In this series of four classes Professor Isaacson will discuss the concept of liberation with particular reference to the section on apavarga (i.e. moksa, liberation) in the Nyayamanjari, the masterpiece of the ninth-century scholar and poet Bhatta Jayanta. In each class we will read a portion of the text and Professor Isaacson will comment upon it. Among other materials that may be brought into the discussion are the Paramok?anirasakarikaof Sadyojyotis and the commentary thereon by Bha??a Ramaka??ha. Professor Isaacson is Professor of Classical Indology at the University of Hamburg. His doctoral work at the University of Leiden was in classical Vaise?ika. He has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Wolfson College Oxford, and the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, and a Sabbatical Fellow of the American Philosophical Society. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayana Buddhism, and is an expert in classical Sanskrit poetry, classical Indian philosophy, Pura?ic literature, and manuscript studies.
Archives: Lectures
Elementary Sanskrit: Week One (MT13)
This is the Theology Sanskrit Prelims paper that introduces basic vocabulary and grammar. The course book is Walter Maurer The Sanskrit Language.
Hinduism 1: Session One (MT13)
This lecture series provides some basic material for Theology FHS Paper 20, “Hinduism 1: Brahminism.’ These lectures offer a thematic and historical introduction to the sources and early development of ‘Hindu’ traditions from their early formation to the early medieval period. We will explore the formation of Hindu traditions through textual sources, such as the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, along with the practices and social institutions that formed classical Hindu traditions. The course will include an introduction to Hindu philosophy. A detailed reading list will be supplied at the start of the lectures which will be based loosely around Gavin Flood’s Introduction to Hinduism (CUP 1996).
Conceptions of Liberation in Classical Indian Philosophy: Session One
In this series of four classes Professor Isaacson will discuss the concept of liberation with particular reference to the section on apavarga (i.e. moksa, liberation) in the Nyayamanjari, the masterpiece of the ninth-century scholar and poet Bhatta Jayanta. In each class we will read a portion of the text and Professor Isaacson will comment upon it. Among other materials that may be brought into the discussion are the Paramok?anirasakarikaof Sadyojyotis and the commentary thereon by Bha??a Ramaka??ha. Professor Isaacson is Professor of Classical Indology at the University of Hamburg. His doctoral work at the University of Leiden was in classical Vaise?ika. He has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Wolfson College Oxford, and the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, and a Sabbatical Fellow of the American Philosophical Society. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayana Buddhism, and is an expert in classical Sanskrit poetry, classical Indian philosophy, Pura?ic literature, and manuscript studies.
‘Till all nations hear’: enhancing the legacy of the American Baptist Missionary Union in Nagaland
In the 19th century, led by their desire to convert the Shans of Upper Burma and ultimately reach China, missionaries from the American Baptist Missionary Union ended up in the plains of Assam in Northeast India and from there embarked on a dangerous evangelising mission among the ‘wild’ and ‘uncivilised’ Naga tribes inhabiting the hills bordering Assam. What proved to be a slow and difficult beginning resulted in the mass conversion of the Naga to Christianity which gave them reason to proudly proclaim by the end of the 20th century that they were the most Christian state in the world. Building up on the example of the American missionaries, Naga Christianity nowadays is characterised by a distinct evangelical zeal which has led Naga missionaries all over the world. The paper will seek to elucidate the ideology and some of the challenges which underpin this contemporary missionary endeavour.
The Tantric Deliberations of Octavio Paz
The Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz is largely thought of as a Latin American writer, but both his roots as a writer and his fields of interest extended around the world, and Indic traditions held a particular fascination for him. In 1952, en route to a diplomatic post in Japan, Paz first travelled in India; he returned as Mexican ambassador in 1962, remaining until he resigned his post in 1968 in protest over the Mexican government’s mistreatment of student demonstrators. During his years in India, Paz took a special interest in Tantra, and Tantric thought and imagery figures in many of his finest works, from Sunstone (1956) through the poems of East Slope (1969) and beyond. He also wrote several essays on India and its traditions. This talk will focus on how Paz incorporated Tantric elements into his poetic vision, which not only sustains a delicate balance between the One and the many but also returns repeatedly to questions of subjectivity and consciousness.
Osho, spirituality and the politics of national identity: Examining intersecting discourses
Graduate Seminars in Indic Religions
The charismatic New Age mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990), otherwise known as Osho, was a highly popular and prolific spiritual figure in the 20th century who counted thousands of individuals, both in India and around the world, as his followers. Born and educated in India, Osho offered his followers an iconoclastic spiritual philosophy that sought to liberate individuals from the shackles of mind and morality. His avowed emphasis on multiplicity, pluralism, anti-authoritarianism, and lack of institutional structure might suggest that his spiritual discourse stands in opposition to the discourse of Hindu nationalism, which stresses singular conformity to a religious ideal. However, I argue that even while emphasizing the apolitical, non-ethical, and transcendental nature of spirituality, Osho’s brand of spiritual discourse surreptitiously incorporates a Neo-Vedāntic worldview. This Neo-Vedāntic understanding always prefigures his commentaries on diverse South Asian texts and traditions. Through an analysis of the genealogy of modern spiritual movements in India, as well as a close reading of some of Osho’s own work, I will argue that Osho betrays his own claim of offering a truly neutral, emancipatory, and universal spirituality by demonstrably employing an epistemological framework conditioned by modern conceptions of Vedānta, and in so doing, effectively helps to consolidate Hindu nationalist discourse.