Section: News Items


A meeting held between 3 and 5 July at Emmanuel College, Cambridge
inaugurated an important new phase in the developing dialogue between
Buddhism and contemporary Western thought. Approximately 100 delegates
assembled to hear some 20 papers given by scholars drawn from diverse
disciplines and several different countries. All of the papers which were
presented showed the profound influence of Buddhism on contemporary
thought, especially in the fields of philosophy and psychology. The use of
Buddhism to think through key questions in these and other disciplines was
innovative above all in its attempts to move beyond the traditional
polarization of 'Eastern' and 'Western' thinking; however, what was aimed
at was not simply a homogenization of these differing traditions. The
symposium represented a genuine attempt to examine how both discourses can
illuminate questions which are germane to both traditions, but are not
narrowly encapsulated within either. All of the speakers made a sincere and
impressive effort to open up questions, rather than to stage an adversarial
debate on the respective merits of Eastern or Western thought. The emphasis
on inquiry as opposed to polemic created a huge range of new possibilities
for dialogue between 'East' and 'West'--bearing in mind that both these
categories were created by the traditions of the West. In speaking here of
'dialogue' we would want to distinguish this process from what often passes
as dialogue in the Western tradition, but which could better be described
as dialectics, in the Socratic sense of the term.

A large number of papers given at the meeting stressed the relevance of
what has come to be described as continental or postmodern thought to the
commencement of this new kind of dialogue. This possibility has been opened
by a conjunction of shared interests: the non-substantiality of self, or
what has become known in some branches of philosophy and psychoanalysis as
the deconstruction of the subject; the importance of alterity or 'the
Other'; the role of language in the construction and perception of what we
commonly call 'the world' or 'reality'; sexuality and its relevance to the
sacred or the religious; dualism and non-dualism. Certain thinkers were
identified as of especial interest in this discussion, notably (from the
West) Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Georges Bataille, Friedrich
Nietzsche, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and (from
the East) Nagarjuna, Dogen, Saraha, Tsong Kha Pa, Nishitani, Candrakirti.
Some of the highlights included a paper on 'Expression in Dogen's Zen' by
Thomas Kasulis (Ohio State University); 'Imaginary Dialogue between
Heidegger and a Buddhist' by Joan Stambaugh (City University of New York);
'Tibetan Tantra, Nothingness and Nietzsche', by Geshe Thupten Jinpa
(University of Cambridge); 'Emerging trends at the interface of Buddhism
and Environmentalism' David Komito (John F. Kennedy University); and
'"Amidst a Blazing Wisdom Fire": visuality, identification and the
contribution of Tibetan thangkas to a non-dualist art history', by Jas
Eisner (Courtauld Institute).

The event generated a certain degree of media interest, with articles in
local and national papers, and the presence of a BBC film crew for the
Saturday morning session, extracts from which will appear in a BBC East
programme on Buddhism in East Anglia, due to be shown in the autumn.
Because of the high level of enthusiasm for the event it is intended to
hold a follow-up to the symposium in Cambridge in the summer of 1994. It is
hoped that a selection of papers from the meeting will be published
shortly.

Overall the meeting offered a unique opportunity to explore the
intellectual possibilities created by a new form of comparative thinking.
The success of this event has highlighted the need for further exploration
and investigation along these lines. It was clear from the response to the
papers that all the participants recognized that at this early stage in the
dialogue the emphasis should be on investigation rather than on the
provision of definitive answers to the questions posed.

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By JOHN PEACOCKE, Bolton Institute of Higher Education and PHILIPPA BERRY,
King's College, Cambridge
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