BUDDHIST STUDIES

THE CHALLENGE

The Buddhist tradition has contributed greatly, in many ways, to diverse societies and cultures over long periods. There is much to study here. Yet this is the least studied and understood of humanity’s great living traditions.

How to remedy that?

• It is first necessary to reconstitute the historical record from what remains to us — current practices, old manuscripts, art, archaeology, architecture, et cetera. Texts are crucial.
• Having established the record, the challenge is then to analyse it.
  • As the tradition develops, down the centuries and across territories, meanings shift:
    • Doctrinal categories mutate — sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes dramatically.
    • Narrative forms have a life of their own; old stories appear in new guises, new genres revive and transform well-worn themes.
    • Institutions, conventions and practices develop by accretion. Subsidiary or preliminary elements start to loom larger; what was earlier the focus of attention later attracts perfunctory acknowledgement.

In each case, the evolution clearly reflects the context in which Buddhists have lived. The question is: how?

• At the same time, continuity is maintained. Certain elements are constant: the four truths, the Buddha’s biography, the vinaya rules. More importantly, a certain underlying concept and approach remains identifiable. The question is: just what defines it?

There are significant challenges here. To meet them will require concerted efforts.

THE OPPORTUNITY

To sustain a research programme, the first requirement is skilled personnel. Undergraduates and graduates must be recruited, taught and supervised.

Recruitment will not be hard. There is great demand from students of every nationality and background. Many who are able to satisfy the University’s entrance requirements will wish to study in Oxford as soon as it is possible for them to do so. Members of the Sangha will certainly be prominent among them.

The teaching team is currently planned to include:

• The Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies
• 5 permanent Lecturers¸ in:
  • Pali Buddhist Studies
  • East Asian Buddhist Studies
  • Tibetan & Himalayan Buddhist Studies
  • The Sociology of the Buddhist Tradition
  • The Art of the Buddhist Tradition
• Assistance from up to 5 research scholars in post at any one time

On this basis, the OCBS is committed to working closely with the University to expand the range of options for studying the Buddhist tradition in all its diverse aspects (and indeed to supporting initiatives for the study of any culture with a significant Buddhist component). Bursary schemes are also central to the vision.

The OCBS can then offer a framework within which scholars can collaborate on research. In this, it expects to have something in common with a science lab. People will always have individual research interests, but the Centre’s major research projects will involve most or all of the academic team in some capacity.

Research will be organised in a series of interdisciplinary project-based work groups. Groups planned or already in formation include:

TEXT EDITING:

To work from manuscript and other sources to establish the historical record.

• HISTORY OF IDEAS:
  To investigate how the ethical, psychological and philosophical categories & arguments associated with the Buddhist tradition have evolved.
• ART & LITERATURE:
  To explore how visual and narrative forms have reflected the history of Buddhist ideas.
• STATE & CIVIL SOCIETY:
  To examine the social dimension of the Buddhist tradition and to support initiatives on the ground.

The OCBS aims to become a resource for all those, from across the world, who have an interest in and an engagement with the Buddhist tradition. Together, we can make it so.

PALI STUDIES

All Buddhists have a strong focus on the Shakyamuni. The same is true of people from non-Buddhist cultures who are attracted to the tradition.

Recent experience in Oxford has shown that:

1. Scientifically-minded younger people from all over the world are interested in how Buddhism began, because:
   • what happened in the beginning conditions all later developments; and
   • early records reveal the Buddha as an outstanding figure with an extraordinary intellectual reach and an authentic human touch.
2. While the Pali material is of course no longer seen as uniquely primordial, it is still clearly crucial.

So, the subject of Pali Studies is due for a revival. There is much vital work to do in:

a. relating the Pali Tripitaka to the Agamas found in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese et cetera.
b. building on the earlier work of the Pali Text Society by applying text-critical analysis to the Pali material on a much broader manuscript base.

Academically, this work is challenging. It is also timely.

In response to modern secularism, the Buddhist tradition must again refresh itself. Renewal tends to involve a return to the source. This is a commonplace within the tradition, as the work of Xuán Zàng (Hsüan-tsang), for instance, illustrates.

The OCBS approaches the task of Pali scholarship in a spirit of disinterested, rigorous enquiry. Equally, it recognises that the results of such enquiry will have immediate, practical relevance. All who have an engagement with the Buddhist tradition will benefit from a better understanding of the foundational texts.

• Countries with a vital Pali Buddhist community should derive the greatest benefit. The OCBS should be able to:
  • help in bridging the gap between Pali Studies in Theravada countries and in the international academic community, both:
  • contributing to the continuing development of traditional monastic Buddhist Studies and
  • integrating Theravada scholars and their insights into international research projects; and to
• play its part in the movement to enhance the unity of the Buddhist tradition, both:
  • showing continuities in the tradition across cultures and epochs (and in the process validating the Pali tradition across the Buddhist world) and
  • offering a neutral nodal point, committed to the tradition as a whole but not to any particular strand of it.