya.” While
the Matsunagas address a different context, their attitude towards fundraisingin Buddhism resonates with those who criticize these IPO plans. If a case canbe made for these actions as a form of upāya-kauśalya in a positive light, it will
provide the Chinese Buddhist institutions with a doctrinal justification for
raising capital. They can also respond to a related, more general critique
launched by Slavoj Žižek directed towards the use of Buddhism as an“ideological supplement” in reinforcing what Glenn Wallis calls a “destructive
form of capitalism.” While Žižek and Wallis have in mind “western Buddhism’s266

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complicity in what is arguably a rabid capitalistic system,” the Chinese
Buddhist mountains cannot escape the same criticism.
I explore a possible retort using Peter Singer’s arguments for maximizing one’s
contribution to society. William Crouch founded a service that provides autilitarian calculator of what job one should pursue to earn the most money andenjoy going to work, so that one can sustainably donate the most of one’s
earning potentials. Case in point, Singer calls Bill Gates and Warren Buffet the“the most effective altruists in history” because although they were complicit in
the capitalist system (the ethics of their business decisions aside) they were able
to use the wealth they’ve accumulated skillfully, within a capitalist system
where capital grows exponentially. Buffet and Gates were the wealthiest
persons in the world in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and used their wealthtowards donations and to set up altruistic foundations. Had they donated moremoney or focused less on earnings at the beginning of their careers, they would
be less effective altruists. The Chinese Buddhist mountains can use Singer’s lineof reasoning to argue their IPOs function as upāya-kauśalyas in an
increasingly capitalistic global economy, where one efficient means of
spreading Buddhist dharma is through growing capital. This will have
implications on how to view the encounter of modern economies with sacredsites, in China and elsewhere, and on the more general subject of contemporary
Buddhism’s encounter with money.

Monastic Migration and Buddhist Diaspora in America
Chowdhury, Chipamong (Buffalo, NY, USA)
Since 1965’s American immigration policy liberalization, the United States ofAmerica has been one of the transnational places for Theravāda monastic
migration, relocation and resettlement. On May 16, 2011 the United Nations’General Assembly Hall in New York City was crowded with over 300 Buddhist
monks from different States of America to commemorate 2555Sambuddhajayanti or Vesak celebration. Beyond doubt, the event was one of thelargest social and religious events in contemporary American religious history.
While the event symbolizes Buddhist transnationalism and their collective unityand strength, it suggests religious transformation and social changes in
America.
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The paper raises following questions: What makes these monks migrate toAmerica? Are these monks making Americans better or are Americans making
them better? What are the roles these diasporic monks play or create andrecreate for the construction of a transbuddhist identity in a secularizedAmerican society? Based on 4 years of study on global monastic mobility andnetworks in America, this paper reflects on those questions and explores theunderstudied issue of monastic migration and their essential roles in diasporic
Buddhist community for the continuity and strengthening of the Buddhist temple
dimension in America. The paper will contribute to a deeper and more nuanced
understanding of transbuddhist religious lives in the West.

The Rhetoric of Zen in Contemporary Korean Buddhism: Pomnyun’s
Quote
Jee, Hyekyung (CHARLOTTESVILLE, USA)The Zen tradition has its own unique rhetoric and one of Zen monks in Korea
embodies and modifies this rhetoric in daily life today. The monk’s name is
Pomnyun (1953~). Monk Pomnyun is the most influential monk in Korea today.
He obtains fame outside Korea due to his social activities such as building
schools for underprivileged people in undeveloped countries and helping
starving North Korean people. However, his real value can be found in his
unique teaching called “Pomnyun’s Quote.” A lecture consists in a question
from the audience and Pomnyun’s answer. The topics of the questions arevarious but all are related to daily life: a concentration problem while studying,avoiding stress, getting a job, conflicts with other people, alcoholism, etc. It ismodeled on the Buddha’s style of teaching, namely teaching in accordance withthe spiritual capacities of the audience. Though the question may be the same,
Pomnyun’s response would vary depending on the questioner’s quality. In thelecture, he listens to people’s problems carefully, leads the conversation withsharp questions, and lets people see the issue in different perspectives. His
preaching looks like counseling in public, but this method is less time intensive
than a counselor’s work. His dialogues can get an effective result in a shortertime because of his unique rhetoric based on Buddhist teachings.
When one analyzes his dialogues, one can finds that Pomnyun modifies the
dialogues characteristic of the traditional Zen monk’s training and applies
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Buddhist doctrines to daily life. Pomnyun starts with a provocative responsewhen he receives a question. For example, when an unmarried middle age man
asked him a way to find a good wife, Pomnyun gave the suggestion of becominga monk. At first glance, his response does not make sense. This provocative
response is modeled on the traditional style of Zen conversation. It gives amental shock to the questioner and evokes curiosity for the following
explanation. While the audience and questioner listen to his explanation, thereason why he said that is revealed. The reason is usually insightful rather thanunderstandable because his skillful rhetoric is supported by essential teachingsof Buddhism, such as the principle of Karma, mind-only, emptiness, and no-self.
Throughout the conversation, Pomnyun makes people see the real situation of
the problem and accept it. Then he makes people notice that suffering occurs
from self-centered perspectives. His conversation seeks to break this and mostquestioners accept the fact that they were confined to their own perspective. Of
course, sometimes he argues with the questioner, and such dialogues are also
great examples to see his rhetoric. Throughout this process people could heal awounded mind, expand their perspective and move toward attaining
enlightenment. Through analyzing his dialogues, we can examine how themodified Zen rhetoric may contribute to solve daily life problems.

The Sun of Tibetan Art Rises in the West: A Contribution to theTransmission of Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Art to the West in the 21stCentury
Haderer, Elisabeth (Numata Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde, Hamburg, GER)
Since the destruction of Tibetan culture in the mid-20th century, the last master
artists of the various Tibetan art traditions such as the 400 year-old Tibetan
Karma Gardri (tib. karma sgar bris) tradition have been seeking to transmit
their knowledge and craftsmanship also to Western artists so they would not get
lost in the future.
In 2007, the Buddhist Institute of Tibetan Art (BINTA) has been founded in the
Karma Kagyü Buddhist Center in Braunschweig/ Germany. One of the main
goals of this institution is to maintain and receive the “authentic” principles
and methods of traditional Tibetan art. The German artist and sculptress Petra
Förster (born 1964) and her team have specialized in the art of building
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traditional Tibetan Buddhist clay sculptures. The Western artists learn from the
Tibetan master artist Chhemet Rigdzin the skills of how to produce this ancientart (the first clay statues in Tibet date back to the 8th century) as well as theknowledge of the classical iconometric measurements of different Buddha forms
and their iconography (attributes, hand gestures, facial expressions, color etc.).
He was born in 1972 in Ladakh (North India) as the son of the very famous
sculptor Nawang Tsering. At a very early age, Chhemet Rigdzin received
artistic training at the Institute for Buddhist Studies in Choglamsar in Leh/
Ladakh.
One of the basic texts on iconometry Chhemet Rigdzin and his Western students
use for their work is the Tibetan book “New Sun Self Learning Book on the Artof Tibetan Painting”, which has not been translated into a Western language
yet.
The purpose of my paper is to make a first attempt to define the features ofcontemporary Tibetan Buddhist clay sculpture art by comparing them to someexamples of traditional Tibetan Buddhist clay sculptures of the Western Tibetan
regions. Besides that, I will also provide the translation of some passages of theabove mentioned Tibetan text on art that is relevant for the work of the Westernartists.

Transnational Interaction of Chinese Buddhist Congregations in
Singapore – A Focus on the Liberation Rite of Water and Land
(Shuilufahui 水陸法會)
Hsu, Yu Yin (National University of Singapore, SGP)
Scholars have widely debated on the significant changes of Buddhism in
Singapore due to a complicated colonized, modernized, urbanized andglobalized process in the last two decades (Kuo&Tong, 1995; Kuah, 2003;
Ong, 2005; Chia, 2009; Hue, 2011). Reformist Buddhism in Singapore is being
established as a modern rational religion after the 1970s (Kuah, 2003). Also,transnational activities are continuously and more obviously occurring throughregular visits of Buddhist monks, donations and religious resources acrossborders. Besides considering religious connections, Wuthnow (2008) suggeststhat it is necessary to observe the effects on local congregations after
ceremonies.

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The traditional ceremonies, like the eight precepts (八關齋戒) and Fahui (法會), are still frequently being held in a great number of Chinese Buddhist temples
in the 21st century. The most honorable ceremony for Chinese Buddhism eachyear, the liberation rite of water and land (水陸法會 Shuilufahui), needs to be
discussed further. So far we know that the first congregation of Shuilu (水陸)took place for seven days in the Phor Kark See Monastery (普覺禪寺) at theend of 1966 after Singapore had declared independence one year earlier. To
this day this congregation creates the main connection with worshippers andreligious workers from other countries once a year. It would be interesting toknow if this traditional ceremony in Singapore always followed the originalrule, called “Yiguei” (儀軌), or gradually changed for certain reasons.
The aim of this research is to explore the procedure and changes of theliberation rite of water and land in present-day Singapore and further toexamine the transnational interaction during the congregation. Fieldwork andpersonal interviews are both conducted in this study. A preliminary result
indicates that noticeable changes are strongly related to the foreign religious
workers.

Revival of Authentic Buddhist Tradition in Russia and the Role of the
Tibetan Lama Geshe Thinley
Irina, Urbanaeva (The Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies,
Ulan-Ude, RUS)
An authentic Indo-Tibetan tradition of Mahayana began to spread in Russia
since the 17th century in Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva and Altai. Duringcommunist rule, Buddhist monasteries were destroyed, Buddhist traditions in
Russia have disappeared. Like many other religious denominations, at the endof the 20th century, Buddhism in Russia experienced a renaissance. But how toreanimate the lost tradition? Only two datsans were opened after the Second
World War. They are the Ivolginsky datsan near Ulan-Ude (Buryatia) and theAginsky datsan near the village Aginskoe (Trans-Baikal Territory). They were
not monasteries, because they did not actually have monks. Several visits of theDalai Lama to the Buryat and Kalmyk republics (1991, 1992, and 2004) helped
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Tibetan spiritual teachers whom the Dalai Lama specially delegated to Russia
beginning in 1993. The most prominent among them is Geshe Jampa Thinley,
who arrived in Russia as a spiritual representative of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama in Russia, Mongolia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) in
1993. Now he spiritually supervises more than twenty Dharma centers that arelocated not only in traditional Buddhist ethnic areas of Russia but also in manyurban centers that cater to both ethnic Buddhists and non-ethnic “converts.”
Geshe Thinley is not only a highly educated expert in Buddhist Philosophy, who
graduated from the CITI in Sarnath, India, and received a Geshe degree at theSera monastery, South India, but he is also s a yogi, who has experience of athree-year retreat in Dharamsala under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama and the very great yogi, whose name is the venerable Panang Rinpoche.
Geshe Thinley has also a karmic connection with Russia, as said by the Tibetan
oracle. Although he was young, thirty years old, the Dalai Lama sent him to
Russia, not famous teachers with extensive experience. I remember that Geshe
Thinley said in 1993: “It is very good that people in Buryatia began to revive
the ruined datsans and dugans (great and small temples) and build new
temples. But it’s much more important to build a temple in the heart of thepeople. My job is to help people in Russia to build a temple of Dharma in theirown heart”. Over twenty years Geshe Thinley made temples in the hearts ofmany thousands of ethnic and non-ethnic followers. He teaches a system of Je
Tsonkhapa, which is a gradual path of Buddhist meditation on the basis of thehighest philosophy of Madhyamika Prasangika, in the unity of the sutra andtantra. Actually his approach is non-sectarian. Today twenty Dharma centers ofGeshe Thinley form the central Buddhist organization “Je Tsonkhapa”. Thissystem has its own Publishing House and Retreat Center at Lake Baikal. Geshe
Thinley and his students collaborate with scientists in the project “Buddhist
Meditation”. What authentic Buddhism is, people in Russia know thanks to
Geshe Thinley.

Becoming Lay Meditation Teachers in Contemporary Chinese Societies:
Cases in Hong Kong and Taiwan
Lau, Ngar-sze (ISCA, University of Oxford, Oxford, GBR)
This paper examines the role played by lay meditation teachers in promoting
the recent meditation movement in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Although
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modernism of Chinese Buddhism has been started under the notion ofhumanistic Buddhism since early Twentieth Century by Venerable Taixu andsome lay reformers, meditation practices have never played a key role in theseries of reforms. Nevertheless, with the influence of the Buddhist revival andBuddhist modernism in Theravada Buddhist countries, such as Sri Lanka (Bond1988; Gombrich and Obeyesekere 1988) and Burma (Jordt 2007),
transnational meditation practices have been transmitted rapidly to Chinesesocieties such as Hong Kong and Taiwan in the past two decades with thecontext of modernisation and globalisation. These transnational meditation
practices are from various traditions including Thai forest tradition, vipassanā
meditation from Burmese tradition and globalized secularized mindfulnessbased programmes such as MBSR (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction
Programme) and MBCT (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy) from the West.
Not only scriptures and books on meditation were translated to Chinese from
Pāl̥i or English, but also talks and retreats were frequently organised, andtransnational meditation centres were built. Lay meditation teachers have been
involved in changing Buddhism by localizing and promoting the newlytransmitted meditation practices. George Bond (2003) argues that the
emergence of lay meditation groups have challenged the traditional authority
by creating new forms of sectarianism in Sri Lanka. However, drawing onfieldwork done as a participant observer in Hong Kong and Taiwan, in thispaper I will argue how, in the Chinese context, the lay meditation teachers haveconstructed their new legitimized identity from the established local Buddhist
authority, though some female teachers have taken leading roles. Besides, withreference to the discussion about the decontextualisation andrecontextualisation of Asian religious practices (Schedneck 2012), I will also
demonstrate how the established Chinese Buddhist authority has tried to gainsocial legitimacy from the globalised meditation practices, related to scienceand health. Furthermore, by comparing the similarities and differences of Hong
Kong and Taiwan, political, economic and cultural factors which contribute to
the changes of Buddhism will be explored. This paper may shed light on thediscussion of future development of Buddhism in Chinese societies.
References:
Bond, George D. 2003. The Contemporary Lay Meditation Movement and Lay
Gurus in Sri Lanka. Religion, 33, 23-55.
Gombrich, R. and G. Obeyesekere. 1988. Buddhism transformed: religiouschange in Sri Lanka. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Jordt, Ingrid. 2007. Burma's mass lay meditation movement: Buddhism and thecultural construction of power. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Schednect, Brooke. 2013. The Decontextualization of Asian religious practices
in the context of globalization, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory,
Spring, 36-53.

Development of Buddhism in Latvia: Past and Present
Laudere, Marika (Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, LVA)
During the 20th century, knowledge of Buddhism became available to a larger
number of people via the gradual spread into new areas of the world,
particularly into the West. Regarding this, Latvia is not an exception. The first
Buddhist ideas were already known here in the early 20th century, especially inthe 1920s, when the first Buddhist monk in the Baltic States, Karlis Tennisons(1873 - 1962) was active in Riga for a while. Despite his activities, Buddhism
did not generate a big interest among a wider part of the society.

Only at the end of the 1980s, when interest towards eastern religious ideas
started to increase, Buddhism became attractive for some groups of society in
Latvia, particularly among the younger generation. This resulted in the creationof the first legally acting Buddhist groups in the early 1990s, which became
possible due to the restoration of independence of Latvia in 1991. At present
several Buddhist organizations are established in Latvia.

Analysis presented in this paper is a part of a broader FP7 collaborative
research project ‘Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement’(MYPLACE) on young people’s social participation. The paper provides asummary of findings from fieldwork on free Tibet movement in Latvia where
people from different Buddhist groups are involved. The paper will examine
the main historical periods of Buddhism development in Latvia. Secondly, an
overview of existing Buddhist organizations in Latvia will be given. Whereas

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Buddhism in Latvia is mainly associated with the existence of Buddhist
organizations, the main emphasis of this paper will be on the activities made bythem (internal, social and political), the number of which has increased since
the beginning of 21st century.

The Buddhism and Travels of Trebitsch Lincoln, ‘The Greatest
Adventurer of the 20th Century’*Máthé, Veronika (ELTE Social Sciences/KRE Néderlandisztika, Budapest,
HUN)
Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch Lincoln was supposed to become a rabbi in Paks,
Hungary, but he lived as a Presbyterian missionary in Canada, as an Anglican
priest and a British MP, then as an international spy travelling around theworld, as a Buddhist novice in Sri Lanka and finally as an abbot of a Buddhist
temple in Shanghai under the name Chao Kung. He had close and controversialconnections to the Theosophical Society and to two of the prominent German
Buddhists of his time: Georg Grimm and Martin Steinke. He dedicated his bookDawn or Doom of Humanity to Miklós Horthy, Governor of Hungary, in thehope of returning to his homeland and founding a monastery there.
Based on his essays, biographies and contemporary newspaper articles I
discuss his travels and show how his view on Buddhism was shaped not only by
his travels to Sri Lanka and China but also by his encounters with Buddhists inNorthern America and Western Europe. I demonstrate that Trebitsch/Chao
Kung considered himself a prophet who would introduce ‘the West’ to the
Buddha’s teachings, so a part of his travels (mostly in Germany and Canada)consisted of public lectures on Buddhism, with the aim to collect disciples who
would join him in his monastery in Shanghai. Finally I show how his life andmythical image have influenced the development of Buddhism in Hungary.
* Allusion to the title of Trebitsch’s autobiography Das größte Abenteuer desXX. Jahrhunderts? Die Wahrheit über mein Leben (1931, Zürich: Amalthea
Verlag).

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The Ritual Use of Music in U.S. Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Communities
Mitchell, Scott (Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley, USA)In this paper, I present preliminary conclusions of an ongoing research projectexamining the ritual use of music in U.S. Jōdo Shinshū communities. Shin
Buddhist ritual music is generally performed during a weekly congregational
service and includes both chanting texts in Sino-Japanese as well as a style ofmusic generally referred to as gāthā. Gāthā are musically similar to both North
American Protestant Christian hymns as well as Japanese sanbutsuka, a type of
religious folk music which was itself influenced by Western music styles during
the Meiji period; and today gāthā are performed in a wider variety of musicalgenres. My study focuses on the continual development of gāthā, the ritualfunction this music performs in Shin Buddhist communities, and speculates on
the implications of this music on the development of North American Shin
Buddhist communities. I argue, following on Rappaport's articulation of thecanonical and indexical aspects of ritual, that gāthā function indexically toallow for creative re-articulation of Shin Buddhist doctrine and practice.
In the proposed paper, I will present a brief overview of ongoing fieldwork,
interviews and oral histories, and archival research before focusing on the
Sunday Dharma Services where gāthā are performed. Here I will detail theritual context in which members of the community collectively enact individualcompositions. That individual compositions — songs composed primarily by lay
members in a variety of musical genres and representing a wide range ofviewpoints — are sung by the community collectively suggests that messages
and meanings encoded in the songs become communal property, so to speak,
and represent the intersection of individual orientation and collective
understanding of Shin Buddhist teachings.
This analysis is based in part on Rappaport's seminal work wherein he defines
ritual as “the performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts
and utterances not entirely encoded by the performers” (Ritual and Religion in
the Making of Humanity, 1999: 24). He draws a distinction within ritual
performance between the canonical — acts whose meaning is encoded byreference to “ultimate sacred postulates” — and the indexical — acts that are
self-referential in nature, the realm of individual performances of the ritual.
The indexical takes into consideration local circumstances, changing tastes ornecessities. And it is the interaction between the indexical and the canonical276

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that makes ritual “work.” The confidence communities have in the efficacy ofritual “is contingent upon the association of the indexically transmitted pledge
with messages borne by the liturgy's invariant canon” (ibid., 58). Using thisframework, I suggest that it is in the singing of songs that we can find individual
Buddhists creatively renegotiating Shin Buddhist attitudes and orientations both
historically and in the contemporary scene. This creative renegotiation draws
on multiple sources of inspiration, pushes the boundaries of the tradition, andnecessarily alters the borders of the community, allowing for the influx of new
ideas and orientations not traditionally thought of as either Japanese Americanor Jōdo Shinshū.

The Aesthetics of Asoke Ascetics
Ritchie, Robekkah (Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GER)
The Asoke Buddhist centres and teachings have come to be known throughout
Thailand over the past few decades as communities have emerged across thecountry. Political activity and breaking away from mainstream norms has also
led the Asoke to be a unique expression of Buddhism within contemporary Thai
culture. Currently nine centres exist across Thailand consisting of varying
monastic and lay communities and also housing schools, health centres,
vegetarian restaurants, stores, organic agricultural production and othercommunity resources. Based on recent ethnographic work at Asoke centres, myresearch explores contemporary practices of the Asoke monastics and theirrelationship, understanding and expression of the body along with the visualpresentation and outward appearance (in terms of style and colour of robe, hairetc.). This exploration discusses the Asoke definition of the body, the monastic’s
use of the Vinaya and their daily practices, including meditations. Uniquepractices within the Asoke community will also be considered, such as theirstrict vegetarianism and their regular practice of doing bodily cleanses. In
terms of the visual aesthetics within the communities, both prominent featuresof the centres and of the residents will be discussed. Asoke has developed its
own specific representation of the Buddha and also commissions artworks
specifically for its centres, with both religious and political messages embedded
within. The presence of preserved corpses and graphic images of disease anddeath are also on display in many monastic dwellings to inspire reflection on
somatic form. In regard to the appearance of the monastics themselves, since277

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1991, after the excommunication of the Asoke community from the mainstream
monastic order of Thailand in 1990, the Asoke monastics have adopted darkbrown robes (in contrast to the typical orange colour seen in Thailand) andhave stopped shaving their eyebrows (another distinguishing feature of
Theravada monastics). The Asoke communities have also redefined the status of
women renunciates (who also wear dark brown with a grey outer robe) causing
a reevaluation of the status of Mae Chis within Thailand. With this work, I
intend to further contribute to the discussion of contemporary Buddhist
practices and the evolution thereof, women's roles in monastic communities,
and body concepts, lending my specified subject matter to cover various areasof interest.

Neo-Zen and Buddhist Identity in Contemporary Northern Vietnam
Soucy, Alexander (Saint Mary's University, Halifax, NS, CAN)This paper will examine the increase in popularity of Zen Buddhism in Vietnam,
particularly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. It will hypothesisethat this popularity is a result of converging discourses of modernity andlegitimate practice (vs. superstition) that have come about because of the
globalisation of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism has historically had an association
with aristocracy and intellectuals in Vietnam. While the association witharistocracy has long ended, Zen has continued to have a positive association
with the elite. It was rediscovered during the reform period and characterised
as central to Vietnamese Buddhist history and identity. It was popularised in the
1960s in South Vietnam with the translation of DT Suzuki's works. Today, it isassociated with a new transnational intellectual elite. Its popularity today lies
in its redefinition of Buddhism as a post-enchantment religiosity that draws
stark distinctions between a modern, doctrinal and almost secular approach to
Buddhism, while condemning former Pure Land practices and beliefs assuperstitious, backwards and outdated. However, it is not necessarily theintellectual content of these discourses that attract Buddhists to Zen in Vietnam
today. Instead, this paper will argue, often at the root of involvement with Zengroups and participation in Zen activities are issues of identity and prestige
among peer groups that come through association with this elite tradition. In
other words, today's popularity in large part lies not in the content of Zen
teachings, or in the rigours and benefits of contemplative practice, but in the278

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aura that surrounds Zen. The data for this paper comes from ethnographic
research conducted at a Zen centre on the outskirts of Hanoi between 2004 and2013.

Buddhist Identity, Animal Ethics and Islamaphobia in Modern Sri Lanka
Stewart, James (University of Tasmania, Hobart, AUS)
Since the end of the civil war in 2009, there has been mounting conflict in Sri
Lanka as Sinhalese nationalists target Muslim minorities. These nationalist
groups regard themselves as defenders of Buddhism who want to restore thesupposed ailing state of Buddhism across the country. In this paper I will focus
on the role that Sinhala Buddhist animal welfare groups play in promoting thistype of discourse. I will look at movements such as Bŏdu Bala Sĕnā (Buddhist
Strength Force) and Sinhala Rāvaya (Voice of the Sinhala People) and theirassociation with the halāl abolitionist cause. I will also discuss the case of
Bowatte Indaratana Thera who committed suicide by immolation as a way toprotest the slaughter of cattle. Finally, I will discuss data obtained fromfieldwork I conducted in Sri Lanka in 2011 that further reveal the extent thatanimal ethics and anti-Muslim rhetoric intersect. I will argue that these cases
highlight the way that animal welfarism has been co-opted into a narrative
about what constitutes good Buddhist behaviour and that this idealised conduct
is contrasted with Sri Lankan Muslims who are depicted as barbaric anduncivilised. I will also argue that this discourse is an extension of thenationalist discourse previously used to target Tamils during the Sri Lankan
civil war. In this way, Sinhala Buddhist identity continues to be influenced by
the Buddhist revivalism of the 1880s in which Sri Lankan Buddhism wasconstructed as an ideology under attack by outside forces.

