Ven. K. L. Dhammajoti

Chair Professor
School of Philosophy
Renmin University of China

Intellectual Understanding versus Wisdom (paññā/prajñā) in Buddhist Education

The fundamental aim of the Buddha’s teachings––Buddhist education––is the attainment of Wisdom (paññā/prajñā) that lead to the transcendence of the existential unsatisfactoriness of saṃsāra. This is the true aim of the Dhamma/Dharmaas education. All the subsequent genuine Buddhist traditions that flowed out from the perfect Wisdom attained in the Buddha’s Enlightenment accord with this aim. Bāhiya’s story in the Pāli Udāna well illustrates this. Living a simple life of non-attachment, Bāhiya came to (and was made to) understand that he had become an arahant. But advised by a devatā, he realized his erroneous understanding; and finally practising pure awareness as instructed by the Buddha, he attained his liberation. His earlier conceptual understanding was mistaken, though convincing; practising wholeheartedly according to the Buddha’s instruction, he finally achieved liberating insight (Wisdom). In brief, spiritual insight is possible only through a radical transformation of our consciousness, not through conceptual knowledge. And this requires, in particular, meditative praxis and deep commitment. The same emphasis is consistently found in the doctrines of the Prajñāpāramitāand Yogācāra traditions. The former distinguishes the uniquely new prajñāpāramitādoctrine from the Śrāvaka-yāna and Pratyekabuddha-yāna by the “Equipoise of non-cling to all dharmas (sarvadharma-aparigṛhīto nama samādhiḥ)”, and states that “so long as the Vajra-like samādhi has not been acquired, [the bodhisattva] does not attain the All-mode Knowledge (sarva-ākāra-jñatā; i.e. Perfect Wisdom)”; the latter teaches the culmination of all spiritual training in the “transformation of the support-basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti)”––essentially, the revolutionary transformation, through meditative praxis, of our ordinary mode of consciousness into Wisdom. In all these traditions, the requisites for such a radical transformation are clear: firm resolution for True Enlightenment/Wisdom, receptivity to higher possibilities in the unfoldment of human potentials, meditation, and compassion.

Moreover, the distinctive stress is discernible that while ethical and meditative praxis are undoubtedly essential, true Wisdom cannot be achieved unless, to begin with, there is proper aspiration and commitment––not just intellectual acknowledgement––for its attainment. It is from this perspective that we should understand such statement as that in the Ratnakūṭa, one of the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras, that “the śrāvaka, even though accomplished in all ethical training, ascetic practices and samādhi (sarvaśīlaśikṣā-dhutaguṇa-samādhi-samanvāgata), will never be fully enlightened.” Rather than defensively reacting to such proposition, we should humbly appreciate its stress that no truly “wisdom-oriented education” (theme of this conference) is possible unless our emotion and volition are also deeply involved at the deepest, existential level––going far beyond the domain of mere ordinary intellectual learning. Accordingly, Mahāyāna stresses the need for the bodhicitta, and the perfection of prajñā through the perfection of karuṇā. Indeed, for modern Buddhists considering a “Wisdom-oriented education” system, there is a lot to learn from the ancient Buddhist traditions.

Wu Jiang

Professor
Department of East Asian Studies
University of Arizona

Jiang Wu (Ph. D, Harvard University, 2002) is director of the Center of Buddhist Studies and professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His research interests include seventeenth-century Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist canons, spatial analysis of religion, and the historical exchanges between Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. He is the author of numerous books and articles such as Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008), Leaving for the Rising Sun (Oxford, 2015), and editor of Spreading Buddha’s Word in East Asia (Columbia, 2016), Reinventing the Tripitaka (Lexington, 2017), The Formation of Regional Religious Systems in Greater China (Routledge, 2022).

Opening the Canon: New Challenges to Buddhist Studies in Humanities Education

The canon is a loaded term in both the East and the West. Under the purview of the postmodern critical theory, the canon, including the Buddhist canon, represents an oppressive and authoritative force, exerting its symbolic influence on all aspects of human life. However, such a view neglects the fact that the canon is also evolving and responding to changes. The Buddhist canon, in particular, has been part of the communities since its beginning. In contrast to the Western canon, it is always open to new additions and interpretations. In a digital age, the Buddhist canon has been more widely distributed as both an academic subject for studies and a tool of self-cultivation in humanities education. Yet, because of its complexity, the canon is far from open. There is an urgent need for us to open the canon, to familiarize ourselves with its content, history, and to experience its transformation in real life. This talk attempts to open the Buddhist canon from the perspective of humanities education and explore its humanistic value in a post-pandemic global society.

