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2025
MLE Friends Book Launch with Prof Jay Garfield and Ven Losang Gendun
Open to all, not just MLE members!
Register here!
On 29th October, we have the pleasure of welcoming Prof Jay Garfield, one of the world’s most preeminent philosophers and scholars of Buddhism and a two-time faculty member at the European Summer Research Institute. On this special occasion, we will celebrate the publication of his two most recent books, which aim to present some of the most important teachings from the Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka traditions, but with two different audiences in mind. Both books bring to life, in different ways, the strongly ethical dimension of the Madhyamaka teachings, and the ways in which working on the self can indeed contribute to a more caring and compassionate world. We’re also honoured to announce that Venerable Losang Gendun, who has spent nearly forty years devoted to Buddhist study and practice and has served as a Bhikshu in the Tibetan tradition for more than eighteen years, will be Jay’s interlocutor during the opening segment of the event.
The first, co-authored with Prof. Sonam Thakchöe of the University of Tasmania, is By the Light of the Moon: Candrakīrti’s Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka (Oxford University Press). The authors provide a comprehensive account of this 7th-century Buddhist scholar’s philosophical system, demonstrating that he gives a compelling account of how to take the everyday world seriously not despite—but because of—its emptiness of intrinsic reality, and so shows that Mādhyamika can make sense of the importance of ethics. They thereby refute a common reading of Candrakīrti and of Madhyamaka philosophy in general as nihilistic and as incapable of making sense of activity in the world we inhabit. This book addresses all of Candrakīrti’s principal texts, and shows how to interpret them as a whole; it is aimed at scholars and practitioners with a serious interest in philosophy.
The second is How to be Caring: An Ancient Guide to a Compassionate Life (Princeton University Press). This volume in Princeton’s Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series presents a translation of selected verses from the 8th-century Buddhist scholar Śāntideva’s beloved text Bodhicāryāvatāra (How to Lead an Awakened Life). The translation is literary and designed to make the text relevant to contemporary people, preserving the spirit and style of the original, but in a more accessible, less philologically precise English.
In the first part of the event, we will hear Jay discuss each of these texts, what they contribute, the different translation methodologies involved, and why both approaches are necessary. As always, we will have ample time for questions and discussion with the audience, which we hope will help to shed light on the relevance of such teachings and translation work for the contemporary world in which we are living. Jay is widely appreciated for his characteristic precision and liveliness as a speaker and pedagogue, so we hope you’ll make the time to come to this live event!
Please note that due to a difference in time zones, the event will take place in Europe at an unusual time: 12:00-13:30 CET (Central European Time). The time for our friends in Tasmania will be 20:00-21:30. The event is open to all, so please help us spread the word!
Jay L. Garfield directs the Buddhist Studies Program and Tibetan Studies in India program at Smith College. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Academicinfluence.com has identified him as one of the 50 most influential philosophers in the world over the past decade.
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. He is the author or editor of over 30 books and over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews.
Garfield’s most recent books are: Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self (2022), Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds 2021), Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), ̛What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf 2021), The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise From the Inside Out (OUP 2019), Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015).
Venerable Losang Gendun has dedicated nearly four decades to practicing Buddhism and has served as a Bhikshu in the Tibetan tradition for more than 18 years. Prior to his ordination, he worked in diverse fields such as palliative care, technology, refugee organizations, and commercial management. His extensive training includes ten years of studying Buddhist philosophy and practice in monasteries across France, India, Nepal, and Myanmar. Additionally, he spent over four years in retreat, immersing himself in Tibetan sutra and tantra, as well as the Burmese Theravada Forest Tradition. For the last 15 years, Ven. Gendun has taught worldwide, sharing his knowledge of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and meditation, as a member of the FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition). Ven. Gendun is also a member of Mind & Life Europe, a multidisciplinary laboratory that brings together researchers and contemplative practitioners to explore the nature of experience. Beyond his Buddhist affiliations, Ven. Gendun serves as an interreligious canon at the Peace Cathedral in Tbilisi, Georgia, and teaches at a Mevlavi Sufi dargah in Istanbul. In 2023, he founded The Buddha Project, which engages in long-term guidance for Buddhist meditators, scientific research, art projects, and intercontemplative social engagement.
29-10-2025 01:30 PM