Not Differentiated, Nor ‘Yoked’: A New Light on the Relationshipbetween the four jhānas and the Practice of satipaṭṭhāna
Arbel, Keren (Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, ISR)

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Buddhist scholars and contemporary academics have long been intrigued by the
relationship between samatha or concentration meditation, which traditionally
includes the four jhānas and the four formless attainments (arūpa-samāpattis),and vipassanā or insight meditation, described as the practice of satipaṭṭhānas.
The existence of what appear to be two different types of meditative techniquesin the Pāli Nikāyas evoked a difficulty in understanding the relationshipbetween two significant path factors: sammā samādhi (i.e., the four jhānas) andsammā-sati (i.e., the four satipaṭṭhānas). If the jhānas are a meditative
procedure leading to one-pointed absorption which is disconnected from senseexperience how can it be combined and integrated with a meditative techniquethat aims at seeing (vipassanā) the true nature of phenomena? If the four jhānas
are states of deep absorption that do not reveal anything about the nature of
reality, a borrowed element from Indian contemplative traditions, how can we
explain their central position in the Nikāyas' liberation scheme?
Up until now academic literature about the phenomenology of the four jhānas
and their relationship with the practice of satipaṭṭhāna has been recapitulating,for the most part, traditional Theravāda interpretations. According to
Theravāda texts and most Buddhologists the attainment of the four jhānas is notliberative or distinctively Buddhist. A common supposition is that the practiceof satipaṭṭhāna is the only Buddhist innovation while the attainment of the
jhānas is common to Indian contemplative traditions.
In contrast this paper will argue that the fourfold jhāna model is uniquely
Buddhist, even though the term itself has been adopted from the Indian “pool”
of contemplative terms. It will offer a new interpretation of the phenomenologyof the four jhānas and their relation to the practice of satipaṭṭhāna by analyzing
descriptions of the jhānas in the Nikāyas, independently from traditional
Theravāda explications. By calling into question fundamental assumptions
concerning the structure of the meditative path in the early Buddhist texts, thispaper will suggest that there is a clear correlation in the Nikāyas between theattainment of the four jhānas and the gradual maturity of the practice ofsatipaṭṭhānas. It will show that the structure of the path as it is presented in the
Nikāyas is more complex than the common hierarchal-polarized model in which
the development of the jhānas is preliminary at best to the practice of
vipassanā. First and foremost, this paper will challenge the traditional
positioning of the four jhānas under the category of ‘concentration meditation’.
Contrary to the traditional Theravada's view that one can ‘bypass’ the fourjhānas, as they are not really ‘Buddhist’, this presentation will offer examples

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how the jhānas are the actualization and embodiment of insight practice(vipassanā). In conclusion, this paper sheds a new light on the fourfold jhānamodel and its liberative role in the Pāli Nikāya.

Pseudo-saṃyuttas in the Pali Saṃyutta-nikāya
Bucknell, Roderick (University of Queensland, Brisbane, AUS)
Within the Pali Saṃyutta-nikāya the most common type of saṃyutta is thatwhich has evidently resulted from grouping together a variable number of
independent suttas that have a common topic or other shared feature. A typicalexample is the Nidāna-saṃyutta, “Connected with Causation”, whose eightyfour suttas deal with conditioned arising and related topics. My paper discusses
a less familiar type, exemplified in the Okkanti-saṃyutta, “Connected with[Stream]-Entry”. The ten suttas of this saṃyutta share a common format anddeal with a well-known set of topics in a well-known fixed sequence. After
presenting further examples of this type and comparing their parallels in the(Mūla)-Sarvāstivādin Saṃyuktāgama (Taishō 99), I discuss their likely origin
and thereby justify referring to them as “pseudo-saṃyuttas”.

Stylistic Analysis of Terms Expressed in Pairs and Triads in the Pāli
Nikāyas and the Abhidhamma
Ditrich, Tamara (University of Sydney, NTI, AUS)
Several Pāli terms occur in pairs and triads, following stylized formulaeestablished in the textual transmission of the early Pāli Canon. This paper will
discuss the occurrences of two sets of terms, ajjhattaṃ “internally” andbahiddhā “externally” and samudaya- and vaya-, which are repeatedly attested
in numerous places in the Nikāyas and the Abhidhamma. It will explore
differences in the meaning and functions of these syntagms when they occur inpairs (e.g. ajjhattaṃ “internally” and bahiddhā “externally”) and in triads(ajjhattaṃ “internally”, bahiddhā “externally” and ajjhattabahiddhā“internally and externally”), and suggest alternative readings, based on

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investigation of the specific contexts (explicative/prescriptive) in which theyoccur. It will identify several typological and semantic patterns of these terms—
depending whether they are attested as single words or in pairs or triads—andindicate how their different combinations and contexts contribute to theirdifferent semantic features and functions. Hence the paper will underline theimportance of stylistic analysis of the textual transmission in early Buddhism
which needs to be accounted for in interpretations and translation of the Pāli
Canonical texts.

The Idea of the “Historical Buddha”
Drewes, David (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, CAN)This paper examines the nineteenth and early twentieth-century discussions that
established the idea that Gautama Buddha was a historical figure. Though
early nineteenth-century scholars tended to think of the Buddha as a mythical,
supernatural being, scholars such as Eugene Burnouf, J. Barthélemy SaintHilaire, T.W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg argued that he wasoriginally a human philosopher. Other leading scholars, such as H.H. Wilson,
Max Müller, Émile Senart, Hendrik Kern, and R. Otto Franke, doubted or
argued against this idea. This paper draws attention to the fact that though theformer group of scholars won out in the end, the most serious of the skeptics’
objections were never answered. It argues that even if we adopt a lax standardof evidence, it is not possible to consider the existence of “the historical
Buddha” to be an established fact.

Re-visiting Religious Boundary-Making in Early Buddhism
Freiberger, Oliver (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA)As most current textbooks indicate, contemporary scholarship is fairly confident
in determining the religious boundaries of early Buddhism. The Vinaya
ordination defines Buddhist monks and nuns; the Middle Way delineates theboundaries to ascetics who lead a hedonistic or an extreme ascetic life; and282

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Buddhist laypeople signal their religious affiliation through taking refuge in the
Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. This paper challenges this seemingly
unproblematic narrative. It tries to show that early Buddhist texts (here: thePali canon) contain a variety of boundary-making activities that are partly
irreconcilable. It argues that modern scholarship, rather than acknowledging
the diversity of identity constructions, sides with particular positions in the texts- and thus particular or interest groups among the authors - while ignoringother views. One major example will be the concept of the Middle Way, which is
widely accepted in scholarship as an uncontested instrument for distinguishing
between Buddhists and non-Buddhists. This paper discusses the segregating
features of the concept which were also directed against fellow Buddhists. The
general argument is that historians of religion cannot distinguish between
Buddhists and non-Buddhists without possibly excluding certain voices. If they
do, they privilege certain viewpoints and speak for Buddhism rather than about
it, whether or not they intend to do so.

Who or What was Alavi-Gotama? Names as Rhetorical Device in the
Buddha's Discourse on saddha in the Sutta Nipata
Inoue, Takami (Otani University, Kyoto, JPN)
Toward the end of the final chapter of the Sutta Nipata, an old, feeble Brahman
named Pingiya, who was in the midst of praising Gotama devotionally,
suddenly hears the Buddha's voice speaking to him: “As Vakkali was liberated
by faith (mutta-saddha), [as well as] Bhadravudha and Alavi-Gotama, You too
should give forth faith (pamuncassu saddham), And you will go, Oh Pingiya, tothe further shore of the realm of death.” (Sn 1146)
This verse is actually the Buddha's concluding remarks of the chapter entitled
Parayana (“the way to the other shore”), as well as his final words in the entire
volume of the Sutta Nipata. Among the three names mentioned here as
representatives of those who had realized deliverance through the power offaith, the most problematic is the last, namely Alavi-Gotama, who does notappear anywhere else in the Nikaya under such a name.
Considering its context in the Sutta Nipata, Alavi-Gotama is a very significant
designation in the Buddha's discourse on faith, but Pali commentarial tradition283

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has not paid adequate attention to it. According to Buddhaghosa's Suttanipataatthakatha, Alavi-Gotama was simply “a thera who attained arahantshipthrough faith,” and the Dictionary of Pali Proper Names just adds the following
context: “He is mentioned in the Sutta Nipata in a verse spoken by the Buddha
to Pingiya when the Buddha appeared in a ray of light at Bavari's hermitage.”
No consideration seems to have been given to the relevance of the place name“Alavi-” and its relationship to the family name “Gotama” in the exegeses byscholars of the Theravada tradition.
The exact location of Alavi has not been identified archaeologically, butaccording to Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India and the latest studies
by Iwai Shogo et al., Alavi was a prosperous village near the northern bank of
the Ganges, about 70 km north-west of Pataligama (later Pataliputra, andpresent-day Patna), and the Buddha stayed at the Aggalava cetiya, a sanctuary
around the largest Nigrodha tree in Alavi, many times during his 45 years ofwandering after attaining Enlightenment. There are two dramatic sutras in the
Sutta Nipata whose locale was set in Alavi; i.e., Alavaka Sutta (Sn 181-192)
and Vangisa Sutta (a.k.a. Nigrodha Kappa Sutta, Sn 343-358), and bothindicate the significance of faith.
Applying a new approach to the Buddha's words in early Pali literature, which
follows the method advocated by Richard Gombrich in his introduction to What
the Buddha Thought (Equinox, 2009), this paper proposes a hypothesis that
“Alavi-Gotama” is a rhetorical device adopted by the Buddha or the compilersof the Sutta Nipata for the purpose of stressing and reconfirming the criticalrole of saddha on the Buddhist path to awakening. In order to decipher thepariyaya (lit. “way round” or “indirect route”), an allusion that defies literalinterpretation, this paper examines Alavi-Gotama's geographical, historical,
and inter-textual contexts, which reveal the importance of a faith-oriented pathin the earliest stage of Buddhism

Early Indian Buddhist ‘Company Men’ and How They Cornered the
Religious Marketplace
Milligan, Matthew (University of Texas, Austin, USA)284

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In the Early Historic Period (300 BCE – 300 CE) of Indian Buddhist history, aparticular group of elite, non-royal financiers may have been heavily involvedin the unprecedented rise of religious material culture after the fall of theMauryan Empire. Epigraphic sources reveal that the early Indian Buddhist
community relied heavily on the patronage, leadership, and charisma of a selectfew individuals from known gotra-s, or lineages traced through maternal
ancestors. Men identified by their metronyms strongly influenced the future
trajectory of Buddhism in South Asia and took the “business” of Buddhism
especially seriously as the newly institutionalized religion expanded outside theBuddhist heartland. Members of the family, known as “Gotīputa-s,” or “thesons of Gauptī,” not only bankrolled Buddhist monumental construction
projects but routinely had their relics enshrined for worship alongsidemonuments erected for worship of the Buddha’s own relics.
In this paper, I reinvestigate these “sons of Gauptī” and study their impact on
the world of ancient ritual finance in India. What was their relationship to theMainstream monastic Buddhist institution? How did the monks and nuns, who
had taken strict vows that often led them to avoid economics altogether, getalong with the “sons of Gauptī”? What business strategies may we discern fromthe available evidence and did these strategies have lasting effects on thesurvival of Buddhism in South Asia? Lastly, did the “sons of Gauptī” quest forsocial and political power and financial aggrandizement, or were their
incentives driven by belief and soteriological concerns? To begin to addressthese complex questions in the ancient world I deploy the concepts of symbolicand economic capital. I hope to re-conceptualize ways in which elite financiersin the ancient world, like the “sons of Gauptī,” may have used religious ideals
such as reciprocity and compassion as catalysts for accumulating greater
amounts of capital.

Was Insight an Intrinsic Quality of the Meditative State of jhāna in Early
Buddhism?
Polak, Grzegorz (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Konskowola,
POL)
The precise nature and status of jhāna meditation in early Buddhist soteriology
remains to be one of the most controversial subjects of early Buddhist studies.
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Amongst the most unclear issues connected with jhāna meditation is its relation
to meditative insight. There appear to be fundamental discrepancies related tothis issue in the Suttapiṭaka itself and in the later Buddhist meditative texts.
These discrepancies appear to be sometimes difficult or even impossible toreconcile. In this paper I will attempt to present a model of meditative insight as
an intrinsic quality of the jhāna state through an interdisciplinary approachrelying on textual studies as well as on the new developments in the field of
rapidly developing cognitive sciences. I would like to point out and analyze
several fundamental difficulties connected with the traditional Buddhist modelof insight understood as a meditative method on its own, distinct from jhāna
meditative state. I will attempt to propose an explanation of how and why theoriginal concept of insight as an intrinsic quality of jhāna state underwent aradical evolution, which has unfortunately lead to both textual discrepancies
and serious problems on a practical and psychological level. In order toprovide a plausible model of insight as an intrinsic aspect of jhāna state, I will
also refer to some important new developments from the field of cognitive
sciences, which provide a new way of explaining how human cognition works.
In order to show that my model is possible on a practical level, I will also liketo point out some meditative developments from the later history of Buddhism,
where insight was seen in a somewhat similar way.

From Similes to Allegory: The Deconstruction of Chariot Imagery in
Early Buddhist Texts, Analyzed with Cognitive Metaphor Theory
Schlieter, Jens (Universität Bern, Bern, CHE)
The presentation will start by unfolding the various layers of chariot imagery inearly Indian sources, namely, chariots as vehicles of gods such as the sun(sūrya), i.e. as symbol of cosmic stability; chariots as symbols of royal powerand social prestige e.g. of Brahmins; and, finally, chariots as metaphors for the“person”, the “mind” and the “way to liberation” (e.g., Kaṭ.-Up. III.3; Maitr.Up. II. 6). In Buddhist and non-Buddhist sources, chariots are in certain
aspects used as a metaphor for the (old) human body (e.g., Caraka-S., Vi.3.3738; D II.100; D II.107); apart from that, there is, of course, mention of the“real” use of chariots in sports, cults, journey, and combat. The mostprominent example of the Buddhist use of chariot imagery is its application as amodel for the person (S I.134 f.; Milindapañha, ed. Trenckner, 26), i.e., for286

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highlighting the “non-substantial self”. There are, however, other significant
examples of the usage of chariot imagery in early Buddhist texts. Of special
interest are those cases in which chariot metaphors were applied in order toexplain how the ‘self’ may proceed on the way to salvation – with ‘mindfulness’or the ‘self’ as charioteer, with ‘wisdom’ and ‘confidence’ as horses etc. (e.g. S
I. 33; S V.7; Dhp 94; or the Nārada-Jātaka, No. 545, verses 181-190). One
might be tempted to say that these instances reaffirm the traditional soteriology
of a substantial “progressing soul”. Taking conceptual metaphor analysis as atool, I will, in contrast, argue that there is a special Buddhist use of thismetaphor. Indeed, at first sight, it seems to presuppose a non-Buddhist
understanding (the “self” as charioteer; the chariot as vehicle to liberation,etc.). Yet, it will be argued that in these cases the chariot imagery is no longer
fully “functional”. The Buddhist usage may, therefore, best be described as a
final allegorical phase of the chariot-imagery, which results in a thoroughdeconstruction of the “chariot” itself.

Early Buddhist Verses in the Śarīrārthagāthā of the Yogācārabhūmi
Shi, Fazhao (The University of Sydney, Sydney, AUS)
The Śarīrārthagāthā (Chinese, Tǐyì qiétā 體義伽他; Tibetan, ’dus pa’i don gyi
tshigs su bcad pa), i.e., Verses of Corpus Meaning, is a collection of canonicalverses with accompanying commentary in the Yogācārabhūmi (Chinese, Yúqié
shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論; Tibetan, rnal 'byor spyod pa'i sa), an encyclopedic textof the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition. According to Enomoto (1989), theverses of the Śarīrārthagāthā are quoted from the Saṃyuktāgama, Udānavarga,
Pārāyaṇa, Arthavargīya and Madhyamāgama. Obviously, these various verses
are collected from the texts of early Buddhism. This paper discusses therelationship between Śarīrārthagāthā verses and the aṅga classification system,
which is tied to the formation of early Buddhist literature. The Śarīrārthagāthā
verses can be divided into two groups that are related to geya- and vyākaraṇaaṅgas respectively, which generally rank second and third in the classification
system. This indicates how these early Buddhist verses in the Śarīrārthagāthāmight have been regarded and collected by the author(s) of the Yogācārabhūmi.
It also hints at the importance placed on the first three aṅgas (sūtra, geya andveyākaraṇa) which are the foundation of the Saṃyuktāgama. According to theworks of Yìnshùn (1983) and Mukai (1985), the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī (the last287

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chapter of Yogācārabhūmi) is the mātr̥kā of some sections of the Saṃyuktāgama
and belongs to the sūtra-aṅga. This paper also shows that the Śarīrārthagāthā
verses are related to the geya-aṅga and veyākaraṇa-aṅga. Evidently, the first
three aṅgas are adopted in the Yogācārabhūmi. This outcome thus also
supports the claims that the early Buddhist āgama texts were actually organizedaccording to the threefold aṅga classification. This also means that one of the
Mahāyāna texts, the Yogācārabhūmi, still values the early Buddhist concepts
and texts.

On the Sequences of Cognitive Processes in Early Buddhism
Shi, Juetao (The University of Hong Kong, HKG)
The study of cognition is a subject commanding increasing attention in modern
psychology. By relying upon cutting edge technology, scholars have madedramatic and unprecedented progress, especially in the field of cognitive
neuroscience. In fact, the Buddha and his disciples had already given
prominence to the understanding of the cognitive processes thousands of years
ago. This paper therefore aims to identify the sequences of cognitive processes
by drawing evidence from early Buddhist literature, including the Pāli Nikāyas,Aṭṭhakathā, and Chinese Āgamas. Furthermore, this study will highlight thedecisive factors in the formation of different types of cognition.
The most well-known and elementary model of cognition can be found in one
fundamental doctrine of Buddha’s teaching: Dependent Origination. In
particular, starting from the sense faculties and ending with clinging(upādāna), these links describe how we perceive, recognize, and react toexternal objects. This basic process is a model of cognition that people repeat
again and again in everyday life. In addition to this simple description, there
also exist a number of other models either in brief or sophisticated form in
Suttapiṭaka. The study, then, results in bringing about several issues andquestions.
From the outset, these models can be distinguished into two groups: those
associated with mundaneness and those with renunciation. Within all themodels analyzed, some factors are common to all, while others are peculiar to288

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one or another model. This shows that, to some extent, even enlightened
arahants share the part of the same cognitive processes with ordinary people.
This leads to the second topic of this study: which factors of the cognitive
processes distinguish arahants from ordinary people. In terms of arahants, thekey factor is mental examination (manopavicāra). As for ordinary people, it
seems that both underlying tendency (anusaya) and mental proliferation(papañca) are responsible for the mind deviating from the truth. These terms,
anusaya and papañca, are considered two of the most obscure terms in
Buddhist hermeneutics and psychology. Moreover, they are literally the basis of
the more refined unwholesome mental activities, such as desire, conceit, andviews. This study hopes to help clarify the way they function, by which they
become the most subtle and tenacious of the defilements (āsavas).
Lastly, the recognized and accepted sequences of cognition found in thesetextual sources can be used as the standard models to examine irregular or
problematic cognitive processes. This effort is of particular importance for
identifying the interpolation of Suttapiṭaka’scompilation, as well as forevaluating later commentarial explanations and Abhidhamma theories related
to the cognitive processes.

The Relationship between Buddhism and Indigenous Beliefs and People as
Reflected in the Names of Lokapālas in Early Buddhist Literature
Sirisawad, Natchapol (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, THA)
“Lokapāla” (the guardians of the world) or “Mahārāja” (the great kings) are
four in number: Dhataraṭṭha (Skt. Dhṛtarāṣṭra), Virūḷha or Virūḷhaka (Skt.
Virūḍhaka), Virūpakkha (Skt. Virūpākṣa), and Kuvera or Vessavaṇa (Skt.
Kubera or Vaiśravaṇa) who are depicted as the ruling deities of the four
horizontal directions of the world. There is a division of opinion amongscholars concerning the possible concept of Lokapālas in early Buddhist
literature. According to T.W. Rhys David and William Stede (1972: 568-569),
the Four Great Kings are classified as chieftain, prince or ruler in a small,autocratic state, usually (collectively) as a group. In addition, G.P. Malalsekera(2007: 958) states that the assembly between the Four Regent Devas with theirfollowers and Sakka in the Sudhammā-sabhā is similar to the assembly of a289

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tribal community, especially the Kosala-clan. J.P. Vogel (1972: 9) surmisedthat the idea of four or six dragons guarding the corners of the world is moreprimitive than that of the anthropomorphic Lokapālas. According to various
scholars, the names of the Four Great Kings may reflect indigenous beliefs andpeople in early Buddhism since these names of the gods except Kuvera are notfound in Sanskrit literature, but are found particularly in early Pali literatureand Buddhist Sanskrit scriptures as well. The purpose of this article is toanalyze aspects of the relationship between Buddhism and indigenous beliefs
and people through the names of Lokapālas in early Buddhist literature. The
study revealed that the name of the Four Great Kings, Dhataraṭṭha, Virūḷha orVirūḷhaka, Virūpakkha, and Kuvera or Vessavaṇa, may reflect the trace of
precedent or contemporary indigenous beliefs and people who had cultural
encounters with Buddhism. The indigenous beliefs consist of the yakkha andnāga cult, the belief in spirits, early practice of urn-burials and the belief in thesoul or spirit of the dead rising out of its grave, the primitive belief of Aryan
people and yakkha and nāga as tribal people. Buddhism shows an attempt toincorporate these beliefs and people into Buddhist cosmology by elevating somelocal gods, indigenous beliefs and tribal people to divine status like the
Lokapālas which become chieftains of the gandhabbas, the nāgas, thekumbhaṇḍas, and the yakkhas, in order to show their acceptance of theprecedent or contemporary indigenous beliefs and people. This finding mayhelp to understand more about the sociology of early Buddhism.

Notes on the Problematics of the Futur Forms in Pali, Regarding Their
Preterit and Modal Functions.
Yamanaka, Yukio (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, GER)In the course of my research project ‘verb forms in the Pāli canon’ at Göttingen
University, Germany, problematics of Pali verb forms are becoming apparent,or rather coming to the surface again. I already gave a presentation on theanalysis of verb forms, concerning the contamination of the imperative and theoptative moods, at the `Deutscher Orientalistentag’ at Münster, Germany. This
time I will report on the peculiarities regarding the forms of the future tense. As
for the future form, the Middle Indic including Pāli shows morphological,
phonological as well as semantic difficulties. In the presentation I will focus on

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semantic issues, in which the future forms are used in the past context and most
likely express modality.
Although this phenomenon drew sporadically attention, I will revisit it in orderto report on the distinctive feature of Pali. The ideal approach remains thephilology-oriented linguistic analysis. Consequently the characteristics of the
future forms in Pāli will be observed in a new light.

The Formulation and Explanation of the Eleven Categories of Five
Clinging-AggregatesYit, Kin-tung (National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung City, TWN)
In a number of suttas, five clinging-aggregates are formulated to have eleven
categories: past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle,
inferior or superior, far or near (atītānāgatapaccuppannaṃ ajjhattaṃ vābahiddhā vā oḷārikaṃ vā sukhumaṃ vā hīnaṃ vā paṇītaṃ vā yaṃ dūre santikevā 若過去、若未來、若現在，若內，若外，若麤、若細，若好、若醜，若遠、若近). It is stated that if one really sees and knows these categories ofaggregates as anicca, dukkha and anatta, one will achieve the liberation.
However, some items are not easy to be understood; for instance: what is theexact meaning of past, future, gross or subtle, inferior or superior of theaggregates? As suttas do not seem to provide further satisfactory answer, thispaper attempts to work out relevant explanations in theabhidhamma/abhidharma and commentarial literature. In some cases,mahāyānic commentaries offer valuable clarification too. Moreover, it isinteresting to find that contemporary Theravāda Buddhist practitioners apply
this formulation into meditation. The paper will examine one particular
tradition, look at their interpretation and application, and study if they offer
helpful and innovative discussion.

Rhetorical Tools in the Pali Canon
Szuksztul, Robert (Jagiellonian University, Krakow, POL)291

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My objective will be to present a comprehensive framework for categorizing
rhetorical strategies used in the Pali Canon, together with examples of each.
The source material can be divided into two groups:
1.

2.

