Date

Venue

Presenter

Topic

USYD

Venerable Dr Juewei, Nan Tien Institute

In this talk, we will explore the evolution of Humanistic Buddhism from its Chinese origins, emphasising its foundational aim to apply Buddhist teachings practically and compassionately in the contemporary world. We will trace the movement’s development against the backdrop of China’s rich Buddhist heritage, highlighting its transition towards addressing the needs of society and the individual in modern times. This exploration includes an analysis of how Humanistic Buddhism integrates traditional Dharma practice with everyday life, promoting social engagement, ethical conduct, and the cultivation of moral values. We will also delve into the current manifestations of Humanistic Buddhism, demonstrating its impact on education, social welfare, and global peace efforts, thereby underscoring its relevance and adaptation to modern challenges. The talk aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Humanistic Buddhism’s role in academic discourse, reflecting on its contributions to a harmonious society and its potential to foster a compassionate world, rooted in its unique Chinese Buddhist perspective.

USYD

Flavio A. Geisshuesler, USYD

Meditation, as commonly perceived, often involves serene contemplation in quiet, controlled environments. However, my research into Indo-Tibetan tantric practices reveals a vastly different dimension of meditation that includes intense, often extreme, techniques. These practices range from the engagement in ritualistic violence and sexuality to enduring long periods of sensory deprivation in utter darkness, as well as more serene activities such as mindful walking in nature, attuned to the subtle sounds of the forest.

In this talk, I propose a new paradigm of meditation that integrates these diverse practices into a cohesive framework, redefining meditation as a dynamic technology of the self. This paradigm offers three crucial benefits: 1) It elucidates the complexity of these ancient techniques, honouring their true function as transformative tools for self-transformation; 2) It grounds the practices within a scientific framework drawn from cognitive sciences, particularly through theories like 4E cognition and predictive coding, which explore the dynamic relationship between the self and its environment; and 3) This new framework promises to make meditation techniques highly relevant to our contemporary world, especially valuable in managing transitions and crises.

USYD

This discussion will share an ethnography of how a Tibetan contemplative nunnery reads, writes and practices the words of its own corpus, thereby demonstrating the orientation of their Buddhist learning towards mind-body holism. The aim of the discussion is to contrast modernity’s ways of knowing (its tendency to index reality in language of fixed meanings) with the more tacit, embodied knowledge of Tibetan contemplative culture, where orality and literacy, knowledge and creative vision, and theory and method are less distinct. The discussion’s further aim is to consider the practical implications of this contrast for methodology in Buddhist Studies, and for adapting contemplative pedagogy in higher education.

22/10

24/10

29/10

USYD

Buddhist Meditation and the future of contemplation

Contemplative practices are a central spiritual legacy of the world’s religious traditions and are experiencing a renaissance across the world in religious, spiritual but not religious, and secular contexts. Their astonishing diversity in contexts, values, and actual methods across these traditions, however, present significant challenges in attempting to theorise and understand their full scope and dynamics. Might contemplation be best understood as a fundamental generative human capacity, and as such be profitably modelled through analogical reliance upon linguistics to explore the idea of contemplative fluency that prioritises ever changing and open ended processes over fixed products? This series will draw upon Tibetan Buddhism, one of the most diverse and self-theorised contemplative traditions in the history of the world, to explore this notion of generative contemplation, while also exploring contemporary models and methods of design thinking to consider new pathways to fashion better contemplative futures.

Lecture 1: Generative Contemplation: How can we best explore the past and future of contemplative practice? 

Lecture 2: The Tibetan Great Perfection Contemplative Tradition: The Poetry of Naturalism and Self- Emergence

Lecture 3: Transitions in Transitivity: The Complexity of Effort, Effortlessness, and Agency in Tibetan Great Perfection Contemplative Practices

Lecture 4: A Dialog on the Past and Future of Contemplation: Where do we go from here?