Radical Phenomenology in India: Extreme structures of consciousness in Indic philosophies
2 June 10:00 to 18:00
Trinity College, Oxford - Garden Room
Indic philosophical traditions are full of striking states of consciousness that often bend or break the usual ways in which the mind functions. Partly rooted in distinctive yogic methods of self-reflection, these Indic philosophies and soteriologies aim at some of the most extreme re-structurings of conscious known to history. Some advise destroying our egoic structure, some train us to see the world free of all reification or desire, others advise re-identifying as other selves through possession, while still others flood all experience with intense emotion that is itself the target of a uniquely refined enjoyment. Viewed together, these philosophies offer alternative ways of existing as minds, and creative technologies for manipulating the very nature of the self.
10-11.30am:
Gavin Flood, University of Oxford: 'Is Phenomenology a Way of Thinking in India?' Aamir Kaderbhai, University of Oxford: 'All Things are Sublime: A Phenomenology of jīvanmukti in the Mokṣopāya'
11.45am-1.15pm: Jessica Frazier, University of Oxford: '"Otherwise…"; Phenomenological Plasticity in Classical Yoga'
Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge: 'How To Be Out Of Your Mind: The Phenomenology of Perplexity in South Asia'
2-3.30pm:
Ruth McNeil, King’s College London: 'Experiences of śūnya in the Vijñānabhairava'
Hrvoje Cargonya, University of Zagreb: 'Expansiveness and Bhakti Aesthetics in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism'
3.45-5.15pm:
Geoffrey Ashton, University of San Francisco: 'Revitalizing Samkhya through Phenomenology: Reading the Samkhya Karika through Goethe’s Organics'
Daniel Ruin, University of Oxford: '“[L]’autre, sans manger, contemple”: Henry Corbin and the Phenomenology of the Witness in the Śvetāśvatara- and Kaṭha-upaniṣad-s'