Jin Y. Park

Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy and Religion
American University, Washington

Jin Y. Park is Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy and Religion at American University. Park specializes in East Asian Buddhism (especially Zen and Huayan Buddhism), Buddhist ethics, Buddhist philosophy of religion, Buddhist-postmodern comparative philosophy, and modern East Asian philosophy. Park employs Buddhist tradition to engage with contemporary issues with a special focus on gender, justice, and ethics. Park’s research on modern East Asian philosophy examines the dawn of philosophy in East Asia and the East-West encounter in that context. Park published numerous articles on Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist-postmodern ethics, gender and justice, and modern East Asian philosophy. Her books include Women and Buddhist Philosophy (2017); Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun (trans. 2014); Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism (ed.2010); Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism (co-ed, 2009); Buddhism and Postmodernity (ed.2008), Buddhisms and Deconstructions (ed. 2006). Park currently serves as the President of the North American Korean Philosophy Association (2016-present). Park also served as the President of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (2018-2019), was on the Board of Directors (2013-2015) of the American Academy of Religion. She was also the Founding Director of the International Society for Buddhist Philosophy (2001-2018).

Buddhism and Engaged Citizenship

Democracy is an admired value of modern society. It arrived in Asian societies along with modernization, and together with it came modern Western education. Most of Asian thought traditions and their relevance to either the ideas of democracy or of public education were brushed off when Asian societies eagerly adopted Western models. The Buddhist community was not completely without responsibility in this situation. Trapped in the binary logic of the East versus West, which identifies the former as pre-modern (and traditional) and the latter as modern (and advanced), most of the Buddhist schools and followers in different regions of Asia were busy just making claims for its relevance to modern society, and their visions for these claims, if any, fell short of having significant impact on the development of Asian educational systems or democracy in the modern world.

Recent developments in the social and political situation in the United States have testified to major shortcomings of the modernist approaches to democracy, education, and citizenship. The rights discourse, which has been a backbone of democracy, has revealed its bare face: As much as the rights discourse aims to protect individuals’ freedom, equity, and humane treatment, it can be and has been used to justify self-centered interpretations of the situations at hand, revealing a lack of concern for other people. On the other hand, some American Buddhists take Buddhist teachings, such as no-self, a discovery of one’s mind, and compassion, as integral parts of their mode of challenging racist America and the structural oppression of the society.

This paper examines a possible role that Buddhist teaching can play in envisioning a more equitable and inclusive society with the understanding that a fundamental power of change comes from education, both in formal and informal ways. The paper first examines some of the basic ideas of democracy and their pitfalls. It then proposes a Buddhist vision of wisdom-based education. Finally, it will discuss some case studies and conclude with possible projects to implement wisdom-based education for a more equitable society and engaged citizenship.

Albert Welter

Head
Department of East Asian Studies
The University of Arizona

Albert Welter’s research focuses on the study of Chinese Buddhism, particularly on the transition from the late Tang (9th century) to the Song dynasty (10th-13th centuries). Professor Welter also encompasses a broader interest in Chinese administrative policies toward Buddhism, including Chinese notions of secularism and their impact on religious beliefs and practices. His work also covers Buddhist interactions with Neo-Confucianism and literati culture. His publications include: Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (Oxford, 2006), The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy (Oxford, 2008), and Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing lu (Oxford, 2011), The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation of Zanning and his Topical Compendium of the Buddhist Order in China (Cambria, 2018), and a co-edited volume titled Religion, Culture and the Public Sphere in China and Japan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). His is currently involved in the Hangzhou Region Buddhist Culture Project, supported by the Khyentse Foundation, in conjunction with Zhejiang University, the Hangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, and the Hangzhou Buddhist Academy. His monograph, A Tale of Two Stūpas: Histories of Hangzhou relic veneration through two of its most enduring monuments, is currently in press (Oxford). Another volume, The Future of China’s Past: Reflections on the Meaning of China’s Rise is under review.

