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Birds As Ornithologists Scholarship Between Faith and Reason I T Nd Ib Birds as Ornithologists Scholarship between Faith and Reason Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Perspectives Edited by Orna Almogi Hamburg nd I INDIAN ANDT TibIBETAN STUDIES 8 Hamburg • 2020 Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg Birds as Ornithologists Scholarship between Faith and Reason Hamburg nd I INDIAN ANDT TibIBETAN STUDIES Edited by Harunaga Isaacson and Dorji Wangchuk __________________________________________________ Volume 8 Hamburg • 2020 Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg Birds as Ornithologists Scholarship between Faith and Reason Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Perspectives Edited by Orna Almogi Hamburg nd I INDIAN ANDT TibIBETAN STUDIES 8 Hamburg • 2020 Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg Published by the Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien- Afrika- Institut, Universität Hamburg, Alsterterrasse 1, D-20354 Hamburg, Germany Email: [email protected] © Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, 2020 ISBN: 978-3-945151-07-5 Almogi, Orna: Birds as Ornithologists: Scholarship between Faith and Reason. Intra- and Inter-disciplinary Perspectives First published 2020 All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, no part of the book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microform or any other means without written permission. Enquiry should be made to the publishers. Printing and distribution: Aditya Prakashan, 2/18 Ansari Road, New Delhi, 110 002, India. Email: [email protected] Website: www.bibliaimpex.com Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd. This publication has been supported by the Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist TeXtual Scholarship (KC-TBTS), Universität Hamburg. 0 monks, my words should be accepted by the wise after they have examined/tested them, as gold [is accepted by the wise after they have tested it] through heating it, cutting it, and [the use of] a touchstone—not just out of reverence [and without examination]. tāpāc chedāc ca nikaṣāt suvarṇam iva paṇḍitaiḥ | parīkṣya bhikṣavo grāhyaṃ madvaco na tu gauravāt || ~ Śāntarak ita, Tattvasaṃgraha 3588 As cited and translated in Harunaga Isaacson, “The Opening Verses of Ratnākaraśānti’s Muktāvalī (Studies in Ratnākaraśānti’s tantric works IIṣ),” 130–131. In Ryutaro Tsuchida and Albrecht Wezler (eds.), Harānandalaharī. Volume in Honour of Professor Minoru Hara on his Seventieth Birthday. Reinbeck: Dr. Inge Wezler Verlag, 2001, 121–134. Table of Contents Preface 3 DORJI WANGCHUK 7 Secrecy in Buddhism DANIEL SPERBER 179 Ethical Challenges and Hermeneutical Solutions: A Comparative Study with Special Reference to Rabbinic Literature DAVID C. FLATTO 295 Praying from the Depths: Themes of Struggle and Uncertainty in Pre-Modern Accounts of Jewish Prayer NORIHISA BABA 325 The Birth of “Mahāyāna Buddhism”: How Shaku Sōen Changed Modern Buddhist Studies P.V. VISWANATH 349 Asset Markets, the Agency Problem, and Gifts to the Early Medieval Buddhist Sa gha in India MAHESH A. DEOKAR 381 ṅ Faith in Ideology versus Academic Rationality: A Case Study Preface One of the main objectives of the Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship, situated at the Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg, has been to promote modern textual scholarship among traditional Tibetan Buddhist scholars. The aim is to enable them to approach their own intellectual culture—including religion, philosophy, and history—from different angles, and in doing so to facilitate communication and collaboration between their tradition and modern academia. In order to achieve this goal the Khyentse Center committed itself to providing the necessary assistance for setting up research centres for Tibetan Buddhist textual scholarship at Tibetan Buddhist monastic institutions in South Asia and to conducting workshops for training Buddhist monk and nun scholars in pursuing a modern academic study of Tibetan Buddhist texts and ideas through an historical-philological approach. The first such workshop took place in September 2013 in Bhutan, and soon afterwards, in March 2014, the first research centre, Ngagyur Nyingma Research Centre (NNRC), was set up at Namdroling monastery (Bylakuppe, Mysore, South India) and a four-year pilot programme was launched under the co-supervision of Prof. Dorji Wangchuk and myself. Following the success of the early stages of the pilot programme and the interest shown by other monastic institutions, the Academic Research Program Initiative (ARPI) was launched in 2015 with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation. Two other research centres were set up, the Chökyi Lodrö Research Center (CLRC) at Dzongsar