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Shoji Yamada on his book "Shots in the Dark: Japan, Zen, and the West"An Informal Lecture
Monday, November 02, 2009
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Faculty Center
Hacienda Room
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery and Ryoanji's dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture.
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The Buddhist Arts of Tea in Medieval China
James A. Benn delivers the 22nd Sammy Yukuan Lee Lecture on Chinese Archaeology and Art
Saturday, November 07, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Lenart Auditorium
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
The relatively rapid change in drinking habits that occurred in late medieval China (Tang dynasty, 618–907) cannot be understood without appreciating the crucial role of Buddhist ideas, institutions, and practitioners. While Buddhist texts vividly depicted the dangers of imbibing intoxicating substances, Buddhist monks were also active in spreading an alternative to alcohol—tea—throughout the empire. By the end of the ninth century, tea had become a vital component in the Chinese economy and an essential commodity of everyday life. Tea was valued for its ability to sustain long periods of meditation and for its health-giving properties. It was considered an appropriate offering for Buddhist deities, and a suitable gift for monks and laypeople to exchange. Tea, like alcohol before it, stimulated and inspired poets and connoisseurs.
This lecture will look closely at the surviving artistic, material, and literary evidence for Buddhist involvement in the promotion of tea drinking and the invention of a Chinese tea culture.
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Professor Melanie Malzahn (University of Vienna)
Friday, November 13, 2009
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
243 Royce Hall
Among the extinct languages merely known by manuscripts discovered along the Silk Road, Tocharian A and Tocharian B, together, constitute one of the twelve branches of Indo-European languages. Although deciphered in 1908 by German Indologists Emil Sieg and Wilhelm Siegling, the main bulk of Tocharian texts scattered through European collections were known by only a few specialists until very recently. Tocharian A and B were closely related, but seem not to have been mutually understandable. Apart from literary texts exclusively related to and based on Buddhist literature, we also have documents of profane nature such as letters and monastery records. In recent years, much effort has been made in publishing texts leading to a better understanding of the languages themselves, especially with regard to their internal stratification. In this respect, both languages differ significantly. Tocharian A texts, which have only been found in the Turfan Oasis and around Shorchuk/Yanqi but not further west, display a very uniform linguistic character (with very few exceptions), and the manuscripts in general seem to be younger than those of Tocharian B. Tocharian B, on the other hand, is found over a far wider range of find spots, especially around Kucha, and displays an internal chronology of at least 400 years (from 5th century CE to 8th century CE), and is also sociolinguistically diversified. The apparent transfer of literacy from Kucha to the east together with the diachronic and socio-dialectal diversification of Tocharian B and the mutual linguistic influence between Tocharian A and B offers some insight into the but rarely known Tocharian society in the 1st millennium CE.
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Buddhist Cave Temples of the Kucha Kingdom
An Afternoon of Presentations and Discussion
Friday, November 20, 2009
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Seminar Room, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Fowler Museum A222
Los Angeles, CA 90095
RSVP required to the UCLA Asia Institute: eleicester@international.ucla.edu or 310-825-0007
http://www.international.ucla.edu/buddhist/events/showevent.asp?eventid=7718&eventdate=11/20/2009
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"Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country" Film Screening
Armed with video cameras, a tenacious band of Burmese reporters face down death to expose the repressive regime controlling their country.
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
James Bridges Theater
Melnitz Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095
http://www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/events/showevent.asp?eventid=769
8&eventdate=11/20/2009.
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Chapman University Department of Sociology presents
Venerable Thubten Chodron: "Joyous Effort in Up and Down Times"
Saturday , 11/21/2009
Time: 10:30am - 12:30 pm
Location: Argyros Forum 209
Internationally renowned author and Tibetan Buddhist nun, and abbess of the Sravasti Abbey (near Newport, WA) will be giving a talk at Chapman University on Saturday.Thubten Chodron studied and practiced Buddhism of the Tibetan tradition for many years in India and Nepal under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan masters for many years. She has directed the spiritual program at centers in Italy, Singapore and Seattle. Ven. Chodron travels worldwide to teach the Dharma. Seeing the importance and necessity of a monastery for Westerners training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, she founded Sravasti Abbey and is currently involved in developing it. Ven. Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well-known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. For information call 714-997-6608 or email: nmartin@chapman.edu
http://web.chapman.edu/Events/calendar.aspx
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