The Aesthetics of Nirvana: 
Truth, Beauty and Enlightenment in Japanese Buddhism

Saturday, November 8, 2003
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
039 Graham Memorial
James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence

Panel Presentations

Panel 1: The Karma of Aesthetics in Medieval Japan
9:30 - 11:30am
Chair: John Tucker, East Carolina University

Keynote Speaker:
Jacqueline I. Stone, Princeton University
"Beautiful Exit: Preparing for Death in Medieval Japan"

Michael Como, College of William and Mary
"Pure Land, Heaven and the
Underworld in Formative Japanese Buddhism." 

Discussant: Bill Farge, Loyola University, New Orleans
 

Panel 2: Enlightenment, Asceticism and Aesthetics in Japanese Buddhism
11:45 - 1:30pm

Chair:  W. Miles Fletcher, UNC-Chapel Hill

Paul Groner, University of Virginia
"Buddhist Precepts and Ordinations in Medieval Japan"

James Ford, Wake Forest University
"The Aesthetics of Koshiki (Buddhist Ceremonials): Fostering
Karmic Connections with Miroku and Kannon in Medieval Japan"

Richard Jaffe, Duke University
"Building Pan-Asian Buddhism: Relics, Monuments, and Realpolitik."

Discussant: Karen Lang, University of Virginia

Panel 3: Zen in Traditional and Modern Aesthetic Theory
2:00 - 3:45pm

Chair:  Eika Tai, North Carolina State University

John Maraldo, University of North Florida
 "The Aesthetics of Emptiness: Applying Nishitani to Some Visual Arts"

 Steven Heine, Florida International University
"Exploring Reasons for Dôgen's Move from Kyoto to Echizen"

Dan Metraux, Mary Baldwin College
"Nichiren's Rissho Ankoku Ron as an Ideological Foundation
of the Modern Soka Gakkai Movement"

 Discussant: Pamela Winfield, Meredith College

Panel 4: Zen Poetry: Readings in Translation
4:00 - 5:00pm

 James Sanford,  J.P. Seaton, Bill Porter and John Balaban

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