I'm sorry, social science. I like to introduce this new law to my constable of the candidate in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.
UCLA research focuses on how to cope, rejected an adapted method for life in China.
Use Asian word rock focussing on the work of the Monk, the Darwin programme and the so-called earliest school before coming to UCLA.
He University of Tokyo University in Taiwan Oberlin College is published little articles in Purity journals,
including a chapter in the forthcoming volume Tidal two miles from the University of Hawaii.
Thank you so much for the introduction. Can you all hear me? OK, wonderful.
OK, well, good morning from Los Angeles. I wanted to first thank everyone for all the effort in organising the conference.
I wanted to especially thank Professor Osborne for encouraging me to apply to the conference.
He's been a friend and mentor of mine for many years,
and if you know anyone who happens to be looking for a professor of Buddhist studies, I know of no one better.
I'm devastated that I couldn't be there in person.
I had to make the difficult decision because of COVID and long travel time that it will be best to present remotely.
But I'm trying my best to simulate being there. I have my Oxford shirt on and I have a cup of Yorkshire Tea, so I'm ready to go.
So I know we're running a little late. My presentation, I hope it'll be OK.
Time wise, may run a little bit over, so let me begin sharing the screen.
Oh, goodness, sorry. One more try.
You might see some, some notes on the screen for a second. So I think you can see my screen and now you should be able to see my presentation.
We got the OK. Wonderful. OK. Well,
it's been so the title of my talk today is partially in accord with the greater
vehicle reading the four part Vinaya as a Mahayana text and discussions commentaries,
although the conference is about reading Mahayana texts. Today, I'm actually going to be talking about reading non-major on a text.
As an aside, I think the term non Mahayana or non Mahayana Buddhism is a better alternative to terms like mainstream Buddhism or a lesser vehicle.
Buddhism found in some textbooks because, to my mind,
both the terms mainstream and lesser vehicles seem to imply a sort of value judgement about the Mahayana as either being not part of the mainstream.
It was certainly mainstream in East Asia or about the non Mahayana as being somehow
lesser certainly is not seen that way in countries like Sri Lanka or Burma.
Nevertheless, I may have the occasion to use the term lesser vehicle as this is the term we found in the text I am working with.
Well, these texts are traditionally understood to be non-melanoma or lesser vehicle text in China in the 7th century,
about two centuries after they were translated, a Chinese monk named Dushan,
well known as a scholar of these monastic rule books, argued that one of these texts, specifically the four part video,
was partially in accord with the greater vehicle or fund Hongkong for reasons I will explain in a minute.
First, my presentation will explain not only in what sense it meant for these monastic rules to be partially in accord with the greater vehicle.
But more broadly, I hoped that by illustrating what it meant to be sort of, but not quite Mahayana,
we might be able to understand what it meant to be really Mahayana, or at least to Buddhism 7th century China.
And through this contrast between Mahayana and partial Mahayana, we can understand something about Buddhism or religion or whatever.
So in particular, I argue that doctrine came to this conclusion through a strong reading of his text and
was thus doing some of the same hermeneutic work as many other Buddhist thinkers,
scholars and even poets from his time and beyond.
Furthermore, I hope to show that this strong reading was motivated by notions of orthodoxy, continuity and conscience.
Three themes I will explain in a minute. So two, so firstly, to discuss the place of the Vinaya texts and Chinese Buddhism,
then I'll discuss how the Russian understood the four part of India as being partially in accord with the greater vehicle.
Then I'll explain how this reading can be understood as a strong reading of the veneer.
And then I'll explain why Dilshan thought might have promoted the strong reading before coming to some conclusions.
So as to kind of my overall point for this. This presentation is that I think we need to incorporate discussion of the
role of monastic rules into a discussion about the Mahayana because rules and
morality are essential but often overlooked part of Buddhism that may reflect
some central concerns of the tradition in a way that other texts simply don't.
OK, so let's begin. So the place of the four part of India in Chinese Buddhism,
so there are two general categories of Buddhist legal text Vinaya and Bodhisattva precepts.
The Vienna attacks were rules for monastics that include a list of specific rules of what monks should and should not do.
