Yehan Numata Program Lecture: "A Madhyamaka Path in Tantric Garb: An Enquiry on the Buddhology and the Early Doctrines of the Buddhist Tantric Cycle “The Wheel of Time”"
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Speakers
Description
Yehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies 2024-25
This lecture presents the first results of a research on the doctrinal settings of the early Kālacakra system and its adaptation of the Madhyamaka teachings. The early masters of this tradition (Vajrapāṇi, Vajragarbha and Puṇḍarīka in primis, followed by Nāropā, Anupamarakṣita, Raviśrī-jñāna, etc.) elaborated a strategy that involved the use of some ‘devices’: 1) the ‘selection’ and hierarchization of the higher scriptures; 2) the composition of new scriptures; 3) the identification of the correct interpreters and of the characteristics that make them authoritative and reliable; 4) the establishment of precise and easy to understand hermeneutical criteria, which included the use of the category of ‘root-texts,’ to which they claimed direct access, and the ‘mutual support principle,’ which can be summarized in the oft-quoted dictum “a Tantra sholud be understood on the basis of another Tantra.” During the lecture it is examined in brief how this strategy has worked in terms of doctrinal elaboration and adaptation by dealing in particular with two issues: the Kālacakra early masters’ definition of their own system and their ‘buddhology,’ with a special focus on their theory of the ‘Buddha’s Bodies.’
About the speaker
Francesco Sferra is full professor of Sanskrit language and literature at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary areas of expertise are connected to Sanskrit philology, history of Indian religions, tantric studies, and classical Indian philosophy. In 2007 and in 2011-2012 he has been visiting professor at the Hamburg Universität. Since 2006 he has directed an international research project on unpublished Buddhist texts in Sanskrit. His works include the critical edition and translation of the longer Ṣaḍaṅgayoga by An-upamarakṣita with its commentary by Raviśrījñāna (2000), the Sekoddeśaṭīkā by Nāropā (2006) and (with H. Isaacson) the Sekanirdeśapañjikā by Rāmapāla (2014). He is founder and coeditor of the series Manuscripta Buddhica (1st vol. 2008).
For questions and the reading group materials, please contact Christoph Emmrich at christoph.emmrich@utoronto.ca.
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