Direct recommendations concerning the engagement in a debate or ateaching (e.g. urging by the Buddha to use vernaculars instead of
Sanskrit, or enumerating the methods of answering the question)
Rhetoric in use (practical examples of strategies employed)

At present and only preliminarily, I have divided the repertoire of rhetorical
tools into four groups: intellectual, emotive, esthetic and linguistic. By singlingout these categories I do not mean to imply they are mutually exclusive. Often,
the particular event of rhetorical argumentation will fall into several of them. I
rather want to stress by them the most prominent features or aspects indiscursive strategies as they present themselves in the Pali Canon. Some
examples are:Intellectual toolsAppeal to logical reasoning
Redefinition of terms (here showing the true sense or context of a term)
Redefinition of the context
Gradation in the teaching (sensitivity to the initial context of aproblem; response within the context but often deepened with time, oras discussion progresses)

Emotive tools






Threats by the Buddha
Invectives
Intimidation or awe (not necessarily conscious) by the charismatic
figure of the Buddha; possibly employment of the “lion roar” would
fall here. Also miracles, physical marks, appeal to personal experience(unverifiable by the disputant) as an argument (like recounting
conversations with gods, past lives, etc.)
Examples, exemplary lives of monastics and laymen

Esthetic tools
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PoetryMetaphor
Imagery

Linguistic tools (the category concerns a self-conscious engagement inlanguage-games, not just any employment of the medium)Redefinition of terms or etymology games (showing the true etymology
of a term)
Word-plays
Paraphrases

My second objective will be an experiment to read the discourses of the Pali
Canon through the lens of Schopenhauer’s “Eristic Dialectic”, to see if we canfind there examples of eristic argumentation.

Gods Requiring Buddhist Ordination: Chinese Buddhist Acceptancethrough Thaumaturges (shenyi) in the Gaoseng Zhuan.
Son, Jin (Dongguk University, Seoul, KOR)
In this paper, I review articles about thaumaturges (shenyi 神異) and treat thecharacteristics of gods as described in the Gaoseng Zhuan. The Gaoseng Zhuan
contains the biographies of nearly 500 monks who were active in China from 67
to 519 CE. Understanding the characteristics of gods as described within thiscollection is to know what Chinese people expected of gods and wanted of gods
until the sixth century. I will also treat the relations between Buddhism andgods, based on a gods-Buddhism amalgamation paradigm (syncretism of gods
and Buddhas) in those times. In China, gods were devoted to Buddhism and torid themselves from agony, moved to other places from the god’s place orremained in the mountains as guardian deities of temples and monks. The
example of a god who asks Buddhism to help out is also found in Korea andJapan after the middle ages and it represents the trend of a dual structure of
acceptance of Buddhism in East-Asia. In other words, the dual structure of
Buddhism’s acceptance can be identified through Gaoseng Zhuan’sthaumaturges. Thus the Buddhism introduced to China under the Han dynasty

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shows two sides depending on the double, hierarchical social organization,clearly divided into the dominator and the dominated. One of them is pedantic
Buddhism. Focused on the prajna thought among nobles and represented as‘geyi’ Buddhism, it was propagated to elites in China and connected with thetraditional knowledge of the classical history of China which is called Lao-Tzu
and Chan-Tzu. The other is shamanistic Buddhism, attracting with supernatural
powers or divine immortals an impoverished and ignorant public, and Taoistic
Buddhism pursuing health and longevity. Although those two types of Buddhism
did not have any definite shape, I assume that the aforementioned situations
naturally made these demands of Buddhism. After that, the development ofChinese Buddhism could be based on those two types of Buddhism's constantly
changing shape. Basically, this double trend has not been changed throughout
the ages. The Gaoseng Zhuan was a rare historical book very devotedlyreflecting the status of the early acceptance of Buddhism in China. It speaks ofa supernatural phenomenon called thaumaturges (shenyi) shown among 60% of
the described eminent monks. It is difficult to conclude that Huijiao (497-554)
had in mind the keyword “god” when making a sharp distinction between“eminent monks” and “virtueless monks”. But the existence of eminent monks
generated myth and legends showing unbelievable miracles before and after
death. In other words, it is assumed that Huijiao would determine that revered
and worshipped Buddhist monks like that must be called “eminent monks”.

King Mu of Zhou in Buddhist Apologetic Thought
Jülch, Thomas (Ghent University, Ghent, BEL)
King Mu of Zhou (traditional dating: 1001-946 BC) is a figure enjoying great
prominence in Buddhist apologetic thought. As a king ruling during the early
Zhou dynasty, he was subject to many legendary traditions. Two of them weretaken up and re-interpreted to serve Chinese Buddhist apologetic purposes. The
first of these traditions goes back to the Mu tianzi zhuan (Biography of the
Heaven’s Son Mu) and the Zhushu jinian (Bamboo Annals), the second one to
Liezi, chapter 3.
In the Mu tianzi zhuan and in the Zhushu jinian we read that King Mu
embarked on a journey to the West in order to see the Xiwangmu (Queen
Mother of the West). The Buddhist apocrypha Zhoushu yiji takes up this294

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tradition, but re-interprets it in saying that the reason for the journey were
natural phenomena appearing as omens connected with the birth of the Buddha
in India. Based on the now lost Zhoushu yiji, the account of King Mu having
travelled to the West in connection with the birth of the Buddha is quoted widelyin Chinese Buddhist apologetic writing.
In the Liezi we read about a magician who took King Mu along on a mysterious
journey to heavenly abodes. In various Buddhist apologetic scriptures, thelegend of King Mu and the magician is explicitly referred to, and it is said thatthe magician was in fact Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī and the Buddha’s disciple
Maudgalyāyana, who appearing in one person to win King Mu for Buddhism.
In medieval China, Buddhism was constantly exposed to attacks by theConfucian elites claiming that Buddhism did not match the refined Chinese highculture, as it had come to China from the lands of the “Barbarians”, and did
not have its roots in the unparalleled wisdom of the sages of the so-called“golden age of classical Chinese antiquity”. The Buddhist versions of thelegends of King Mu serve to demonstrate that Buddhism had in fact been an
important part of the ancient Chinese wisdom treasury.
The legendary account developed in the Zhoushu yiji, plays yet another role in
Buddhist apologetic thought, as it also serves to date the birth of the Buddha.
As Buddhism in medieval China stood in a fierce competition with Daoism, it
was important for Buddhist apologetic thought to demonstrate that the Buddha
lived earlier than Laozi. The tradition of the omens defining the birth of the
Buddha as an event of the time of King Mu, enabled to ascribe a sufficiently
early birth date to the Buddha.

Buddhist Apocryphal Scriptures Written in the Late Goryeo and Early
Joseon Dynasties
Kim, Suah (Tongmyong University, Busan, KOR)
The aim of this paper is to investigate three Buddhist apocryphal scriptures
written in the late Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties: theHyeonhaengseobanggyeong (現行西方經) and the295

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Samsippalbungongdeoksogyeong (三十八分功德疏經) in the Goryeo Dynasty,
and the Yeombulinyugyeong (念佛因由經) in the Joseon Dynasty. These
scriptures are relatively short because they only show why and how to practice
to be born in the Pure Land. The Hyeonhaengseobanggyeong was written by
Woncham, an Esoteric school monk. It recorded the religious dialogues
between him and the divine monk Nakseo in January 1298. In it, he emphasizes
invoking Dharani rather than chanting to Amitabha Buddha. The
Samsippalbungongdeoksogyeong was written by a Hwa-eom school monk in
December 1331. The Yeombulinyugyeong was written by the Zen Masters who
inherited Bojojinul (1158-1210).
The main teachings of the aforementioned apocryphal scriptures are that Pure
Land Buddhism is the only way to salvation for the people in the period that
saw the end of the Buddhist teachings. They recommend that people practicechanting to and invoking Dharani because the authors of these scriptures
shared the awareness of the period that saw the end of the Buddhist teachings,
such as the apocalypse. For this reason, these scriptures are very important
historical materials for clarifying the situation of Korean Buddhism in the 13thand 14th centuries. Up to now, however, they have not received any attention.
This study involves three steps. First, it investigates the philological approachof the scriptures. It deals with gathering all information regarding the
apocryphal scriptures and analyzing the textual information, such as theauthors, date of publication, and relations with other Buddhist sutras comparedto the different published woodblock versions. Using this approach, the outlineof the scriptures is grasped.
The second aim of this study is to examine the historical background related tothe main ideas, and the method of practice used in the scriptures. The ultimate
goal of writing the apocryphal scriptures in East Asia Buddhism was to awaken
the authors’ contemporaries and to offer a direction by using the formation of
the Sutra literature and the Buddha’s teachings. Thus, the apocryphal
scriptures were the product of the times and the output of the times’ demand.
Without considering the historical situation and consciousness, it would be
impossible to identify the fundamental necessity of writing the apocryphal
scriptures.
Finally, the relationship between the Pure Land School and the other Buddhist
schools is revealed. In spite of the fact that Pure Land Buddhism is emphasized296

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in the scriptures, the authors belonged to the Esoteric, Hwa-eom, and Zenschools, respectively. Regarding this matter, two questions are examined: (1)Why did the Esoteric, Hwa-eom, and Zen schools accept the idea of Pure land
Buddhism and integrate it into their respective practice systems?; and (2) What
important role did Pure Land Buddhism play in inventing a new practice stylefor the Esoteric, Hwa-eom, and Zen schools? This approach will reveal the
belief system of the masses in the 13th and 14th century in Korean Buddhism,
and the method of interaction among the different Buddhist schools to save thepeople.

Chinul’s Hwaŏm Thought in the Hwaŏmnon chŏryo
Koh, Seunghak (Dongguk University, Institute for Buddhist Culture, Seoul,
KOR)
Pojo Chinul (1158–1210) is considered a great harmonizer of the conflicting
Buddhist trends in the late Koryŏ period. Although diverse philosophical andsoteriological aspects of his texts have been examined, the Hwaŏmnon chŏryo,a seminal text that demonstrates his effort to mitigate the tension between theSŏn and Kyo schools, has not been given due scholarly attention.
By revealing the drawbacks in the previous scholarship on Chinul, this paperemphasizes the importance of correct understanding of Li Tongxuan’s (635–730) Xin huayan jing lun, the primary text that exerted enormous influence on
the formation of Chinul’s thought. Chinul’s text, however, sometimes omits theaffluent symbolism as represented in Li’s text. Moreover, the Hwaŏmnon
chŏryo does not adopt indigenous philosophical frameworks for the explicationof the Flower Garland Sūtra as introduced in its source text Xin huayan jinglun. Chinul, instead, faithfully accommodates Li’s fundamental philosophicaland soteriological theses in this abridged text.
Although Chinul does not accept every detail of Li’s exegesis and his text shows
the characteristics of selective abridgement, he has a critical attitude toward
the contemporary Buddhists just as Li does. This attitude may explain his
adoption of this “unorthodox” text which was written by a layman anddisregarded by both of the mainstream Sŏn and Kyo schools.

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The Poison of Impermanence in Kumārajīva’s Zuochan sanmei jing
Vihan, Jan (Charles University, Prague, CZE)The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation 坐禪三昧經 (orBodhisattvadhyāna 菩薩禪) is the first text produced by the Tocharian scholar
and translator Kumārajīva after his arrival in Changan. While the first scroll of
this influential meditation manual is a compilation of traditional techniques,most notably the practice of the three gates, the second scroll takes the form ofquestions and answers that bring in new points of view. In my presentation I
focus on one such exchange, in which impermanence is presented not as theantidote to the poison of ignorance, but as the harmless form of that same
poison itself. I compare Kumārajīva’s terminology here to that of the earliertranslator Dharmarakṣa and show the degree to which it reflects a novel
understanding of the Mahāyāna doctrine and practice. I then go on to explore
the manner in which “毒 (poison)” is made to carry both negative and positive
connotations in Chinese thus tracing a foundation for the key concept of nonduality to a particular strand of classical Chinese exegesis.

Buddhist Influence in Medieval Chinese Literature – Based on Jiang
Zong's Poems
Wang, Meihsiu (Department of East Asian Studies, Taiwan Normal University,
Jiayi, AUT)
Buddhist buildings appeared as part of the landscape in medieval China when
Buddhism was accepted widely in Chinese society. As religious places, Shansi (山寺), Buddhist temples or monasteries in the mountains not only served
Buddhist monks for religious practices but were also open to some particularliterati for short periods of visiting and experiencing temporary hermit life.
Many of them left their writings to record recluse lives. The writings were
cataloged later as Shanju wenxue, literature of mountain life and became an
important literary genre in the Tang dynasty.
However this paper will focus on the earlier stage of the development of Shanju
wenxue by analyzing a group of poems regarding a famous pre-Tang poet Jiang
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Zong (519-594), hoping to reveal the depth of Jiang’s Shanshi poems and its
significance. This attempt not only adds content regarding a given figure, butalso reveals a sense of how Shansi and its abstract religious content replaced
the beauty of nature to attract poets from their secular life. Shansi, as a third
space, is not only a part of the landscape throughout the time but also a
destination of the poet’s journey, a journey seeking the pure land. This paper
hopes to make another contribution in diverging Jiang’s poems from thetradition of Shanshui wenxue (literature of mountain and river) and bring aclearer picture of Buddhist influence on medieval Chinese literature.

“There is Nothing Charming about Harlots” – Madhyamaka and theCoherence in Meaning
Bogacz, Szymon (Center of Comparative Studies of Civilizations, Jagiellonian
University, Kraków, POL)
Nāgārjuna probably did not hold any definitive logical theory; nevertheless, hisarguments are clearly based on some rules. Thus, we can bring up the question:
what are these rules?
Jay Garfield and Graham Priest in [2003] argue, that Nāgārjuna holds somespecific thesis, i.e. a thesis regarding “the limits of thought” (LT). What isinteresting about the LT-thesis, is that it is paraconsistent, that is to say that it
can be both contradictory and true (conventionally or absolutely). To be more
specific, the LT-thesis is syntactically well-built and bears semantic
characteristics. In consequence, Nāgārjuna uses some syntactical andsemantical rules.
In my paper I will try to answer the question about rudiments of Nāgārjuna's
theory of language, in order to criticize the LT-thesis interpretation of Garfield
and Priest.
Generally, there are three ways to define Nāgārjuna’s attitude towards thenature of language. The first one, the so called “skillful-means” (upāyakauśalya) way, presents statements as non-descriptive teachings towards
Buddhist practice. The second one, derived from the prasaṅgika tradition, takes

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the madhyamika’s statements to be devoid of their own philosophical position –Nāgārjuna’s statements are just the consequences of the opponent's standpointin the light of his own methods. The third one, derived from the svātantrika
tradition, allows the madhyamika to use positive arguments and to hold his own
standpoint.
I will argue that only the third way (the svātantrika interpretation of
Nāgārjuna’s philosophy) is a possible way to posit the LT-thesis interpretation.
Moreover, I will lay out the thesis that consistency is an essential feature of ameaningful sentence in svātantrika. In order to do so, I will refer to
Bhavyaviveka, who in the Prajñāpradīpa [Ames 1994, 226] states that withoutcoherence in meaning (asaṃgatārtha) of the thesis (pratijñā) there can be no
proof (sādhana) for this thesis, just like for the incoherent sentence “there isnothing charming about harlots”. Indeed, to take the argument further, the LTthesis in Nāgārjuna’s argumentation cannot be both based on svātantrika
semantical rules and at the same time paraconsistent.

Phya pa’s Understanding regarding the Proof of Momentariness in the
Svabhāvahetu Section of the Pramāṇaviniścaya
Choi, Kyeong-jin (Tokyo, JPN)
The topic of the proof of momentariness in association with the svabhāvahetu inPramāṇaviniścaya (PVin) has been noted particularly because it has theearliest use of the concept of bādhakapramāṇa in this context. As Steinkellner(in his paper published in 1968) pointed out and many contemporary scholars
accept, this earliest occurrence of bādhakapramāṇa and sattvānumāna in PVin
is worth stressing when one considers the history of the theory of
momentariness in Buddhist epistemology. Since modern scholars were familiar
with the concept of bādhakapramāṇa from Dharmakīrti’s Vādanyāya, theyhighly evaluated the portion of PVin that includes the bādhakapramāṇa. Fromsuch a viewpoint, the assertion by Dharmottara in his commentary on PVin thatthe causelessness of extinction (ahetutva) is an assistant (parikara) to the
bādhakapramāṇa and what proves the establishment of pervasion isbādhakapramāṇa, seems to makes sense. From that perspective, rGyal tshab
Dar ma rin chen, who is influenced by Dharmottara’s stance on the function ofbādhakapramāṇa, can be seen as expressing an appropriate insight when he300

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says that the bādhakapramāṇa is the primary reason for the establishment of
pervasion of the proof of momentariness in his commentary on PVin.
On the other hand, Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge has a dissimilar outlook fromrGyal tshab’s on the overall structure of the argument in the section where
Dharmakīrti explains the svabhāvahetu and the proof of momentariness. It canbe said that the difference in their views of the whole composition of PVin isderived from the variance in their understandings of the effect of discussing
bādhakapramāṇa separately from the proof based on the nirapekṣatva (orahetutva). Phya pa’s position on the issue of the function of the
bādhakapramāṇa is also different from both rGyal tshab’s stance and modern
scholars’ belief.
For that reason, in this paper, I will consider the content of Phya pa’s
interpretive outline (sa bcad) relative to this portion in his commentary on PVinin order to show how he understood the theory of svabhāvahetu. In particular, I
will show that he sees the function of the proof of momentariness based on the
nirapekṣatva, rather than the bādhakapramāṇa, as fundamental in this theory.
Phya pa understood the thrust of Dharmakīrti’s explanation to be aimed at
describing how svabhāvahetu has validity as a logical reason, and as such, theproof of momentariness is nothing more than an example to exhibit thatsvabhāvahetu actually works as a valid logical reason. When viewed in thisway, it becomes clear that the idea of nirapekṣatva is more suitable than the
bādhakapramāṇa as the representative of svabhāvahetu. His position warrants
attention in that it differs significantly from Dharmottara’s, which heavily
informs the current scholarly view of this section of PVin.

The Epistemology of Emptiness: Dharmakīrti’s Yogācāra Response to the
Problem of Conventional Truth in Mahāyāna
Guerrero, Laura (Utah Valley University, Utah, USA)In this paper I first argue that the ultimate positions of the Yogācāra and the
Madhyamaka amount to the same metaontological position: global antirealism.
Using David Chalmer’s characterization of antirealism as the position that
denies that there are any objective answers to the basic question of ontology,“what exists?,” I argue that the Yogācāra as well as the Madhyamaka must301

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agree that no objective answers can be given to that question and thus that both
positions are anti-realist. In light of this similarity I conclude that the Yogācāra
shares with the Madhyamaka the problem of explaining the sense in whichconventional truth is true. Since neither view can appeal to the way the world
ultimately is in order to explain truth at the conventional level, they both must
offer an alternative account of truth at the conventional level that is robust
enough to support truth as a normative concept.
In light of this conclusion I then argue further that the Yogācāra is in a better
position to address this problem than the Madhyamaka. In particular, I willargue that Dharmakīrti, read as a Yogācārin, provides an account of
conventional truth that is robust enough to support truth as normative while atthe same time being consistent with an ultimately anti-realist position.

Dharmottara’s Investigation on Conceptual Cognition
Ishida, Hisataka (Tokyo University, Tokyo, JPN)
Dharmottara’s (ca. 8th cent. C.E.) Apohaprakaraṇa is known as a work that
exclusively discusses the apoha theory (the theory of exclusion), therepresentative linguistic theory held by the Buddhist epistemological tradition.
One finds, however, that the Apohaprakaraṇa investigates not only linguistic
problems but also the structure of conceptual cognition (vikalpa) in detail.
In this presentation, I discuss Dharmottara’s understanding of conceptual
cognition and especially how he distinguishes its object, which is described asfabricated (āropita) from the aspect to be grasped (grāhyākara), with whichappearance in cognition (ābhāsa) is identified. Further, I elucidate therelationship between conceptual cognition and external objects and describe
how a person can act toward the latter.
To reinforce the interpretation of the Apohaprakaraṇa, which is extant today
only in the Tibetan translation, I also refer to Dharmottara’s other works, suchas the Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā.

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Horns in Dignāga’s Theory of apoha
Kataoka, Kei (Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JPN)
According to Dignāga, the word “cow” makes one understand all cows in a
general form by excluding non-cows. However, how does one understand thenon-cows to be excluded? Hattori [1977:48] answers as follows: “Onperceiving the particular which is endowed with dewlap, horns, a hump on theback, and so forth, one understands that it is not a non-cow, because one knowsthat a non-cow (e.g., a horse, an elephant, or the like) is not endowed with these
attributes.” Hattori regards observation of a dewlap, etc. as the cause of
excluding non-cows. Akamatsu [1980] presents a view similar to Hattori’s.
Tanizawa [1998], however, criticises Akamatsu by pointing out that then theapohavādin would have accepted positive elements such as a dewlap as
defining characteristics of a cow. Stating that X is not a cow because it is notendowed with a dewlap, etc., amounts to accept that the dewlap, etc. are thedefining characteristics of a cow. Instead of a real universal cowness theapohavādin would have accepted a dewlap, etc. Akamatsu’s understanding of
apoha, if it was correct, implies Tanizawa, would destroy the essence of the
Buddhist theory of apoha. Continuing the view of Hattori and Akamatsu,
Yoshimizu recently published two articles on Dignāga’s theory of apoha. He
claims that “the word ‘‘cow’’ excludes all horses by virtue of the fact that horns
are never seen on them.” Thus, the word ‘‘cow’’ can exclude all of themcollectively by virtue of the fact that none of them has all the members of the setof characteristics that form the worldly definition of ‘‘cow’’. Horns, one of thecharacteristic features of cows, are indeed mentioned by Dignāga in PS(V)
5:43. Yoshimizu understands Dignāga’s semantics as being parallel to themodern semantics of componential analysis. A question arises: what does
Dignāga, the founder of the theory of apoha, really think regarding this issue?
The present article sheds light on the incompatibility of the two interpretations
by investigating the relevant source texts. It further shows that the issue
Tanizawa deals with was already discussed by Dignāga. Tanizawa is right in
his understanding of apoha if we consult Dignāga’s discussions. Theinterpretation by Hattori and other scholars is not supported by Dignāga’s text.
The present conclusion is also supported by Mādhava, Uddyotakara andKumārila. Neither of them assumes Dignāga’s theory to be as Hattori, etc. take
it.

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A Study on the Thoughts of Buddhist Logic of Mun-gwe
Kyu, Se (Joong-Ang Saṅgha University, Seoul, KOR)
This paper is to elucidate the thoughts of Buddhist logic of Mun-gwe who isassumed to be a Shilla person according to recent explorations. I made anattempt to examine Mun-gwe’s Buddhist logic from a new perspective, by
avoiding general tendencies of concentrating on Gyu-gi (C.E. 632-862) in thestudies on the Buddhist logic of East Asia.
It is essential to have the right understanding and logic in Buddhism, which isultimately aiming at enlightenment. The translation of the Nyāyapraveśa in 647
by Hyun-jang (C.E. 602-664) inspired his disciples to write commentaries withspecial interest in this new territory. Gyu-gi completed the three volumes of the
Nyāyapraveśaṭīkā that became a kind of textbook in the academic study on the
Buddhist logic of East Asia.
Mun-gwe’s Nyāyapraveśaṭīkā needs to be noticed among the East Asian works
on Buddhist logic since the writings of Mun-gwe are quoted several times in thewritings of Gyu-gi and in the commentaries of other scholars. The life of Mungwe has not been described in detail, but today’s scholars assume that he was a
Shilla person.
Gyu-gi made a lot of mistakes in the definition of insistence. Meanwhile, Mungwe gave a proposition by establishing an insistence in the combination ofpremise and conclusion which are generally approved. The cause and simile
are the basis for forming the proposition as true because they are proofs.
In addition, Gyu-gi criticized the translation by Mun-gwe of “viśiṣṭatayā” as“distinguished”, claiming that it should be translated as “because [it is]distinguished”. Mun-gwe accepted the definition of Dignāga, which prescribesthat insistence denotes the inseparable nature of property-possessor (dharmin)
and property (dharma). Therefore, they are not different at all in terms ofcontents.
Next, one of the characteristics of the logic school, “the three phases” of thecause was established by Dignāga. Gyu-gi interpreted “sapakṣe sattvam” on
the basis of the arrangement of the nine causes. In other words, Gyu-gi

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explained the respective meaning of words by separating sapakṣe and sattvam.
However, Mun-gwe maintained that sattvam, which is the cause, as thecharacteristic of “already made (kṛtakatvam)” is definitely included in thewaterpot of the sapakaṣe. It is certain that Mun-gwe’s comment reveals thethorough understanding of the thoughts and history of Buddhist logic of the
pre-Dignāga era and Dignāga.
Accordingly, Gyu-gi committed an error in the definition of insistence and theunderstanding of “apakṣe sattvam” in the commentary of the Nyāyapravesa. On
the contrary it is revealed that Mun-gwe understands the view of Dignāga wellin his commentary.
The presumption that Mun-gwe could be a Shilla person might be true, eventhough it should be verified in a new survey of literature. His distinguishedeyesight needs to be examined in detail in further studies.