Institute (Chauntra, North India) and the Shechen Research Division (SRD) at Shechen Monastery (Baudhanath, Nepal), and the first four-year training programme (ARPI-I) started in August 2016. To our delight a second round (ARPI-II) could be launched in March 2020, likewise with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation. The programme currently involves altogether 29 Tibetan mkhan pos, slob dpons, and slob dpon mas. Birds as Ornithologists: Scholarship between Faith and Reason In the course of our engagement in the ARPI project, various theoretical and practical questions and concerns have arisen surrounding issues of traditional versus modern scholarship, in general, and faith versus reason, in particular. While the former phenomenon is an outcome of the increasing contact and exchange between the tradition and modern academia, the latter has undoubtedly been present in the Buddhist tradition at large from early on. This state of affairs led to the decision to organize a conference within an ARPI framework, with the aim of addressing these issues from historical, present, and future perspectives, including discussing the faith versus reason dichotomy and ways around it, legitimate concerns, and future prospects. As these issues and concerns are not confined to Tibetan Buddhism alone, we wished to include speakers from not only other Buddhist traditions but also from other religions, particularly ones with a long history of interaction between traditional scholarship and modern academia. Despite the numerous challenges—such as overcoming great cultural and language barriers, the hardship of a long journey to an unfamiliar destination, and other inconveniences—a number of scholars accepted our invitation and contributed to a fruitful discussion, producing many unforgettable moments, and to them we are very grateful. The conference, titled “Birds as Ornithologists: Scholarship between Faith and Reason,”1 took place at Namdroling monastery on July 23–25, 2017. The present volume contains six of the papers 1 The name of the conference was inspired by an anecdote told by Prof. em. Dr. Werner Ende (University of Freiburg) during his lecture “Orientalismus, Orientalistik und gegenwartsbezogene Orientwissen- schaft: Die Asien-Afrika-Studien in Hamburg,” held on the occasion of commemorating the centenary of the Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg (“100 Jahre Asien-Afrika-Wissenschaften in Hamburg: Vom Hamburger Kolonialinstitut zum Asien-Afrika-Institut der Universität Hamburg,” December 2, 2008). The anecdote, both offensive and amusing at the same time, concerns a Buryat scholar who, while assisting a Russian scholar in his research on Buryatia, “dared” to express his opinion on an issue concerning the research topic and was dismissed with the remark that a bird could never be an ornithologist. 4 Preface presented during the conference, all of which focus on issues concerning complex themes that have often led to tension between faith and reason, as observed both in past and in present times, and from within and outside the respective traditions. Three of the papers deal with issues concerning the Buddhist tradition from within: Prof. Dorji Wangchuk’s (Universität Hamburg) paper discusses the issue of secrecy in Buddhism with particular focus on questions such as what should or could be revealed to or concealed from whom; Prof. Norihisa Baba’s (The University of Tokyo), the case of the Japanese Buddhist master Shaku Sōen, one of the earliest modern Buddhist monk-scholars, and his impact on modern Buddhist Studies; and Prof. Mahesh A. Deokar’s (Savitribai Phule Pune University), issues concerning faith versus reason among individuals from the Ambedkarite Buddhist community and Vipassanā practitioners pursuing academic Buddhist Studies at Pune University. A fourth paper, by Prof. P.V. Viswanath (Pace University, New York), deals with the issue of gifts to the early medieval Buddhist monastic community in India and offers interpretations from outside the Buddhist tradition from the perspective of the academic field of economics. Last but not least, two papers discuss issues concerning tension between faith and reason within the Jewish tradition: Prof. Rabbi Daniel Sperber’s (Bar Ilan University) paper deals with ethical challenges and hermeneutical solutions with a focus on Rabbinic literature framed within a broader comparative discussion, and Prof. David C. Flatto’s (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) focuses on themes of struggle and uncertainty in the context of Jewish prayer. Although the conference and the present volume are far from addressing all issues related to “scholarship between faith and reason,” let alone covering all religions and all Buddhist traditions, it is hoped that
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