This fall, the Faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Basel is hosting a lecture series on religious authority. Our guest list includes Dr. Philippe Major, an SNSF PostDoc at the University’s Institute for European Global Studies, who will give a lecture entitled “How to become a Zen Master.” Philippe has provided us with an abstract, which is shown below.
In Europe and North America, Zen Buddhism has come to designate a form of life that represents a reversed image of modern life: a form of life devoid of anxiety and stress and freed from the external pressures of modern life. This has led to a heavy commodification of Zen in recent years.
In this talk, I challenge some of the assumptions about Zen that have underscored the rapid spread of Zen as a commodity in the Euro-American region by returning to the early days of Zen Buddhism (or Ch’an in Chinese) in Song-dynasty China. Focusing on the literary tradition of the koan (gong’an in Chinese), and situating this literary tradition in the historical context of the development of Buddhism in China and the social context of the monastery, the talk will address how issues related to authority formation, social distinction, and patriarchy were at the very core of the development of Zen Buddhism in Song China.
To attend the lecture, please contact me at my Basel email address a.renger@unibas.ch.
Cheers,
Almut
International Network “Cultural Transformations of Buddhism” 