For example, there are the logical rules the most specific the severely punished for rules,
including not having sexual intercourse, theft, etc. Then there are the body for subtext.
For example, the fun one gene, which overlaps partly with the veneer text.
But the majority of the rules have a character of a more general ethical principles to be followed.
For example, the injunctions not to praise oneself and disparage others reflects a more principle based morality,
in contrast to the rule based morality of the veneer tax.
And these veneer texts typically are considered more non marciano, whereas these properties offer pre-set text or Y.A. character.
So eventually, text on both these genres are translated into Chinese from Indic languages,
and eventually some appear to have been even created in China for the Vienna attacks, which is what I'm really going to focus on here for foreigners.
Were translated in the early part of the 5th century,
although there are a number of smaller text translated before this and a number of important texts translated after this.
These four are the main text that describe the veneer and the main text that Dilshan wrote about in his work.
So the titles of these for text are the 10 recitations veneer.
The four part of any of them are sung because many are. And the five part FANIA.
And generally speaking, each of these texts is associated with a group or nicoya that is thought to have had their own separate ordination lineage.
So, for example, we have this rustic bar to the Dharma Gupta, my son, Mysore Asika McHugh's, that are associated with each of these texts.
So that sort of have their own separate ordination age.
There was and but and the rules are largely similar in content, but varied from one another widely in the details.
OK, so although several of these texts were used in China by the 7th century,
the four part veneer or the veneer of the Dharma Group, the Makhaya became the most widely used and studied throughout China.
So that's why we're focussing on it here. Again, normally we think of these new guys as being on Mahayana groups.
But the preface to the translated for part of India describes the translator of this text.
So the four part of India and the Dharma Gupta and I remember that the same thing
describes the translator of this text named Buddha Arceus as a Dharma Gupta.
Come on a trip to talk us from China. So this preface appears to mostly just be an epithet and was likely written after the text was translated,
so may not represent any actual title that variations have.
But in a travelogue from the famous Chinese pilgrims, friends on, we see a connexion between the Dharma Gupta and the Mahayana,
he writes that there were Dharma Gupta shows in the country of Odierno, which is here,
and the people reverently believe in the Mayan monk study of Mahayana teachings.
But there are five traditions of the venire rules and practise, including the Dharma Gupta Ka, et cetera.
So although this record comes from about a century and a half after the texts were translated and might
represent a slightly different situation on the ground from the one in which these texts originally developed,
it appears that at least that in the audience. And one could follow the Vinaya and also the Mahayana with no apparent conflict.
In other words, it appears that the practise of the great the the sort of connexion between the
great vehicle and the practise of the vineyard didn't need to be argued for.
In contrast, in China,
most Chinese Buddhists regarded the Vinaya as a lesser vehicle text and appeared to associate the practise of the veneer with the lesser vehicle.
Also, for example, in scriptural catalogues, we have this lead Ihsan Belge,
where a Chang Fong, the author, categorises all these texts as being a lesser vehicle veneer.
Similarly, Dodgson himself in his own catalogue,
even though he argues that it's partially in accord with the Mahayana also catalogue categorises these texts as lesser vehicle many attacks.
So the question for Chinese seemed to be how exactly do the Vini attacks and by extension,
monastic life regulated by many attacks relate to the the Mahayana?
And that's where we come to the sort of main topic adoptions idea that the four part video is partially in accord with the greater vehicle.
OK, so after the translation of these Vienna attacks, there emerge a tradition of commentary and study of these works,
known as the veneer school Chinese needed to study and compare these text in order to understand them.
So they eventually so they develop Twitter essentially textbooks or manuals for monastic practise.
Most famous of these commentators is Dilshan, considered the founder of the Nanshan Veneer School.
There are over 15 excellent works that he wrote on the video, as well as many more than we no longer have.
The most important of these is the text known as the Civil Machine Church now, which I'm going to abbreviate as XY.
So change Tao X, I see the title can be translated something like the commentary on conduct and procedure in the four part of India.
So this text is based on the four part veneer, but compares all four videos, as well as many other Buddhist texts organised into 30 thematic chapters.
