buddhiststudies@berkeley.edu
3:52 AM (6 hours ago)

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Dear Friends of the Center for Buddhist Studies at UC Berkeley,

The Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages in Berkeley would like
to invite you to a panel discussion and workshop entitled “The Language of
Meditation across Religious Traditions,” scheduled to take place Sunday,
April 7, 2013, 1-6 pm, 2018 Allston Way, Berkeley.

Panel: 1:00 – 2:30 PM  •  Workshop: 3:00 – 6 PM

Cost:
$15 Panel Only / $45 for both events
Seniors and Students  $10 / $25

For more information, see attached flyer.

Sanjyot Mehendale
Vice Chair, Center for Buddhist Studies
University of California
2223 Fulton Street, #512
Berkeley, CA 94720-2318
Tel: (510) 643-5104

Sanjyot Mehendale
Vice Chair, Center for Buddhist Studies
University of California
2223 Fulton Street, #512
Berkeley, CA 94720-2318
Tel: (510) 643-5104

The Language of Meditation across Religious Traditions

Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages 2018 Allston Way in Downtown Berkeley
register at www.mangalamresearch.org

Panel

Robert Buswell,Jr. UCLA a noted scholar of Korean ZEN Buddhism, He spent 7 years as a Monk
Alan Godlas University of Georgia, Islam and Sufi Spirituality and Consciousness transformation
Carl McColman author of Big Book of Christian Mysticism
Jack Petranker Centre for creative Inquiry, Meditation Teacher Tibetan Nyingma Insdtitute
Eleanor Rosch University of california, berkeley; psychology, religious contemplative practices, Buddhist Meditation
Workshop
Varieties of Meditative Experience
Meditation Instruction and Discussion with
Three Scholar - Practitioners in different traditions
*    ZEN Question (Koan) Robert Buswell
*    Christian Contemplative Meditation Carl McColman
*    Sufi Vocal and Silent Meditation Alan Godlas
No Words and Letters,
Points Directly to the Human Mind.
See Your Nature and Become an Awakened One with Awareness-A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures
This is The Language of Meditation across Religious Traditions
Mediation is the heart of Zen practice.
And yet, this kind of Awaken-ness with Awareness is famous not only for its focus on meditation, but also for its paradoxical statements known as koan; for its iconoclasm, spontaneity, and freedom. We will explore all of this, but may also come to know other sides of Zen. Zen discipline. Zen art. Zen mummies. Zen poetry. Zen nationalism. Zen institutions. Zen gardens.

http://www.haverford.edu/east/zenweb/zensyl01.htm
 



Zen Thought, Zen Culture, Zen History
EASTH256b, HISTH256b, RELGH256b
Spring 2003
Instructor: Prof. Hank Glassman
MW 2:30 – 4:00 Chase 101 
Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3
Office: Founder’s 125 x1265
 
“A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures.
It does not Rely upon Words and Letters,
but Points Directly to the Human Mind.
See Your Nature and Become a Buddha!”

Course Description:


What are we talking about when we talk about Zen? This course is an introduction to the intellectual and cultural history of the style of Buddhism known as Zen in Japanese. We will examine the development and expression of this religious movement in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

In these countries, the sect is called Ch’an, Son, Zen, and Thien respectively. All of these names are transliterations of a Sanskrit word for meditation, dhyana. Zen is the meditation school. Mediation is the heart of Zen practice.

And yet, this kind of Buddhism is famous not only for its focus on meditation, but also for its paradoxical statements known as koan; for its iconoclasm, spontaneity, and freedom. We will explore all of this, but may also come to know other sides of Zen. Zen discipline. Zen art. Zen mummies. Zen poetry. Zen nationalism. Zen institutions. Zen gardens. 

The course is divided into five broad and overlapping themes. We will begin by examining the idea of religious experience and try to understand the methods and the goals of Zen practice. Next, we will question the role of history and historical awareness in the study of religion. In the third segment of the course, we will delve deeper into Zen philosophy and explore the relationship between ends and means. The fourth theme engages the koan and the place of language in Zen. Finally, we will probe Zen soteriologies. What could salvation mean in the face of Emptiness?

