Since the beginning of the twentieth century mindfulness has been positioned at the core of modern Buddhism and viewed by many modern interpreters as an essential component of Buddhist doctrine and practices. More recently, the practice of mindfulness has become rapidly popularised, radically secularised and removed from its Buddhist context, employed mainly as a therapeutic tool or applied for the enhancement of well-being. This paper examines the concept of mindfulness using an historical lens, aiming to identify some of the main parameters and consequent implications involved in the changes and developments of this Buddhist contemplative method—from its early beginnings over 2,500 years ago to the present day. Special attention is given to the historical developments in the colonial period when various Buddhist traditions encountered the main European discourses of the time, resulting in the birth of modern Buddhism. In this period, particularly in Burma, meditation was positioned at the centre of Buddhist teachings and thus provided the grounds and conditions for the subsequent popularisation and secularisation of mindfulness in the late twentieth century. Through an examination of the concept of mindfulness through history, the paper explores whether a critical awareness of historical facts provides a better understanding of the current ubiquity of mindfulness practices worldwide. In addition, mindfulness has recently become an object of scientific research and hence, it is important to investigate it in different contexts and discourses throughout history, and understand the implications of various definitions, interpretations and applications of mindfulness for the development of modern research approaches and methodologies.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 57103970This international collection was edited by Jana Rošker (the leader of the program group) and Nataša Visočnik (a member of the program group. They both have also published their own chapters in the book. Besides, Jana Rošker wrote the introduction. Besides Jana Rošker and Nataša Visočnik, two other members of the program group have also contributed to the collection with their own essays (Luka Culiberg and Helena Motoh). From different interdisciplinary angels, the book illuminates the so-called Confucian revival which came to prominence at the end of the twentieth-century, and which is manifested in the philosophical stream of Modern Confucianism. This stream of thought belongs to the most significant elements within new Asian modernisation ideologies. By providing new insights into the culturally conditioned structure of Asian societies, this book contributes to the improvement of political, economic and cultural relations between “Western” and East Asian countries. Most classical Western modernisation theories have assumed that Confucianism would have to be abandoned if East Asia wanted to develop a dynamic, modern society, claiming that traditional Chinese culture was impervious or even inimical to modernisation. Max Weber’s well-known thesis that the Protestant ethic was an essential factor in the rise and spread of modernisation represents a sharp contrast to the notion which has gradually emerged over the last two decades in East Asia, and which argues that societies based upon Confucian ethics may, in many ways, be superior to the West in achieving industrialization, affluence and modernisation.
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 59146594Delivered on 21 May 2015 at the University of Latvia at the invitation of Latvian Anthropology Association, this lecture presented a part of Maja Veselič’s 2-year postdoctoral research on the role of Japanese Buddhist priests in the aftermath of the great earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that hit the coast of Northeast Japan in March 2011 (funded by Japanese Society for Promotion of Science, hosted by Sophia University in Tokyo). The so called triple disaster, resulted not only in an enormous loss of human life, the destruction of homes and livelihoods but also, through death and displacement, the disruption of family and communal bonds. Much like in the cases of similar disasters, the experience of the survivors has been termed primarily in the vocabulary of victimhood and trauma. Through the examination of support activities carried out by Japanese Buddhist priests and their notions of proper care, the lecture presented alternative views to the increasingly global medical and social discourses of trauma and recovery. Buddhist priests’ understanding of the needs of the survivors derives from their traditional status as specialists for funeral and memorial rituals as well as the attempts over the past decade and a half to define and implement a form of Buddhist psycho-spiritual aid. Their approach is based on the principle of “relieving suffering with (quiet) presence”, which creatively combines Buddhist views (e.g. ubiquity of suffering, compassion) with certain techniques of Western counselling.
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 57789794Mateja Petrovčič attained the A-level certificate for HSK test center, issued by Hanban, an agency of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Following new regulations, she is hereby the only person in Slovenia with the right to be organizer of HSK tests in this region. HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) or the Chinese Proficiency Test is an international standardized exam which tests and rates Chinese language proficiency for non-native speakers. The HSK is held at designated test centers in China and abroad. A list of test centers can be found at the Hanban's website (http://www.chinesetest.cn/getkdinfo.do?id=102), and Slovenia's test center is listed on the site http://www.chinesetest.cn/getkdinfo.do?id=102.
D.10 Educational activities
The academic journal Asian Studies (until 2013 Asian and African Studies) has been published by the Department of Asian and African Studies, at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) since 1997. It is a distinctive, interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of Asian societies and cultures. Twice a year, it publishes thoroughly researched and strictly peer-reviewed academic articles, which represent the highest level of scholarly excellence. The journal publishes contributions containing analyses and interpretations of the essential conditions of contemporary social realities in Asian societies (especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian), and focuses on their specific political, economic, historical and cultural contexts. Ranging across the fields of Asian literature, art, philosophy, political science, history and sociology, Asian Studies challenges the bureaucratization of intercultural research in the humanities and social studies, and features in-depth examinations of past, present, and future research issues by some of the world's leading scholars and experts in these fields. An integral part of our scholarly mission is to publish innovative, high-quality articles that will have a lasting impact by opening up new research areas in their respective fields. The journal ALA (Acta Linguistica Asiatica) is devoted to the study of Asian languages, their translation and teaching. ALA is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal which accepts research papers, survey papers and technical notes on the subjects of Asian linguistics, book reviews on representative works on the same subjects and reports from outstanding academic events. Both journals mainly publish contributions in English, but also in Asian languages and Slovene. Both journals have been listed in the following databases/resources:- COBISS.si; - dLib.si; - Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); - Google Scholar ; - Erih Plus. Currently, is has been evaluated for the listing by the SCOPUS database.
C.04 Editorial board of an international magazine