Retrieving the Dharma Wheel: Searching for Meaning in the Sino-East Asian Buddhist Canon

How should we understand the Buddhist canon? How do we access the wisdom contained in it? The contemporary need addressed in the theme of this conference, Buddhist Canons: In Search of a Theoretical Foundation for a Wisdom-oriented Education, underscores an ongoing struggle to come to terms with the density and complexity of the Buddhist canon. For those with sufficient means, printing the canon resulted in a welcome display of merit, a gift of unequal value. But what of the value of its contents to “end users,” those who actually read and apply its varied messages? For most practitioners, the Buddhist canon represents a massive corpus, impressive in size, but otherwise unwieldy for practical application. Because of its enormity, the Buddhist faithful looked to creative ways to manage and use the canon’s contents in keeping with their own religious and spiritual aspirations. My presentation consists of two parts. The first part explores ways in which Sino-East Asian Buddhist communities strove to make sense of the massive corpus the Buddhist canon represented, to review the strategies used to reduce the density and complexity of the canon to a manageable form. These attempts to form “windows into wisdom” that the canon contain may serve two purposes: (1) they act as repositories for how the canon is currently approached, as the legacies of past attempts are still very much with us, and (2) they help inform contemporary attempts to formulate new approaches––previous examples on how to access Buddhist wisdom may help us devise new approaches suitable to our present circumstances. The second part of my presentation contextualizes the attempt to formulate Buddhist orientations toward wisdom in the global present, the modern and contemporary world. Here, again, I review the historical record of intellectual developments in the Sino-East Asian Buddhist world to explore how Buddhist transmissions and innovations kept Buddhist wisdom traditions alive and prospering. What lessons does this record reveal on how to nurture and articulate a Buddhist wisdom in the global present that seems to have settled on a Protestant Buddhist fundamentalism privileging the historical Buddha and Pali canon.

Huaiyu Chen

Associate Professor
Buddhism and Chinese Religions
Arizona State University

Huaiyu Chen is Associate Professor of Buddhism and Chinese Religions at Arizona State University. He has numerous publications in both Chinese and English on Buddhist rituals and monastic culture, the interactions among Buddhism and other religions, animals in Chinese religions, Western missionaries in China, and modern Chinese intellectual history. He will publish a new English book tentatively titled In the Land of Tigers and Snakes: Living with Animals in Medieval Chinese Religions (forthcoming). He has held fellowships from Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2011-2012), Cambridge University (2014-2015), and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (2018), as well as visiting professorships at several Chinese universities.

Shaping the Order of Ritualized Community in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Monasticism

Daoxuan (596-667) was one of the most prolific scholarly monks in medieval Chinese Buddhism. His writings on medieval Chinese Buddhist monasticism shaped many aspects of monastic life institutionally and served as significant sources for our understanding of Buddhist perspectives on traditional Chinese thoughts. Although Daoxuan was promoted as a superintendent of a royal temple in his later years, he insightfully observed numerous challenges that the monastic community faced both inside and outside in his era. His writings, therefore, often addressed contemporary issues and offered solutions that later shaped the order of Buddhist monasticism in medieval China. In reading his essays on rituals of training newly ordained Buddhist monks and rituals of handling monastic property, this study aims to analyze how he negotiated with Chinese intellectual traditions for redefining the internal relations within a monastic community, focusing on master-disciple and male-female relationships. His understanding of the master-disciple relationship seems to mix both Buddhist moralities of obedience and humility and traditional Chinese value of filial piety centered on the father-son relationship. His handling of the male-female relationship appears to be also shadowed by the prevalent misogyny in medieval Chinese society. Nevertheless, he attempted to compromise the Buddhist values and Chinese traditional values, given the sophisticated interactions between the monastic community and beyond, while preserving the integrity of the monastic community as a spiritually cultivated realm. In other words, on the one hand, he laid out his masterful knowledge of Buddhist Vinaya traditions, textually and doctrinally, as the foundational principles. On the other hand, he often introduced new interpretations from his wisdom of traditional Chinese thoughts for reasoning or making his arguments. This study suggests that the medieval Chinese Buddhist monastic community was a ritualized community shaped by both Buddhist and Chinese wisdom, as seen from the writings of Daoxuan, who was educated in both Buddhist and classical texts.

Ven. Bhikkhuni Dhammadinna

Visiting Associate Research Professor
Director of the Āgama Research Group
Department of Buddhist Studies
Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taiwan

Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā was born in Italy in 1980 and went forth in Sri Lanka in 2012. She studied Indology, Indo-Iranian philology and Tibetology at the University of Naples of Oriental Studies, at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University in Tokyo and at the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University. Dhammadinnā received her doctorate in 2010 with a dissertation on the Khotanese ‘Book of Zambasta’ and the formative phases of Mahāyāna and bodhisattva ideology in Khotan in the fifth and sixth centuries. Her main research interests are the early Buddhist discourses and Vinaya texts, and the development of the theories, practices and ideologies of Buddhist soteriologies and meditative traditions. She is currently a visiting associate research professor and the director of the Āgama Research Group at the Department of Buddhist Studies of the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Taiwan. In addition to her academic activity, Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā regularly teaches meditation.

