For UVA Graduate Students and Faculty

Metaphor – using a more concrete example to express a more abstract idea or experience – is a fundamental feature of literature and language. The study of metaphor as a feature of language has long been central to literary studies. The study of metaphor as a more basic feature of thought and embodied practice came to prominence in 1980 with the publication of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s widely read book, Metaphors We Live By. Lakoff and Johnson argued that metaphor is a primary mechanism of thought in which the basic orientations and movements of our bodies and the physical world around us provide us with the comparative materials to express and to understand abstract ideas. Since then, “conceptual metaphor theory” has proliferated and has been influential in many fields of the social sciences and humanities, including literature, religion, and contemplative studies.

The study of Buddhist literature has given some attention to metaphor, drawing primarily from literary studies. Limited research into the metaphorical language of both Buddhist contemplative literature and practice instruction has been conducted, and now seems a good time to continue this effort.

Contemplative experience can be strikingly challenging to articulate in precise, concrete terms. Often descriptions of meditation, prayer, or first-person experience move quickly from straightforward description to metaphor. Instructions or scripts for contemplative practice also frequently use metaphor. In this workshop we seek to identify features of metaphorical expression that are often a work in Buddhist contemplative literature.

This event is cooperatively supported by the Contemplative Sciences Center and the UVA Tibet Center.

Schedule

Workshop: Friday, April 11 to Saturday, April 12. Alchemy Room, 4th Floor Contemplative Commons

DAY 1

9:00-12:00 SESSION I: Metaphors of Nature
9:00-10:00 Presentations
Andrew Quintman. “On Fortresses and Castle-Masters: Metaphors We Meditate By.” 
Michael Sheehy. "Flowing like a Waterfall, Rippling like an Ocean: Water Metaphors for the Nature of Mind"
Devin Zuckerman. "The Metaphors of the Elements and other Rdzogs chen Provocations"
10:00-10:20 Break
10:20-12:00 Moderated discussion. Moderator: Kurtis Schaeffer

12:00-2:00 - LUNCH

2:00-4:00 - SESSION II: Ecologies
2:00-2:40 Presentations
Tiantian Cai. "Embodied Metaphors in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra and its Transformative Role"
James MacNee. "How to Break (and Build) Stuff with Poetry: A Case Study of an Ecological Simile in the Chos dbyings mdzod"
2:40-3:00 Break
3:00-4:30 Moderated discussion. Moderator: Nicole Willock

DAY 2

9:00-12:00 - SESSION III: Ornamentation and Metaphor
9:00-10:00 Presentations
Lama Jabb. "Light of the Sun, the Moon, and the Metaphor: An Appreciation of Tsongkhapa’s Poetry"
Annabella Pitkin. "The Metaphor of Metaphors: Poetic Ornament as a Contemplative Practice"
Nicole Willock. "Mother Metaphors in Praise Poems to Dbyangs can ma"
10:00-10:20 Break
10:20-12:00 Moderated discussion. Moderator: Michael Sheehy

12:00-2:00 - LUNCH

2:00-4:00 - SESSION IV: Spaces and Frames
2:00-2:40 Presentations
Julie Regan. "The Space of Metaphor: Longchenpa's instructions on the use of metaphor in The Basic Space of Phenomena (Chos dbyings mdzod)"
Kurtis Schaeffer. "To Enter: Imagining a Starting Place for Bodhisattva Practice"
2:40-3:00 Break
3:00-4:30 Moderated discussion. Moderator: Devin Zuckerman