The Center for Buddhist Studies is glad to announce Lingyin Buddhist Studies Lecture Series in 2019 spring at UA. Prof. John Kieschnick, the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies at Stanford University will give the inaugural lecture. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Title: LITERAL AND METAPHORICAL DEMONS IN CHINESE BUDDHISM
Speaker: Dr. JOHN KIESCHNICK (Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University)
Date and Time:
▶ 1:00 pm, May 2 (Thursday), 2019.
Award Ceremony & Reception To Follow
Location:
ROOM 130, INTEGRATED LEARNING CENTER
Suggested parking: Cherry St. Garage
Abstract:
This talk takes as a point of departure a passage from an essay by the sixteenth-century monk Zhuhong entitled “Demonic Possession” which warns of “demons of the mind” that instill attachment to sex, alcohol, poetry and painting. Comparison with the fourth-century Christian monk Evagrius suggests the possibility that these are literal, rather than metaphorical demons. In what follows, I explore references to demons in Chinese Buddhist literature in an attempt to pinpoint just what this sixteenth-century monk meant by “demons of the mind.” More generally, I pose the question of how we might determine whether such a reference is metaphorical or not, whether such a distinction is a modern imposition, and what role the discourse of demons played in the ascetic’s pursuit of self-perfection.
Bio:
John Kieschnick is The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies at Stanford University. His area of expertise is the cultural history of Chinese Buddhism, represented by two books: The Eminent Monk (University of Hawaii, 1997), a study of Buddhist ideals in biographies of Chinese monks, and The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton, 2007). He is currently writing a book on the interpretation of the past in Chinese Buddhism.