[INDOLOGY] Lecture: Professor Eltschinger at Waseda

[YAMABE Nobuyoshi]

Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce a public lecture by Professor Vincent Eltschinger (École Pratique des Hautes Études [Paris]) at Waseda University. The details are as follows (please excuse cross-posting):

Date: February 26, 2025 (Wednesday)

TIme: 3:30pm -- 5:30pm

Venue: Waseda University, Toyama Campus, Building 36, Room 682

Language: English

Title: Sarvāstivādin and Early Yogācāra Critiques of Superstitious Belief (Astrology)

Abstract:

In its so-called paravāda section, the Yogācārabhūmi (300-350 CE) presents and criticizes sixteen “allodoxies” (paravāda), predominantly non-Buddhist doctrines, practices and institutions, some of which had already been targetted in canonical texts such as the Brahmajāla- and the Śrāmaṇyaphalasūtras. The last among these allodoxes is labelled kautuka­maṅgalavāda, i.e., “the doctrine of festive ceremonies and auspicious things,” which comes very close to the Western idea of “superstition” in its perceived opposition to reason. Quite unexpectedly though, what theYogācārabhūmi criticizes under that name is astrology both as a determinist theory of human destiny and as a body of propitiatory practices. In challenging superstition and astrology for their incompatibility with reason and karmic determinism, the Yogācārabhūmi often echoes Sarvāstivāda texts such as Kumāralāta’s Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā and the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra. After tracing the genealogy of the Indian Buddhist treatment of superstitious beliefs and practices, the present paper proposes a trilingual critical edition and translation of the kautukamaṅgala section and addresses its arguments against astral determinism.

About the speaker:

Vincent Eltschinger (1970; PhD, Lausanne, 2003), is professor of Indian Buddhism at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris), and specializes in late Buddhist philosophy, its polemical interactions with orthodox Brahmanism, and its religious and dogmatic backgrounds. He has been working extensively on Dharmakīrti and his successors’ philosophy of language, semantics, and noetics. Vincent Eltschinger is the author of numerous monographs and articles, including Caste and Buddhist Philosophy (Delhi, 2012), Buddhist Epistemology as Apologetics (Vienna, 2014), and, with Isabelle Ratié, Qu’est-ce que la philosophie indienne ? (Paris, 2023). Vincent Eltschinger is a co-editor of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism.

The lecture is open to the public and free of charge. No registration required. Everybody is welcome.

Nobuyuoshi Yamabe




Contact Information

Nobuyoshi Yamabe, Waseda University

Contact Email
yamabe at waseda.jp
URL
https://www.waseda.jp/flas/hss/news/2025/02/06/13439/

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