January 2010

14th International Lotus Sutra Seminar Held in Hawaii

The 14th International Lotus Sutra Seminar, sponsored by Rissho Kosei-kai, was held January 26-29 at the Kona Retreat Center of the Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Church of Hawaii, with the theme "What Is the Lotus Sutra?" Fourteen scholars of Buddhist studies and theology from Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States participated. Dr. Gene Reeves, advisor to the International Buddhist Congregation, affiliated with Rissho Kosei-kai, and a former dean of the Meadville/Lombard Theological School, University of Chicago, served as the principal organizer, and Mr. Joseph M. Logan, senior fellow at the Essential Lay Buddhism Study Center, Tokyo, served as the rapporteur. On behalf of Rissho Kosei-kai, Rev. Munehiro Niwano, dean of Rissho Kosei-kai Gakurin Seminary, took part.

Eleven participants presented papers, approaching the theme from such academic fields as hermeneutics, phenomenology, and ethics. Each presentation was followed by comments by another participant, then discussed by all the participants. The participants who presented their papers were: Alan Cole (Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon), Luis O. Gómez (El Colegio de México, Mexico City), Charles Goodman (Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York), Paul Groner (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), William R. LaFleur (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), Miriam Levering (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Donald W. Mitchell (Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana), D. Max Moerman (Barnard College, Columbia University, New York), Jin Y. Park (American University, Washington, DC), Masahiro Shimoda (University of Tokyo), and Dorothy C. Wong (University of Virginia, Charlottesville).

A presentation on Rissho Kosei-kai also took place on January 29, at which staff members of Rissho Kosei-kai International gave an overview of Rissho Kosei-kai's faith and its overseas dissemination.

Since 1994 Rissho Kosei-kai has held a series of such seminars on the Lotus Sutra almost annually in Japan; in China in 2005, 2006, and 2007; and in Hawaii in 2009, inviting international scholars to promote discussion and exploration of the Lotus Sutra. The seminars have aimed to make the sutra's teachings better known among Western scholars.

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