Articulating Inner Dharma The Development of the “Five Viscera Mandala” in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism
 
Monday, September 28th, 18:00h
   
Takahiko Kameyama SPEAKER     

The Shingon concept of the “Five Viscera Mandala” (gozo mandara) is a sophisticated theory of the body that was widely circulated in Japanese Esoteric Buddhist circles during the medieval period. In Chinese medicine, five viscera—liver, heart, lung, kidney, and spleen—were regarded as the key elements for the physical, mental, and cosmological condition of human beings. The balance between their energies is the fundamental source of health, while their imbalance could lead to harmful effects. East Asian monks accepted this theory, and attempted to reconcile it with their Buddhist views in an effort similar to the relationship between Indian Buddhism and ancient Indian medicine and cosmology such as Āyurveda.
This talk will show how, in medieval Japan, Esoteric Buddhist monks enthusiastically studied ancient Chinese medicine and developed the Five Viscera Mandala as a main interpretative tool that equated bodily organs with the Five Esoteric Buddhas. This mandalic conception made it possible to intuitively grasp complex Shingon doctrinal and ritual discourses, giving concrete ground to such ideas as “attaining Buddhahood within this very body.”     


Takahiko Kameyama is a research fellow at Kyoto University and adjunct instructor at Ryukoku University. His research field is both the doctrinal and ritual discourses developed mainly within Esoteric Buddhist traditions in medieval Japan. He currently focuses on the physiological and embryological teachings transmitted by Esoteric practitioners belonging to Shingon temples from the perspective of Buddhist intellectual history, to reveal the conception of the human body unique to medieval Shingon. He has published a number of articles on this subject, and most recently he co-edited the volume Nihon Bukkyo to rongi (Kyoto: Hozokan, 2020).


This lecture will be held at the EFEO Kyoto (limited to the first 10 applicants) and on Zoom  (Max 100 people) at the same time.

If you want to come to the EFEO Kyoto for the lecture, please send an e-mail to efeo.kyoto@gmail.com in advance. The priority will be given to scholars and students.

To join the talk on Zoom, click on this link.  

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632546122
Meeting ID : 826 3254 6122

YOU WILL ALSO NEED A PASSCODE.

THE PASSCODE WILL REMAIN POSTED FROM SEPTEMBER 27, 13:00 TO SEPTEMBER 28, 19:00 JAPAN TIME ON THE TOP OF THIS PAGE.

 https://www.efeo.fr/blogs.php?bid=10&l=LO
 https://iseas-kyoto.org



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