Yogācāra Studies Unit
Our CFP outlines a set of panel topics that we are particularly interested in soliciting proposals for. If you would like to participate in a panel on one of these topics, please contact the person listed. Anyone is also welcome to propose a panel or a paper on a topic in Yogācāra Studies that is not listed here. Panel proposals are much more likely to be accepted than individual paper proposals, so it is best to try to find other scholars and to jointly make a panel proposal on your topic. Feel free to contact the unit co-chairs (Douglas Duckworth, duckworth@temple.edu or Jingjing Li, j.li@phil.leidenuniv.nl) with any questions about proposals.
- Text panel: We are looking for proposals from groups of scholars to lead the assembled group in a discussion of a selected passage from a key text. The text can be extant in just one or in any combination of Buddhist languages. The ideal proposal is from a team of scholars working on the text, and the ideal panel format involves a combination of comments from the presenters and discussion with the audience. Anyone with questions about how a text panel should be structured is free to contact unit co-chairs Douglas Duckworth (duckworth@temple.edu) and Jingjing Li (j.li@phil.leidenuniv.nl).
- Book Panel on Bill Waldron’s Making Sense of Yogācāra (Eyal Aviv, eviv@gw.edu)
- The role of commentary in Yogācāra (Szilvia Szanyi, szilvia.szanyi@theology.ox.ac.uk)
- Tantra and Yogācāra (Slava Komarovski, ykomarovski@gmail.com and Davey Tomlinson, david.tomlinson@villanova.edu)
- Aesthetics and Yogācāra (Chihying Wu, chihying_wu@berkeley.edu)
- Book Panel on Jed Forman’s Out of Sight, Into Mind (Jed Forman, jed.forman@gmail.com)
The Yogācāra tradition within Buddhism provides the seminal basis for many forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Yogācāra was the preeminent Buddhist school for many centuries in India, East Asia, and Tibet. Even after its relative decline as a distinct tradition, its teachings continued to provide the basis for both the theory and practice of subsequent Buddhist Mahāyāna schools throughout Asia, and it has seen a resurgence in the 20th and 21st century in Asia, including in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and among Tibetans.