Category Archives: Religion-based Alternative Medicine
Focusing on Humanity (人間): Buddhist Traditions of Healing in Tibet – Dr Cathy Cantwell
Focusing on Humanity (人間): Buddhist living in/and/for Contemporary Society forum & workshop – 27 January 2018
INCISE will hold a forum and workshop on the 27th of January 2018 (10am-5pm) in collaboration with Fo Guang Shan London:
Focusing on Humanity (人間)
Buddhist living in/and/for Contemporary Society
Venue:
Canterbury Christ Church University
North Holmes Road campus
Lg26 Laud building, (lower) ground floor room 26
Time:
10am to 5pm
Book your free place here.
Programme
10am Opening with Fo Guang Shan Dignitaries and Deputy-Vice Chancellor, Prof. David Shepherd (CCCU)
10:30am Dr Fiona Kumari Campbell (Dundee)
Sensing Disability in Buddhism: Reading Sri Lankan Buddhism Against the Grain
This presentation discusses Buddhist understandings of ‘disability’ through an interpretative process called ‘reading against the grain’, which whilst drawing upon the Pali scriptural canon, reads the meaning of texts in an alternative way. This approach can provide an opportunity to recognise the possibility of Buddhism’s unique contribution to social justice for disabled people and dispel myths that Buddhist beliefs harm the social inclusion of disabled people. The presentation will cover Ableism (Abledment & Disability), Buddhist views of Bodies/Humankind by discussing the Four Sightings & Samvega, Four Noble Truths (Suffering), Paṭiccasamuppāda (Dependent Arising). I ask: How does Kamma relate to disability? How is the Buddha’s Body represented and finally I introduce Lakuntaka Bhaddiya, a disabled Buddhist hero.
Question & Answers, short break
11:30am Dr Cathy Cantwell (INCISE Visiting Senior Research Fellow)
Buddhist traditions of healing in Tibet
Historically, there have been many traditions of healing in ethnically Tibetan areas. Over time, two main specialisms have developed their own institutions, professional practitioners, and bodies of literature: traditional medicine, known as, the knowledge of healing (gso ba rig pa); and tantric Buddhist practices. Here, both are introduced, but the talk focuses on the Buddhist tantric traditions. Taking the case study of tantric longevity rituals, the techniques are examined, considering both theory and practice: how they are envisaged as working, and the contexts in which they are performed. The mental visualisation practices are one dimension, combined with embodied performance which includes communal enactment and the production and consumption of longevity pills. The natural potencies and medicinal qualities of the pills’ ingredients is an important aspect, while these are considered to be enhanced by the consecrations during the rituals.
Question & Answers, short break
12:30pm Professor Richard King (Kent)
Mindfulness: traditional Buddhist meditation and secular therapies
This presentation examines the role of ethics and prajna (‘wisdom) in classical South Asian accounts of vipassana (‘insight’ [meditation]) and explores the way in which way mindfulness is understood in secular and engaged Buddhist contexts.
Question & Answers
1:30pm Lunch (vegetarian, provided – please write to incise@canterbury.ac.uk in case of allergies)
Afternoon
2:45pm-4:45pm
Workshop with senior Fo Guang Shan nuns and volunteers:
- Humanistic Buddhism
- Art and Chanting
- FGS Movie
Speaker’s Bios
Dr Fiona Kumari Campbell, is an interdisciplinary researcher in the School of Education & Social Work, University of Dundee as well as an Adjunct Professor in Disability Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Her research focuses on studies in ableism, disability philosophy, Buddhism and disability as well as Sri Lankan approaches to peripheral populations and intersectionality.
Dr Cathy Cantwell is the President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies. She specialises in Tibetan and Himalayan tantric rituals of all periods from the 10th century CE, and especially the ritual texts and practices deriving from the “Early Transmissions” (snga ‘gyur rnying ma). Before becoming an INCISE Senior Visiting Fellow she was based at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (2002-2015), and is currently involved in a major research project on a twelfth century Tibetan manuscript collection, at the University of Bochum, Germany.
Dr Richard King is Professor of Asian Buddhist Studies and Head of Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kent. His scholarship focuses on classical Indian (Hindu and Buddhist) philosophy and its ongoing representation through the category of ‘religion’ in the modern period. His current research interests include ‘mindfulness meditation’ from its ancient roots as a Buddhist monastic practice to its current deployment as a modern ‘secularised’ therapy in healthcare, corporate and military contexts.