On Infinite Regress: A New Interpretation of PSV. 1.12ab
Lo, King Chung (Leipzig University, Leipzig, GER)This paper presents a new interpretation of st. 1.12ab in Pramāṇasumuccaya
and -vṛtti (hereinafter PS and PSV), in which Dignāga accuses his opponent of
having two fallacious consequences ensued from the claim that the cognition is
cognized by another cognition, but not by itself. PS 1.12ab was first translated
from Tibetan to English by Masaaki Hattori in 1968. Thereafter, a Sanskrit
reconstruction of the first chapter of PSV was completed by Ernst Steinkellnerin 2005. This reconstruction is based on two Tibetan translations and a
fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript of Jinendrabuddhi's commentary. In 2010 and2011, on a close reading of PS and PSV 1.11d-12, Birgit Kellner contributed
two papers in which she explored a discourse upon the infinite regress. In
general, Kellner's reading of the text is slightly different from that of Hattori
but both read tatrāpi hi smṛtiḥ (PS 1.12b2) as a causal clause for aniṣṭhā (PS
1.12b1). However, this reading is problematic because there does not appear to
be a causal relationship between the recollection of the cognition of the objectcognition and the infinite regress. Kellner, in her paper in 2011, did propose ofaddressing this problem, however, I am still not convinced. I therefore propose
an alternative way to read PS and PSV 1.12 on the basis of the Tibetan
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translations and three commentaries by Jinendrabuddhi, Gyaltsab and Mi
Pham. In my reading, aniṣṭhā and tatrāpi ca smṛtih are two independent
fallacious consequences pointed out to Dignāga's opponent and the text thenbecomes concisely and rationally comprehensible. In addition, having read thetext from a philosophical approach, as opposed to the philological approach
adopted by Kellner and the others, I also work out a new interpretation on how
the flaw of the infinite regress is pointed out to Dignāga's opponent and on
what basis such an accusation is valid. My new interpretation and argument do
also stand the test of the relevant explanation in Dharmakīrti'sPramāṇavārttika.

The Role of Symbols in Nāgārjuna’s Writings
Mason, Garth (University of South Africa, Pretoria, ZAF)
In my paper I will discuss the problem that Nāgārjuna argues that phenomena
are clearly and immediately apparent due to their emptiness of substance.
However, he does not provide adequate supporting arguments for this claim.
His defence is that, since he has no thesis he has nothing to defend, since having
a thesis would imply something to defend (VV29). Yet Nāgārjuna states in MK
24;14 and VV 70 respectively that phenomena are clearly and immediately
apparent when emptiness is understood.
sarvaṃ ca yujyate tasya śūnyatā yasya yujyate /sarvaṃ na yujyate tasya śūnyaṃ yasya na yujyate // [1]andprabhavati ca śūnyatéyaṃ yasya prabhavanti tasya sarvārthāḥ /prabhavati na tasya kiṃcin na prabhavati śūnyatā yasya // [2]The use of yujyate in MK 24:14 and prabhavati in VV70 suggest that palpabilityof phenomena in the context of time, space, duration of form in time, fixed ideas
and movement are experienced due to pratītyasamutpāda in terms of their
immediacy (yujyate) and intimacy (prabhavati) when śūnyatā is fully306

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understood. Both these terms allude to meaningful encounters with specificoriginal phenomena due to their emptiness. On the one hand, it would seem that
if saṃvṛti (conceptual or conventional knowledge) is empty of substance,
phenomena would be indiscernible due to their emptiness. So how does viewing
phenomena as empty make them clearly and immediately meaningful, asNāgārjuna claims? This paper argues that what can be deduced from
Nāgārjuna’s assertion is that, when phenomena are viewed from the standpointof emptiness, they have a clear, perhaps even luminous quality. Their meaning
is not derived from a fixed term, but rather is dynamic and situated within
relational factors. Nāgārjuna’s sense of śūnyatā, therefore, exudes a ‘quality’ of
immediate clarity that is profoundly meaningful in the form of originary
manifestations in space and time, but is also experienced as unrestricted by
fixed conditions in space and time. I will assert that this ‘quality’ is notsubstantive, but rather metaphorically representational of śūnyatā, which lies
beyond linguistic understanding. Representations of śūnyatā include time,
space, duration of form in time, fixed ideas and movement. These
representations should not be confused for things-in-themselves but should beunderstood, rather, as symbols for emptiness that cannot be linguisticallydescribed. Symbols, in this sense, are thought-constructs used to make sense ofhow śūnyatā is experienced – dynamic, recurring, unrestricted and persisting inspace and time.
Abbreviations:
VV - VigrahavyāvartanīMK - Mūlamadhyamakakārikā

[1] MK 24;14 (in McCagney, N., 1997, Nāgārjuna and the philosophy of
openness, Rowman & Littlefield, New York: 41).
[2] VV 70 (in Bhattacharya, K., 1986, The dialectical method of Nāgārjuna Vigrahavyāvartanī: 84).

Śāntarakṣita on the Two Kinds of Arguments for Self-Awareness:sahopalambhaniyama and saṃvedana
Matsuoka, Hiroko (Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN)307XVIIth Congress of the IABS
In his Pramāṇaviniścaya I, Dharmakīrti presents two kinds of arguments toprove self-awareness (svasaṃvedana). One is to establish that an object and its
cognition are mutually non-different because both are necessarily perceived
together (sahopalambhaniyama). And the other is to demonstrate that a
cognition never cognizes anything as distinguished from the cognition itself
because it is none other than cognition (saṃvedana).
This paper aims to show how Śāntarakṣita (c. 725–88) interpreted
Dharmakīrti's development of the sahopalambhaniyama-argument andsaṃvedana-argument in the Bahirarthaparīkṣā chapter of the Tattvasaṅgraha. I
will also examine the relevant passages of the Śūnyavāda chapter of Kumārila’sŚlokavārttika.
Śāntarakṣita adduces these two kinds of arguments in order to counter
Kumārila’s arguments which attempt to establish that an object and its
cognition are different from each other. Moreover, Kumārila’s development of
his arguments was directed to Dignāga’s view. Namely, in the
Pramāṇasamuccaya I v.11, Dignāga argues that a cognition has two forms(dvirūpatā), i.e., the form of the grasped and that of the grasper, and that such a
cognition is cognized by itself (svasaṃvedyatā). He also claims that these twopoints are to be accepted on the basis of the empirical fact that both the grasped
and the grasper are remembered together. It is beyond question that Kumārila
was aware of these points made by Dignāga, when he presented his arguments.
In conclusion, the reason Dharmakīrti developed his arguments was, according
to Śāntarakṣita, to defend Dignāga’s theory of self-awareness against the attack
by Kumārila.

Two Objects for Two Cognitions of the Same Thing
Mc Allister, Patrick (Cluster “Asia and Europe”, Universität Heidelberg,
Heidelberg, GER)
It is a commonplace that, for Buddhists in the logico-epistemological tradition
following Dharmakīrti, there are only two (regular) means of valid cognition(pramāṇa-s): perception and inference.

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Whilst this position is ubiquitious in the writings of the tradition, there is little
in the way of a systematic evaluation of the arguments advanced to support thisposition: why are there only two such means? What were the alternatives? How
was the theory proven and defended?
I would like to investigate Prajñākaragupta’s arguments about this matter. For
this, I will examine a few passages from the Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra, an
imposing work of the late eighth or early ninth century CE, which presents itself
as a commentary on a text of seminal importance for the whole of Indian logic,
Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika. The text, however, goes far beyond
Dharmakīrti’s verses, and is a witness to lively and creative discussions
amongst Indian intellectuals.
I will try to give an overview of the arguments that Prajñākaragupta makes
about the two means of cognition, and compare them both with the argumentsthat Dharmakīrti made in this regard, and with those by Jñānaśrīmitra andRatnakīrti, scholar-monks from around the late tenth/early eleventh century CE.
From this comparison, it should be possible to see whether their argumentative
strategies diverge.
The question is interesting if one considers how, as shown in recent work,
Dharmakīrti’s notions of perception and inference underwent broad changes in
the writings of Dharmottara, Jñānaśrīmitra, and Ratnakīrti.
(Prajñākaragupta’s contributions have not been taken into such close
consideration, no doubt owing to the shortcomings of the existing edition of the
Pramāṇavārttikālaṅkāra.) For, if perception and conceptual cognition (ofwhich inference is a subtype) are slowly assimilated, or even only thought of as
depending on each other, then it seems that maintaining two separate means ofvalid cognition becomes a problematic position.
From this, I hope that it will be possible to see the general outline of the
Buddhist reasons for, and defence of, the claim that there are only two means ofvalid cognition, and to see whether an important shift in Buddhist epistemology
from the eighth century onwards had any impact on these claims.

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Meditation and Indian Philosophical Theories
Pecchia, C̄ristina (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
The paper will consider “roads taken and not taken” in the study of Indianphilosophical texts, focusing on the theme of meditation. Modern scholars havemostly adopted either a philosophical approach or a historical-philologicalone. They have often tended to develop assessments or explanations of thephilosophical ideas expounded in those texts, distinguishing the philosophicalfrom the religious. Meditation, yogic perception, or mystic experiences havefrequently been marginal topics. In this connection, I shall examine the case of
the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti and discuss viable and given
interpretations of some passages closely related to Buddhist doctrinalstatements.

Relations, Modality and Dependent Origination
Picard, Michael (Douglas College, Coquitlam, BC, CAN)
Ronkin (2005) sheds light on the Abhidhamma theory of causation in two
respects: by replacing substance metaphysics with a process metaphysics; andby understanding causal conditioning in place of cause-effect relationship. The
law of kamma is not a universal law of causation, but an ethicized account ofinvariant relations among mental and physical processes involved in thegeneration of saṃsāric (i.e., everyday) experience. The theory of Dependent
Origination (DO) explicates the origins, not of external objects, but of themental and physical processes that bind us or lead to liberation.

Ronkin expresses her discovery as the realization that DO is “not aboutcausation at all”, since the cause-effect relation is rejected in favour of a set of
conditions that are individually necessary and jointly sufficient. Despite thisoverstatement (after all, DO is about causal conditioning), Ronkin does not go
far enough. While her interpretation is an attractive alternative to causation
conceived as an object-object relation, it is logically inadequate to deal with thesubtle forms of dependency catalogued in the Paṭṭhāna. In its place, the current

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paper advances a modal analysis of the forms of dependencies (necessary
relations) in the Paṭṭhāna.
Physical, ethical and logical necessity constitute different modalities, implying
distinct assumptions in the underlying modal logics. Intuitively, physicalnecessity is a different modality than ethical or logical necessity. Likewise, themodalities of causality are not captured in standard forms of deontic logic or in
the semantics of the well-known systems of modal logic. The subtle forms ofdependency that can be expressed in quantified modal logic are more varied
than those that can be formulated in modal sentence logic. A modal analysis of
the forms of dependency distinguished and classified in the theory of 24
relations (paccaya) promises a more subtle account of the various forms of
metaphysical interconnectedness in early Buddhist metaphysics than Ronkin’s
univocal account of causal conditioning allows.
The point can be made with reference to the canonical summary formation of
DO: “that being so, this will be so; that not being so, this will not be so”. This
general statement expresses the relation between successive links in the twelve
factor chain. But it cannot be meant that each link is a necessary and sufficientcondition for the next, since, as Ronkin points out, the whole chain will collapse
if any one relation is broken. On the contrary, within this general formula arevarious forms of conditionality, which the Paṭṭhāna is intended to clarify. The
theory of relations catalogues various sorts of ontological dependency precisely
in order to explicate differences in how a given link is dependent upon others,i.e., to reveal the different modalities of dependency collapsed within thegeneral formula. Nowhere is this more important than at the juncture between
sensation and volition, where habit is the operative modality of necessity, but issubject to change. Indeed meditation is observation of sensations without
movement of the will, which breaks the chain of DO and initiates the process ofliberation.

“Fire is cold because it is a substance.” On the Modes of Referring to
Textual Evidences of Early Naiyāyikas in Dharmakīrti's Vādanyāya andits Commentary Vipañcitārthā by Śāntarakṣita
Prets, Ernst (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wien, AUT)

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In the Vādanyāya, Dharmakīrti intends to give a clear and decisive answer to
the Nyaiyāyika’s view of the “points of defeat” (nigrahasthāna). He mainly
quotes the Nyāyasūtras, Pakṣilasvāmin’s Nyāyabhāṣya, and the Nyāyavārttika
of Uddyotakara to refute their respective positions. In his Vādanyāyaṭīkā called
Vipañcitārthā, Śāntarakṣita in addition quotes textual evidences of the so-called
lost Naiyāyikas of whom only names, titles of works, and fragments survived.
The paper aims at an analysis of the “quotations” of Dharmakīrti and hiscorrespondence to the textual transmission of the early Naiyāyikas.
Additionally, the main purpose of the paper is to investigate the various types ofattestations of the “fragments” of the so-called lost Naiyāyikas inŚāntarakṣita’s Vipañcitārthā. Śāntarakṣita frequently quotes passages ofAviddhakarṇa’s and Bhāvivikta’s works (both of them are said to have written aNyāyabhāṣyaṭīkā) in the Vipañcitārthā. It is not only understood that they havewritten Nyāyabhāṣyaṭīkās, but most likely also commentaries on theBṛhaspatisūtra. This raises the question of whether Aviddhakarṇa, obviously akind of nickname, and Bhāvivikta might be the same person.

Pratyabhijñā Śaiva Contributions to the Buddhist Apoha (Exclusion)
Theory of Concept Formation
Prueitt, Catherine (Emory University, Atlanta, USA)My presentation focuses on Śaiva contributions to inter-traditional debates
about apoha in medieval Kashmir at a key moment in the evolution of thistheory, as disputes between the highly developed local Śaiva philosophicaltraditions and scholars from the great universities of the Gangetic plains,
Nālandā and Vikramaśīla, produced a florescence of new
interpretations. Studying Buddhist works on apoha in light of Kashmiri Śaiva
critiques and appropriations will contribute to a clearer understanding of thispivotal theory than is possible through reference to Buddhist works alone. My
presentation will shed particular light on one of the most contested aspectsof apoha theory: whether or not the most basic differentiation between subject
and object that occurs in normal human perception is itself formed
through apoha. In their original formulation of apoha, Dignāga (5th c.) andDharmakīrti (7th c.) draw a clear line between the emergence of subject/object
duality and later conceptual processes. This line, however, became increasingly
blurred as apoha theory continued to evolve over the next five centuries until
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late Indian Mahāmudrā (“Great Seal”) traditions reverse this position to claimthat even the most basic othering of subject from object is already conceptual.
Precisely how and when this change occurred remains an open question, but it
is clear that it was forged within the crucible of inter-traditional debates inturn-of-the-millennium Kashmir.
I will address this question by examining the works of the Śaiva polymath
Abhinavagupta (10th-11th c.), a non-dualist proponent of the Pratyabhijñā(“Recognition”) tradition known for reworking key theories, including
the apoha theory, from post-Dharmakīrtian Buddhism. Fundamentally shapedby the ideas of his Buddhist interlocutors, Abhinavagupta’s commentaries on
his tradition’s root text, the Verses on the Recognition of theLord (Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā) provide an insightful perspective on
how apoha was understood during his time. They also argue, against
Dharmakīrti but in line with some later Buddhist interpretations, that the
emergence of subject/object duality is itself already conceptual.
Abhinavagupta’s reworking of Dharmakīrti’s apoha theory relies heavily on a
subtle shift in Dharmakīrti’s definition of a concept. Instead of applying only toan awareness that is capable of being conjoined with linguistic expression(abhilāpa-saṃsarga-yogya-pratibhāsā pratītiḥ kalpanā), as Dharmakīrti
contends, Abhinavagupta considers any awareness presenting a duality to beconceptual and formed through apoha. This includes the mere presentation ofsubject/object duality. Abhinavagupta thereby uses Dharmakīrti’s theories toargue that the formation of subject/object duality is conceptual—even though
Dharmakīrti himself explicitly rejects this claim.
It is an open question to what degree this definitional shift tracks a changed
interpretation within Dharmakīrti’s own tradition, and to what degree it is aclever innovation within Abhinavagupta’s tradition. My presentation will also
contain preliminary references to the 10th century Buddhist convertŚaṅkaranandana’s newly-rediscovered Verses on the Establishment of OtherExclusion (Anyāpohasiddhikārikā), the text on which Abhinavagupta based his
interpretation of Dharmakīrti on apoha. Fortunately, a manuscript of the text
has recently been found and is being edited by a team of scholars led by Vincent
Eltschinger. Seeing whether or not Śaṅkaranandana’s work suggests
Abhinavagupta’s take on the nature of a concept should shed significant lighton this question.

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XVIIth Congress of the IABSArcaṭa on the viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa and trairūpya in Dharmakīrti’s
sattvānumāna
Sakai, Masamichi (Kansai University, Osaka, JPN)
Dharmakīrti’s inference of momentariness (kṣaṇikatva) from the property“being existent” (sattva) created a number of interpretational tasks for his
successors. In this inference, pervasion (vyāpti) of the reason property (hetu)“existence” by the target property (sādhya) “momentariness” is proved by theso-called viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa, the source of knowledge that defeats theoccurrence of a reason property in any inferential site (pakṣa) where theopposite of the target property is present. In his Hetubindu, Dharmakīrti assertsthat this existence-momentariness pervasion is inclusive of everything (sarvopasaṃhāravat). If this pervasion is established via the viparyayebādhakapramāṇa, and if it includes everything, then it is logical to think that forthe purpose of proving the momentariness of a certain inferential site, e.g.
sound (śabda), it is sufficient to simply present the viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa,since the site “sound” is included in the domain of the viparyayebādhakapramāṇa, which is itself an inferential argument whose one part is also
“existence.” But this logical consequence forces one to abandon thesignificance of the so-called threefold characteristic (trairūpya) of a goodreason property. This is because 1) an example of a similar case(sādharmyadr̥ṣṭānta), e.g. a pot (ghaṭa), is no longer needed for proving a site
to be momentary—the viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa itself is capable of doing so,
without an example—and because 2) given that the site is included in the
category of “everything,” it becomes useless to point out that the particular site
possesses the reason property “being existent” (pakṣadharmatā). So, does
Dharmakīrti, in the case of his inference of momentariness, forsake thethreefold characteristic? If so, then why does he take such an anti-traditional
position? And must he do so? But if not, then how is the threefold characteristic
related to the viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa, and what kind of role could thethreefold characteristic have? Satisfactorily answering these questions is a taskthat inevitably falls to Dharmakīrti’s followers. Arcaṭa, one commentator of
Dharmakīrti, indeed tackles the task, and his take on the issue seems to havebeen influential among later Buddhist logicians, such as Dharmottara andRatnākaraśānti. In his Hetubinduṭīkā, Arcaṭa appears to accept that, in
Dharmakīrti’s inference of momentariness based on existence, the second
trairūpya condition is merely conceptual and thus of no use. Moreover, he
explains the reason why this should be the case. As to the first trairūpya314

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condition, Arcaṭa is silent. However, with the help of his commentator,
Durvekamiśra, we may make some conjectures about his view. Basing myself onArcaṭa’s own statement in the Hetubinduṭīkā and Durvekamiśra’s commentary
thereon, in my paper I would like to clarify Arcaṭa’s understanding of thelogical relation between the viparyaye bādhakapramāṇa and the trairūpyacondition in Dharmakīrti’s inference of momentariness from existence.

Acceptance and Interpretation of Dharmakīrti’s Theory of nigrahasthānain the Nyāya School
Sasaki, Ryo (Waseda University, Hiroshima-ken, JPN)
The point of defeat (nigrahasthāna), the rules of which determine victory or
defeat of a disputant and an opponent, was systematically arranged in the
Nyāyasūtra for the first time in the history of Indian thought. That is to say, theNyāyasūtra did not only enumerate the twenty-two points of defeat but set up
misunderstanding (vipratipatti) and non-understanding (apratipatti) which are
the more fundamental concepts including the twenty-two items.
The definition of these points of defeat in the Nyāyasūtra was contradicted by
Dharmakīrti’s Vādanyāya. Quoting from the Nyāyabhāṣya and the
Nyāyavārttika, Dharmakīrti criticized the twenty-two points of defeat of the
Nyāya school one by one and uniquely redefined the term nigrahasthāna as two
new concepts, asādhanāṅgavacana (the point of defeat for a disputant) andadoṣodbhāvana (the point of defeat for an opponent), from the position of his
theory of Buddhist logic. When he defined the point of defeat, he did not refer tothe traditional concept of misunderstanding and non-understanding by the
Nyāya school.
There are diverse arguments about Dharmakīrti’s new thoughts on the point ofdefeat in the later works of the Nyāya school. Among them, the explanation
shown by Bhaṭṭa Jayanta’s Nyāyamañjarī is interesting. Jayanta held that whenasādhanāṅgavacana and adoṣodbhāvana are interpreted by implicative
negation (paryudāsa), these two concepts are equal to misunderstanding, andwhen asādhanāṅgavacana and adoṣodbhāvana are interpreted by simple
negation (prasajyapratiṣedha), these two concepts are equal to non-

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understanding. In this way, Jayanta absorbed Dharmakīrti’s definition of thepoint of defeat by reinterpreting the traditional thought of the Nyāya school.
Dharmakīrti’s definition, however, includes criticism of the Nyāya school. If weliterally interpret Jayanta’s argument adopting Dharmakīrti's idea, it seems as
if Jayanta had also come to accept his criticism. In order to avoid this problem,
Jayanta modified Dharmakīrti’s theory by making it correspond with the Nyāya
theory. On the surface Jayanta seems to accept Dharmakīrti's thought
completely, but actually he tried to maintain the superiority of the Nyāya schoolover Dharmakīrti.

On the Issue of “Excluding the Subject of Proposition”
Shen, Haiyan (Shanghai University, Shanghai, CHN)
As the founder of the new form of Hetuvidyā in India, Dignāga (c. 440–520)
established a milestone for the development of Indian logic advancing from themethod of analogy in the old form of Hetuvidyā to the method of deduction withthe characteristic of inductive argumentation. The significance of his
contribution to Hetuvidyā is beyond any doubt. However, some scholars in
China reached the conclusion that Dignāga’s Hetuvidyā does not bear thefeature of deduction due to their misunderstanding of the rule set by Dignāga
concerning “excluding the subject of proposition in a similar example” (ChuZongyoufa 除宗有法) , and they misinterpreted it to such an extent as to applythat to the dissimilar example as well as to the main body of the example. This
paper points out the fallacy of such a view by examining Dignāga’s rule fromseveral perspectives in order to demonstrate the authentic nature of Dignāga’s
new form of Hetuvidyā.

On Dharmakīrti's Formula for Ascertaining Causality and Its Alleged
Failure to Solve the Problem of Induction
Steinkellner, Ernst (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wien, AUT)

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In conceiving of “induction” and a “problem of induction” in connection withinterpreting a classical Indian philosopher we best follow the definition of
induction current since Francis Bacon's “Novum Organum” of 1620 until the
middle of the 19th century (John Stewart Mills).
Brendan Gillon's critique (1991: 57) of Dharmakīrti's formulation of a method
for ascertaining a causal relation (PVSV 22,2-4 and 6f on PV 1.34) seems to bevalid in regard to his statement as it was interpreted until now by all, including
myself. In the meantime, my interpretation has changed, as will be shown.
Moreover, there are sufficient indications that Dharmrti and his tradition were
aware of the induction problem and offered a solution hitherto not considered.
The case definitely has to be re-opened.