Knowledge tied to or freed from identity? Epistemic reflections through the prism of the early Buddhist teachings

(This presentation will be available on zoom ONLY.)

This presentation will start off by looking at the notions of experience, grounds for the establishment of views or points of view, conditional construction of identity, and self-conceit through the prism of the teachings transmitted in the early Buddhist discourses. It will then share reflections on ways in which such notions may be able to speak to emerging approaches that critically affect the contemporary study and practice of Buddhism, as well as contemporary Buddhist discourse in general. These approaches revolve around the postmodern predilection for foregrounding the knower’s deeply felt lived experience as an epistemic absolute based on the belief that knowledge is intrinsically tied to identity, and the consequent embracing of positionality and standpoint theories as valid theoretical and practical foundations for personal and communal education or cultivation.

Guang Xing

Director and Associate Professor
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Guang Xing, Ph.D. from School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 2003. He is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. He also served as Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Visiting Professor in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver 2007, Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Buddhist College of Singapore 2010-2014. His publications include The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory (Routledge 2005), Filial Piety in Chinese Buddhism (Peter Lang 2022). He is working on the study and translation of Qisong’s Xiaolun and “Buddhism and Chinese Culture”. He has published many papers such as “A Buddhist-Confucian Controversy on Filial Piety” in Journal of Chinese Philosophy, “Buddhist Impact on Chinese Culture” in Asian Philosophy, “The Teaching and Practice of Filial Piety in Buddhism” in Journal of Law and Religion, and “Filial Piety in Chinese Buddhism” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Buddhism, “Tathatā: the Creation of Doctrinal Foundation for Mahāyāna Buddhism” in the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy.

Educating the Confucians about Filial Piety: Qisong’s Treatise on Filial Piety

Qisong said in the preface to his Xiaolun (Treatise on Filial Piety) “Filial piety is venerated in all [Chinese] religions, but it is especially venerated in Buddhism although the latter’s teaching [of filial piety] is not well known to the world. This is because we [Buddhists] did not make it explicit [to the world] and I am always ashamed of this.” Therefore Qisong told Chan Master Xiaoyue 曉月禪師 that “I have recently written Xiaolun in twelve chapters by imitating the Confucian Xiaojing(Classic of Filial Piety) in order to illuminate the Buddhist teaching (on filial piety).” Thus, Qisong promoted the understanding of Buddhist teaching of filial piety by composing the Treatise on Filial Piety, which synthesizes the teaching of filial piety in Chinese Buddhism and further developed it with his own theory of the concept and practice, referencing both Buddhist and Confucian scriptures. He asserted that the greater filial piety was found in Buddhism, as the Buddhist concept and practice of it were wider and deeper than that of Confucianism. First, the Buddhist practice was not only towards one’s present parents, but also included the previous seven generations. Secondly, filial piety practiced in Buddhism not only concerned human beings but also included animals. Thirdly, Qisong asserted that the five precepts are in fact components of Buddhist filial piety; thus filial piety was actually the antecedent practice to the five precepts. At the end of the Xiaolun, Qisong also discussed Buddhist monks’ practice of filial piety in the context of funerals and mourning (ie mourning in heart without mourning garments). This comprised an important example of the practice of filial piety not only the lay Buddhists with families but also the Buddhist monks and nuns without families. After its publication, Qisong’s Xiaolunwon the admiration from many and influenced not only Buddhists but also Confucian scholars.

Georgios T. Halkias

Associate Professor
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Georgios T. Halkias is an expert on Indo-Tibetan religious history and doctrines and the development of contemplative cultures of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism in Tibet and across the Himalayas. An Associate Professor at the Centre of Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong, Halkias pursued postgraduate studies in Comparative Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and completed his DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. He has published extensively on a variety of topics including, canonical Buddhist studies, Indo-Tibetan Pure Land Buddhism, Himalayan Studies, and Indo-Greek Buddhism. He has participated in several international research programs in the UK and Germany, and is currently the co-editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Buddhism and co-PI in a collaborative research project titled Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road at the University of Hong Kong.

