Dr Peter Oldmeadow

lectures held at

Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute
Melbourne, Australia

Contacts @ Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute
Office

673 Lygon Street (Between Pigdon and Park Streets),
Carlton North, Victoria, 3054.
Phone: 61-3-9387 0422
Fax: 9380 8296
email: e_vam@smartchat.net.au
Website: http://www.evaminstitute.org.au

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  Contacts @ Maitripa Contemplative Centre
Suellen Fuller
528 Myers Creek Road,
Healesville Victoria, 37777.
Phone: 61-3-5962 6167

Biodata:

DR Peter Oldmeadow is a lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical Indian and Buddhist Thought at the University of Sydney. His major scholarly interests are in Indian and Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, Sanskrit language and the development of Religious studies as an academic discipline in the West. His doctoral dissertation, a study of the Wisdom section of the only surviving Sanskrit commentary on Shantideva's "Bhodhicaryavatara" is soon to be published. He is currently working on the Mahayana-sutralamkara of Maitreya-Asanga.

IDEA AND REALITY: A Comparison of Some Key Western Thinkers and Buddhism
Saturday November 9 2002
8 tapes

This seminar will compare some important ideas of key Western philosophers who regard the world in different senses as "mental" or "mentally constructed" with Buddhist philosophical ideas. Specific aspects of the "idealism" of Plato, Kant, Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein will be considered with particular reference to Yogacara and madhyamika Buddhism.

Non-Violence in Traditional and Modern Buddhism
November 8 2002
2 tapes

Non-Violence has always been important in Buddhism. This talk will discuss the development of this principle in traditional Buddhism and its application in both the personal and social domains in modern Buddhism

Pure Lands: Pure Land Tradition and Tibetan Buddhism
November 7 2002
2 tapes

Pure Lands are best known through Pure Land Buddhism, a Buddhism of faith in the saving power of Amitabha Buddha and his "Western Paradise" but what role do Pure Lands play in Tibetan Buddhism? The talk will address this question.

Western Idealism and Yogacara Buddhism
November 10 2001
2 tapes

The Buddhist Yogacara or Cittamatra ("mind-only") School is often compared to Western idealism which, in some sense, regards the world as essentially "mental". This seminar will consider the value and validity of these comparisons. The understanding of the nature of mind in Western Idealism and Buddhism will be presented with particular reference to the Yogacara. The relation of the Yogacara position to tantricism and Dzogchen will also be considered.

Buddhism and the Postmodern Condition
November 9 2001
2 tapes

Postmodernity is characterized by plurality, ambiguity and uncertainty. Does Buddhism provide, as some claim, a means of living at ease with this or does postmodernity present a threat to Buddhism?

Buddhist-Christian Dialogues
November 8 2001
2 tapes

Buddhist teachers, including such prominent figures as the Dalai Lama and the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn, are encouraging Interfaith dialogue. This talk will explore Buddhist-Christian dialogue to date and examine the possibilities and difficulties in the Buddhist-Christian encounter.

SHANTIDEVA AND MADHYAMIKA (Middle Way) PHILOSOPHY (lectures)
16 September 2000
3 tapes

Shantideva is well known as a passionate advocate of the life of a Bodhisattva. Less well known is his presentation of the Madhyamika philosophy inherited from Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti and others. This seminar explores the place of wisdom (prajna) in the work of Shantideva and explores his place within Buddhist philosophy. It examines how in Shantideva's methodology Madhyamika is applied not only to intellectual errors but to emotional afflictions (klesha) in general. The seminar also discusses some of the differing interpretations and controversies associated with Shantideva's presentation.
BUDDHISM AND ECOLOGY (talk)
15 September 2000
1 tape

This talk reflects on some aspects of Buddhism and ecology, particularly in relation to Indian Yogacara Buddhism and its understanding of the relationship of self and the world and what this understanding may offer to environmental ethics and to a more balanced vision of the relationship between humanity and nature.
GLOBALISATION OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM (talk)
14 September 2000
1 tape

This talk explores the globalisation of Tibetan Buddhism that has occurred since the Tibetan diaspora of the 1950s and 60s and the associated changes in the way Tibetan Buddhism is understood and practiced.
THE PLACE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ASANGA IN MAHAYANA BUDDHISM (seminar)
August 21 1999
3 tapes

Asanga and Nagarjuna, the key figures of the Yogacara and Madhyamaka schools respectively, are arguably the two most significant figures after the Buddha for Mahayana Buddhism. This seminar examines the contribution of Asanga to the Mahayana. Of particular importance are the texts and doctrines attributed to him which not only laid the foundations for the Yogacara school but also provided a framework for the integration of tantric perspectives and practices into the Buddhist mainstream in the first millennium C.E. The approach of Asanga centres on the nature of consciousness and its transformation through practice. Accordingly, the focus of the seminar will be on false consciousness bifurcated into ego (literally "grasper", grahaka) and world (literally "graspable", grahya", the nature of mind and world, the "turning about" in the basis of consciousness (asrayaparavrtti), and awakened awareness. The seminar emphasises the close connection between philosophical and practical concerns in Asanga's presentation.

SANGHA (SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY) AND LAITY: TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY PATTERNS (public lecture)
August 19 1999
2 tapes

This lecture explores the traditional roles of monastic sangha and laity in Buddhism, as well as new patterns that are emerging in the contemporary world.

 

 

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Last Updated: 10 April 2003