Love and Lust in Classical South Asian Buddhism 2015.09.10

Non-CAS Event

Thursday, September 10, 2015, 6:00 p.m.
British and Irish Studies Room, Norlin Library, CU-Boulder

This lecture explores the ambivalent attitudes to romantic love and erotic desire in a variety of Buddhist texts preserved in Pali, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. Being a celibate ascetic tradition, classical exoteric Buddhism is skeptical about anything having to do with sexuality. On the one hand, this literature acknowledges the existence and power of romantic love. On the other, it uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to denigrate it. This lecture explores this ambivalence and briefly considers whether the antinomian Mahayana tradition (including Tantra) represents a safe haven for love.

José Cabezón holds the Dalai Lama Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. With longstanding interests in gender and sexuality, he has completed a lengthy study on the topic, Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism, currently in press.

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies in conjunction with Naropa University and with special thanks to the Uberoi Foundation. Free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Gayley@Colorado.EDU.