Notes on the Translation and Transmission of Wisdom from the Earliest Canonical Collections of Tibetan Buddhism.

The ninth century marked the first large-scale transmission of Indian Buddhism to Tibet and witnessed the translation of nearly one thousand Buddhist scriptures imported from India and Central Asia. These state-sponsored translations aimed at propagating and preserving the teachings of Buddhism while being comprehensible to a local audience. The success of this enterprise relied on pairing Indian scholars (Skt. paṇḍita) with bilingual Tibetan translators (Tib. lo tsā ba; lotsāwa) who followed closely Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionaries and grouped together texts of similar philosophical content and orientation according to established doxographical categories. These Tibetan translations, mostly of Sanskrit Buddhist texts, formed the first proto-canonical collections of Tibetan Buddhism and are praised till this day for their consistency and precision.

The wisdom of the Buddha would not have been transmitted without knowledge of his teachings. Drawing from imperial Tibetan Buddhist catalogues (Tib. dkar chag; karchak) and authorised lexica like the Mahāvyutpatti, this presentation will highlight the hermeneutic project of translating knowledge into wisdom and wisdom into knowledge as an essential part of Buddhist education. The Tibetan notion of the “scholar-practitioner” (Tib. mkhas grub; kedrüp) may serve as an ideal model for an individual who is both genuinely knowledgeable of the philosophical and soteriological doctrines of Buddhism, but also possesses practical experience of the teachings and their skilful application in contemplation and introspective meditation. The lessons that present-day educators may derive from the earliest Tibetan Mahāyāna canons suggests that “wisdom-oriented education” ought to rely on an unprejudiced understanding and knowledge of the subject-matter that aims to be transmitted, as well as on a variety of methods for presenting it accurately to its intended audiences according to their background and abilities.

Oren Hanner

Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
New York University Abu Dhabi

Oren Hanner is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New York University Abu Dhabi. He studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University and holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies from Hamburg University. His research focuses on Indian and Buddhist thought, with particular interest in ethics and cross-cultural dialogue between Asian and Western philosophical traditions. A volume on Buddhism and skepticism that he edited was published with Hamburg Buddhist Studies Series in 2020. He is currently working on a book dedicated to the nature of selfless moral agency in Vasubandhu’s thought.

Vasubandhu on the Role of the Teacher and the Features of Wisdom-Oriented Education

At the beginning of his teaching manual entitled the Principles of Exegesis(Skt. Vyākhyāyukti; Tib. rNam par bshad pa'i rigs pa), the Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu states that his purpose in composing the text is to give advice to those who wish to explain the Buddha’s discourses in order to help others. Motivated by this goal, the Principles of Exegesis describes and exemplifies skills, capacities, methods, and forms of knowledge that a teacher should master (or at least be reasonably familiar with) in order to be able to properly pass on liberating knowledge to his or her disciples. Given that large portions of the manual concern the role of the teacher in transmitting knowledge (that is, the ideas and doctrines presented in Buddhist scriptures) and explicate the ways of elucidating this knowledge, the question then arises as to what distinguishes wisdom education from plainly providing students with knowledge. In the present paper, I will seek to address this question by looking at the role of the teacher as explained in the Principles of Exegesis. In the first part of the talk, I will introduce the five aspects of elucidating the Buddha’s discourses that the teacher is advised to apply in teaching the Dharma—the purpose of the teaching, the summary of the teaching, the meaning of words, connections, and objections and replies—and elaborate on some of the skills and capacities they involve. Based on this set of methods and techniques, I will suggest in the second part of the talk that wisdom-oriented education is marked by several features that set it apart from a mere conveyance of knowledge. This includes the particular content of the knowledge, the ways in which this knowledge is imparted and acquired, and the dynamics of teacher-student interactions that characterize the act of teaching.

Ernest C. H. Ng

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Dr. Ernest C. H. NG is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the CBS, HKU where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Buddhism and Economics. He is an expert and thought leader in applying wisdom tradition and spirituality into sustainable decision making in the market economy. Dr. Ng offers lectures and workshops around the world on topics relating to sustainability, management, and Buddhist teachings.

He is the Chief Executive Officer of Tung Lin Kok Yuen, a Buddhist NGO dedicating to Buddhist teachings, education, and community services for over 80 years in Hong Kong. Prior to that, he was the founder and Chief Investment Officer of an asset management company and Vice President of Morgan Stanley Asia. He is experienced in sustainable transformation, stakeholder communications, and change management strategy at the individual and organization level. He is committed to coaching young generation and future leaders, serving as mentor for various universities and advisor to organizations such as the Sustainable Finance initiative.

