Event

Please join us for the first lecture in the 2024-2025 EALC Speakers' Colloquium. 

This paper will argue that analyzing conflict in the dialogues of classical Chinese texts offers an important opportunity for understanding the embodied nature of self-cultivation.  In the case of the Mengzi, characterizing the text as focusing on the goodness of human nature misses the crucial role of conflict as an inseparable element of how bodily cultivation is taught. Starting with the first lines of the text, King Hui of Liang is lambasted for his misunderstanding of profit, which provides a platform for Mengzi to discuss how dysfunctional behavior is contagious.  Similarly, in the Vimalakirti, the inherent goodness of an individual’s Buddha Nature can only be understood by hearing dialogues where conflict plays a dominant role. The leading disciples of the Buddha as well as Bodhisattvas are berated for not understanding the dharma, which provides the medium necessary for Vimalakirti to empower members of the audience to learn how to achieve enlightenment. Beyond mere pedagogy, these two texts see conflict as an inseparable part of the human experience. This experience includes an important element of iconoclasm as both texts seek to challenge existing hierarchies.