I recently returned from an academic conference at UCAL Berkley. Here is the Info-

IEAS - Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley

"Text, Translation, and Transmission"

DATE:	Thursday-Saturday, October 18-20, 2007
PLACE:	Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Berkeley
FORMAT:	Conference
SPONSOR:	Center for Buddhist Studies

Schedule

All panels are free and open to the public.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Opening reception by invitation

Friday, October 19, 2007

9:30 am - 11:45 am

Panel I - Translating Buddhist Doctrine

Dan Arnold, University of Chicago
Understanding and/as the Translation of Buddhist Philosophy

Parimal Patil, Harvard University
A Buddhist Historiography for Buddhist Philosophy

Shoryu Katsura, Ryukoku University
A Shift of Buddhist Logic from Dignāga to Dharmakīrti

Leslie Kawamura, University of Calgary
Translation of Yogācāra Buddhism: Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit Texts

Moderator: Alexander von Rospatt, University of California, Berkeley

11:45 am - 1:00 pm
Lunch break

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Panel II - Early Buddhist Literatures

Michael Zimmermann, Hamburg University
The Pierced Foot: The Transformation of an Episode from the Buddha's Life

Phyllis Granoff, Yale University
Birds, Babes, and Bodhisattvas: Truth and Fiction in the Life of the Buddha

Moderator: Richard Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies

2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Coffee break

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Panel III - Beyond Doctrine

Alexander von Rospatt, University of California, Berkeley
The Last Phase of Sanskrit Buddhist Literature: Remarks on the Svayambhūpurāṇa

Richard Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies
Translating Ritual, Translating Buddhism: Moving Beyond our Obsession with Doctrine

Moderator: Lisa Grumbach, Institute of Buddhist Studies

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Reception/Dinner (for participants and attendees)
Jodo Shinshu Center
2140 Durant Avenue, Berkeley

Saturday, October 20, 2007

9:00 am - 11:15 am

Panel IV - Transmissions in Tibetan Buddhism

Lara Braitstein, McGill University
Re/Writing History: Politics and Religion in the Life of the 10th Zhwa dmar pa

Robert Mayer, University of Oxford
The Dunhuang Thabs kyi zhags pa padma phreng Manuscript: A Source for Understanding the Transmission of Mahāyoga in Tibet

Tadeusz Skorupski, University of London
How and Why New Buddhist Traditions Arise

Peter Verhagen, Leiden University
Latter-day Lo-tsā-bas: Translation Activities in 18th-century Tibet

Moderator: Patricia Berger, University of California, Berkeley

11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Lunch break and photo session

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Panel V - Interpreting Chinese Textual Traditions

James Benn, McMaster University
Hybrid Cosmologies in the Śūramgama Sutra

Natasha Heller, University of California, Los Angeles
Epistolary Chan

Koichi Shinohara, BDK Publication Committee
The Buddhist Culture of the Seventh Century Anthology 'Fayuan zhulin' ('The Jade Forest in the Dharma Garden')

Moderator: Robert Sharf , University of California, Berkeley

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Coffee break

2:15 pm - 3:45 pm

Panel VI - Rethinking Sources

Jamie Hubbard, Smith College
Textual Communities in the Production, Translation, and Transmission of Buddhist Scriptures, Then and Now

Michel Mohr, University of Hawaii
On the Proper Use of Traps and Snares: Reflections on Language and Translation

Moderator: Duncan Williams , University of California, Berkeley

I learned a good deal of information while attending all these lectures. The important understanding that I received was in relationship to the differences and similarities between academic (in the Western Universities) Buddhist studies, and my own studies here at Dharma Realm Buddhist University. I wont go into all of those similarities and differences now, but I will say that they exist.

Overall, it was a good experience for me.