Transcendental Logic and Spiritual Development – Following Dignāga'sand Kant’s Critical Epistemology
Wang, Gustav Chun-Ying (Dept. of Philosophy, National Chengchi University,
Taipei, TWN)

In the commentary literature of Dignāga’s epistemology and the commentary
literature of Kant’s epistemology, an interpretation controversy on how to takethe faculties, especially with regard to their ontological assumption, can beobserved. The question whether these two epistemological systems should betaken without any ontological assumption and how to do this constitutes theinitial problem of this investigation. The epistemology in both Dignāga andKant is not isolated. It is at the service of practical need. Whether and how the
epistemology works in each of the Buddhist and Kant’s grander projects ofpractice is the second problem of the investigation. The contribution of theinvestigation into these problems rests on answering the second by determining
the first. Raising two challenges against the epistemology with ontologicalassumption, the investigation suggests that epistemology had better be done
critically and radically in methodological isolation. Then, the investigation tries
to establish reasonable and coherent reconstructions of these two epistemic
systems with the suggested attitude. Being reasonable and coherent means: if(a) more interpretation discrepancies in the commentary traditions would be
explained away and (b) a stronger and more coherent significance of the role of317

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epistemology in the context of the higher plan of both Dignāga and Kant would
be obtained. Not only the critical interpretation is then suggested to be moreplausible than the ontic interpretation, but it is indeed also indicated that thetwo epistemic systems can better sustain themselves with the non-ontic
development. With the non-ontic reconstruction, both the idea of intellectual
intuition and the idea that self-awareness is either phenomenal or conceptual
are rejected. In this scenario, it follows that, in Buddhism, the relation between
Mādhyamaka and Yogācāra can be a compatible continuum, insofar as the
special non-ontic state that the negation of Madyhamaka’s emptiness and thedetermination of the Yogācāra’s epistemic conditions equally share, can be
identified in methodological isolation. As for Kant, the investigation offers anargument for practical reason's surpassing position over theoretical reason andits significance to the theory of freedom in Kant.

Buddhist Critiques of the Sāṅkhya Theory of Causality: Dharmakīrti and
His Predecessors
Watanabe, Toshikazu (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
For a long time, Indian Buddhists criticized the Sāṅkhya causal theory calledsatkāryavāda (the doctrine that effects are already latent within their causes)
and two relating theories which support the satkāryavāda: the theory oftransformation (pariṇāma) and the theory of manifestation (abhivyakti).
Whereas some of the criticisms are routinely adopted as well-worn argumentsin their philosophical treatises, the Buddhists continuously tried to elaborate
their criticisms by adding new ontological or epistemological ideas in order to
respond to the more developed Sāṅkhya theory. Dharmakīrti’s (ca. 600-660)
criticism of the Sāṅkhya theory of causality can be regarded as its final form
and is most influential for the later Buddhist thinkers such as Śāntarakṣita andKamalaśīla: much of their description against Sāṅkhya causality in their
Tattvasaṅgraha and Pañjikā is based on Dharmakīrti’s writings.

In my previous article (“Dharmakīrti’s Criticism of Anityatva in the Sāṅkhya
Theory” JIP 39 4-5, 2011), I showed that in the third chapter of hisPramāṇaviniścaya Dharmakīrti criticizes the Sāṅkhya theory of transformationon the basis of Vasubandhu’s criticism reinforced with Dharmakīrti’s new
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concept of non-cognition (anupalabdhi) and causal efficacy (arthakriyāśakti).
However, there are still some other arguments against the Sāṅkhya theory of
causality in the same chapter of the PVin and in his later work Vādanyāya. I
will examine these passages in the first part of my paper.

Furthermore, this examination reveals that some of the Sāṅkhya theories
mentioned by Dharmakīrti are also dealt with by another Yogācāra teacher,
Dharmapāla (ca. 530-561), in his 大乗広百論釈論, which is a commentary on
the latter half of Āryadeva's Catuḥśataka and which is extant only in Chinesetranslation. This fact suggests that Dharmapāla and Dharmakīrti share acommon philosophical background with regard to the Sāṅkhya theory of
causality, which is also the case concerning their arguments about scriptures(āgama) as Prof. Tillemans has already pointed out. To make this point moreclear, I will analyze relevant passages in the works of Dharmapāla, theMadhyamaka philosopher Bhāviveka (ca. 490-570), and the Naiyāyika
Uddyotakara (ca. 550-610) that are directed against the Sāṅkhya theory of
causality and compare them with that of Dharmakīrti. Finally, based on theSāṅkhya theory extracted from these criticisms, I will discuss the role of
Buddhist criticism in the development of Sāṅkhya causal theory.

Contrasting Buddhist and Naiyāyika Explanations of Attention
Watson, Alex (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)In the last decade or so, ‘attention’ has become a central topic in contemporary
Philosophy of Mind. In this paper I take four aspects of attention, and in eachcase contrast a Buddhist* no-self account and a Naiyāyika account that appeals
both to a self and a manas, the latter considered to be a substance the size of asingle atom that rushes around the body from sense-faculty to sensefaculty. The first three of the four aspects of attention that I will look at are:(1) What are shifts of attention brought about by? (2) How are competitions forattention settled? (3) Is there a separate subject of attention for each act ofattention? In the final section I consider the assumption of contemporary
western attitudes to attention that we are simultaneously aware of one thingwith attention, and aware of other things without attention. I suggest that thisidea is not to be found in Classical India – that for both the Buddhists and the319

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Naiyāyikas each moment has only awareness with attention (of one object); it
does not have any awareness without attention of other objects. I point out that
this does not mean, however, that the Indian theories cannot explain what thecontemporary theories seek to explain. The Buddhist explanation involvesappealing to the shortness of moments and the Naiyāyika explanation involvesappealing to the speed of the manas.

*The branch of Buddhism I am talking about is that found in Vasubandhu’s
Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and in Dignāga and Dharmakīrti’s Epistemological‘School’.

Beyond the Teaching: Contemporary Dzogchen Practices of Tibetan
Buddhist Nuns in Western China
Cho, Yasmin (Duke University, Durham, NC, USA)
Many scholarly works have been produced on the recent revival of Tibetan
Buddhism in China. These works mainly analyze the issues of emerging
charismatic figures, involvement of non-Tibetans, or its influence on Chinese
urban centers. In this paper, I will focus on two distinctive and interrelated
phenomena of the movement, which the previous research lacked: 1)
revitalization of Dzogchen (The Great Perfection) teaching, and 2) massive
participation of Tibetan nuns in Dzogchen practice. In particular, I will draw
on ethnographic research conducted in a leading Dzogchen retreat center
called Yachen in western China. Despite the controlling policies of the Chinese
government, Yachen has been rapidly expanding since the 1980s and currently
houses over 10,000 nuns and 2,000 monks. By focusing on the lives andpractices of the nuns in Yachen, I will discuss how and why Dzogchen has beenrevitalized and is expanding briskly in an unsettling time and a harsh politicalenvironment. In addition, I will show how the particular teaching method called“direct transmission” and the intimate master-disciple relationships of
Dzogchen are related to the massive involvement of Tibetan girls, who havebeen for so long inconvenienced and denied many precious teachings andopportunities for making direct connections with great masters.

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Since the 1980s, when China embarked on a series of economy-driven policies
alongside the east-south coastal regions, there have been peaceful andunprecedented waves of populations moving towards the most remote andisolated western parts of the country to pursue spiritual purity. Kham Tibet(eastern Tibet), albeit still heavily restrained, has emerged as a new epicenterof the revival of Tibetan Buddhism for the past three decades, while central
Tibet (TAR) has been severely controlled by the Chinese government, which has
made many religious practices and activities restricted or outlawed. This trend
not only shows the redirecting shift of both human and material resources fromthe center to the peripheries, but also re-highlights the oldest, yet uninterrupted
lineage of Tibetan Buddhist teaching—Dzogchen .
Historically speaking, the lineage of Dzogchen was transmitted into Tibet in theeighth century. Since then the lineage has been brought to the present throughthe form of direct transmissions by skillful Dzogchen masters. This profoundteaching is being continued and spread in a far-flung corner of Kham Tibet byextraordinary Dzogchen successors as well as the rigorous participation of
thousands of devoted Tibetan nuns. As one of the main sources of attraction forso many girls and of producing an uncanny religious dedication in China, I
believe Dzogchen has a life beyond the originally intended “self-perfected”
state of mind. By contextualizing Dzogchen and treating it as a living practicerather than a fixed esoteric ancient teaching, I believe it allows me to elucidate
the inner dynamics of the current Tibetan Buddhist devotion in China and tooffer a new understanding of changing gender relationship in Tibetan society as
well as in Buddhist tradition.

Reading between the Lines: Strategies for Imagining Buddhist Women in
India
Ohnuma, Reiko (Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA)
Focusing on a number of Indian Buddhist narratives featuring women, thispaper will consider the validity and usefulness of reading “between the lines”
of such narratives to uncover the lived experiences of Buddhist women in premodern India. In the Pali Vinaya, for example, the “bad” nun Thullanandā,through her constant misbehavior, is responsible for the promulgation of morerules of the Bhikkhunī Pātimokkha than any other individually named nun. Yet it321

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is often possible to read “between the lines” of these accounts to see the values
for which Thullanandā might stand, and to speculate about the lived
experiences of the actual women only imperfectly represented by her character.
To what extent can we interpret other shadowy female figures in Buddhist
literature in such a manner? In addition, I will also pose the question: Can this“reading between the lines” be stretched even further by considering theaccounts of contemporary Buddhist women who speak in their own voices? Can
we use the voices of contemporary women to fill in the gaps found in premodern literature authored by men?

Why Don’t Buddhists Want Lumps on Their Heads? Implications of Indian
Notions of Masculinity for Contemporary Buddhists
Powers, John (Australian National University, Canberra, AUS)
Discussions of the Buddha’s unusual physiognomy are a pervasive concern ofIndian writers. In Pāli suttas, commentarial works, Mahāyāna sūtras andśāstras, scholastic treatises, and stories about his life, he is described as having
a fist-sized cranial lump, an enormous tongue, and a sheathed penis, among
other abnormalities. The 32 major physical characteristics (lakṣaṇa) of a
“great man” (mahāpuruṣa) are the inevitable results of successful Buddhist
practice and are incontrovertible testimony of his spiritual attainments. Thisview of the body appears to be largely an Indian phenomenon; discussions of
Buddhist training in other regions seldom if ever, to my knowledge, list theiracquisition as a goal. Indian texts indicate that the characteristics are acquired
serially as a result of successful engagement in Buddhist practice, but I am notaware of anyone, no matter how advanced, manifesting them, nor of any
Buddhists today who indicate a desire to replicate the Buddha’s form throughtheir religious endeavors. This presentation will examine the ramifications ofIndian notions of the Buddha’s body and their relation to practice forcontemporary Buddhists: should the implicit misogyny of a model that assumes
the male physique is utterly superior to the female concern us? If a body withthe odd features attributed to the Buddha seems freakish and undesirable to
Buddhists today—and if acquisition of such a body is the inevitable outcome of
Buddhist practice—what are the ramifications of ancient Indian paradigms forpeople today who identify as Buddhists?

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Two Ways to Generate the Flawless and Perfect Mūlasarvāstivādabhikṣuṇī Vow
Roloff, Carola (Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)
From August to October 2012 by invitation of the Department of Religion andCulture of the Tibetan Government in Exile, a “high-level scholarly committee”
comprising ten monk scholars – including two representatives from each of thefour major schools of Tibetan Buddhism – gathered in Dharamsala to examine
the possibilities of reviving the Mūlasarvāstivāda bhikṣuṇī lineage. The
Research Committee focused on finding ways and means to assure that theordination will be ‘flawless and perfect’, and to assure that the nuns, like themonks, will become Mūlasarvāstivāda. The findings of my own research suggestthat there are two ways to generate the flawless and perfect Mūlasarvāstivādabhikṣuṇī vow. One way would require to base the vow on a Vinaya passage,
which from a traditional point of view is the Word of Buddha (buddhavacana),
but from a historical-critical point of view is not only dubious, but also
misogynistic. The other way is not explicitly accounted for in the ancient Vinaya
or Vinaya commentaries, simply because it was not made an issue during thosetimes. This solution would not only involve a “re-reading” or new,contemporary interpretation of the texts with a critical and at the same time
constructive attitude, but also require to give up the claim for superiority of
one's own Vinaya tradition and to meet with another tradition on equal footing.
I will present the two ways at stake based on my latest findings in the Tibetantranslation of the Bhikṣuṇyupasaṃpadājñāpti taking the ‘underlying' Sanskrit
manuscript into consideration, and discuss the implications of those findings forthe future of women practicing Tibetan Buddhism.

Gender in Buddhist Praxis: Texts, Theory, and Social Reality
Tsomo, Karma Lekshe (University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA)
Recent highly publicized international incidents of sexual violence havegenerated renewed interest in gender issues in religion and society, including
questions about gender justice and injustice in contemporary Buddhist
societies. This paper takes Buddhist texts and narratives as starting points foran exploration of Buddhist approaches and responses to gender studies and323

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feminist studies in religion across a spectrum of issues and traditions. The
paper will explore constructions of gender, the renunciant ideal, and images ofmonastic women through the multifarious lenses of Buddhist textual traditions.
Many Buddhist texts extol the Buddha’s perfect physique and portray the idealof human perfection in male form, while sending mixed messages about women.
Can these discourses profitably be re-read or reinterpreted today, based on
historical-critical studies, or should they be relegated to the bin of arcane
history, as relics of a bygone era? Perhaps it is possible to read “between thelines” of Indian Buddhist narratives and begin to uncover the lived experiencesof Buddhist women in pre-modern India as a way to better understandourselves. Gender analysis has just begun to be applied to Buddhist texts andbiographical narratives. Re-reading these texts through new interpretive lenses
may yield fresh insights on issues of gender, sexuality, and social organization.
Perhaps these texts contain clues for addressing domestic violence, genderinjustice, psychological trauma, and other contemporary social problems.
Sometime during the fifth century BCE, the Buddha reputedly admitted women
to the sangha, the Buddhist monastic order, albeit on an unequal footing, atleast according to the texts preserved and transmitted by Buddhist monks. These
texts tell stories of women’s travails and the joys of liberation, some in thewords of liberated nuns (arhati) themselves. These stories, found in the vinaya
and related texts, were transmitted to China, Korea, Tibet, and other lands aspart of a centuries-long process of appropriation, adaptation, andreconfiguration of Indian Buddhist philosophy, practice, and institutional
structures. This paper examines classical Indian texts of monastic discipline forwomen (bhiksuni vinaya) and surviving accounts of the lives of nuns in diverse
cultures as variegated lenses for understanding Buddhist women’s experiencesfrom early times up to the modern period.
This paper will examine diverse genres of Buddhist literature – canonical texts,
biographies, and ethnographic studies of contemporary nuns’ communities – toassess what parallels can be drawn between the lives of nuns at the Buddha’stime and the lives of nuns in China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Tibet today.
For example, to what extent does the bhiksuni vinaya continue to function as atemplate for monastic behavior and to what extent have the precepts, often ofnecessity, been modified or ignored in response to cultural and social mores?
The objective of this broad multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural overview is tomeasure what changes against what remains the same, to assess through the324

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lens of gender the choices monastic practitioners have made and continue tomake as they attempt to preserve and practice the world’s Buddhisms.

Guanyin Miracle Tales in the Mount Putuo Gazetteers
Bingenheimer, Marcus (Temple University, Philadelphia, USA)
Since the early Song dynasty the island of Mount Putuo 普陀山 near Ningbo
has been identified with Mount Potalaka, the abode of Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara
described in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. During the Song and the Yuan Mount Putuo
became a popular pilgrimage site and still today thousands of pilgrims andtourists visit every year. Starting in the 14th century Mount Putuo has also been
the subject of a series of local gazetteers, which collect texts of different genres,among them descriptions of topography, poems, epigraphy, travelogues, andbiographies of monks and lay-people associated with the site. All Mount Putuo
gazetteers have a chapter with miracle tales that were taken as proof of thesympathetic response (ganying 感應) with which the Bodhisattva Guanyin
answered the supplications of her believers. The importance of miracle tales for
the Guanyin cult in China has long been recognized (in English esp. throughthe work of Chun-fang Yü and Robert Campany), and the early corpus of
miracle tales have been well researched and translated. The aim of thispresentation is to show how later Guanyin miracle tales concerning Mount
Putuo were included in the gazetteers, what the local dimension of these stories
is, and in how far they should be considered characteristic for the miracle taletradition.

Tang Dynasty Thousand-Armed Avalokitêśvara Scenes Accompanied by
Images of Monks
Ra, Suijun (Waseda University, Tokyo, JPN)
The cult of Sahasrabhuja or the Thousand-Armed Avalokitêśvara (千手観音)
was introduced to China in the 7th century during the Tang dynasty, andthereafter propagated rapidly throughout the country, becoming perhaps the325

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most prominent among the esoteric Avalokitêśvara cults. Today, the majority of
the Tang images of this Avalokitêśvara remain in Dunhuang and Sichuan. In
comparison with the contemporary works in other parts of Eastern Asia, themost pronounced characteristic among these Chinese images is that the
majority of them are presented in the style of “bian 変,” featuring the image ofSahasrabhuja surrounded in many cases by nearly a hundred attendants. These
complex images, often recorded as “Dabeibianxiang 大悲変相 (Sahasrabhuja
Scene),” contain a wealth of information in the details, and are critical sourcesin considering the backgrounds of the Tang Sahasrabhuja cult.
This presentation considers the iconography of several Dabeibianxiang niches
in Sichuan created from the 8th through the 10th century, such as that from the
Qionlai Shisunshan Cliff Images (邛 崃 石笋山摩崖造像) and Jiajiang
Qianfoyan Cliff Images (夾江千仏岩摩崖造像). By considering the
iconography of the works through comparison with the content of prominent
Sahasrabhuja sutras, the presentation will first discuss the nature of the scene
presented through Dabeibianxiang. The presentation will then focus on aparticular feature in these works, namely the inclusion of monks among thenumerous attendants. Taking hint especially from niche no. 3 in the Shisunshan
Cliff Images, where monks sit on either side of Sahasrabhuja with a mountainscape as the background, the presentation attempts to point out that the imagesof monks correspond to an important element in the Sahasrabhuja cult, or thewish to promote the grade of enlightenment in the pursuit for Buddhahood.

Confession- and Repentance-Rituals of the Bodhisattva Guanyin in China
and Japan
Rösch, Petra (Museum of East Asian Art Cologne, Cologne, GER)
Each year in the second month of the lunar calendar the ceremony calledshuni’e is taking place in the Nigatsu Hall at Todaiji.
One part of the shuni’e is a repentance ritual in front of an image of an elevenheaded Kannon Statue. The halo of and the Kannon image itself are both dating
to the 8th century, when this ceremony took place for the first time in Japan.
The shuni’e ceremony still taking place today is an often modified ritual, to326

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which many elements, Buddhist as well as Shintoist, have been added throughthe centuries.
The paper wants to use the shuni’e ritual as a starting point for investigating
the ritual practice of repentance focusing on the Bodhisattva Guanyin and asks
the following questions:
Which elements of the ritual practice at Nigatsudo can be established as datingback to the 8th century having its origin in China? To which Chinese texts andritual practices do the extant visual evidences in Japan refer? What can weconclude from these Japanese rituals and visual circumstances for repentanceritual practices in China and how many repentance rituals connected toGuanyin did exist and were practiced in China? The talk will answer thesequestions and uncover the material evidences for these ritual practices.

Buddha Guanshiyin in Polished Cliff Inscriptions in Shandong
Wenzel, Claudia (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Wörth am
Rhein, GER)
Polished cliff inscriptions (moya kejing 摩崖刻經) of the name of Buddha
Guanshiyin 觀世音佛 in Shandong Province form a particular group among therare occurrences of Guanshiyin as a Buddha in sixth century China. We findthem in three places: On Mount Hongding 洪頂山 in Dongping County 東平縣,
dated around 564, “Buddha Guanshiyin” is carved on a steep cliff in a remotemountain site. With Buddha Amitābha to the right, and Buddha Dashizhi 大勢
至 (Mahāsthāmaprāpta) to the left, it forms a sub-group within an array offifteen Buddha names that have been arranged carefully with spatial andtemporal significance. On Mount Culai 粗徠山 in Xintai 新泰, another group of
three, in this case Buddha Maitreya, Buddha Amitābha, and Buddha
Guanshiyin, was carved on a large, solitary boulder, with a nearby colophon
dating to the year 570. This site also has sutra passages taken from the Great
Perfection of Wisdom Sutra 摩訶般若波羅蜜經, (T#223, 8: 250b3-7) and fromthe Sutra on the Great Perfection of Wisdom Spoken by Mañjuśrī 文殊師利所說摩訶般若波羅蜜經 (T#232, 8: 731a15-21). The undated carving on Mount Tao
陶山 in Tengzhou 滕州 puts Buddha Guanshiyin in between Buddha Amitābhaand “Prājñāpāramitā” 般若波羅蜜.

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A closer look at the topographic context of these three sites with cliff
inscriptions will reveal that the manifestation of Guanshiyin as a Buddha
cannot be seen exclusively in his role as immediate successor of Amitābha
Buddha, known from the canonical Compassionate Flower Sutra 悲華經(T#157) and the Sutra of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’s Receiving Prediction 觀世
音菩薩授記經 (T#371). It also needs to be understood in connection with theteachings on Emptiness (kong 空) and on the Perfection of Wisdom,prājñāpāramitā. This particular connection is also reflected in native Chinese
scriptures like the Sutra on the Ten Great Vows of Guanshiyin 觀世音十大願經,where the bodhisattva takes his vows in front of Buddha Guanshiyin King of
Emptiness 空王觀世音佛.

The Digital Avalokitesvara Project
Wong, Dorothy C. (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA)
Commencing with the Mahayana movement that began around the beginning of
the Common Era, Buddhism developed into a religion with a pantheon of many
deities, called celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas. As the personification ofcompassion, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva had enormous appeal and grew insignificance to supersede almost all other Buddhist figures, except Sākyamuni,
the Historical Buddha. Following the transmission of Buddhism via both land
and maritime routes, the cult of Avalokitesvara spread throughout Asia,
adapting to various cultural, local traditions, and Avalokitesvara evolved into a
multifaceted figure with many different names and forms of manifestation.
Traces of this fascinating phenomenon are evident in both text and art. Buddhist
texts were transmitted, translated, and interpreted locally, while art objects
representing Avalokitesvara differed from region to region, stylistically andiconographically.
The goal of the Avalokitesvara Project is to develop a conceptual understandingof the spread of this cultic deity, spatially and temporally, as well as thepatterns of this transmission. This is achieved through the creation of a virtual
collection of art objects and textual descriptions pertaining to Avalokitesvara,accompanied by detailed analysis of iconographic features and other kinds ofinformation, such as dates, places, historical periods, materials, techniques,328

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styles, and patronage. Going beyond the basic level of cataloging anddigitization of any single existing collection, the Avalokitesvara Project will
provide a centralized resource that enables in-depth analysis and a richer
understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Guanyin and Dizang: The Creation of a Chinese Buddhist Pantheon
Yu, Chun-fang (Columbia University, New York, NY, USA)The frequent pairings of Guanyin with Dizang in sculptures, miracle stories,
prayers, donor inscriptions and ritual texts constitute a new development in
Chinese Buddhism. Buddhist cave sculptures in Longmen and Sichuan, forexample, either depict the two in the same niche, or place their individual
niches side by side. Guanyin and Dizang were often linked together in ritualand art. While the earliest examples are dated to the early Tang (618-907) or
the 7th century, this phenomenon became more prevalent after the late Tangaround the early 10th century. Such pairing does not have any basis in Buddhist
scriptures. Why did such a pairing occur? A related larger question is: What
can this development tell us about Chinese Buddhism?

E-texts: Digitizing, Tagging and Beyond: Notes on Content-Based Text
Markup and its Potential with Regard to Tibetan Historical Research
Fermer, Mathias (OEAW, Vienna, AUT); Grössing, Benjamin (Vienna
University of Technology, Vienna, AUT)The ‘Sakya Research Centre’ is an open online platform set up by a network of
Tibetan and academic contributors working in the field of historical researchand digital text processing. Since its start in 2011, the project is designed as anopen reference system for Tibetan historical research based on a digital text
corpus embedded in an interlinked, relational database and web application.
By now we have gathered a large body of historical texts in digital form,
encoded to common standards and fully searchable. Our present text corpus

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holds most of the standard works of Tibetan historiography as well as
genealogies, biographies and religious histories particularly related to the
Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. The digital texts that will be openly
accessible on the web were initially inputted (or converted) in Tibetan Unicodeand brought into a compatible format following TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)
standards, supplemented with our own specifications required for historical text
analysis and digital editing.
The present paper will address our system of text markup as an approach todata extraction by which new forms of historical evidence are derived throughfurther processing and organization of the extracted data. In this paper, we will
provide examples of how text-based data can be processed in order to answer
complex questions historians might want to ask from a wider perspective, going
beyond individual case studies.
The possibilities of using relationally structured, semantic data sets derived
from digital texts, which have been manually supplemented by editorial markup,
are widely and largely unexplored in the field of information technology within
Tibetan Studies. New ways of presenting or visualizing textual content canconvey wider and indirect connections between historical entities andprocedures. Gathering orthographic variants of historic toponyms or agents,
contextualizing events or making religious networks visible are only some areasin which this newly derived information could be used.
Advantages of this text-based approach are certainly the transparency andtraceability of the system: By adding markup to a text through a set of predefined tags (highlighting, for instance, indications of time, agency orgeographic space) the text itself preserves its original wording and structure
while meta information of the text can be fed into the relational database backend for broader, intertextual analysis. For the user, both the database and thedigital text input remain accessible for search and reference via an easy-to-use
web application.

