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Within the framework of his research stay at Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, Prof. Dr. Hong Xiuping 洪修平 will deliver a lecture “从‘心’义种种看南宗禅的特色” [A variety of perspectives on the Southern Chan school’s specificity, departing from the meanings of the character “Mind”]

After Buddhism spread from ancient India to China, it underwent an unceasing process of change. From the perspective of ideas and discourse, it is essential to look at the development of how Buddhism mixed with native Confucianist and Daoist ideas to form a Chinese Buddhism with Chinese characteristics. The Southern school of Chan Buddhism, founded by the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, is a representative case of this Chinese Buddhism. The Southern school of Chan took shape in the middle of the sinification of Buddhism and in the middle of the development of Chan. From the Chan doctrines of the “Five Chinese Patriarchs,” the Chan lineage of Bodhidharma to Hongren, the meaning of the character “mind” continuously changed, exhibiting two tendencies. From the poems of Huineng and Shenxiu, we can discover the differences between the Northern and Southern Schools of Chan.

创立于古印度的佛教传入中国以后，经过了一个不断的中国化过程，从思想理论看，主要是与中国原有的儒家思想和道家思想融合发展，形成了具有中国特色的中国佛教。六祖惠能所创的禅宗南宗就是中国佛教的典型代表。

南宗禅形成于佛教中国化的过程之中和中国禅的演化之中。从达摩到弘忍的禅宗“东土五祖”的禅法，“心”义不断变化，表现出两种倾向。从惠能与神秀的偈颂可以看出南北禅宗的差别。

传统佛教的“心”有多重涵义。惠能禅对传统佛教有许多革新，其核心是对“心”做了新的理解和发挥。从现存《坛经》的有关记载来看，惠能所言之心的涵义也是十分复杂的。南宗禅把人心和佛性统一于人们的当下之心。从惠能禅由“心”而展开的“无相、无念、无住”，可以看到惠能禅的当下之心是般若实相论与涅槃佛性论相结合的产物。

惠能的全部禅学理论都是围绕着人的解脱问题而展开的。从“心”的解脱到“人”的解脱，体现了南宗禅的发展。马祖的“平常心”突出了当下人的解脱。南宗禅的解脱强调的是自然解脱，从中体现出道家精神和中国特色。表现在禅修实践上，就是农禅并重，将禅修与运水搬柴、穿衣吃饭等日常生产和生活打成一片。

This lecture was made possible due to the generous support of the Tianzhu Foundation.

Within the framework of his long-term research stay at Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, Dr Georgios T. Halkias will give a lecture “The Shitro Ceremony and Lay Tantric Buddhism in Amdo, Qinghai Province”.

Professional practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism belong either to the ‘red sangha’ (dge ‘dun mar po) that includes celibate nuns and monks who wear the maroon robes, or the ‘white sangha’ (dge ‘dun dkar po), a lay community of male and female tantrists or ngakpa (sngags pa / sngags ma; Skt. māntrin). The latter are also known as those who wear the ‘white cloth’ and have uncut ‘braided hair’ (gos dkar lcang lo can), two distinctive markers of lay, and usually non-celibate, tantric practitioners. It would be fair to say, that the ngakpa of Rebkong in the north-eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai province, are well known in the Tibetan cultural world for comprising the largest community of householder tantric practitioners.  In this presentation, I will briefly introduce the history of the Rebkong community of ngakpas that belong to the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, known as the Reb kong snangs mang (a group of tantrists from Rebkong), and share some audio-visual material and observations from my fieldwork participation in the ceremony of the ‘100 peaceful and wrathful deities,’ the Shitro (zhi khro), that took place in June 2017 at the village of Shakarlung in the district of Rebkong.

This lecture was made possible due to the generous support of the Tianzhu Foundation .