So in Chapter eight of this text on accepting the precepts,
he mentions the idea that the principle of the four part opinion matches the greater vehicle.
So quote question What vehicle is the principle of this teaching?
Does it develop the aims of the greater vehicle? Answer. As for this four part finish school, its meaning matches the greater vehicle.
Continues, the text of the property show the four part of says,
if you want to attain the brutal way for the sake of yourself, then you should respect and emphasise the correct precepts.
And it says transferring this marriage to sentient beings all the time the Buddha Way together, the four part video has many such examples.
OK, so this particular example he uses to explain why he thinks the four part company is in accord with the Mahayana
is actually a paraphrase from the dedication of merit verse from the Prati Moksha over the four parts anyhow.
So the pretty moksha. So I mentioned the translator of these longer veneer rules.
The Prati Moksha is the sort of abbreviated version of just the rules that are used without
any additional explanation that are used for these rituals every two weeks to recite them.
And at the end of the ritual,
there's this returning the Meret verse that seems to indicate that because it's the Meret is made for all sentient beings, it's a Mahayana idea.
So I'll come back to this point in a minute. He mentions there's many such examples.
And so. So we see, OK.
The Dutchman argues that the four part figure is an accord in his in his commentary that she should child.
But why exactly does he say this in a slightly later work the gym or show or commentary on Carmen Gym,
general show gyms, which is a work on monastic rituals.
He argues that there are five pieces of evidence for being in accord with the video, which are called the rule, if uncombed needs.
So, OK, so five pieces of evidence, so this.
This passage begins. How is it that the four part vanilla is in accord with the Buddha vehicle?
The Buddha vehicle means the Mahayana here. So first, because Javier Mala Putra despise being in our heart without need for further training.
We know that he was without steadfastness.
Second, because the merit created from reciting the emotion of the four part video is directed toward all sentient beings attaining the Buddha Way.
We know that the rest of the party most attacks do not return merit.
Third, because in the four part Fania amongst are addressed as Sons of the Buddha, we know that it is of no other vehicle.
Fourth, because the use of someone's forfeited property is not a grave offence.
We know that the mind is in accord with the greater vehicle.
And fifth, because since objects are not made apparent at the sense organs, we know that consciousness gives them their final meaning.
OK, those don't need any more explanation. So it is. I'm just kidding.
OK, so let me return to some of these and give you a little bit of an overview of what these are about.
So they're all very, very terse and require a lot of unpacking to understand.
So if we look at the first of these five, OK,
this is a reference to a story found in the four part Vinnie and also in the poly video about a disciple of the Buddha named Javier Mala Putra.
So Javier Mallacoota. Attained a level, according to the text, attained a level of an hour hot,
but realised when seated in meditation that he was not steadfast, and after getting up from meditation,
he goes to the booth to suggest that he could perform an offering of strength,
which is in something like physical labour in the form of distributing sleeping materials and food for visiting monks as a way to become more quote,
steadfast. So basically, he argues, to become the manager or the concierge of the monastery.
So Darshan seems to be implying here that because there was a monk who is not steadfast in his attainment
of our hardship and instead wanted to be of service to others rather than focus on his own enlightenment,
this was a manifestation of body the activity, though, of course, the vineyard doesn't say as much.
Specifically, the vineyard doesn't appear to say that he became a monastic manager because he despises our hot status.
Instead, he seems to have maintained his AHA status, even as he was managing these monks.
But this appears to be Dawson's own interpretation or strong reading,
and whether this makes the text in accord with the greater vehicle remains to be seen.
Indeed, the remaining four items of evidence are equally questionable.
The second one is basically the one we just mentioned above where the passage from the property Moksha mentions the term all sentient beings,
and so he believes it's a Mahayana verse.
The third one is maybe the most telling to me, basically in the four part veneer a few times.
It addresses these the monks as sons of the Buddha.
This folds. And although this sense of the Buddha in contrast to the normal way their address,
which is bigger so the sons of the Buddha appears only four times and is used in body cipher precepts like the fun one being so it
seemed to have indicated that this was somehow that the object of the four part Peneha were these so-called sons of the Buddha.