Course Requirements:

This is a seminar. Students are expected to read all assignments carefully and come to class ready to discuss them. The instructor will post questions as topics for our conversations through the class email list each week, and students are invited to do so as well. Each student is expected to be an active participant in the classroom discussions and online discussions. (approx. 25%)

In addition, students will make group presentations once a week. Each student will be responsible for one presentation over the course of the semester. These should be five to ten minutes long. Dry and boring summaries that fail to engage the readings in critical dialogue will receive low grades. (approx. 15%)

Students will submit one five-page mid-term essay on the course assignments and one research paper of fifteen pages on a topic chosen from a list provided by the instructor. Students are also welcome to devise their own topics in consultation with the instructor. (approx. 30% each)


Course Assignments:


Required texts (available at Haverford Bookstore and on reserve at Magill):

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness

Robert Buswell, The Zen Monastic Experience

Steven Heine and Dale Wright, eds., The Koan: Texts and Contexts

Robert Buswell, Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen 

Other materials available on eRes are marked with an asterisk.

Optional texts (available at Haverford Bookstore):

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Readable and lively introduction to Zen; seminal text for Zen in America.)

Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The doctrinal foundations (Excellent overview of the larger world of Mahayana Buddhism, the contextual ground of Zen’s philosophy, soteriology, and ritual practice. Highly recommended.)

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism (Concise sourcebook compiled by an eminent scholar of Buddhism. Contains iconographic drawings and reproductions of ink paintings.)

Class Schedule:
Part One: Zen Practice, Zen Experience

January 20 
Introduction, Ox-herding pictures 

http://www.cs.sfu.ca/people/ResearchStaff/jamie/personal/10_Bulls/Title_Page.html 

January 22 
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
*Sheng-yen, “Zen Meditation”

January 27 
*James, “Mysticism”
*Suzuki, “Chief Characteristics of Satori” 
*Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience”

January 29
Buswell, Zen Monastic Experience, pp. 1-106 (pp. 21-68 optional)

February 3
Buswell, Zen Monastic Experience, pp. 149-223 

February 5
*Arai, Women Living Zen (selection)

Interlude: Some Background

February 10 
*Dumoulin, pp. 3–40

February 12 
*Dumoulin, pp. 41-59
*D.T. Suzuki, Manual, pp. 38-64

Part Two: Zen History

February 17
*Levering,”Lin-chi (Rinzai) Ch’an and Gender”
*Tsai, Lives of the Nuns
*Nguyen, Zen in Medieval Vietnam (selection)

February 19
*Hu Shih, “Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in China Its History and Method” 
*Suzuki, “Zen: A Reply to Hu Shih”

February 24
*Maraldo, “Is There Historical Consciousness Within Ch’an?” 
*Wright, “Historical Understanding: The Ch’an Buddhist Transmission Narratives and Modern Historiography”

February 26

*Faure, “Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm”
*Broughton, The Bodhidharma Anthology (selection)

Febuary 28: mid-term essays due

March 3 
*Nguyen, Zen in Medieval Vietnam (selection)

March 5
*McRae, “The Story of Early Ch’an”
*Yampolsky, Platform Sutra (selections)

FALL BREAK (no class March 10, March 12)

Part Three: Zen Practice, Zen Doctrine

March 17
Buswell, Tracing Back the Radiance, pp. 1-40

March 19 
*Demieville, “Mirror of the Mind”
*Gregory, “Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation” 

March 24 
Chinul (Buswell), Tracing Back the Radiance, pp. 40-117

March 26
Chinul (Buswell), Tracing Back the Radiance, pp. 118-187

Part Four: Zen Language

March 31
*Miura and Sasaki, The Zen Koan (selection) 
*Buswell, “The ‘Short-Cut’ Approach of Kan-h’ua Meditation” 

April 2
Heine and Wright, The Koan, pp. 15-74 (Foulk)

April 7 
Heine and Wright, The Koan, pp. 75-108, 137-167 (Welter), (Heine)

April 9 
Heine and Wright, The Koan, pp. 200-232, 280-315 (Wright), (Hori)

Part Five: Zen Salvation 

April 14 
*Film: “Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East?”