Reflections on Tibetan Tantric Rituals Connected with Healing – Dr Cathy Cantwell (INCISE Visiting Senior Research Fellow)
Programme 2016/2017
Download as PDF here
Date | Time | Event | Location |
16-Sep | 2:30pm | Professor Rob Hattam (University of South Australia) Research pedagogy in an urban region serving high poverty communities | Lg25 |
01-Oct | 6:15pm | Julie Parker – The Platonic Myths – Community Arts & Education | |
10-Oct | 10am-3pm | World Mental Health Day Speakers: Yasmin Ishaq (Open Dialogue Specialist), Bee Scherer, Adele Phillips School of Public Health, Midwifery and Social Work/INCISE. More info and registration at here. (photos and video) |
Broadstairs Campus, Main Hall |
11-Oct | 5pm | Professor Tom Foster – Enslaved Men and Same-Gender Intimacy and Exploitation – Part of Black history month @CCCU |
Pg09 |
14-Oct | 5:30pm | Professor Naomi Goldenberg (Ottawa) – Queer Theory meets Critical Religion – INCISE Launch celebration (PDF/video) | Og46 |
15-Oct | 6:15pm | Chris Pike – The Detective, the Shulamite and the Garden of Dreams – Community Arts & Education | |
17-Oct | 5pm | Sheikha Halima Krausen (Hamburg) – Islam and Social Justice (PDF/video) – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice | Lg16 |
21-Oct | 1pm | Research Theory Roundtable – Researcher Development Programme | Af33 |
29-Oct | 6:15pm | Simon Wilson – John Wood and the Cosmological Vision of Albion – Community Arts & Education | |
31-Oct | 5pm | Bojan Koltaj – Žižek on Islam – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice | Lg16 |
03-Nov | 5pm | James Frost – Introduction to Hermeneutics – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series | |
10-Nov | 5:30pm | Dr Felicity Callard – Interdisciplinarity as Research Methodology – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series | Pg06 |
12-Nov | 5pm | Lucy Wyatt – Psychedelics, Cities and a Question of Origins – Community Arts & Education | |
14-Nov | 5pm | Dr Fahid Qurashi – Muslim Radicalisation in Britain – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice | Lg16 |
21-Nov | 5:30pm | INCISE TDoR – Transgender Day of Remembrance (video) | Lg16 |
26-Nov | 6:15pm | Livia Sevier – Indian raga, restoring an ancient house – Community Arts & Education | |
28-Nov | 5pm | Dr Lynn Revell – Islamophobia – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) | Lg16 |
05-Dec | 5pm | Dr Wim Peumans (University of Witwatersrand)- Queer Muslims in Belgium: Religion, Migration and Sexuality – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) |
Lg16 |
08-Dec | 5pm | Bojan Koltaj – Post Marxism (Zizek) – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series | |
Postponed | Dr Lynn Revell – Critical Race Theory – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series (New date to be announced) | tba | |
20-Jan | 3pm | Julia Moore – Myth Discussion Group: Intuitive Reading (Workshop) | Nt07 |
23-Jan | 5pm | Dr Simon Hayhoe (Bath University) – Islamic and Christian Perspectives on Disability – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) | Lg16 |
25-Jan | 5pm | Dr Leo Raznovich – Queering the Caymans: QP7, Law and Progress – INCISE Public lecture (video) | Og46 |
01-Feb | 3pm | James Frost – Research seminar: ‘Re-sacralising the Tarot’ (Discussion) | |
01-Feb | 5pm | Dr Cathy Cantwell – Reflections on Tibetan Tantric Rituals Connected with Healing (video) | Og46 |
02-Feb | 5:30pm | Dr Jennifer Hardes – Biopolitics – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series (video) | Lg48 |
06-Feb | 5pm | Dr Tanya Halldórsdóttir – Islam and Gender in Yemen – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) | Lg16 |
16-Feb | 5:30pm | Professor Linden West – Introduction to Psychoanalysis – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series | tba |
17-Feb | 3pm | Geoffrey Cornelius – Myth Discussion Group: Discovering the I Ching (Workshop) | The Priory – Garden Room |
20-Feb | 5pm | Rami Younes – Perspectives from Syria – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) | Lg16 |
02-Mar | 5:30pm | Professor Bee Scherer – Queer Theory – RDP with INCISE : Theory of Knowledge Series (video) | Lg48 |
06-Mar | 5pm | Zulfi Ali – Perspectives from Pakistan – INCISE seminar series: Islam & Social Justice (video) | Lg16 |
16-Mar | 10am-4pm | Beneath the Mask: Artists, Archives and A/Gender A day of events, exhibitions and spectacle prompted by Claude Cahun’s exploration of identities and masking. (Sidney Cooper Gallery, in cooperation with INCISE) (Photos and Videos) | Sidney Cooper Gallery |
17-May | 5pm | Aleardo Zanghellini Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University of Reading – The personal is political (or why family law needs political philosophy): Religion and transphobia in the courtroom – INCISE IDAHOT lecture (video) | Lg16 |
29-Jun to 02-Jul | Critical Suicidology Conference – Call for Papers (photos and videos) | ||
6-Jul | 2-3pm | Dr Alexandra Polyzou Post-feminism and sexual health Ideological presuppositions in Greek women’s lifestyle magazines |
Dr Cathy Cantwell joins INCISE
We are happy to announce that Dr Cathy Cantwell, eminent scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, has officially been appointed Senior Research Fellow at INCISE!
Dr Cantwell will lead our research programme on Tibetan healing and Medicine.