UT: Dec 1 & 2 "Toru Funayama Lectures"

In case you are interested:

The University of Toronto / McMaster University Yehan Numata Buddhist Studies Program

Presents

Tōru Funayama (Kyoto University)

Professor Tōru Funayama has been described as a Buddhological renaissance man because of the breadth of his knowledge about Buddhism in India, Tibet, China and Japan. He has published six books and more than 50 articles or book chapters dealing with Indian philosophy, the linguistic features of texts translated from Sanskrit into Chinese, Chinese biographies of Buddhist monks, lay Buddhist practice in China, and Chinese philosophy in the fifth and sixth centuries. He has taught at various universities in Japan (including Koyasan University, Kyushu University, Otani University, Ryukoku University, University of Tokyo, and Tsukuba University) and abroad (including Harvard, Heidelberg, Leiden, and Stanford).

“Kamalaśīla's View on Yogic Perception and the Bodhisattva Path"

Thursday, December 1, 3-5 pm

University of Toronto Reading Group Session

Department for the Study of Religion (170 St George St.), Room 317

“Mahāyāna Vinaya? Aspirations for the composition of a Vinaya for bodhisattvas in India and China”

Friday, December 2, 4-6 pm

University Hall 122, McMaster University

ABSTRACT: As is clearly evident from Chinese Buddhist catalogs, medieval Chinese Buddhists accepted the view of a "Mahāyāna Vinaya" (dasheng lü). On the other hand, we know that such a vinaya never existed in the history of Indian Buddhism. Is this idea a result of Chinese misunderstanding? Naturally this question is also concerned with Sinification of Buddhism. In this talk, I will attempt to explore the origin and development of this notion with a special focus on the Scripture of Brahma's Net (Fanwang jing). By referring to internal evidence, I want to point out that this well-known apocryphal sutra played a critical role for the establishment of the term dasheng lü in China. Further, I want to verify that basically the same idea, if not entirely identical, is found in the Skt. Bodhisattvabhūmi, the most significant text for bodhisattva precepts in India, in order to claim that early Yogacarins wished to establish a Mahāyāna equivalent of the orthodox Vinaya in India and that such an intention was more emphasized by the composition of the Scripture of Brahma's Net in China.

For reading group materials and questions, please contact frances.garrett@utoronto.ca

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