But it's really just this one word that appears four times in this otherwise very long text.
So those are just the three piece of evidence they wanted to explain today.
The other two are rather complicated, so I won't go into them.
But I think, as you can see, they all seem to be rather selective of what specific evidence he's looking for to
claim that the Mahayana was that the four part vanilla was in accord with the Mahayana.
Or, he might say, maybe cherry picked pieces of evidence to make Russians argument.
So that's the point I want to make that Darshan is a strong reader of the veneer.
So this notion of strong reading or a strong reader also known as misreading or mischievous young,
is taken from two books The Anxiety of Influence or a Map and the Map of Misreading by the late professor at Yale.
Harold Bloom. Now, I should say that Harold Bloom is sometimes reviled for his dollarisation of the so-called Western canon,
particularly amongst those of us who don't study the Western canon. Nevertheless, I think these works of literary theory have some lasting value.
So the notion of strong reading is a theory of poetic history,
literary history about how texts and authors influence one another, as he writes in The Anxiety of influence.
Poetic history is held to be indistinguishable from poetic influence,
since strong poets make that history by misreading one another so as to clear, imaginative space for themselves.
His theory describes the author of the older text as a precursor or father to the author of a later tanks called an F-5,
which is a Greek word for people and his theory. So although the later poet or fib is influenced by his or her precursor,
five also tries to individuate themselves through a process of strong reading.
And I believe that in this sense, that notion can be understood as a strong reader,
and his theory of the four part veneer of being partially in accord with the greater
vehicle and the same pattern can be found in a number of other Buddhist works.
For example, we can understand the founder of the TNT School, Judy's notion of the three truths as developing out of a misreading of Nagarjuna.
This idea of two truths. Similarly, in Japanese Buddhism, Robert Rhodes argues that Shimron,
the founder of the Jodrell Shinshu, deliberately misreads passages from the pure land sutures,
as well as the work of his predecessor, pre-cursor again seem to establish his own view of pure land Buddhism.
So although adoption doesn't quite fit the same pattern, we can still understand him to be the five or student of his precursor.
The four part video as sort of bonus points, Bloom also defined six types of visionary ratios or relationships between the predecessor and the A-fib.
All of these have very strange names, but it seems that outshines misreading could fall into the type of code that he calls ketosis,
which Bloom defines as a movement towards discontinuity with the predecessor sort of discontinuity from the four part veneer,
as opposed to other sorts of relationships such as correcting, completing, complimenting, et cetera.
But this point about the revision or ratios is a bit above my pay grade, so I think we'll just leave it there.
OK, so the final point I want to make, I guess, is why exactly did Ashwin make a strong reading?
Why did he argue that the four part veneer was in accord with the greater vehicle?
OK, so I think his reasons can be summarised with three main points orthodoxy, continuity and conscience.
So what orthodoxy? I mean the notion that in China, the Mahayana was seen as Orthodox Buddhism, which is sort of this.
This is sort of the standard explanation for why Downtrodden argued this point, as can be seen in this quote by Japanese scholar of Buddhism.
Come on the scene here. Essentially, this idea says that because Chinese Buddhism is Mahayana Buddhism,
Tharshan could do no other other than try to explain the veneer as being partially Mahayana in order to promote monastic practise.
However, although Orthodoxy is perhaps one of the main reasons why adoption may have chosen this strong reading of the veneer,
I believe that there are also doctrinal and ideological factors for why this was important to him.
Essentially, this discussion of the four part veneer being in accord with the my honour and both the teachings for Chow and
Jim Warshaw are part of larger discussions of the concept of the essence of the precepts or chitti complicated.
But fundamental concepts in East Asian veneer thought the essence of the precepts is basically
the idea that upon going through the ceremony to receive the precepts and become a monk or nun,
there are some sort of essence that the monk or nun received that both made them that made them distinct from laypeople.
The essence was also thought to help them uphold and maintain the precepts that they consented to follow.
And in this sense, it can be understood as being similar to the notion of a conscience.
