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Buddhism

Buddhists and Brahmins at Vikramaśīla

Lecture Type: 
Shivdasani Lecture
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Professor Parimal Patil
Date: 
Monday, May 28, 2012 - 14:00 to 15:00
Location: 
OCHS Library

 It is so well-known that Buddhist philosophers in India argued with their non-Buddhist opponents that it is hardly worth mentioning. Yet, despite the centuries-long history of such polemics, Buddhist philosophers in India rarely explained what they hoped to gain in critically engaging their opponents through such arguments. In this lecture, I discuss why Buddhist epistemologists at Vikramaśīla thought it was important to argue with their Brahmanical opponents. 

First name (inc. titles): 
Professor Parimal

On How To Argue with a Buddhist

Lecture Type: 
Shivdasani Seminar
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Professor Parimal Patil
Date: 
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 15:00 to 16:30
Location: 
OCHS Library

In this seminar, we will explore what was at stake, both philosophically and otherwise, for Brahmanical philosophers in debates with Buddhist opponents. We will focus, in particular, on Nyāya arguments for the existence of Īśvara and Buddhist counterarguments. 

First name (inc. titles): 
Professor Parimal

The brahminic origins of Buddhist meditation

Full Name (inc. titles): 
Alexander Wynne
Date: 
Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - 15:15
Location: 
First name (inc. titles): 
Alexander

Buddhist views on consciousness

Lecture Type: 
OCHS consciousness seminar
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Professor Richard Gombrich
Date: 
Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - 10:30
Location: 
First name (inc. titles): 
Professor Richard

Philosophy's linguistic turn

Lecture Type: 
Shivdasani Lecture
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Professor Ashok Aklujkar
Date: 
Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 16:30
Location: 
First name (inc. titles): 
Professor Ashok

Action movies and American ideals: The growth of Buddhism in Hollywood

Lecture Type: 
Religion and film seminars
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Dr Jessica Frazier
Date: 
Monday, January 23, 2006 - 13:30
Location: 

Jessica Frazier, Divinity Faculty, Cambridge, and OCHS

First name (inc. titles): 
Dr Jessica

What did Ramakantha contribute to the Buddhist-Brahmanical atman debate?

Full Name (inc. titles): 
Dr Alex Watson
Date: 
Thursday, February 8, 2007 - 10:15
Location: 

In attempting to refute the Buddhist doctrine of no-Self, Ramakantha absorbed many features of Buddhism. For example, he sided with Buddhism against Nyaya and Vaisesika in denying the existence of property-possessors (dharmins) over and above properties (dharmas), and in denying a Self as something that exists over and above cognition. For him the Self simply is cognition (jnana, prakasa, samvit) and so he has to prove that cognition is constant and unchanging. I will present those arguments of Ramakantha's that strike me as his strongest and most original.

First name (inc. titles): 
Dr Alex

Madhyamakas and Ontological Categories

Lecture Type: 
Shivdasani Conference 2009
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Jan Westerhoff
Date: 
Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 11:30
Location: 
Somerville College

The status of categories within Madhyamaka philosophy is a curious one. On the one hand there is a strong tendency to reject philosophically refined analyses of the constituents which make up the world, thereby rejecting systems of categories as well. The Madhyamika, it seems, accepts whatever conventions the world accepts at the merely conventional level but does not propose any conventions of his own. In fact there appear to be good reasons for such a view.

First name (inc. titles): 
Jan

Comparative Mysticism Seminar 1: Flowing Milk. A Lost Meditation, Tradition from the Silk Road

Full Name (inc. titles): 
Lance Cousins
Date: 
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 14:00 to 15:30
Location: 
OCHS Library

This lecture examines a Buddhist meditation tradition exemplified particularly by visualisation text from central Asia. This is a seminar in our series on Comparative Mystical Traditions.

 
Lance Cousins is an expert in Buddhism, particularly the Theravada tradition and Pali commentarial literature, and Buddhist meditation traditions. He taught for many years at the University of Manchester where, among other things, he taught a course in comparative mysticism.
First name (inc. titles): 
Lance

Religious Experience in Early Buddhism

Lecture Type: 
Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Study of Religions/Mysticism Seminar
Full Name (inc. titles): 
Professor Richard Gombrich
Date: 
Friday, February 18, 2011 - 14:00 to 15:00
Location: 
OCHS Library

This seminar examines accounts of religious experience in early Buddhism as gleaned from our textual sources. Of particular importance here has been the role of meditation and living an upright and ethical life. 

Professor Gombrich was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit for many years. He is a world authority on Buddhism and has written definitive works on early Buddhism and the Theravada tradition. Among his publications are What the Buddha ThoughtHow Buddhism Began andTheravada Buddhism

First name (inc. titles): 
Professor Richard

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