Fall 2011 Events

Brown Bag Series:

30 September, 12:00 pm, Walker Hall 201D

Mario Poceski, Department of Religion

Hagiographic Transformations of Patriarch Ma:
Communal Remembrance and Historical Imagination in the Chan (Zen) Tradition of Chinese Buddhism

In this presentation, Dr. Poceski will examine the larger issues of historical remembrance and religious (re)imagination within the Chan tradition of Chinese Buddhism, by looking at significant hagiographic portrayals of the famous monk Mazu Daoyi (709-788). The varied sources about Tang-era Chan Buddhism reveal remarkable diversity and complexity, incorporating a mélange of elements that span the elitist and the popular. They also point towards considerable fluidity and cumulative embellishment as marks of Chan’s evolving self-representations, which revolved around the animated images of its leading patriarchs. As generations of Chan/Zen teachers and writers articulated diverse visions of Chan orthodoxy, they attributed aspects of their religious outlooks and ideological agendas back to Mazu, thereby transforming his religious persona in light of ever-changing religious perspectives and institutional predicaments.

The Humanities Brown Bag Series features informal talks by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere’s (CHPS) Rothman Summer Fellows. Faculty fellows will speak for 20-30 minutes in length about their summer work, leaving ample time for questions and discussion. Please feel free to bring your own lunch, and the CHPS will provide coffee and dessert.

For more information on becoming a Rothman Summer Fellow, see the Call for Proposals.

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