Dr. Ng graduated PBK from the UChicago with BA in Economics and MA in International Relations. He received a MBuddhStud and PhD from HKU. He was a Sir Edward Youde Scholar and currently a Fellow at the European SPES Institute. He is the author of Introduction to Buddhist Economics, Leveraging Happiness (幸福槓桿) and Intrinsically Self-sufficient (本⾃具⾜).

Correspondence: chihinng@hku.hk

From Tradition to Innovation: Wisdom-oriented Education in Buddhist Theory and Practice

The wisdom-orientation of Buddhist pedagogy is declared in the Kalama Sutta and Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. The Buddha declared that his teachings and practices should be built upon wisdom realizing the truth of the Dhamma. From a Buddhist perspective, there are many different levels of knowledge, but wisdom comprises the principles of dependent arising, impermanence, selflessness, and awakening. The threefold training of wisdom, moral discipline, and mental concentration is taught as a “custom of the noble ones”: teachings leading to the cessation of suffering— which are distinctively different from the mundane customs of legends, traditions, scripture, inference, thought and so forth. This paper first analyzes the Buddhist perspective on tradition and wisdom-oriented education, and then demonstrates its unique contribution in facilitating inspiration and innovation. It further evaluates Buddhist worldview as expounded by the wisdom of dependent arising and the cultivation of human mind. The Buddha teaches with a hopeful assurance that human mind and personality is wieldable and amendable to change. Accordingly, this paper argues that Buddhist pedagogy is supportive of a growth mindset. Through a wisdom- oriented education integrating learning and practice, human flourishing is possible. The implementation of Buddhist wisdom-oriented education in the contemporary society is demonstrated through the education services at Tung Lin Kok Yuen over the last ninety years as an example. Guided by the Buddhist principle of “compassion and fraternity,” as well as the mottos of “new knowledge, traditional practice,” the paper illustrates that a wisdom- oriented education could inspire innovation without losing sight of lineage and value.

Chengzhong Pu

Assistant Professor
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Chengzhong PU is an assistant professor of the Centre of Buddhist Studies, HKU. He trained in early Chinese Buddhism, worked in Leiden, Hong Kong, and Shanghai before joining the centre.

On ‘foshuo 佛説’ in the Title of Some Chinese Buddhist Sutras

It is almost common knowledge to anyone familiar with Chinese Buddhist texts that the title of some Chinese Buddhist sutra scriptures begins with the phrase of foshuo 佛説 (‘spoken by the Buddha’), a phrase emphasizing that the given scripture was preached by the Buddha. This does not appear to be the case in either the Theravadin or Tibetan tradition. As a preliminary study on this peculiar phenomenon of Chinese Buddhist literature, this paper attempts to trace when and why the phrase 'foshuo' was first added to the title of some Chinese Buddhist scriptures, authentic and dubious. It examines the formation of the title of Chinese Buddhist translation by using the ancient catalogues of Chinese Buddhist texts and the surviving hand-copied manuscripts of Chinese Buddhist texts. With the identification and analysis of the earliest datable texts entitled as such, it suggests that the cause of adding the phrase might be related to text forgery in early Chinese Buddhist history.

Ven. Sik Hin Hung

Senior Fellow and Former Director
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Ven. Sik Hin Hung was a graduate of The University of Oregon in US and worked in the business and financial sector upon his return to Hong Kong. In 1990, he was ordained under Grand Master Ven. Sheng Yi and obtained an MA in Religious Studies in SOAS of University of London in 1993.

He is the Founding Fellow of the Centre of Buddhist Studies of The University of Hong Kong and has served as the Centre Director for almost 10 years. He is currently the Senior Fellow and the Chairman of the newly launched Master of Buddhist Counselling programme in the Centre. He also serves as the Managing Vice-President and Administrator-General in the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and has provided counselling services to the staffs of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority for many years.

Ven. Hin Hung teaches meditation and has contributed to “repackage” the Teachings of Buddhism so as to make it more “user friendly” for people nowadays. His current research projects include “Awareness Training Program”, “Dharma Therapy”, “Neuroscience of meditation”, “Guangdong Yuqie Yankou” etc… He has a lot of publications on Buddhism, psychotherapy and Buddhist education.

