FROGBEAR Project
Through innovative practices of research and training this project fosters the next generation of scholars working on Buddhism and East Asian religions. Project members conduct onsite contextual investigation and training in texts, images, artifacts, and practices. New digital materials are gathered for a publicly accessible repository hosted at University of British Columbia (UBC). We employ interdisciplinary scholarship to enhance public and scholarly understanding of Buddhism and East Asian religions.
Please see below for my work on event promotion (in chronological order of publish time). In addition to visual graphics for web, social media and digital signage, I also made print advertisements and assisted on all aspects of event planning, including outreach and logistics. As the seven-year project reached its halfway mark in 2019, we received the highest enrollment numbers and application submissions since the project's inception in 2016. For more information on the resources and publications associated with the network, and programs and events we offer, please visit www.frogbear.org
Press Release
Thursday, September 12, 2019
5:00 pm–8:00 pm
UBC Ponderosa Commons Ballroom
6445 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
FROGBEAR is proud to announce the UBC Tianzhu-Hurvitz Lecture Series, in honour of Dr. Leon Hurvitz who taught at UBC Department of Asian Studies from 1971-1988. As a scholarly network fostering and coordinating the study of Buddhism and East Asian Religions around the world, FROGBEAR invites distinguished scholars to present for the Lecture Series annually, and continue Hurvitz’ legacy. This year’s inaugural speaker is Dr. Robert E. Buswell Jr., Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies in the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Humanities at UCLA, and Founding Director of the UCLA’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies.
For the first annual UBC Tianzhu-Hurvitz Lecture, Dr. Buswell explores the history of Sŏn 禪 (Korean for ‘Zen’ or ‘Chan’) and how it progressively developed kanhwa Sŏn 看話禪, now known in Korean Zen Buddhism as one of the main styles of Korean Buddhist meditation. In “The Transformation of Doubt in Kanhwa Sŏn: The Testimony of Gaofeng Yuanmiao 高峰原妙 (1238-1295),” Dr. Buswell tells the story of a Sŏn master and his student’s process “tracing back the radiance” through counter-illumination, eventually reaching sagehood. Dr. Buswell offers an in-depth explanation of the technique itself, which embodies a critical introspection of hwadu 話頭, “topics of inquiry” and emphasizes in particular how a student may transform ŭijong 疑情, ‘doubt’ into enlightenment.
The lecture is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is preferred at: bit.ly/2K5KwHE
In the field of Buddhist Studies, Dr. Leon Hurvitz was quite literally a veteran. For his WWII draft, Hurvitz’ scholarship on languages took a turn towards Buddhism when he learned modern and classical Japanese for the US Department of Defense. Later, his studies and translations of major original manuscripts would become the most important English interpretations on the dissemination of Buddhism.
For more information about the UBC Tianzhu-Hurvitz Lecture Series please visit: https://tianzhubuddhistnetwork.org/ubc-tianzhu-hurvitz-lecture-series/
This lecture is sponsored by Tianzhu Global Network for the Study of Buddhist Cultures with administrative support from FROGBEAR (From the Ground Up: Buddhism and East Asian Religions) at UBC.