That is to say it can be thought about as a moral intuition or an inner guide to right or wrong behaviour,
as suggested in the following passage from the GMO issue. What is the essence of the precepts?
Just going to get to the underlined section after accepting the precepts by relying on the essence function arises,
preventing all condition transgression. So I think it's saying that the function of this essence is to prevent transgression.
And in my mind, this is similar to this notion that we have and perhaps Western thought or other theories of morality that ascribe this conscience.
OK, so although this idea of the essence of the princess became particularly important and contentious in East Asia, it has its roots in Indian Army.
Dharma thought this gets into the weeds a little bit,
but doctrine in his Jamiel Shaw describes three different theories of the essence of the precepts.
One based on several the teaching and one based on a text known as the Chongjin alone.
So the debate around the essence of the research centres on what category of dharma this essence belongs to,
particularly whether it is a dharma of the mind or of the physical body.
The Saraswati violence argued that the essence of the precepts was an invisible physical dharma.
I was not the Yoruba because they argue that the precepts only apply it to physical and verbal actions.
In contrast, those who promoted the four part video argue that the essence of the precepts should be understood as neither physical nor mental,
or neither form nor matters that translated it here, and that was considered a partially my on a teaching.
But this was unsatisfying. It seems as though it still didn't explain how this essence of the precepts had any continuity after death.
In the case of the body of a process once accepted,
they were thought to last forever and stayed with you lifetime after lifetime on the bodies of the path.
In contrast,
the non-major on a princess were thought to be lost when the body ends and would not have had the same lasting effect on your spiritual path as,
say, meditative attainment. For this reason,
I think Dilshan abortion promotes his own third theory of the essence of the precepts what he calls the complete theory or complete teaching,
which argues that the essence of the precepts is a seed in the ellyatt consciousness described in the yogic are a thought,
as he writes again in the Jim Warshaw question If one argues that this is the correct theory.
How can one say that one's when one's body ends, they lose the precepts?
OK, answer. I'm just going to read the underlying part.
The aspiration to become a monk is limited to the body, and when the body comes to an end, the precepts are lost.
However, practise follows from this aspiration. Therefore, once one focuses on practise, they are able to give rise to later habituation, later.
Habituation in this case means not only habits in this life, but also fruits that bear out in later lives as well.
So to summarise, we saw that the four part denier is seen as a non Mahayana text,
and China adoption uses these five pieces of evidence to claim that the four part denier is partially Mahayana.
I said that this was a strong reading of the veneer, and this was done out of a sense of orthodoxy of the Mahayana in China,
as well as to establish a theory of conscience that explains how the merits of monastic practise have continuity after death.
So to conclude? So what does this mean to be partially in accord with the greater vehicle?
What does it mean to read the Vini as sort of, but not quite Mahayana?
And does it matter to the study of Mahayana Buddhism more generally?
Well, it's the doctrine.
The difference between Mahayana and non Marjayoun was not just a matter of a difference between the body's harmful ideal versus the AHA ideal,
but a question of morality of a moral compass and a conscience.
It was a question of how RULE-BASED based morality of the denier versus principle based morality of the a piece precept text could be
integrated into a complete theory of monastic practise that worked on the same principles whether you were a monk or a nun or a layperson,
or whether you were identified as Mahayana or non-market.
Thus, when we think about the question of what is or isn't Mahayana and what can we learn from my own attacks,
we can't for you to think about texts like the veneer that tell us about how Buddhist thought about how to live and how to conduct their lives.
The question that I see is a central concern of Buddhism and religion and philosophy more generally.
So through a strong reading of these texts and brought his new vision of Buddhist life to the fore to Dasha.
And this is what the main image of Buddhism that was moral,
both in principle and indeed one that assiduously followed the veneer while simultaneously working towards salvation and the benefit of all beings.
So if we squint our eyes, twist our neck and tilt our head, we might be able to see how these Vinny attacks were partially Mahayana.
And through linking conscience to continuity and orthodoxy,
we can see how Townshend sought to create a unified vision of Buddhism and monastic practise with no distinction between Mahayana and Non.
Thank you.