SHŌBŌZAN FUDENJI
ITALIAN
SŌTŌ
ZEN
INSTITUTE
Course in
Buddhist Theology
Outline
Scientific
Consultants:
Roberto
Tagliaferri, Theologian: Phenomenology of Liturgy and
Ritual
Stefania Bandini, Scientist: Artificial Intelligence and
Cognitive Science
Matteo Cestari: Historian of Easter Religions, expert in
Chinese and Japanese Buddhism
Leading
Teacher:
F. Taiten
Guareschi: Zen Master, Abbot of Fudenji
Internal Teaching Staff:
Vera
Myōsen Rovesti
Vincenzo Gengaku Crosio
Visiting
Teachers:
Paolo Lagazzi –
Writer
Carlo Saviani – Philosopher
Beppe Sebaste –Writer and Philosopher
Giuseppe Tribuzio – Professor of Sociology of Education
Admissions
Office:
Administrative
secretary: Giulia Myōshun Gussago
Course
officers: Vera Myōsen Rovesti, Vito Sōen Colavitti,
Elisabetta Jikō Calore, and Roberto Sōjun Francese.
Director of
Studies: Vincenzo Gengaku Crosio
Course
in Buddhist Theology
“Today, we
must find the point where
religion, philosophy and science meet”
(Taisen
Deshimaru Roshi)
The broad context of moral, intellectual and functional
values, characteristic of any religious perspective, is
highlighted when religion is understood as the human
endeavour to access the symbolic realm through mythopoietic
visions and cultual activities – a definition which is in
accordance with the contemporary general consensus reached
by historians, anthropologists, sociologists and
theologians.
Religious culture, originating in a genuine experience of
faith and intimately connected with non-utilitarian and
non-ethical activities, is a vehicle of psychometaphysical
tensions actualised in pragmatic actions and expressions.
Therefore, religious culture promotes a critical,
dialectical and not self-legitimazing attitude towards its
own living experience, utilising appropriate
epistemological tools.
Hence, any authentic religious training demands the
capacity to combine one’s own living practice and
experience with the ability to critically analyse it. At
Fudenji, this is carried out within the context of our
doctrinal tradition - in accordance with the definition of
Tradition given in the Inspiring Principles of the Italian
Sōtō Zen Institute’s charter, section 3:
“With
reference to Śakyamuni Buddha’s Awakening and his
Trasmission, an event pertaining to both history and
soteriology, our Tradition is that of the Dharma as it has
been passed down rightfully and without interruption from
generation to generation (shōden no
buppō), in communion
and in direct (tanden)
and personal (i shin den
shin)
communication, attesting to Awakening’s saving power and to
our faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.”
Understanding Theology as the intelligence of one’s own
faith, our Course in Buddhist Theology aims chiefly at
nurturing this capacity both in general terms and also,
more specifically, in developing Sōtō Zen theology from a
liturgical and pastoral point of view.
The Theology Course consists of:
A three-year basic training programme, leading to a Diploma
in Theology
A further two-year advanced course, leading to a Degree in
Theology.
The
Diploma is aimed mainly at furthering one’s own religious
training, whilst the Degree qualifies to teach Theology.
The Course in Theological Studies is a training journey
designed to acquire the essential tools to ensure a
critical comprehension of the Buddha’s teachings
(Buddhadharma), through an integrated plurality of
perspectives (historical, philosophical, anthropological,
linguistic, sociological and juridical). The underlying
methodological principle is phenomenology: paying attention
to the specific essence of religious experience and to its
own peculiar languages (the sacred, myth and ritual).
Course Structure
The Course is structured in annual cycles of ten workshops,
with lessons and assessments on each semester’s topic. The
teaching resources are mainly notes from lessons, lectures
and courses held at Fudenji over the past few years.
An awareness of the peculiar aspects of religious
experience permeates each workshop. Each meeting will
therefore include at least one zazen sitting, followed by a
canonical reading.
Conferences, seminars and other study opportunities are
periodically organised to consolidate and integrate the
course’s teachings. A summer camp of further studies will
take place in August.
Diploma in
Theology
Year 1
Pre-course introduction: The fundamentals of Buddhist
Teachings
(1st
semester)
Introduction to
the History of Buddhism (2nd
semester)
Poetics and Aesthetics of Theology (1stand
2ndsemester)
Year 2
Epistemology of religious experience (1st
semester)
Phenomenology of the sacred, myth and ritual
(2nd
semester)
Poetics and Aesthetics of Theology (1stand
2ndsemester)
Year 3
Phenomenology of the sacred, myth and ritual in Buddhism
(1st
semester)
Poetics and Aesthetics of Theology (1stand
2ndsemester)
The pre-course introduction on the fundamentals of Buddhist
Teachings leads to an admission test at the end of the
first semester, based on the text: ‘Essentials of Buddhism’
by Mizuno, K., 1996, Tokyo.
Students will be assessed at the end of each topic. The
successful completion of all assessments leads to the
Diploma.