April 16 
*Sharf,”The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the
Mummification of Ch’an Masters in Medieval China” 
*Faure, Visions of Power (selection) ”
*Dogen (Tanahashi), “Record of Bringing Master Myozen’s Relics

April 21 
*Bodiford, “Zen and the Art of Funerals”
*Reader, “’Die Buddhist. . .’: Zen, Death, and the Ancestors”

April 23 
*Gimello. “Meditation in Its Contexts” 
*Bielefledt, “Sudden Awakening and No-mind”

April 25: Final Paper Topics Due with Provisional Bibliography

April 28
*Dogen(Tanahashi), “Power of the Robe” 
*Faure, “Quand L’Habit Fait le Moine”

April 30
Ten Bulls Redux

Senior Final Papers Due May 8 by 5:00

Other Final Papers Due May 16 by Noon
 
home

 
http://sweepingzen.com/robert-buswell-korean-buddhism-in-the-east-asian-context-video/

Running  FREE ONLINE  eNālāndā Research and Practice UNIVERSITY through http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org.Translating TIPITAKA to Tamil from Pali, Sihnala, English. Practiced ZEN meditation for 5 days in Bijapur, Karnataka, India, Attended Pabajja Course in Mahabodhi Society, Bangalore, India and Vipassana Meditation at Bangalore. Meditation has become part and parcel of this life, even while swimming in Ocean for 1 Km in Sri Lanka. It is true that there is
“No Words and Letters, it 
Points Directly to the Human Mind.
 We can See our Nature and Become an Awakened One with Awareness-A Special Transmission Outside the Scriptures.This is The Language of Meditation across Religious Traditions

http://www.carlmccolman.com/2013/01/28/a-christian-prayer-for-daily-contemplative-practice/

A Christian Prayer for Daily Contemplative Practice
By Carl McColman in Spirituality

Seagrove Beach, FL. Photo by Fran McColman.

O God of Uncreated Light, we come before you now to offer you our selves. We can only do this through your grace.
Grant us the grace of mindfulness. Help us to be calm, so that we may rest in your silence and peace.
Grant us the grace of willingness. Transform our will into yours, with delight and joy.
Grant us the grace of heartfulness. Unite us with you in the mystery of love, that we may love our neighbors as ourselves.
All this we ask with glad confidence and hope in you, O God, by the power of the Holy Spirit through the humanity of your blessed son Jesus Christ. Amen.

I wrote a version of this prayer a few years ago. I’ve adapted it for use in the Winter Feast for the Soul series of podcasts I’m doing in support of a daily Christian meditation/contemplative prayer practice. I thought I’d post it here in case anyone might want to print it out or share it with others. Obviously, I have written this prayer specifically within the context of the Christian tradition, although of course it is my hope that it could be a blessing to people of any or all faith traditions.

If you are praying it in solitude, perhaps you would like to use this version instead (although it’s certainly appropriate to pray in the plural voice, even when alone!):

http://islam.uga.edu/Sufism.html
Sufism — Sufis — Sufi Orders
Sufism’s Many Paths
Dr. Alan Godlas, University of Georgia

Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.

After nearly 30 years of the study of Sufism, I would say that in spite of its many variations and voluminous expressions, the essence of Sufi practice is quite simple. It is that the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over and over; which involves embracing with love at each moment the content of one’s consciousness (one’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one’s sense of self) as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.

Workshop on Sufi-Islamic meditation with Dr. Godlas in the Bahamas, March 22-24, 2012 As a part of the “Meditation as a Path to Enlightenment: An Interfaith Symposium” held at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in Nassau, Bahamas, March 18, 2012 to March 24, 2012, Dr. Godlas will be giving a series of presentations (on March 22, 23, and 24) involving both lectures on meditative practice in Sufism as well as sessions of silent and vocal dhikr (i.e., Sufi meditation and chanting). Participants are welcome to come for just Dr. Godlas’ presentations, for the entire symposisum, or for any part of it. For costs and reservations, see the information at Sivananda Ashram website, linked here.

Sufi Spiritual Transformation Workshop w/Dr. Godlas March 29-30, 2008, near Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Sufis Without Borders An online semi-private discussion group loosely moderated by Dr. Godlas and a moderating committee; currently over 1100 international participants from many Sufi orders and perspectives, interested non-Sufis, and scholars.

