Yogācāra Studies Unit
Our CFP outlines a set of panel topics that we are particularly interested in soliciting proposals for. If you would like to participate in a panel on one of these topics, please contact the person listed. Anyone is also welcome to propose a panel or a paper on a topic in Yogācāra Studies that is not listed here. Panel proposals are much more likely to be accepted than individual paper proposals, so it is best to try to find other scholars and to jointly make a panel proposal on your topic. Feel free to contact the unit co-chairs (Douglas Duckworth, duckworth@temple.edu or Jingjing Li, j.li@phil.leidenuniv.nl) with any questions about proposals.
- Text panel: We are looking for proposals from groups of scholars to lead the assembled group in a discussion of a selected passage from a key text. The text can be extant in just one or in any combination of Buddhist languages. The ideal proposal is from a team of scholars working on the text, and the ideal panel format involves a combination of comments from the presenters and discussion with the audience. The following are some proposal ideas that have already been generated, but scholars working on other texts are very welcome to submit a text panel proposal. Anyone with questions about how a text panel should be structured is free to contact unit co-chairs Douglas Duckworth (duckworth@temple.edu) and Jingjing Li (j.li@phil.leidenuniv.nl).
- On Sakya Paṇḍita’s Treasury of Epistemology (tshad ma’i rigs gter). Contact Douglas Duckworth (duckworth@temple.edu) if you are interested in participating.
- On the Laṅkāvatara Sūtra. Contact Ching Keng (ching.keng@gmail.com) if you are interested in participating.
- On Dharmapāla’s commentary on Āryadeva’s Catuḥśataka. Contact Chih-ying Wu (chihying_wu@berkeley.edu) or Billy Brewster (ernestbrewster@gmail.com) if you are interested in participating.
- Paper panel: On Abhidharma and Yogācāra gender metaphysics. Contact Jingjing Li (j.li@phil.leidenuniv.nl) if you are interested in presenting a paper on this panel.
- Paper panel: Yogācāra non-dualism and its Hindu critics (a potential co-sponsor with the Hindu Philosophy Unit). Contact Davey Tomlinson (david.tomlinson@villanova.edu) if you are interested in presenting a paper on this panel.
- Paper panel: What is the Buddha’s mind like? Contact Ching Keng (ching.keng@gmail.com) or Davey Tomlinson (david.tomlinson@villanova.edu) if you are interested in presenting a paper on this panel.
- Paper panel: Yogācāra and Abhidharma. Contact Laura Guerrero (lpguerrero@wm.edu) if you are interested in presenting a paper on this panel.
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Paper panel: On Kuiji's "Essays on the Forest of Meanings in the Mahāyāna Dharma Garden.” Contact Ronald Green rgreen@coastal.edu
The Yogācāra tradition within Buddhism provides the seminal basis for many forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Yogācāra was the preeminent Buddhist school for many centuries in India, East Asia, and Tibet. Even after its relative decline as a distinct tradition, its teachings continued to provide the basis for both the theory and practice of subsequent Buddhist Mahāyāna schools throughout Asia, and it has seen a resurgence in the 20th and 21st century in Asia, including in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and among Tibetans.