Degree in
Theology
Year 1
Religious experience and Cognitive Science
(1st
semester)
Buddhist Hermeneutics (2nd
semester)
Poetics and Aesthetics of Theology (1stand
2ndsemester)
Year 2
Liturgical Theology of Sōtō Zen Tradition
(1st
semester)
Preparation for the final dissertation
(2nd
semester)
Poetics and Aesthetics of Theology (1stand
2ndsemester)
Students will be assessed at the end of each topic. The
successful completion of all assessments and the public
discussion of the dissertation will lead to Graduation. To
qualify for teaching status, graduates must undergo an
induction period of teaching practice.
Conferences on specific topics, seminars and graduate
workshops will enrich and further the learning experience.
Epistemological orientation
The Course in
Buddhist Theology is not only a school, but also a
laboratory committed to researching adequate languages to
enable contemporary man to access religious experience.
Pointing directly to the nature of human experience, whilst
phenomenologically considering previous understanding based
on acquired beliefs, is one of the Buddha’s original
teachings.
Kept alive especially by the Zen tradition, this teaching
demands that we investigate the key issue of the cultural
translation of this religious Tradition into our own times,
being receptive and open to all contemporary developments
of religious, philosophical and scientific thinking.
In our Western
culture we can find several aspects that can contribute to
formulating adequate languages to directly accessing the
experience of Awakening – the goal of Buddha’s teachings.
Furthermore, these dimensions cannot be eschewed, as they
are an unavoidable and often unconscious part of Zen
meditation practice.
On the other hand, awareness of the crucial role of
mediations, which enable our access to religious
experience, alerts us to the impossibility of a mere
transposition of Buddhist and Zen traditional languages,
which have been developed in a profoundly different
historical and cultural context. If the experience of
Awakening is quite universal, the ways of accessing it are
necessarily particular, as they depend on man’s peculiar
sensitivity, which is historically and geographically
determined. All categories, key concepts and ways of
communicating the Buddha’s teaching must therefore be
re-shaped by the vital contact with any new environment,
without ever assuming that their evocative potential will
automatically remain intact when transitioning between
cultures.
Based on the
unsubstantiality of every phenomenon, Buddhism has always
been revitalised by the contact with a new culture,
allowing itself to be transformed, and thus intimately
transforming the receiving culture that had welcomed it,
creating new peculiar forms and expressions.
Our Course is
inspired by this very teaching that comes from the history
of Buddhadharma; hence, we are constantly seeking a
fruitful exchange with those individuals who embody in
their life practice the most significant manifestations of
contemporary religious, scientific and cultural research.
Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Cognitive Science form the
epistemological context and are our main areas of interest.
Despite coming from different paths, these schools of
thought have renewed the possibility of questioning human
experience in a new way, leading towards the overcoming of
mind-matter dualism, which had long negated the
epistemological importance of the body. Contemporary
thinking has finally arrived at the threshold of
redescovering ritual as the matrix of the most profound
human knowledge, thus slowly re-opening for contemporary
human beings a road to experiencing the sacred.
It is our Seminar’s firm belief that this is a most
significant event in our times, and that this very process
– mostly unnoticed - is the place for a genuine integration
between Buddhadharma and Western culture.
In 1986, after working for some time on Buddhist history
and teachings, we became interested in theology and its
liturgical dimension. As a result, the focus of our Course
has shifted towards religious experience and its peculiar
languages: the sacred, mith and ritual. A critical
rethinking of the importance of ritual to access any
religious experience is today’s starting point of our
Course, in order to develop a critical revision of Buddhist
thought and experience. We believe that Buddhadharma’s
transcendental nature, and especially Sōtō Zen’s, lies in
its ritual and cultual aspects.
New horizons opened up from here, first of all
philosophical ones: phenomenology and hermeneutics. We
noticed that Buddhadharma seems to be inherently
phenomenological and hermeneutical, as it is corroborated
by Francisco Varela’s (epistemologist and
neurophysiologist) research in neurophenomenology, which
appears as natural interface of spiritual traditions,
especially the neuropedagogical research undertaken by
Taisen Deshimaru Roshi, Sōtō Zen pioneer in Europe at the
end of the 1960s.
The
contemplative practice of meditation not only shows a
propensity for bringing consciousness to its pre-categorial
level of experience (Husserl’s phenomenological heritage),
but also leads to ego deconstruction ( Heidegger’s
ontological and hermeneutical most original developments).
Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and Derrida have also helped
enormously to shift our contemporary thinking. Moreover,
they have shed light on the burning questions of our
Buddhadharma’s practice. The Course is currently focusing
on rediscovering Aesthetics as the radical philosophical
questioning of sensory experience and its meaning.
Meanwhile, our Course cannot ignore the epistemological
achievements of Philosophy of Science and Cognitive
Science, especially of Neurosciences and other Mind
Sciences. The emphasis on the inherent mind-matter
dialectics, together with the discovery of the physical
basis of consciousness, are essential contributions to
understanding the depth of Buddhadharma’s practice and
experience. Moreover, they show us that we can re-energise
our religious spirit through finding out how our brain
works.
Nowadays, we are witnessing a battle between science and
faith on this very topic. However, it seems to be a
conflict full of ideological prejuidices and political
implications, yet devoid of any epistemological value. It
is our Course’s mission, on the other hand, to seek and
find the point of
contact between science, philosophy and
religion, as the true
religious dimension dwells at the elusive crossroads where
the languages of play, aesthetics and religion meet - in
the epistemological rifts introduced by contemporary
science.