The Great Debates: Ideas in Action, Tibetan Buddhism and Confucianism
VIEW EVENT DETAILSSaturday 3:00-6:00 pm
The Great Debates: Traditions and Forms series explores systems of debate and discourse across cultures and religions. This series of panels examine both the form and content of debate in different traditions.
Saturday, April 21
3:00-4:00 pm
Tibetan Buddhist Debate Today, with Professor Georges Dreyfus and monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
4:00-5:00 pm
Confucian Ideas in 21st-Century East Asia, with John Delury
5:00-5:30 pm
Ideas in Action — Comparative Exploration of Approach and Issue
Q & A
Presented in association with City Lore
The Great Debates: Traditions and Forms series is made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund.
Speakers
John Delury is assistant professor of East Asian Studies at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies and Underwood International College in Seoul, South Korea. He is also a senior fellow of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, where he was previously associate director, and is currently co-authoring a book on modern China with the Center's Arthur Ross Director Orville Schell.
Before moving to Korea, John taught Chinese history and politics at Brown, Columbia and Peking Universities. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in history from Yale University.
Georges Dreyfus left his native Switzerland for India in 1970, and soon began studying with Ven. Geshe Rabten, the great scholar-yogin whom H.H. the Dalai Lama had invited to teach the growing number of Westerners arriving in Dharamsala. Within one year he took monastic ordination and embarked on the demanding training program for the degree of Geshe. In 1985 he was awarded the degree of Lharampa Geshe, the highest academic qualification in the Geluk system — the first Western student to be so honoured. He subsequently completed both M.A. and Ph.D degrees at the University of Virginia under Prof. Jeffrey Hopkins. He is now Professor of Religion at Williams College.
Very much inspired by the spirit of non-sectarianism, Dreyfus has studied extensively outside of the Geluk school where he received his basic training. He studied and practiced Theravada meditation techniques with Munindra and other qualified teachers. He also studied with the Sagya Khenpo Migmar Tsering logic and epistemology as well as Madhyamaka philosophy. He also received teachings from both Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen, and further studied Madhyamaka and some of the most important texts on Vajrayana practice within the Nyingma tradition with Khenpo Namdrol.
Sunday, April 22 program:
The Great Debates: The Art of Debate, Jewish Style