Entity Relationship Model for Gandhāran Research System
McCrabb, Ian (Sydney University, Sydney, AUS)330

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The presentation will précis the underlying entity relationship model of theGandhāran Research System (GRS), present published outputs, and outline
some of the research methods enabled by the system.
The GRS is the next incarnation of the software platform that currently supports
the Dictionary of Gāndhārī, Bibliography of Gāndhārī Studies and Catalog of
Gāndhārī Texts by Stefan Baums and Andrew Glass, as well as the source‐text
corpus assembled by them on gandhari.org. With development support from a
consortium of four universities, the GRS project commenced in 2013 toredevelop the current system into a comprehensive multi‐user research
workbench and publishing platform for ancient Sanskrit and Prakrit texts:
manuscripts, inscriptions, coins and other documents:







a linked repository of images, transcriptions, translations, metadata,
commentary and bibliographic records,
a content management system encompassing import, editing,
maintenance, analysis and publishing,a collaboration platform with comprehensive access and visibility
control to support draft development, workgroup collaboration andpublic presentation,a research platform for the production of catalogs, glossaries,
concordances and grammatical analyses, anda flexible system for publishing individual transcription renditions orfull scholarly editions, both print-ready and online.

The GRS is a database platform based on open source software and built toopen standards. It provides an extensible entity model, TEI support and apublished API for integration with related systems.
An entity relationship model is an abstract way of describing a relational
database; most often represented as a flow chart accompanied by precise
descriptions of each entity. This approach allows one to model the entities andtheir relationships and determine the most effective and flexible way ofstructuring the data to support authoring, storage, maintenance, analysis,
reporting and publishing. The underlying design principle of the GRS is theatomisation of data to its smallest indivisible components and the linking andsequencing of these entities. The design approach has been to build a331

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comprehensive set of entities which model real world objects. Manuscripts or
inscribed items have parts, fragments and surfaces. Images of these surfaces
can be segmented to provide a fixed reference system, a baseline much like thegrids laid out at an archaeological excavation. Syllables can then be mapped tothese image segments and sequenced into spans across a surface of a fragmentof a manuscript. These fragments can then be aligned and the spans sequenced
into complete lines.
The philological process model adopted is one of defining each entity by
applying classifying metadata and progressively sequencing these entities fromthe smallest upwards. This approach allows for attribution and annotation ofdifferent interpretations of syllable, words, etymology and translation in orderto record scholarly contribution at the finest level of granularity. Multiple
versions of all entities may exist in parallel to support the publishing ofalternative editions of a text.
The application of metadata to each entity in the system enables a range of
automated analysis outputs which support palaeographic, phonological,
grammatical, orthographical and morphological research in addition to theopportunities opened up for formulae and syntactical analysis.
Ian McCrabb is the founder and managing director of a Sydney based IT
consulting group established in 1994. His PhD dissertation is focused on
methodologies for the analysis of reliquary inscriptions and characterization of
the ritual practices and religious significance of relic establishment in
Gandhāra. Ian is system designer on the Gandhāran Research System project.

Exploring Possibilities of Digital Environments for Buddhist Studies
Nagasaki, Kiyonori (International Institute for Digital Humanities andUniversity of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, JPN); Muller, Charles (University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, JPN); Tomabechi, Toru (International Institute for Digital Humanities,
Tokyo, JPN); Shimoda, Masahiro (JPN)In 2012, the SAT project published a result of attempts to form an alliance
between international projects of digital Buddhist studies and to develop

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digitized research tools under the concept of the “Methodological Commons”
in the international digital humanities community on the Web.
The 2012 version includes numerous new functions. It is remarkable that the
texts of the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō (henceforth, Taishō) are linked withEnglish Tripiṭaka at the sentence level adopting the concept of the “Stand-off
markup” in the TEI P5 guidelines. We call it the “BDK-SAT parallel corpus.”
The work of linking both texts was done entirely on a Web collaboration system
which was developed to link between Taishō and other objects such as texts,
images, and so on. It would be useful for translation, education, textual
analysis, and so on along with the function of easy-search for the Digital
Dictionary of Buddhism. At the same time, the text database of the BDK Web
site is linked with the SAT text database by the medium of the BDK-SAT
parallel corpus.
The 2012 version also includes several character databases so that readers caneasily find the information of a character from several databases by use of popup windows, while it has become difficult to find appropriate information of it
due to increasing of CJK ideographic characters in the Unicode.
Moreover, the 2012 version makes it possible to browse the page images of
Taishō, which were scanned in 600 dpi. The images are roughly linked with thelines of the texts, that is, when a reader clicks a button located next to the text
line, the page image is displayed on a left narrow window while the lines are
centered. And of course it can be zoomed.
The SAT project aims to make a wider and deeper alliance with many
international projects of digital Buddhist studies so that Buddhist studies can be
carried out efficiently and significantly. We would like to discuss various
aspects of digitization in Buddhist studies at the conference.

“We Are Already Buddha”: What Does This Mean for an Unenlightened
Mind?
Hinzelin, Sandy (Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, FRA; École
Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, FRA)333

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In the de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po stan pa – The Treatise on pointing out theTathāgata Heart - of the Third Karmapa (1284-1339), the tathāgatagarbha isdefined as the essence of Vajrayāna. This path consists in taking the basis as thefruit, so we consider that we are already a Buddha and not an ordinary being.
Therefore we should know what is the nature of mind, that is tathāgatagarbha,
in order to apply this path in an appropriate way. However we could ask, how
is it possible for an unenlightened mind, still struggling with duality, to imagine
himself as enlightened from the beginning without grasping it? The basic
functioning of the ordinary consciousness is indeed based on a wrong notion ofself, which should be transformed. But the tathāgatagarbha teaching is only
accessible by faith, and the risk is the development of blind faith and not the one
which allows wisdom. So how does one develop a view of tathāgatagarbha
which would be a support for transformation and not a support for a new kindof wrong identification still nourished by ignorance? How is it possible toactualize our potential through this kind of teaching and practice? To treat
these questions one is required to reflect on the path that consciousness shouldtake. It is quite obvious that taking the statement “I am a Buddha” literally
leads nowhere; accordingly we should examine what are the preparatory works
or understandings to see the meaning of it. Through which stages must
consciousness go to be able to practice Vajrayāna and finally to realize its true
nature? This reflection is helpful to go deeper in the understanding of themind’s liberation process but also to have a better horizon of the new
subjectivity promised by the tathāgatagarbha teaching. In addition the snying
po stan pa describes a realization which could seem very remote from ordinary
experience; by trying to explore the concept of the nature of mind and the pathleading from ignorance to wisdom, it could offer a better map.

Thoughts and Rituals of Ippen
Isomura, Keiko (Showa Women's University, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo, JPN)
Ippen (c. 1239–1289) was the last Buddhist monk among the Pure Land
Buddhism leaders in Japan. Pure Land Buddhism is one of the major schools of
medieval Japanese Buddhism.
Ippen spread Pure Land Buddhism among the people of all levels of society
through dancing nembutsu and distributing block-printed inscriptions of334

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Amida’s name. Although a large number of studies have been made on Shinran,little is known about Ippen in English. Ippes’s thought and his life need to bestudied. No one can considere a religion without considering the nature of theplace where it is practiced. I want to emphasize how deeply Ippen’s thought isconnected to the nature of Japan. Not widely understood, for example, is therelation between Buddhism and Japanese gods. Ippen attained enlightenmentby means of connecting with Kumano Gongen (Incarnation of the supernatural
powers). He wandered through all parts of Japan to spread his thought. One
can say that Buddhism took root by Ippen’s dancing nembutsu and spreading
Amida’s name in Japanese society.

The Term ātman in Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha Literature
Jones, Chris (Oxford University, Oxford, GBR)
This is an overview of my doctoral research, concerning the use of, andcontroversy surrounding, the term ātman in the Indian tathāgatagarbha
literature. I am surveying those Indian sources which state that the term ātman
is a fitting designator for the tathāgatagarbha (or, in some instances, buddhadhātu), and also those Indian Buddhist texts which recognize and scrutinize thisdesignation. For these purposes I am consulting Sanskrit texts where extant,and otherwise working in Tibetan and Chinese translations of key sources.
This entails close attention to parables and similes for understanding thisreality, found in for example the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (along with its
associated texts, the Aṅgulimālīya and Mahābherī Sūtra-s), and also morephilosophically developed presentations of this designation, such as that foundin the Ratnagotravibhāga Śāstra and its commentary (much informed by theŚrīmālā Sūtra). I am discerning how these texts present what they themselves
recognize to be a contentious label for the tathāgatagarbha, and in turn how
they qualify this sense of ātman to distinguish it from extraneous, non-Buddhist
accounts of selfhood. Contrasting this with how other sources represent this
aspect of the tathāgatagarbha tradition (e.g. in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra), I assess
how successfully the tathāgatagarbha literature avoids arriving at a doctrine
incompatible with the prevailing denial of a notion of selfhood in the wider
Buddhist tradition.

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For the purposes of a short presentation, I will most likely highlight distinctions
between the primary texts of my study and their use of the term ātman. This willentail also an account of how these texts view the relationship between theirown account of a self and that of extraneous teachers with which (as theauthors concede) it might be confused.

Eastern and Western Modes of Thought. Nagarjuna and Quantum Physics.
Kohl, Christian (Freiburg, GER)
1. Key term: ‘Emptiness’. The Indian philosopher Nagarjuna ( 2nd century BC )is known in the history of Buddhism mainly by his keyword ‘sunyata’. This word
is translated into English by the word ‘emptiness’. The translation and the
traditional interpretations create the impression that Nagarjuna declares theobjects as empty or illusionary or not real or not existing. What is the assertionand concrete statement made by this interpretation? That nothing can be found,that there is nothing, that nothing exists? Was Nagarjuna denying the external
world? Did he wish to refute that which evidently is? Did he want to call into
question the world in which we live? Did he wish to deny the presence of things
that somehow arise? My first point is the refutation of this traditionaltranslation and interpretation.
2. Key terms: ‘Dependence’ or ‘relational view’. My second point consists in atranscription of the keyword of ‘sunyata’ by the word ‘dependence’. This issomething that Nagarjuna himself has done. Now Nagarjuna’s central view canbe named ‘dependence of things’. Nagarjuna is not looking for a material or
immaterial object which can be declared as a fundamental reality of this world.
His fundamental reality is not an object. It is a relation between objects. This isa relational view of reality. Reality is without foundation. Or: Reality has thewide open space as foundation.
3. Key terms: ‘Arm in arm’. But Nagarjuna did not stop there. He was notcontent to repeat this discovery of relational reality. He went on one stepfurther indicating that what is happening between two things. He gave
indications to the space between two things. He realised that not the behaviour

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of bodies, but the behaviour of something between them may be essential forunderstanding the reality. This open space is not at all empty. It is full ofenergy. The open space is the middle between things. Things are going arm inarm. The middle might be considered as a force that bounds men to the world
and it might be seen as well as a force of liberation. It might be seen as a
bondage to the infinite space.

The Righteous Monk Army of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea, in the 16th
Century
Lee, Jinwol (Dongguk University, Gyeongju, KOR)
This is a research on Euiseunggun (the Righteous Monk Army) of the Joseon
Dynasty (1392-1910), Korea, which was formed and worked for national
defense against the Japanese invasion at the end of the 16th century. In general,
Buddhist monks should live according to the Precepts of nonviolence in terms of
the Vinaya. However, the history of Korea shows that Buddhist monks
organized an army as a voluntary corps for protecting Buddhism and the peopleof the country from attacks by a foreign country. I will explore the backgroundand process of emergence, activities and influence of the Righteous Monk Army
focusing on the period from 1592 to 1598.
First, I will introduce the relationship between Buddhism and the Korean
government as a characteristic of the Korean Buddhist tradition which isclassified as a Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The spirit or sense of
Hogukbulgyo (Protecting Nation Buddhism) is one of the local characteristics
of Korean Buddhism, which is more concerned with the welfare and happinessof society as a whole than the individuals in terms of Mahayana Buddhism. It
has persistedin Korea from its introduction in the 4th century to the present.
Second, I will review the background of the Euiseunggun in sociopoliticalcontext. State policy and culture of administration of Joseon was based on
Confucianism and promoted it. In contrast, Buddhism, the state religion of
Goryo (937-1392), was suppressed and marginalized in the society. However,Buddhist leaders tried to protect and take care of people who were suffering tosurvive in hard situations. In fact, after the collapse of the government army,
the monk army played an important role in restoring the national energy for337

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defending the country. The Monk Army participated in combat during wartime
and in constructing castles during peacetime. They thought t the defense of the
Buddhist order could be possible through the defense of the country. I will bringup some instances of the significance of the eminent leadership and activity ofthe monk army, refering to, for example, the commanding leader of the corps,
Seon (Chan/Zen) Master Cheongheo Hyujeong (1520-1604), Samyeong
Yujeong (1544-1610), Giheo Yeonggyu (?-1592) and Noemuk Cheoyeong.
In conclusion, I will point out the reason why Buddhist monks took part in thewar; how they managed and justified their action; what they achieved in their
mission; and what we should recognize as the significance of a monk army in
the history whenr considering the present age. Aas a manifestation of
Mahayana spirit, it could contribute to extending Buddhist activity in society
and to drawing a comparison with Theravada and Vajrayana traditions interms of compassion and skilful means for all the people around the world.

Right View (samyag-dṛṣṭi) and Correct Faith (śraddhā): Correspondence,
Distinction, and Re-merging in East Asian Mahāyāna
Muller, Charles (University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN)
As a religious tradition, Buddhism is distinctively epistemological in its
articulation of the causes of human suffering and in the solutions it offers. The
most fundamental problem in Buddhism is that of nescience (avidyā),manifested in such ways as the clinging to a constructed self, along withnumberless derivative problems. Therefore the matter of mentally constructed
frameworks (dṛṣṭi) is central to Buddhist soteriological discourse. At the sametime, the notion of faith (śraddhā), which in other religions tends strongly in theemotional/devotional directions, is, in Mahāyāna philosophy of mind, acategory intimately related to right view. Mahāyāna Buddhism furthermore
contains two distinct levels of discourse regarding right views and correct faith:that which occurs at the conventional (laukika/saṃvṛti) level and that which isseen at the transcendent (lokôttara/paramârtha) level of discussion. This paper
starts out with the discussion of views and belief in the context of secular
academic disciplines such as psychology and epistemology, and ends up withthe most rarefied view in Zen, a distinctive Buddhist tradition, wherein, I argue,
right view and correct faith become almost indistinguishable.
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Narratives of Maitreya's Past Lives: An Analytical Study of Their
Contexts and Motives
Tudkeao, Chanwit (Pali-Sanskrit Section, Faculty of Arts Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, THA)
Among Bodhisattvas, only Maitreya is well-known and accepted by both nonMahayana and Mahayana traditions. As the successor of Śākyamuni Buddha,
Maitreya’s future life is narrated in various versions among different Buddhist
schools. Though there are a number of versions available, they share thecommon core story and motive. In contrast to narratives of his future life, there
are a few narratives about his past life and they are quite unique. They musthave been narrated under specific circumstances and purposes. In this paper,
these narratives of Maitreya’s past lives are analytically studied, focussing on
their contexts and motives, in order to comprehend their importance to
Buddhist literature.

From Skepticism to Nihilism: An Epistemological Interpretation of
Nāgārjuna’s Refutations
Ye , Shaoyong (Department of South Asian Studies, Peking University,
Beijing, CHN)
On the basis of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, I recommend a skeptic
presupposition as the starting point of Nāgārjuna’s arguments, from which the
ontological entities (svabhāva) could be viewed as referents of concepts. This
position justifies the “confinement principle,” that a definition or description ofa concept would necessarily confine its supposed referent to an isolated,invariable state. The principle enables Nāgārjuna to deduce contradictions
between the static nature of the supposed referent and the activity or dependent
relationship in which it must be involved. Hence Nāgārjuna finds all concepts
self-contradictory and devoid of referents (niḥsvabhāva), and reaches anihilistic conclusion that all dharmas are empty (śūnya), which means that
nothing within our ken exists ontologically.

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Faith – Practice – Other Power. Tathāgatagarbha Tradition and Pure Land
Buddhism
Zapart, Jaroslaw (Jagiellonian University, Philosophy Department, Cracow,
POL)
For the texts of the Tathāgatagarbha tradition the process of removing mental
impurities, or kleśas, which is indispensable for the acquiring of enlightenment,
is impossible without an active participation of the Tathāgata. Even the first textof this tradition – the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra – emphasizes the role of Buddha in
the process of attaining the final goal by the practitioner, while theŚrīmālādevīsūtra mentions faith in Tathāgata’s liberating power as a means
necessary to achieve enlightenment. The importance of faith – and at the sametime perceiving the Buddha as an active, liberating force – can be associatedwith the large Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra and its forty-eight vows of Dharmakāra, theBodhisattva who became Buddha Amitābha. Amitābha’s vows served as aninspiration for Tanluan’s conception of “other power” (tali) – thecompassionate activity of Buddha, which can free living beings from worldly
suffering. The relationship between the Tathāgatagarbha and the Pure Land
tradition will be elaborated upon by the use of a scheme which shows the
crucial importance of faith, the practice of visualizing (“remembering”,“commemorating”) the Buddha, and the role of Tathāgata as an external (orseemingly external) instance capable of promoting one’s own efforts towards
achieving liberation. An original synthesis of both traditions will be shown,taking the teachings of Chan and Pure Land master Jixing Chewu (1741–1810)
as a basis. A hypothesis will be presented, according to which“Tathāgatagarbha Buddhism” – as a form of practice – is an intermediatephase between the “classic” Buddhist type of practice, based on one’s own
efforts (shōdomon, according to Honen), and a type of practice which primarily
puts emphasis on entrusting oneself to Buddha (jōdomon). It will be posited thatthe crucial Pure Land practice of nianfo may be understood as a way of“updating” the inherent Buddha-nature.

Time in the “Diagram of the Avatamsaka Single Vehicle Dharmata”
Chu, Song-ok (Seoul National University, Seoul, KOR)340

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Euisang, a Korean Master of the Hwaom School, summarized the concept oftime of the Mahavaipulya Buddhavatamsaka Sutra as “There is mutual identity
between the nine time periods and the ten time periods, / Yet they are not indisorder but are clear and separate”, which are the thirteenth and fourteenthlines of “Verse on Dharma-nature.”
In Buddhism, time is understood not as existing objectively but as being
generated in human consciousness. In other words, time is not an abstract thing
without contents but is related to the concrete contents of consciousness. Timein Buddhism can be understood as the continuity of karma because the contentsof consciousness do not differ from the karma generated through the body,mouth, and consciousness. Therefore, time in Buddhism unfolds not in a single
time-line, “past-present-future”, but in a multiple and mutual time-line such as
the nine time periods and the ten time periods.
Euisang also designed the diagram of Dharmadhatu with his “Verse on
Dharma-nature”, which begins with “Dharma” and ends with “Buddha”. This
diagram shows the progress of the nine time periods and ten time periods. In
this paper, I will try to show why Euisang’s idea on time is essential tounderstand Dharma-nature and how he concretized his idea on time in his
diagram, the visualization of Dharmadhatu.

A Study of the Khotanese Summary of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
Katayama, Yumi (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, JPN)
The manuscripts of the main Mahāyāna sūtras, such as theŚūraṅgamasamādhisūtra, the Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra, and theBhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabharājatathāgatasūtra are found in Khotanesetranslations as well as Sanskrit manuscripts. But the
Saddharmapunḍarīkasūtra, one of the popular Mahāyāna sūtras in Khotan, has
not been found in a complete Khotanese translation. All we have is a briefsummary of the sūtra in sixty-one lines of verse, with two fragmentary variants.
This summary of the sūtra was translated by Sir Harold Walter Bailey from
Khotanese into English, but little attention has been given to the parallel
expressions in the commentary of this sūtra.

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The aim of this paper is to make clear that, by comparing the Kashgar
manuscripts of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra with the Khotanese summary of
the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, this Khotanese summary is found to be
influenced – directly or indirectly – by the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkopadeśa written
by Vasubandhu.

A Study on zhìhuì in the Dà āmítuó jīng
Xiao, Yue (The Research Institute of Bukkyo University, Kyoto, JPN)
This paper addresses the formation of the doctrine of zhìhuì 智慧 ‘wisdom’ in
the Dà āmítuó jīng大阿彌陀經, the oldest version of the Larger
Sukhāvatīvyūha. In an earlier paper, I suggested that wisdom is a significant
feature which plays an important role in the Dà āmítuó jīng, in that rebirth in
Sukhāvatī aims not only at overcoming Samsara, but also at attaining thewisdom of Amitābha.
In my recent papers, I argued that the oldest version of the Larger
Sukhāvatīvyūha does not faithfully represent the original Indian text ascommonly believed by many scholars, but is simply a version created by its
Chinese translator. I also pointed out that no evidence can establish that thevows in the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka are a revision of what we find in the Larger
Sukhāvatīvyūha. On the contrary, much evidence indicates that the text of the
Dà āmítuó jīng is just based on the translator’s own notions. It is difficult toimagine that there was an original text with twenty–four vows, akin to those in
the Dà āmítuó jīng, even though scholars continue to look for it. Therefore,
during the time when the Dà āmítuó jīng was translated into Chinese, thesystem with about forty-eight vows, akin to those in the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, hadalready been in existence. This paper will continue focusing on the formation of
two kinds of twenty-four vows in the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha through aconsideration of the doctrine of wisdom in the Dà āmítuó jīng. This analysis
will be approached in the following ways.
Firstly, I will undertake a comparative study of the doctrine of wisdom thatappears in the vows of the Dà āmítuó jīng and its counterparts in otherversions. Secondly, I will focus on the differences between the doctrine of zhìhuì

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in the Dà āmítuó jīng and that found in other versions. Thirdly, I will undertakea discussion on the formation of the vows containing the term zhìhuì in the Dàāmítuó jīng and compare this to other versions. Finally, I will discuss theformation of the doctrine of wisdom highlighted in the Dà āmítuó jīng.

On the Exact Dates of Some Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts in Old Bengali
ScriptHori, Shin'ichiro (International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies,Tokyo, JPN)
There are some Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts in old Bengali or Maithili script
dated to the fifteenth century according to their colophons. These manuscripts
are especially important in treating the history of Indian Buddhism after thedestruction of major monasteries in Eastern India including Vikramaśīla by
Turkic Muslims at the beginning of the thirteenth century. It is first of all
essential to establish and verify the exact dates of the manuscripts on the basisof calendrical elements found in the colophons. In addition to the dates, thispresentation will deal with place names, personal names and their titles.

The Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodana of the Mustang Group Kangyurs
Miyazaki, Tensho (Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford, USA)In recent years, the Tibetan Manuscripts Project of the University of Vienna has
discovered and published several Tibetan manuscript collections mainly from
Indian Tibet, or Western Tibet. Among them, two kinds of Kangyurs from
Ladakh, the Hemis and Basgo Kangyurs, are categorized as the Mustang group,
since they possess a structure similar to that of the Early Mustang Kangyur
catalogue, published by Helmut Eimer in 1999. As Lainé 2009 points out,
however, we need to conduct further investigations of these newly discoveredmaterials in order to affirm the above classification and to clarify the relation
between them and the other Tibetan Kangyurs and collections.

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This paper deals with a particular Mahāyāna scripture, the *Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodana (AjKV), and seeks to shed light on the link of the two
Kangyurs of the Mustang group with the other Tibetan Kangyurs andcollections. I mainly examine three subjects through an analysis of variant
readings of the AjKV: First, I verify that the above two Kangyurs, the Hemis
and Basgo, constitute the Mustang group, which is independent of the two
major Kangyur lineages: the Tshal pa and Them spangs ma. Second, I
investigate the relationship between the Mustang group and the two other major
Kangyur families. Third, I explore which of the “independent” Kangyurs andcollections, such as the Phug brag Kangyur and the Gondhla proto-Kangyur,
are connected or close to the Mustang group.
The above investigations reveal the following facts: First, we can confirm thatthe Hemis and Basgo Kangyurs are properly categorized as belonging to theMustang group, which is separate from the Tshal pa und Them spangs mafamilies. They merit this attribution because we find many variant readings andsome evident errors common only to these two Kangyurs and because theyshare no significant error with each of the two main families. Second, an
obvious mistake and several variant readings exist between the Mustang groupand the Gondhla collection. Therefore, it is probable that the Mustang family
has some connection with the Gondhla proto-Kangyur.

