Paper short abstract:

The science of sound became the core of Kūkai's philosophy of cosmos. Here I will explore how he expanded on an Indian text collected by Amoghavajra in the mid-eighth century, which assigns meaning to each syllable in the Sanskrit alphabet, comprising an expression of every aspect of the universe.

Paper long abstract:

The esoteric Buddhist methods for attaining awakening take as their basis the Indian division of the human being into body, speech and mind. This psycho-somatic analysis became embellished with pertinent activities, which were then ritualized and systematized as a body of esoteric practices: mudrā for physical movements, mantra for the sounds that we utter, and samādhi to concentrate mental functions towards a cognitive rupture from the desiderative habits that entangle us in the interminable round of death and rebirth. Although Kūkai (774-835) honed a system that incorporated esoteric parallels to each aspect of psycho-somatic activity (his "three mysteries" (sanmitsu 三密) of body speech and mind), his focus moved very much towards sound as the most powerful and effective avenue to pursue in the quest for awakening.

In articulating his interpretation of the "science of sound" (śabdavidyā, shōmyō 聲明), Kūkai used a text that one of his predecessors in China, Amoghavajra (704-71), had collected in Sri Lanka on a voyage there in the early 740s, and translated as the Shi zimu pin (T. 880). Kūkai expanded on what is essentially a simple list of the syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet and set out his explanations in his Bonji shittan jimo [narabi ni] shakugi (T. 2701). Building on the Indian idea that the evolution of the sounds made in human speech (from the initial neutral "a" through to the nasal final "ṃ") reflects the arising, proliferation and ending of all phenomenal existence, Kūkai presents the science of sound as a direct expression of each facet of the Buddha's teaching and hence as a direct way of cognizing this universe, this cosmos, in its entirety. His Sanskrit corpus from 806 contains the key to his innovation inasmuch as those texts are not translations into Chinese, and not primarily discursive: as direct expressions of sound (śabda) and its science (vidyā, i.e. shōmyō), they offer a more immediate, affective and cognitive means to realization than conventional Buddhist dogma and practice. I will explore the implications of his innovative reading of Bonji shittan jimo in the context of early Heian cosmology.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of my presentation is to investigate the "empty flower" imagery in Dōgen's Kūge (空華) chapter of Shōbōgenzō (正法限蔵) as expression of the enlightenment of the entire world. According to this, Dōgen's depiction of nature is located between natural and supernatural.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will focus on some of the most important, although densest passages from Dōgen’s Kūge (空華) chapter of Shōbōgenzō (正法限蔵), with the aim of investigating Dōgen’s approach to nature. I claim that, for Dōgen, nature must be read and taught like a Sūtra. The reason why Dōgen’s philosophy draws considerable inspiration from natural images is so that it can illustrate the qualities of the Buddha-nature and transmit its teaching. Nevertheless, Dōgen’s imagery also has something super-natural, not only natural, built into it, in the sense that each image has within it the enlightenment of the entire world. It is from these terms that Dōgen develops an entire cosmology based on an (empty) flower.

In the Kūge (空華) chapter, Dōgen develops his vision of the Buddha-nature from the likeness of a flower set in the foreground of some kind of space, a space which seems to be completely empty and yet is, at the same, an expression of the entire world. My aim is to analyze the image of how this flower opens up and falls apart and, in this process of coming-to-be and ceasing-to-be, contains within it every single detail of the world. This expression of the world through the flower is similar to how the Buddhist masters are able to see their own body-minds (shinjin, 身心) as a reflection of the whole universe. After displaying the complex imagery of the “empty flower” (空華), I will highlight three aspects of Dōgen’s discourse based on the conceptual terms of “merging,” “non-duality” and “relationality.” By playing with how the real and the unreal, the true and the delusional, the empty (or faint) and the colorful all merge together, Dōgen tries to expand our imagination without escalating this imagery into a fantastic world. Finally, I will focus on how the various translations of the title of Dōgen’s chapter (into Japanese, German, Italian and English) bring out various meanings as a way to demonstrate, once again, the relational unity of the flower and the world. Dōgen plays with the polyvalence of words as if he were composing a symphony, and by doing this, is able to explore the multiplicity of meanings as they appear in every single character of his text and from every possible composition.

Paper short abstract:

Special way of approaching to the novelties is very typical for the history of Japanese medicine. We can find several examples from medical references for this, therefore I attempt to introduce some cases of the changing medical conceptions through some references of Early Modern Japanese medicine.

Paper long abstract:

Individual attitude of the Japanese culture to the novelties is generally known. The essence of this attitude which 'keeps what is needed and rejects what is not needed' can be found in several fields, inter alia, from the religion to the development of language or medicine. We know that Japanese medicine mainly relied on the knowledge of classical Chinese medicine for a long time. Several medical texts have also written based on many classical Chinese works on medicine. This tendency continued mainly until the Edo-era, when a variety of events brought about changes. We can find various examples in some texts written by Neo-Confucian scholars in the Edo-era about many healing methods have been applied and later modified to suit to the main peculiar physical features and needs. Then when knowledge of the European medicine appeared and significantly spread mainly thanks to the Dutch and several Japanese scholars and physicians who have also contributed widely to the development of rangaku, new scientific innovations have been applied especially in the general surgery of external injuries or the ophthalmology. Some methods have been adapted without any changes, or modified, and there were combinations of traditional Chinese and new European medical concepts, as we can also see through typical example of Hanaoka Seishū's well-known surgical operation of a breast cancer. In this paper I attempt to present some examples for the changing medical conceptions based on references from the history of Early Modern Japanese medicine.