Free Online Symposium on Shinran This Weekend, Ken Tanaka MCs!

Symposium, the evening of Saturday, December 11, restores perspective on Shinran’s teachings as integral to mahayana

The University of British Columbia and the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies presents the online symposium, “The Radical Other Power of Shinran (1173-1263).”

 This is a free event, and all interested parties are encouraged to register. Even if you cannot attend, if you register you will receive a recording of the session just as soon as it is available.

  • Saturday, December 11, 2021, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Pacific Time.

  • Register here.

The impressive panel line-up is as follows:

  •  Kenneth Tanaka, Moderator & Introductions (Professor Emeritus, Musashino University, Tokyo)

  • David Matsumoto (Professor, Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley)

  • Jessica Main (Associate Professor, University British Columbia)

  • Mark Blum (Professor, Univ. of California, Berkeley)

  • Melissa Curley (Associate Professor, Ohio State Univ.)

 Full Title of Symposium Underscores this Important Point

When you read the full title of the presentation, you can anticipate a complete view of Mahayana Buddhism and the integral and native place of Shin Buddhism:

“The Radical Other Power of Shinran (1173-1263), a Normative or an Outlier Position in Mahayana Buddhism?”

Video of Last Year’s Symposium

Note that Saturday’s talk is the second of a series on “Other Power in Buddhism.” Here is a video of the Symposium in 2020:

https://buddhism.arts.ubc.ca/2021/01/27/video-other-power-in-buddhism-with-qa/

 More Detail on Saturday’s Symposium

Here is the description sent out by email to the Temple:

In this second panel in the series on “Other Power in Buddhism,” we shall examine what many agree to be its most radical form, the one espoused by Shinran, the founder of Shin or Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Our panel last year revealed that the Other Power dimension was quite prevalent in various traditions – not limited to Pure Land Buddhism – as a vital doctrine in Mahayana Buddhism in India, China, Korea, and Japan. 

Nevertheless, Shinran’s position has drawn critical assessment in the West. For example, a German scholar of Buddhism, Heinz Bechert, remarked:

“Amida Buddhism has won a broad following throughout all of East Asia, primarily as a folk religion.  … [Amidism] takes the ideas of the Buddha and, in a way, twists them into their opposite. The most radical spokesman for this approach is Shinran-Shōnin … .”[1]

We believe there is much in this portrayal that needs to be examined and clarified in order to properly understand the full extent of Shinran’s position. For this, the panelists will examine some elements of the historical background that led to Shinran’s position as well as its manifestations in premodern and modern times. 

See also the registration page for full biographies of the participants.

BT SD