Originality and the Role of Intertextuality in the Context of Buddhists
Texts
Cathy Cantwell; Jowita Kramer
The section is aiming at exploring the concept of originality, authorship and therole of intertextuality in Buddhist literature. We would like to discuss therelation of innovation on the one hand and perpetuation of earlier textual
material on the other. Making use of whole sentences or even passages fromolder texts without marking them as quotations seems to have been common
practice among Indian and Tibetan Buddhist authors. It is not unusual to find
only a few quotations marked explicitly as originating from another text. Mostof the passages parallel to older works are incorporated “silently”. Although
within the Buddhist traditions this relationship is not the topic of explicit
reflections, it can be investigated by taking a closer look at the methods and344

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strategies applied by Buddhist authors. With a view to this, we would like todiscuss, for example, the following questions.
—What are the aims of adaptive reuse? How are they achieved?
—How are originality and creativity related to adaptive reuse?
—Are different kinds of reuse (citations, paraphrase, references, rearrangement etc.) employed for different ends?
By dealing with these and related questions on the basis of a wider range ofindividual case studies from different Buddhist backgrounds, the panel willcontribute to a deeper understanding of concepts of originality, innovation andauthorship in Buddhist traditions of India and Tibet.

Re-presenting a Famous Revelation: Dudjom Rinpoche's Work on the
Ultra Secret Razor Lifeforce Vajrakīlaya (yang gsang srog gi spu gri) of
Pema Lingpa (padma gling pa, 1450-1521)
Cantwell, Cathy (University of Oxford, Canterbury, Kent, GBR)
This paper represents one section of a four year project on issues of authorshipand textual development over the generations in relation to tantric revelations,focusing on the works of the erudite scholar/lama Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje(bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje, 1904-1987), relating to the tantric deity,
Vajrakīlaya. One of the leading lamas of his generation, Dudjom Rinpoche
received his own revelations, as well as contributing to the texts of previous
lamas of his tradition. Such was his reputation that in the early 1970s, theBhutanese Royal family requested him to edit the Collected Works of Pema
Lingpa (padma gling pa, 1450-1521), the national saint of Bhutan. Some twenty
years before, Dudjom Rinpoche had already made contributions to Pema
Lingpa's corpus, including compilations of a number of ritual practice texts for
Vajrakīlaya, as well as commentarial instructions on these texts. Thus, there are
two aspects to Dudjom Rinpoche's work to be considered here, firstly, his own
writings on Pema Lingpa's Vajrakīlaya revelations, and secondly, his work as
an editor – or as the chief editor of a team – working on the Vajrakīlaya sectionof Pema Lingpa's corpus. The paper considers the nature of Dudjom
Rinpoche's contributions, and what they might tell us about Tibetan approaches
to maintaining vibrancy, as well as textual coherence, in revelatory traditions.
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Intertextuality and (Un?)Originality in the Sanskrit Dīrghāgama
Manuscript and the Development of Āgama/Nikāya Literature
DiSimone, Charles (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München,GER)
The Gilgit Dīrghāgama manuscript is a Sarvāstivāda / Mūlasarvāstivāda text
containing a collection of ancient canonical Buddhist sūtras, composed in
Sanskrit with some Prakrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit elements and written
on birch bark folios in the Gilgit/Bamiyan Type II script, also known as ProtoŚāradā. This collection had been lost for centuries and was recently
rediscovered in what is thought to be the border area of Afghanistan andPakistan in the late 20th century. Like the Dīghanikāya of the Theravāda
tradition preserved in Pali, the Dīrghāgama is rife with examples ofintertextuality and its author(s) either influenced by or freely borrowing (orsome mixture thereof) from other Buddhist texts. While the Dīrghāgama andDīghanikāya often parallel one another, there are numerous differences and thetwo collections often disagree on topics and content.
This paper will focus on issues of intertextuality in one of the texts from theDīrghāgama, the Prasādanīya-sūtra. Many passages in the Prasādanīya-sūtra
are found in similar wording in other Mahāyāna and Mainstream Buddhist
sūtras. Additionally, the Prasādanīya-sūtra follows the same general structure,
theme, and topics of its Pali counterpart, the Sampasādanīya-sutta but theactual content of the two texts wildly diverge. These differences in content seemto reflect differing (Mūla)sarvāstivāda and Theravāda views and considerations
when faced with answering pan-Buddhist questions as the traditions weredeveloping. By analyzing the instances of intertextuality found in the
Prasādanīya-sūtra and the specific differences between it and the
Sampasādanīya-sutta, it is hoped that new information concerning authorshipand textual transmission will come to light.

Different Manuscripts, Different Works, Different Authors, but Always
the Same Story: On Textual Re-use in Buddhist Narrative Literature
Formigatti, Camillo Alessio (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, GBR)

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Buddhist Narrative Literature is a maze of works, and finding one's own way
through it is often a very challenging task, even if the final destination isalready clearly set. For instance, if the aim is the preparation of a criticaledition of a given work by a more or less known author, an integral part of thisenterprise consists in tracing the source−or sources−of the narrative material
employed by the author. A correct assessment of the various textual and visualsources of the story narrated in a jātaka or an avadāna is necessary for at least
two reasons: to help the editor in the editorial choices and to give a better
appraisal of the author's literary skills in re-using the ‘raw’ material for his
artistic purposes. However, this approach presupposes the figure of an author
and takes into consideration only one or two layer of intertextuality, namely thereuse of narrative motifs and/or the reuse of stylistic devices. In this paper I will
focuse on one additional layer which has been neglected so far, namely thereuse of whole texts for the creation of new Frankenstein-like works like the
Divyāvadāna.

Veṅkatanātha's Buddhist Opponents as They Emerge in the Buddhist
Texts He Reused
Freschi, Elisa (Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, AUT)
Veṅkaṭanātha (also known with the honorific title Vedānta Deśika, traditional
dates 1269–1370) is a polygraph author of South India and a key figure of ŚrīVaiṣṇavism and of the theological and philosophical systematisation ofViśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta. One of the common threads of his production is theattempt to integrate within Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta other schools of Indianphilosophy and theology. Accordingly, the reuse of previous texts is a key
element of his production. Does this apply also to his relation to Buddhist
sources?
The present paper will deal with this topic from the specific perspective of thereuse of Buddhist texts, especially focusing on the difference in the reuse of
Buddhist texts by Veṅkaṭanātha and by his forerunners. It is in fact noteworthy
that Buddhist quotes are almost absent in Veṅkaṭanātha's predecessors, i.e.,
Yāmuna and Rāmānuja, although the former's Āgamaprāmāṇya could havebeen the right place to discuss the validity of Buddhist texts. By contrast,
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XVIIth Congress of the IABSVeṅkaṭanātha often refers to Buddhist concepts and quotes from Buddhist texts.
Furthermore, while sharing the wide-spread attitude of mentioning“Buddhists” as opponents who have it all wrong, so that a certain thesis has tobe abandoned if there is the risk that it leads to Buddhist-like consequences, henonetheless actually engages in more accurate debates on specific topics.

Re-use of Text in Pali Commentarial Legal Literature
Kieffer-Pülz, Petra (Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz, Weimar,
GER)
Reuse of text is a common means in Indian commentarial literature. Pāli
literature is no exception to this. Within Pāli literature legal literature forms a
separate unit. Since it aimed, and still aims at clarification of monastic legal
matters, it grew voluminous over the past 2000 years. Not only was themonastic law code (Vinaya) commented on in commentaries, subcommentaries,
subsubcommentaries, etc., but also parts of it (Pātimokkha). Moreover, Vinaya
handbooks were written to condense or summarize the relevant legal material(Khuddasikkhā, Mūlasikkhā, Vinayavinicchaya, Uttaravinicchaya,
Pālimuttakavinayavinicchaya), and these again were amply commented on.
Excluding treatises on specific topics (sīmā), and commentaries that survived
only in form of citations preserved in the still existent commentaries, we haveall in all at least twenty-six law commentaries handed down (the number would
be still higher, if texts only available in manuscript form would be taken into
account too). The authors of these commentaries consulted the earlier law
commentaries and re-used their texts to different degrees and in varying ways.
Consequently many shades of re-use of text can be observed. In the present
contribution some of these types of re-use shall be discussed.

Sthiramati's Commentarial Techniques in his Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra
Commentary
Kramer, Jowita (University of Munich, Munich, GER)348

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This paper will focus on the role of intertextuality and originality in the eleventh
chapter of Sthiramati’s Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra commentary, called the“Investigation of the Doctrine” (dharmaparyeṣṭi). Summarizing thephilosophical viewpoints of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, the dharmaparyeṣṭi
chapter is considered one of the most important sections of the work. Thus, itappears perfectly suitable to serve as a basis for a comparison of its author’s
compositional style and commentarial strategies with other philosophicalcommentaries ascribed to Sthiramati (e.g. the Pañcaskandhakavibhāṣā and theTriṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya). Drawing on examples from these texts thepresentation will aim at showing the relations between textual reuse andinnovation, demonstrating the employment of explicit and “silent” quotations
as well as at analysing the authors’ possible motives for the utilization of aparticular strategy. Moreover, the paper will be concerned with doctrinalinconsistencies found in the commentaries and while thus trying to provide new
insights into the question of the *Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya’s authorship, its
overall aim is to shed new light on the concepts of authorship, creativity andintertextuality in the context of Buddhist commentarial literature.

Some Questions on the Compilation of Tantras in Tibet and India.
Mayer, Robert (Oxford University, Canterbury, GBR)
This exploratory paper is based on our analysis of patterns of literarycompilation discernible in Bon and rNying ma tantras. Some questions areraised about the possible impact of cultural values on their modes ofcompilation. Did the Tibetan cultural emphasis on lineage and lineage purity
exert any noticeable influence within these Bon and rNying ma texts? Do theydiffer noticeably in this respect from Indian Tantric compilations of the same
period?

Response to the Views on the Originality and the Role of Intertextuality
in the Context of Buddhist Texts
Wallace, Vesna (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)349

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This presentation will be a response to the papers presented on the panel
section titled “Originality and the Role of Intertextuality in the Context of
Buddhist Texts.” It will include the analysis of the given presentations in lightof the theories of literary criticism, and it will examine the ways in which thestudies of the originality and intertextuality of Buddhist texts contribute to thefield of literary studies.

The Incorporation and Development of Tanluan's Thought on the Nianfo
in Daochuo's Anleji
Conway, Michael (The Eastern Buddhist Society, Kyoto, JPN)
Daochuo 道綽 (562-645) is said to have become a devotee of Pure Land
Buddhism after encountering a passage related to Tanluan 曇鸞 (476-542?).
Although the content of that passage is unclear, since Daochuo’s Anleji 安樂集(T no. 1958) contains twenty-seven passages based on Tanluan’s works, it isvery clear that Tanluan’s thought had a strong impact on the ideas that
Daochuo presents there. That said, Daochuo rarely attributes his quotations
from Tanluan’s Jingtulunzhu 浄土論註 (T no. 1819) and Lüelunanlejingtuyi 略論安樂淨土義 (T no. 1957) to Tanluan himself, instead offering Nāgārjuna (c.
third century) or Vasubandhu (c. 400-480) as a source, or treating the passages
as Daochuo’s own words. In addition, he creatively rewrites a great many ofthese passages, in some cases clarifying the significance of the original passage
and in others adding a new meaning not found in Tanluan’s original. Further,
Daochuo takes these passages out of the context in which they were written andrestructures them in order to serve his purposes in the Anleji.
By exploring Daochuo’s unique application and re-expression of Tanluan’s
words, this paper will show how Daochuo reshaped Tanluan’s arguments toanswer to the concerns of the Buddhist world in the early Tang dynasty andfurther developed Tanluan’s stance on the nature of the nianfo 念佛,
highlighting the central importance of Amitābha’s name and the mind of faith inPure Land soteriology.
Although Daochuo either quotes or paraphrases Tanluan’s works in seven of
the twelve chapters of the Anleji, this paper will focus on the third section of its
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second chapter, where Daochuo takes eleven questions and answers fromvarious parts of the Jingtulunzhu and the Lüelunanlejingtuyi and presents themwith significant revisions as a single dialogue discussing the soteriologicalefficacy of the nianfo. In the passage directly preceding this section, Daochuo
addresses the issue of the application of the category of the Buddha’s preachingas “words intended to express a different time” (bieshiyi 別時意), which is
discussed in the Shedachenglun 攝大乘論 (T no. 1592) and the
Shedachenglunshi 攝大乘論釋 (T no. 1595), to the nianfo as preached in the
Guanwuliangshoujing 觀無量壽經 (T no. 1749). Proponents of this position
criticized Pure Land devotion, arguing that the nianfo does not lead directly tobirth in Amitābha’s Pure Land and the incumbent high level of attainment on
the Buddhist path (the stage of non-retrogression, butuizhuan 不退転), but only
serves as an initial cause for a birth at some point in the very distant future. I
will show that Daochuo employs Tanluan’s various questions and answers inorder to dispel this doubt about the ability of the nianfo to effect genuine
progress on the Buddhist path and to show that it is effective for the person withthe mind of faith because Amitābha’s name is endowed with the transcendental
wisdom and virtues that he perfected in his extensive practice.

Difficulty of Translating Chinese Buddhist Texts in Japan
Ishida, Kazuhiro (Jodo Shu Research Institute, Tokyo, JPN)
How do we treat Chinese Buddhist texts in Japan? These are not only texts
written in Chinese, but they also have a traditional understanding affected by
Japanese culture. In other words, Japanese Buddhists have interpreted many
Chinese Buddhist texts since those had been brought over to Japan. Moreover,the cultural background of texts was often not considered in those Japaneseinterpretations. The history of Japanese Buddhism is made by interpreting the
Chinese Buddhist texts. On the other hand, the Chinese Buddhist texts reflect its
culture. In addition, those texts as translation inform scholars of Indian
Buddhist philosophy.
When we try to translate a classical Chinese Buddhist text into a modern
language, we should treat it carefully. If we translate a Chinese Buddhist text tounderstand the Buddhist philosophy in China or India, we should consider

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original Sanskrit texts reflecting pan-Indian culture and history. However,when we try to translate the Three Pure Land Sutras in order to introduce
Japanese Buddhism to the world, contextualization of Indian and Chinese
Buddhism into Japan has to be considered.
The Jodo Shu Research Institute has translated the Three Pure Land Sutras into
English. In this work many problems occurred. The cause of these problems is
the Chinese translations of the Three Pure Land Sutras which were madebetween India and Japan. That means that we can understand a passage inthese sutras based on either the Indian context or the Japanese one. Bothunderstandings, however, are not the same. Generally speaking, theunderstanding of the Chinese Buddhist texts based on the Japanese tradition is
criticized because it is different from the understanding based on the original
Sanskrit text or the Indian context.
The Jodo Shu Research Institute has translated the Three Pure Land Sutras into
English based on the Japanese tradition since 2003. We referred to original
Sanskrit texts for precise translation. However when determining meanings of apassage or word, we relied on traditional Japanese interpretations, because theChinese translations of the Three Pure Land Sutras in Japan cannot be
separated from those interpretations. In a sense, there is the essence of
Buddhism in this point. If we try to comprehend Buddhist philosophy, we shouldcarefully consider the history of Buddhism and the place where Buddhism
spread. We must not neglect the Japanese Buddhist tradition in order to grasp
the whole picture of Buddhism from India, China to Japan.
In this presentation, I will demonstrate the problems and methods oftranslations by showing concrete examples. I believe that my presentation will
be helpful to scholars to understand Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhist
philosophy.

The Power of Giving: Sanjie and Sōtō Teachings on Dāna and the Ethical
Efficacy of Ritual
Kalmanson, Leah (Drake University, Des Moines, USA)352

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This presentation draws on recent research in the Tang-dynasty Sanjie or“Three Stages” Buddhist sect, whose doctrinal developments prefigure many
key issues in Chan, including debates over sudden enlightenment and tensions
between spontaneity and ritualism. Sanjie’s innovative perspective on the powerof charitable giving helps contextualize similar ethical imperatives within Chanand especially Sōtō Zen. Sanjie’s founder Xinxing (540–594) teaches thatkarmic debts are insurmountable and cannot be repaid one by one. Yet, we canimmediately discharge our own karmic burden and that of our families bymaking a single charitable donation to the Inexhaustible Storehouse. Thislending institution—an odd experiment in the power of giving—enjoyed aperiod of widespread success before eventually being branded as heretical.
While in operation, the Storehouse accepted charity from the surrounding
populations, and the act of donating was thought to generate karmic merit for
the giver, a system already relied upon by Buddhist monasteries to raise money
for themselves. However, unique to Xinxing’s Storehouse, anyone could borrowmoney and goods as needed, and repayment was optional and interest-free.
Through my gift to the Storehouse, Xinxing taught that I would immediately beconnected through chains of interdependence to Xinxing himself—hisbodhisattva-like compassion would become my own. In this way, Xinxing
interprets Buddhist teachings on interdependence in distinctly institutionalterms: my participation in an institution of generosity not only amplifies mysmall contribution, but it directly links me to Xinxing himself, elevating me tothe status of a bodhisattva and thus dispelling my otherwise insurmountablekarmic debt. Complementing this emphasis on institutional structure, Xinxing
expresses a preference for formal acts of giving over sporadic outbursts, nomatter how sincere an act of spontaneous giving might be. He encourages
practitioners to put their energy not toward giving sincerely but toward givingin what we might call “good form,” where form refers to the structure andformality of a sustained practice. This emphasis on good form is evident when
one of his followers asks him why donors to the storehouse do not appear
immediately enlightened. In other words, if a single donation to the Storehousemakes me a bodhisattva, then why is my new status not readily apparent?
Xinxing replies: “It is like putting a snake into a bamboo tube—the tube isstraight and so the snake also becomes straight.” Xinxing’s focus on correct
form prefigures the later Sōtō Zen emphasis on correct sitting posture: the point
is to put yourself in the right position, go through the right motions, and trust in
the process. At no time should you worry about whether you are “really”
becoming enlightened. So, too, Xinxing says, we should not worry about
whether the snake is “really” straight, or whether through my donation I am
“really” a bodhisattva. This snake simile, and its focus on the efficacy of good353

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form, helps us assess the ethical import of Chan and especially later Sōtō Zen
ritual practices. One common objection to ritualistic behavior is thatpractitioners are just “going through the motions.” This criticism only stings if
we are already in the grip of a substance ontology that allots more so-called
reality to the self than to the self’s actions. Going through motions is less of aproblem when motions are seen as constitutive of entities. Reading Dōgen’s
writings on practice-enlightenment alongside his writings on dāna reveal a
position not dissimilar to the now defunct Sanjie sect: the power of giving is
deeply tied to the efficacy of good form. I consider the relevance of this ethicalview on charitableness in contemporary terms.

A Comparative Study on the Eighteenth Chapter of the
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya and the Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya with
Special Focus on their Canonical Citations
Kishi, Sayaka (University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba-Shi Ibaraki, JPN)
The Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (MSABh) attributed to Vasubandhu (5th c.)
is an extensive commentary on the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (MSA). The
Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya (SAVBh) attributed to Sthiramati (6th c.) is one of the
sub-commentaries on the MSA. The SAVBh provides valuable information anda great help for our correct understanding of the MSABh. In his commentary,
however, Sthiramati resorts to different canonical sources from those which the
MSABh has relied on. This seems to be a result of his intention to accentuate a
distinct character of the MSA/MSABh as a Mahāyāna treatise. In this study, I
will examine what kind of canonical sources the MSABh and the SAVBh used intheir explanations of thirty-seven practices for attaining enlightenment(saptatriṃśadbodhipakṣadharma), which is one of the main topics in the MSA
XVIII, and clarify the difference in their purport of canonical citations. It is
well-known that the MSABh shares many teachings and practices with the
Yogācārabhūmi (YBh). The MSABh’s chapter structure corresponds to that of
the Maulībhūmi of the YBh. As for the topics and contents of each chapter too,
there are a lot of similarities between them. The thirty-seven practices for
attaining enlightenment find their correspondence in the Vastusaṃgrahaṇī ofthe YBh. For example, the YBh cites a simile of seven treasures having a wheelturning king from an āgama, which is identified as the Saṃyutta-āgama in the
explanation of the practice of the seven aids for enlightenment
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(saptabodhyaṅga) that is one of the thirty-seven practices. Vasubandhu cites thesame simile in his MSABh XVIII without indicating that it is from the Saṃyuttaāgama. It is highly probable that the MSABh followed the YBh. Thereby,
Vasubandhu seems to have intended to demonstrate that his composition, i.e.,the MSABh, is one of the treatises belonging to the Yogācāra tradition andtherefore to the Mahāyāna stream as well.
After hundred years, however, Sthiramati explains the seven aids forenlightenment based on different scriptural sources. He quotes several
Mahāyāna sūtras. Among them, his main source is the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra(ANSū), one of the most influential Mahāyāna sūtras. In my view, Sthiramati
used those Mahāyāna sūtras for the purpose of emphasizing the superiority of
Mahāyāna-Bodhisattvas over Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas. Compared with
the MSABh, Sthiramati thus demonstrates their Mahāyāna position by quoting
Mahāyāna sūtras as scriptural authority. In this paper, I will discuss
Sthiramati’s elucidation of the thirty-seven practices in detail and indicate acertain theoretical development from Vasubandhu to Sthiramati.

Killing the Buddha: Chan Buddhism and Antinomian Ethics
Nelson, Eric (Lowell, USA)
Critical Buddhism and recent scholarship have aimed at deconstructing theaura of Zen Buddhism by delegitimating its development from Tang Dynasty
Chan Buddhism. It has been argued that (1) the images of “wild” Chan masters
such as Mazu and Linji have been retrospectively refashioned and stylisticallyradicalized and (2) the rhetoric of radical spontaneity, non-duality, immediacy,
and emptiness associated with the Hongzhou-Linji style of Chan has destructive
antinomian and nihilistic consequences. However, the second claim is not a newone but has sources in Tang dynasty Chan Buddhism itself. One of Mazu’s early
critics, Zongmi, was concerned with whether the priority of ordinary mind
undermined the disciplined cultivation of the Buddhist path and whether his
anti-conventionalism entailed the destruction of morality and the ethical life of
the community.
In this paper, I examine how and to what extent Chan challenges toconventional morality not only have sources within Buddhism but can be355

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ethically inspired and considered a deeply ethical project. Whereas thestandard literature frequently opposes antinomianism to morality, as a systemof fixed rules and conventions, I explore whether emptiness (kong) can beunderstood as a practice of emptying that opens up the capacity to encounterand respond to things. The practice of emptiness is enacted through a richvariety of Chan linguistic and behavioral strategies and provocations. These
challenge conventional morality, absorbed in calculation and exchange from ananthropocentric perspective, not for the sake of indifference or immorality but
in order to encounter and liberate things and others in their interdependence
and uniqueness; through the destructuring of ordinary ethical life and theBuddhist path as conventional, the antinomian aporetic ethics of “killing theBuddha” in Hongzhou and Linji Chan points followers of the way toward theordinary mind and its capacities to encounter and respond in the midst of theworld.

laukikaṃ paramārtham: Textual Problems in the Commentary on Chapter
24, Verse 10 in the PrasannapadāNiisaku, Yoshiaki (University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN)
It goes without saying that the theory of the two truthsof paramārtha and saṃvṛti is one of the most important concepts in
Madhyamaka Philosophy and that this theory is explained in chapter 24, verses
8-10, of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK). In 24.10ab, Nāgārjuna
uses the term ‘‘verbal expression (vyavahāra)’’ with nearly the same meaningas “verbal convention (saṃvrti)’’ and explains the relationship of the two truths
as follows: “without relying on verbal expression (vyavahāra), the ultimate
object (paramārtha) is not taught.” (MMK 24.10ab)
Candrakīrti’s commentary on this part can be found in Louis de la Vallée
Poussin’s (LVP) text of the Prasannapadā (PSP), which is one of the best
known commentaries on the MMK, as follows: “without admitting worldly
verbal expression (laukikaṃ vyavahāram), the characteristic of which is nameand what is named and cognition and what is cognized and so on, the ultimate
object cannot be taught.” (laukikaṃ vyavahāramanabhyupagamyābhidhānābhidheyajñānajñeyādilakṣaṇam aśakyate eva
paramārtho deśayituṃ) [LVP ed. 494.8-9]
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Although the text of the PSP was edited by LVP in 1903-1913, many scholars
still use his text even today. However, there are some textual problems in LVP’s
text and some scholars have begun revising it by referring to newly-discovered
manuscripts. Anne MacDonald, who revised the first chapter of the PSP,
regarded six “better’’ manuscripts as important among about twenty available
manuscripts.
In this presentation, I will discuss textual problems regarding the term“[laukikaṃ] vyavahāram’’ in the preceding quotation from the PSP. Although I
checked the six “better’’ manuscripts and several other manuscripts directly or
indirectly as well as five versions of Tibetan translations, I found no evidence tosupport the reading of “[laukikaṃ] vyavahāram’’ as is seen in LVP’s text.
The term “[laukikaṃ] paramārtham’’ is found in almost all Sanskrit
manuscripts —except for the Oxford manuscript—, and the term “’jig rten pa’i
don dam pa (*laukikaṃ paramārtham)’’ is also found in five versions of Tibetantranslations instead of “[laukikaṃ] vyavahāram’’, which we would haveexpected to find.
De Jong, who made many corrections to LVP’s text based on the Roman
manuscript and comparing it to the Tibetan translations, adopted the reading of“[laukikaṃ] vyavahāram’’ in spite of having found the term“[laukikaṃ] paramārtham’’ in the Roman manuscript in his paper, and manyscholars also adopt the reading of LVP’s text because it seems to fit the context.
However, since the term “[laukikaṃ] paramārtham’’ is found in almost all
Sanskrit manuscripts and five Tibetan translations, we need to examine its
possible reading.
Although a few studies have already dealt with this problem and pointed outthat the term “laukikaṃ paramārtham’’ was found in
Candrakīrti’s Yuktiṣaṣṭikāvṛtti and Catuḥśatakaṭīkā, there are still a few issues
in the interpretation of this expression that need to be looked at again.
Accordingly, I will re-examine these examples and reconsider them in thecontext of the PSP.