Sufi News and Sufism World Report The only news digest from around the world concerning Sufis and Sufism. Updated daily.

Sufi Cartoons

Table of Contents

Sufism: an Introduction 
Classical Sufi Definitions of Sufism 
Obstacles on the Path 
Struggle With One’s Nafs (self)  
Awakening to the Awareness of the Unmanifest World  
Remembering God  
Sufism, Remembrance, and Love 
Islam’s Relationship to Sufism: Approval and Criticism  
Sufism and Sufi Orders in the West 
Sufi Poets and Sufi Poetry 
Sufi Women  
Sufi Qur’an Commentary (Sufi Tafsir) 
Sufi Resources, Books, Bookstores, Events and Conferences, and Sufi Personal and Marriage Ads 
Online Sufi Texts in Arabic
Shaykhs, Sufi Orders, and Shrines
Selected Sufis
Sufi Orders and Their Shaykhs

Hasan al-Basri
Malamatiya
Rabi’a al-Adawiya
Yasawiya - Ahmet Yasawi
Bayazid-i Bistami
Kubrawiya (and Oveyssi)- Najm al-Din Kubra
Sahl ibn ‘Abdallah al-Tustari
Qadiriya - ‘Abd al-Qadir Jilani
Mansur al-Hallaj
Rifa’iya - Ahmet Rifa’i
Abu ‘l-Hasan Kharaqani
Mevleviye - Jalal al-Din Rumi
Abu Sa’id Abu al-Khayr
Bektashiye - Haji Bektash Veli
Khwajah ‘Abdallah Ansari
Naqshbandiya - Baha’ al-Din Naqshband
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Ni’matallahiya - Shah Ni’matallah Vali
‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani
Bayramiye - Haji Bayram Veli
Ruzbihan-i Baqli
Chishtiya - Mu’in al-Din Chishti
Ibn ‘Arabi
Shadhiliya - Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili
Yunus Emre
Khalwatiya - ‘Umar al-Khalwati

Tijaniya - Ahmad al-Tijani

Muridiyya - Ahmadu Bamba

Qalandariya

Orders in East Africa

Orders in North Africa

Orders in Indonesia and Malaysia

Orders in Afghanistan

Orders in Pakistan

Orders in Bangladesh and India

Orders in Kurdistan

Orders in Russia

Orders in Turkmenistan

Orders in the Balkans

http://sufinews.blogspot.in/2012_09_01_archive.html

WASHINGTON - Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman told an American audience at a cultural event on Saturday night that Sufism embraces the spirit of tolerance and inclusion, and its message is increasingly relevant in this age of competing ideologies.

She was speaking at the Smithsonian Institute, where popular Pakistani Sufi singer Sanam Marvi gave a mesmerizing performance, attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.The new US ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson, senior American officials and a large number of Pakistani and American followers of the mystic poetry and music attended the performance by the acclaimed singer. In her remarks, sherry made it clear that Sufism was not a sect of Islam. “Its practice encapsulates the very essence of our faith,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“For over a decade now,” she said, “we have seen the marketplace of global ideas distorted by new walls of hatred and prejudice… This negativity causes many to lose hope in the project of peaceful civilizations, that instead of clashing, nurture the best in humanity.”

She told the audience that Pakistan’s founding father, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, actively advocated a plural model of citizenship, asserting that all Pakistani citizens shall enjoy the same rights and privileges, regardless of their religious affiliation.

Sherry explained to the attentive audience the message of Sufism as she observed that “being grounded in the mystical connection between the individual and the divine, Sufism embraces the spirit of tolerance and inclusion in both its discourse and practice”.

“This is one of the reasons why Sufi saints played a central role in the spread of Islam, especially in South Asia, making it the second biggest and the most practiced religion in the world,” she added.

“The Sufi doctrine is simple and universal, that the light of God abides in the heart of each person. The Sufi ‘tariqa’ or the Sufi way guides us on the roads of the inner journey towards discovering the self, for the ultimate goal of reaching the divine light and wisdom that each one of us carries within.”