Attaining the acceptance of truth (kṣānti) through the three kinds of knowledge and its modern-day application

(The paper will be co-presented by Ven. Sik Hin Hung, Dr. Bonnie W. Y. Wu, and Ven. Sumana.)

According to early Buddhist text, to attain the truth (saccānupatti) there are 14 gradual steps which can be summarized into the three kinds of knowledge, the knowledge of learning, thinking and cultivation.  Among these fourteen steps, step number eight, ‘reflective acceptance of Dhamma (dhammanijjhānakkhanti)’ is of great significance. In this presentation, the importance of ‘reflective acceptance’ and the Mahayana teaching of the three acceptances (kṣānti-s) will be discussed.  Furthermore, how the three kinds of knowledge and ‘reflective acceptance’ can contribute toward the development of modern day psychosocial intervention will also be presented.

G. A. Somaratne

Associate Professor
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

G.A. Somaratne (PhD, Northwestern) is Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan scholar in early Buddhism and Pali textual criticism. He was formerly Co-director of Dhammachai Tipiṭaka Project (Thailand), Rector of Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy, Professor in Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka), and Associate Professor in Religion, Miyazaki International College (Japan). His publications include The Buddha’s Teaching: A Buddhistic Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) & The Saṃyuttanikāya Volume I(Pali Text Society, Oxford, 1998).

Conjoining Scientific Knowledge and Dhamma Knowledge for Creating an Authentic Person

The Buddha taught the Dhamma, revealing our conscious reality’s elementary constituents (dhammā) and their functions (dhammatā) and laws (dhamma-niyāmatā), showing how we suffer because of not-knowing the Dhammaand how we can stop suffering by knowing it. The Dhamma knowledge is thus the knowledge of dhammā, dhammatā, and dhamma-niyāmatā, that provides a holistic vision of life and world, in contrast to the scientific knowledge that gives an abstract and fragmented vision of the material world, creating an inauthentic worldly person who merely seeks material well-being by holding into matter. The Dhamma knowledge, on the other hand, creates an authentic person who seeks primarily mental well-being while developing a non-clinging attitude toward matter. For a worldly person in the modern world, a life driven by Dhamma knowledge alone may not be sensible. Therefore, the type of wisdom-oriented education that could be considered holistic and sensible to today's world should consist of both types of knowledge. In this sense, the two knowledge types are not rivals but two complementary perspectives of reality with two different aims. The Scientific knowledge takes us to material well-being more, and the Dhamma knowledge takes us to mental and spiritual well-being more. The Buddha’s teaching in the Suttas explain a threefold process of learning, understanding, and experiencing the Dhamma. Accordingly, the initial Dhamma learning should be through a formal curriculum; next, understanding and seeing the dhammā, dhammatā and dhamma-niyāmatā in one’s experiential world will take place through repeated acquiring and reflection of the Dhammaknowledge; finally, attaining and experiencing the unconditioned dhamma (nibbāna) will take place through repeated understanding and seeing. Therefore, this paper attempts to show that the first and the second stages of the gradual process in particular, together with the scientific knowledge, can help creating an authentic person who has understanding and vision to maintain a sound moral life and  face the changing worldly conditions such as gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, and pleasure and pain, with a balanced state of mind, being neither elated nor dejected, and die mindfully and pass old age without grumbling about it.

Ven. Sumana

Ph.D. candidate
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Ven. Sumana is a PhD student at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, the University of Hong Kong. His PhD project focuses on the critical study of kṣānti pāramitā in Theravāda and Mahāyāna traditions. He received his monastic education at Vidyalankara Pirivena in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He earned his BA degree from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka with First-Class honours.

Attaining the acceptance of truth (kṣānti) through the three kinds of knowledge and its modern-day application

(The paper will be co-presented by Ven. Sik Hin Hung, Dr. Bonnie W. Y. Wu, and Ven. Sumana.)

According to early Buddhist text, to attain the truth (saccānupatti) there are 14 gradual steps which can be summarized into the three kinds of knowledge, the knowledge of learning, thinking and cultivation.  Among these fourteen steps, step number eight, ‘reflective acceptance of Dhamma (dhammanijjhānakkhanti)’ is of great significance. In this presentation, the importance of ‘reflective acceptance’ and the Mahayana teaching of the three acceptances (kṣānti-s) will be discussed.  Furthermore, how the three kinds of knowledge and ‘reflective acceptance’ can contribute toward the development of modern day psychosocial intervention will also be presented.