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The Theory of the Conventional Truth Presented in the Prajñāpradīpa
and its ṬīkāNishiyama, Ryo (Ryukoku University Research Center for Buddhist Culturesin Asia, Koka, Shiga, JPN)
The theory of the two truths is a heuristic device that has been continually usedby Mahāyāna Buddhists since Nāgārjuna. Bhāviveka, the sixth century
Mādhyamika philosopher, is known to have introduced the Yogācāra theory of
the multi-leveled two truths into the Mādhyamika interpretation of the twotruths. In this presentation I would like to focus upon his unique theory of theconventional truth. In the 24th chapter of the Prajñāpradīpa Bhāviveka
distinguishes two kinds of worldly convention: (1) the statements of
Abhidharmic dharmas, such as “Color-form arises, stays and perishes”, and(2) those of persons (pudgala), such as “Devadatta goes”. In the first chapter of
the Prajñāpradīpa-ṭīkā Avalokitavrata considers the statements of “nonsubstantiality” (niḥsvabhāvatā) or “non-arising” (anutpāda) of dharmas also
to be the conventional truth. Thus, it is most likely that Bhāviveka and his
followers distinguished three levels of the conventional truth. I would like todiscuss their theory together with its historical background.

Lineage: Transmission through Master or Text?
Tam, Wei Keong (Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong,
HKG)
The idea of religious lineage is one of the elements in Chinese Buddhist
monastic tradition that poses significant dynamics in which changes would
dramatically impact the contours of the school itself. It not only shapes eachschool’s tradition and principles, but also presents a strategy upon whichauthority and legitimacy are established.[1]During the tenth and eleventh centuries, the issues of lineage and dharmatransmission were highly debated among each school, particularly evident in
the clash between Tiantai and Chan. Each emphasized their own retrospective
lineage transmission that traced its roots back through an Indian lineage. In

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contrast, Yuanzhao, 元照 (1050–1115), in his writings on the Vinaya School’s
lineage, formulated the structure and criteria of his lineage tradition. His
approach on this issue was slightly different from the Tiantai and Chan Schools.
He claimed that the Vinaya School of the Nanshan tradition received authentictransmission through Dharmasena (Fashi 法時), who, in 220 AD, was the firstmaster that initiated the proper Bhikkhu ordination ceremony in China at
Luoyang. The Nanshan lineage could therefore assert its own authority starting
within China and, at the same time, did not need to answer the inquiry of thedharma transmission from India.
The development of the Nanshan Vinaya lineage, although still far from being
fully understood, has not been researched and interpreted by many scholars.
For our purposes, we will consider its history with attention directed towards
the inquiry of what constitutes the most pertinent aspects of understanding the
Vinaya School’s notions of lineage.
This paper reviews the notion of lineage constructed by Yuanzhao during theSong Dynasty and is based on the “The Chart of Patriarchs’ Transmission ofNanshan Vinaya Lineage” [2]. Thus the Nanshan Vinaya lineage and its
historical development form our main narrative.
The reconstruction of the Vinaya School of Nanshan lineage, in other words, is
not only about gaining legitimacy in the eyes of others. For much of theNanshan tradition’s history, lineage has also been fundamental in maintaining
the internal coherence of Vinaya’s monastic rules that were inherited from theforeign Indian culture and adapted within the local Chinese tradition. This
study offers insight into the Nanshan tradition—and related issues, including
conceptions of the Nanshan tradition and intellectual authority, its relationshipwith the state, primarily focusing on the contribution of Yuanzhao.
Again, Yuanzhao never postulated an unbroken Nanshan Vinaya line oftransmission dating back to ancient India. Indeed, he focused on the significant
contributions of patriarchs in regards to their reliability and ability of writing
the Vinaya exegesis and annotation, thereby promoting and promulgating the
Vinaya practice in China. Yuanzhao’s approach was totally different from his
counterparts affiliated to the Chan School masters, asserted a stronger reliance
upon the master-disciple relationship in understanding their mode of lineagetransmission.

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Furthermore, this work is valuable as it offers a contemporary account of othertraditions of Vinaya School during the Song dynasty, thereby providing aclearer picture of the Vinaya development in China during the tenth andeleventh centuries.

[1] Morrison, E. The Power of Patriarch, p. 13[2] 南山律宗祖承圖錄 CBETA, X59, no. 1104, p. 646.

Is Madhyamaka a Form of Nihilism?
Westerhoff, Jan (Oxford University, Oxford, GBR)
Madhyamaka philosophy has been frequently characterized as nihilism, not justby its Buddhist and non-Buddhist opponents, but also by some contemporary
Buddhologists. This characterization might well strike us as surprising.
First, nihilism appears to be straightforwardly inconsistent (“if there is nothing,
there is still the fact that there is nothing, so there is something”). It would becurious if a philosophical school holding such an obviously deficient view
would have acquired the kind of importance Madhyamaka has acquired in the
Asian intellectual landscape over the last two millenia.
Second, Madhyamaka by its very name proclaims to tread the “middle way”,
and what if anything would count as an extreme position but the view that there
is nothing?
This paper will address both the systematic status of nihilist theories as well as
the historical contexts in which Madhyamaka has been characterized as
nihilistic, aiming to throw some light on plausible and implausible ways ofunderstanding the Madhyamaka intellectual enterprise.

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The Progenitor of all Dharma Protectors: Buddhist Śaivism in EighteenthCentury Tibet
Bailey, Cameron (University of Oxford, Oxford, GBR)
Traditionally, the deity Śiva, usually called Mahādeva (Tib. Lha chen),Maheśvara (Tib. Dbang phyug chen po), or Rudra, has been depicted in Tibetan
Vajrayāna Buddhist myth and iconography as the ultimate enemy of the
Buddhist teachings, the tantric Mara, and an anti-Buddha, in some ways easily
comparable to the figure of Satan in the Christian tradition. The story of his
subjugation is the central myth of Tibetan Mahāyoga/Anuttarayoga tantra.
Rudra is especially important in Rnying ma canonical scriptures as the catalyst
for the introduction of tantric teachings into the world, and his redemption in
Rnying ma narratives has been seen as a mythological expression of the radical
non-dualism and antinomianism of Rnying ma rdzog chen philosophy. Rudra’s
iconography also provided the template for all the major Rnying ma wrathful
meditational deities, and all Buddhist wrathful deities arguably owe their
iconography to Śaivism, to say nothing of Buddhist tantric ritual practices. But
despite his importance in Tibetan Buddhism, the figure of Rudra/Maheśvara
remained practically significant largely as a Buddhist foil and was not himself
popularly worshipped. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Withincertain Tibetan contexts Maheśvara was rehabilitated and made into an
important cultic figure in his own right. This paper is an examination of two
such contexts. The first is the Thugs rje chen po gshegs kun ’dus
(Avalokiteśvara, Embodiment of all the Sugatas) treasure cycle revealed by thefounder of the important Rnying ma monastery of Smin grol gling, Gter bdag
gling pa (1646-1714). The second is Sle lung bzhad pa’i rdo rje’s (1697-1740)
Dam can bstan srung gi rnam thar (Biographies of the Oath-Bound Protectors).
In the Thugs rje chen po gshegs kun ’dus, Maheśvara is depicted as
Avalokiteśvara’s primary manifestation, and the main protector of the treasure
cycle. Sle lung, who was a lineage holder of the Thugs rje chen po gshegs kun’dus teachings, in his famous collection of protector deity origin myths, goeseven further, describing Maheśvara as a primordially fully enlightened being,
and the literal godfather of all dharma protectors. The paper will examine someof the ritual texts dedicated to Maheśvara in Gter bdag gling pa’s treasure
cycle and Sle lung’s rhetoric regarding this deity in the opening chapter of the
Biographies of the Oath-Bound Protectors. I will also argue that Gter bdag
gling pa’s positive emphasis on Maheśvara relates to his interest in the Dgongs
pa ’dus pa’i mdo (Compendium of Intentions Sūtra), which contains the longest

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and most detailed version of the Rudra subjugation myth, and the cultivation ofa ris med (“nondiscriminatory”) worldview at Smin grol gling.

The Conflicting Positions of Tsongkhapa and Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang
po over the Interpretations of the Body Maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara
Bentor, Yael (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ISR)
In the early 15th century, some famous debates took place between two parties:
Ngor chen Kun dga’ bzang po (1382-1456) and prominent members of the Saskya school on the one hand and Tsong kha pa (1357-1419) together with
influential lamas who would eventually form the Dge lugs school on the other.
Specifically it is well known that Ngor chen and one of Tsong kha pa's main
disciples, Mkhas grub rje Dge legs dpal bzang (1385-1438), had intense
debates over the explanation of the body maṇḍala. The following attack foundin Mkhas grub rje's Bskyed rim dngos grub rgya mtsho, p. 250.2-4, is most
likely aimed at Ngor chen:
Therefore, if those deprived of the transmitted instruction of the lamas, whohave not studied much the Tantras and the works of the Great Charioteers, andare devoid of the capacity to analyze the scriptures with pure reasoning, would
for a while take a rest from their investigation of the two stages of the path of
Vajradhara, this would be of a great benefit for themselves, for their followers
who exert themselves in competing to see who is bolder in explaining theirteachings, for those who are satisfied by looking merely at the mouth of thesefollowers, and also for the teachings of the Victorious One.
Already in 1985, Leonard van der Kuijp pointed out that Ngor chen wrote twocompositions on the body maṇḍala of Hevajra, the Smra ba ngan ’joms and the
Lta ba ngan sel, in reply to this same criticism of Mkhas grub rje. Mkhas grub
rje responded in his Gnam lcags ’khor lo, known also as Ngor lan. I will touchupon these heated exchanges at the end of my paper; however my center ofattention will be the probably earlier specific points of disagreement between
Tsong kha pa and Ngor chen regarding the body maṇḍala of Cakrasaṃvara.

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Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Ritual Practice in Early Tibet
Dalton, Jacob (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, USA)
In considering the early Tibetan encounter with tantric ritual, two aspects mightcome to mind foremost: (1) the Buddhist-Bon competition over the imperial
funerary rites, and (2) the emergence of an imperial Vairocana cult within the
Pugyal court. Crucial to both of these aspects was the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana(henceforth SDPS), a Buddhist tantra that thus appears to have been central to
the Buddhist ritual interests of the Tibetan empire. Yet what do we really know
about how early Tibetans approached these pivotal rites? In an attempt toaddress this question, the paper proposed here will examine the available
evidence from Dunhuang.
It will begin with an overview of the available materials. In fact, we haveseveral useful manuscripts containing SDPS-based ritual instructions anddiagrams. The ritual manuals reflect a variety of attempts to organize the same
fundamental ritual building blocks. That is to say, the same basic prayers andritual sequences are repeated across the manuscripts, but they are arranged indifferent orders according to the individual interests of each Tibetan author. In
short, close examination of these manuals reveals a ritual system that appears
to have enjoyed considerable popularity among early Tibetans, a set of rites
that were rewritten over and again. In addition to these manuals are several
complex diagrams of the SDPS mandala, each heavily inscribed with writing ineither Tibetan or Chinese. Here again, we get the sense of a popular ritual
system.
But perhaps even more significant for our understanding of SDPS practice inearly Tibet is the important role that was played by the ritual patron (yon bdag)in most, if not all, of the rituals described. Whereas the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha (the other major Yoga-tantra represented in the Dunhuangmanuscripts) inspired sādhanas for individuals to accomplish their own siddhis,
the SDPS was more about performing tantric rites in the service of powerfulpatrons.
Having reviewed these SDPS materials, the paper will end by turning to one
unstudied manuscript in particular. IOL Tib J 439 & IOL Tib J 712 originallycomprised a single manuscript that contains a ritual manual for the SDPS
initiation rite. A study of this manuscript reveals how Tibetans initiated the363

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dead into the SDPS mandala as a tantric funerary practice. In this fascinating
manuscript, then, we may be catching a glimpse of the kind of rite that earlytantric Buddhists offered the Pugyal imperial court as an alternative to theirnative Bon funeral practices.

The Contribution to Tibetan and Buddhist Studies by the
Swedish/Austrian Scholar Dr. Toni Schmid
Hammar, Urban (Department of History of Religions at Stockholm University,
Uppsala, SWE)
This paper treats the Swedish/Austrian scholar Dr. Toni Schmid (1897-1972)
and her work concerning Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the later part of her
life.
Antonia (Toni) Elisabeth Magdalena Schmid was born in Fischamend Dorf
near Wien in September 1897 in a family of a wealthy mill-owner. She was sent
to a Catholic monastery school in Wien. Then she went on to the University forstudies in History and presented a doctoral dissertation on Swedish 17th
century history en 1922. She came to Sweden after the First World War when
Sweden received German and Austrian children and students in order to relieve
their difficult living conditions. At Lund University she continued her studies
and presented another doctoral dissertation on a mediaeval Swedish saint. Afterthat she was employed at the Swedish National Archives for the rest of her
working life.
According to some information she studied Sanskrit already in Wien andanyway it was sure that she studied both Sanskrit and Tibetan with prof. Helmer
Smith at Uppsala University in the 1940s. One of his students and a friend ofToni Schmid was the late prof. Nils Simonsson who wrote his doctoral thesis on
the methods of translation used in the translation of the Buddhist canon into
Tibetan in the 8th century.
In this environment Toni Schmid also came into contact with the iconographicalmaterial brought to the Ethnographical Museum in Stockholm by the Sven
Hedin expedition to China and Mongolia 1927-35. Her first article waspublished in Ethnos 1950 on the series of painted scrolls on Milarepa that she
two years later treated in detail in the book ”The Cotton-clad Mila. The Tibetan
Poet-Saints' Life in Pictures”. This book treated the same series of thangkas in
the museum collection and Toni Schmid translated the text on the paintings. The
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book was reviewed by Tucci, de Jong and Heissig mostly in positive terms. Her
next book was published in 1958 entitled ”The Eighty-five Siddhas” and treatedanother series of thangkas from the museum. The pictures were analysed in thesame way as in the fore-going publication. It was also reviewed by Tucci, Steinand de Jong in a positive way. The last of her books was published in 1961
entitled ”Saviours of Mankind. The Dalai Lamas and former Incarnations of
Avalokiteshvara” and treated another series of paintings. During these years
she also published a number of articles in various journals on subjects treating
Tibet and Buddhism in general.
In 1955 she began traveling to Asia by visiting Nepal and Sikkim and she wrote
an interesting book in Swedish on the land and culture of especially the
Tibetans living in these countries. She then made several journeys to almost allof the Buddhist countries, but she was perhaps mostly interested in Nepal andSikkim where she also studied the Tibetan language. She also bought material
and books to the Ethnographical Museum and participated in Orientalist
conferences.
To conclude Toni Schmid was an advanced scholar on especially Tibetan
Buddhist iconography and a pioneer in Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in
Sweden. She deserves to be remembered and appreciated for this work which
was produced at the same time as she was working as an excellent researcher
in Swedish mediaeval history. mmm

A Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Manuscript at the Cambridge University Library
Hidas, Gergely (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HUN)
There are more than a hundred Sanskrit manuscripts surviving titledDhāraṇīsaṃgraha that contain collections of dhāraṇī-spells. Some list up to ca.
four hundred dhāraṇīs and thus provide a glimpse into arrays of incantations
apparently in use up to modern times. This paper examines a voluminous
Nepalese codex (Add. 1326) from NS 839/1719 CE and describes its contents
along with comparisons with other such works and observations on the possible
contexts of this textual tradition.

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Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa and its Different Versions
Pauls, Dimitri (University of Hamburg, Hamburg, GER)In the present paper I will focus on the work Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa(Bodhicittabhāvanā) which is, according to the rNying-ma tradition, one of thefirst five rDzogs-chen texts ever introduced to Tibet, which are believed to havebeen translated by the great Translator Vairocana in the 8th century.
The work has been transmitted in at least four different collections—namely,
the Bai ro rgyud 'bum, bsTan 'gyur, rNying ma rgyud 'bum, and gDams ngag
mdzod — where it has been classified in different ways according to theirrespective organizational schemes. While in the bsTan 'gyur and the gDams
ngag mdzod it is regarded as a treatise composed by the Indian master
Mañjuśrīmitra ('Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen), in the Bai ro rgyud 'bum and rNying
ma rgyud 'bum it is classified as a tantra. Moreover, while it is considered by
the rNying-ma tradition a rDzogs-chen work, in the bsTan 'gyur it is foundwithin the Yogatantra section. The text is cited in its entirety in the Byang chubkyi sems bsgom pa don bcu gnyis bstan pa(Bodhicittabhāvanādvādaśārthanirdeśa), presumably an autocommentary by
Mañjuśrīmitra. Furthermore, we also find a tantra titled Byang chub sems
bsgom pa’i rgyud in the rNying ma rgyud 'bum, which is approximately of the
double length of the standard work, and in which most of the verses of theshorter version are included.
It seems very likely indeed, that the Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa wastranslated from Sanskrit and was composed as a treatise by the Indian Master
Mañjuśrīmitra, since a work with the same title and with the authorship ofMañjuśrīmitra is listed in both the lDan dkar ma and ’Phang thang ma
catalogues. However, a question about the length of the text arises: the entries
in the catalogues speak about 68 verses (shlo ka drug cu rtsa brgyad), whereas
the commentary refers to the work as consisting of 40 verses (tshigs bcad bzhi
bcu pa)—which indeed corresponds to the actual length of the standard versionof the text. The longer Byang chub sems bsgom pa’i rgyud is, at first glance, anenlarged version of the original text, where supplementary verses andintroductory and concluding chapters have been added in order to emphasize
the authoritativeness of the text and to raise its status to that of a tantra.
Interestingly, on a few occasions where the readings of the shorter version—and also its citation in the commentary—deviates from the longer version, the366

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commentary seems to reflect the meaning found in the longer version muchbetter than that found in the shorter one.
In my paper, I would like to present this case of the Byang chub kyi sems bsgom
pa as a case study of formation and authentication of scriptures.

Dorjé Lingpa on the Chöd Tradition of Machik Labdrön
Sorensen, Michelle (Columbia University, Memphis, USA)
Following discussions with Khamtrul Rinpoche in Dharamshala and with the
Nyingmapa Lama, Orgyen Tenzin, in Sarnath, I became interested in thequestion of why Dudjom Lingpa's (Bdud 'joms gling pa, 1835-1904) Thröma
Nagmo (khros ma nag mo) practice has become one of the predominant
practices of Chöd (Gcod) and what the prevalence of this practice reveals about
the place of Chöd in the Nyingma (Rnying ma) tradition. As an early stage inthis research project, my paper will examine Dorjé Lingpa's (Rdo rje gling pa,
1346-1405) interpretation of Machik Labdrön's (Ma gcig lab sgron, c. 10551153) major text, The Great Speech Chapter (Bka' tshoms chen mo), included
in his collection of writing on Chöd.i This volume includes the earliest Nyingma
commentary on this foundational Chöd text, a study of which will shed light on
both the role of Chöd in the Nyingma tradition and the role of the Nyingma
tradition in the transmission of Chöd.
My study of Dorjé Lingpa’s commentary follows on my dissertation work
investigating the transmission of Chöd in the Karma Kagyü (Karma bka’brgyud) school through a commentary on The Great Speech Chapter by theThird Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (Rang byung rdo rje, 1284-1339), a nearcontemporary to Dorjé Lingpa. In my study, I found that the innovation ofRangjung Dorjé’s interpretation becomes obvious when contrasted with thecommentary composed by Dorjé Lingpa. For example, Dorjé Lingpa follows
The Great Speech Chapter closely in pointing out the confusions of thefundamental standpoints of the various traditions, including both Mahāmudrāand Dzogchen (Rdzogs chen). Unlike Rangjung Dorjé, Dorjé Lingpa does notfind external textual authority to establish the superiority of any particular tenet
system—not even the Dzogchen perspective, as one might expect given his own
affiliation with the Nyingma. While Rangjung Dorjé was influential in367

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developing what came to be known as Mahamudra Chöd, Dorjé Lingpa
successfully retained and transmitted aspects of important early Chöd teachings
that were ignored or altered by Rangjung Dorjé. My study of Dorjé Lingpa’s
early Nyingma commentary on this Chöd teaching will allow me to begin to
trace the transmission and development of Chöd in the Nyingma tradition,
particularly in charting how he adopted and adapted Machik’s teaching. In
turn, this will help me to contextualize later texts such as Dudjom Lingpa's
Thröma Nagmo practice and Jigmé Lingpa’s transmission of The Laughter ofthe Dakinis (Gcod yul mkha’ ‘gro’i gad rgang), important practices for many
Nyingma (and non-Nyingma) Chöd practitioners to the present day.
i

Bka’ tshoms chen mo’i ti ka lta sgom gyi khogs byung khyung chen nam
mkha’i ldings ltar / bshad pa bzhugs soha / badzra bho tra’o. In Gcod skor gterchen rdo rje rdzing pa’i (sic. gling pa) gter chos. Thimphu, Bhutan: Druk
Sherig Press, 1984, 365-447.

The Vinaya's Ban on the Ordination of Paṇḍakas and the Case of
Laura/Michael Dillon
Cabezon, Jose (University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA)tba

Monastic Hat-wearing, Textualization of Heteropraxy, and Sources of
Authority in a Seventeenth-Century Burmese Document
Kirichenko, Alexey (Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State
University)
The paper is a discussion of a manuscript text allegedly compiled by Taungbila
Hsayadaw Tipiṭakālaṅkāra (1578-1651), a famous Burmese monk and monastic
jurist best known to the field of Buddhist studies as the author of
Vinayālaṅkāra-ṭīkā (a commentary on Vinayasaṅgaha aṭṭhakathā), in response
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to royal query about the origins and correctness of the then-contemporarymonastic practice of wearing hats. Though the practice of monastic hatwearing is well attested in early modern Southeast Asia and survives in certain
areas until now, it is not supported by canonical Pāli texts and thus was
criticized by some monks in Burma at least since the late seventeenth century.
Historical origins of this practice are obscure and very few known documents
shed light on it. The manuscript in question provides interesting perspective on
how an argument for the legitimacy of hat-wearing was constructed and whatmeans were employed to recast heteropraxy in more “normative” orscripturally grounded terms.
Another value of exploration of the document lies in its seeming subversivenessfor the image of Tipiṭakālaṅkāra as practitioner locating scriptural, practical,
and legal authority in canonical Vinaya, which is attested by his arguments in
Vinayālaṅkāra-ṭīkā and argued in his biographies (composed between theeighteenth and twentieth centuries). This aspect highlights the fluidity ofmonastic biography that allowed making multiple claims via a single person
and the vibrancy of debate on orthopraxy in Burma. The paper thus will explore
how claims to real and apocryphal textual authorities and monastic referenceswere used as arguments for competing forms of practice in the seventeenth andeighteenth century Burma and what insights that offers for our understanding of
normative practices, legal cultures, and disciplinary debates in Southeast Asian
Buddhism.

Due Process in the Pali Vinaya Viewed in the Light of Modern
Jurisprudence
Pinte, Gudrun (Ghent University, Melle, BEL)
In Pali monastic literature, we can distinguish some basic principles for any
ecclesiastical trial: only if plaintiff and accused express their willingness toaccept the verdict, the investigation can begin; the presence of the accused isessential and acknowledgement of the facts after interrogation is a prerequisite
for being charged. Furthermore, a conscientious but incompetent plaintiff
should be given guidance when he brings his case forward and the possibility of
appeal is seemingly absent. In this paper, these characteristics of a Buddhist
ecclesiastical case will be investigated and discussed in the light of modern
jurisprudence.

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