Asanga Tilakaratne

Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies & Founder Head
Department of Buddhist Studies
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Asanga Tilakaratne (PhD University of Hawai’i) is emeritus professor of Buddhist Studies and founder head of the Department of Buddhist Studies at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has published substantially on Buddhist studies in Sinhala and English. Recently (August 2020) his collected works have been published in eight volumes (03 in Sinhala and 05 in English) in Colombo. Currently Professor Tilakaratne serves as the editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia of Buddhism published by the Government of Sri Lanka.Asanga Tilakaratne (PhD University of Hawai’i) is emeritus professor of Buddhist Studies and founder head of the Department of Buddhist Studies at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has published substantially on Buddhist studies in Sinhala and English. Recently (August 2020) his collected works have been published in eight volumes (03 in Sinhala and 05 in English) in Colombo. Currently Professor Tilakaratne serves as the editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia of Buddhism published by the Government of Sri Lanka.

Knowledge and Wisdom from an early Buddhist Perspective

Knowledge is quantity and wisdom is quality. Knowledge is a means and wisdom is an end. Knowledge has limits and wisdom does not. Knowledge can be imparted and wisdom has to be cultivated. One may lose knowledge but not wisdom.

Buddhism makes a clear distinction between knowledge and wisdom. It identifies knowledge as factual information and practical skills. In Theravada discourses these two are respectively referred to as ‘bahusacca’ and ‘sippa’, the need of them for a good worldly living is accepted without any hesitation.

Chung-hui Tsui

Honorary Assistant Professor
Tung Lin Kok Yuen Scholar in Buddhist Art and Culture
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Dr. Chung-hui Tsui is an art historian currently teaching at the Centre of Buddhist Studies in The University of Hong Kong. She obtained the MA in Chinese Art & Archaeology from SOAS, University of London in 2001; and a Ph.D. on Dunhuang and Turfan Buddhist manuscripts of her thesis from the Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong. Her research concerns Buddhist art, culture and history of Dunhuang and Silk Road, Chinese calligraphy, Buddhist manuscripts, Buddhist cave temples and cultural heritage sites. Her book entitled Chinese Calligraphy and Early Buddhist Manuscripts was published by Indica et Buddhica in 2020.

The Buddhist texts translation in Dharmarakṣa’s team

This paper attempts to explore the scribal culture in the translation and transmission of Buddhist texts in Dharmarakṣa’s translation team, based on the case study of earliest extant Chinese Buddhist manuscript in the world, the Buddhasaṃgīti sūtra (Zhufo yaoji jing諸佛要集經, T810) with a definite date of 296 CE that was translated by Dharmarakṣa. We examine the contribution by Dharmarakṣa and his disciples, especially the two main scribes Zhu Fashou and Nie Chengyuan. It demonstrates that Dharmarakṣa and his disciples cooperated not only in the translation of Buddhist sūtras but also in the transmission of Buddhist texts from Central Plain to Hexi corridor and even far away to the Western Region.

Bonnie W. Y. Wu

Lecturer
Centre of Buddhist Studies
The University of Hong Kong

Dr. Wu is a Lecturer at The Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. In 2019, she has received her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from The University of Hong Kong. Her work focused on the development and evaluation of a new group-based Mahāyāna Buddhist intervention, Awareness Training Program (ATP). She has published articles on Buddhist-based interventions and neuroscience of meditation as well as books and manuals on Buddhist Life Education for primary and secondary schools. Dr. Wu has been learning and practicing meditation for more than a decade.  She is also a registered social worker.  She received her B.SW. from The University of Hong Kong with First-Class honors.

Attaining the acceptance of truth (kṣānti) through the three kinds of knowledge and its modern-day application

(The paper will be co-presented by Ven. Sik Hin Hung, Dr. Bonnie W. Y. Wu, and Ven. Sumana.)

According to early Buddhist text, to attain the truth (saccānupatti) there are 14 gradual steps which can be summarized into the three kinds of knowledge, the knowledge of learning, thinking and cultivation.  Among these fourteen steps, step number eight, ‘reflective acceptance of Dhamma (dhammanijjhānakkhanti)’ is of great significance. In this presentation, the importance of ‘reflective acceptance’ and the Mahayana teaching of the three acceptances (kṣānti-s) will be discussed.  Furthermore, how the three kinds of knowledge and ‘reflective acceptance’ can contribute toward the development of modern day psychosocial intervention will also be presented.