2021/22 John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies
With Guest Speaker Professor Clark Chilson
(Associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh)
The Nara Naikan Centre
Lecture: Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Japan
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
6:00pm PST Lecture
Location:
The lecture will take place online only.
Presented in English.
Free & open to the public.
Lecture abstract:
In the 1910s, Kure Shūzō, the “father of Japanese psychiatry,” led a team that investigated throughout Japan traditional healing practices. In the 1918 report he coauthored, he advocated for state intervention to eradicate such practices at Buddhist temples. In the decades that followed, government policies pushed the mentally ill away from temples and monks and toward mental hospitals and psychiatrists. Yet, after 1945, Zen and Pure Land Buddhist ideas and practices shaped indigenous psychotherapies. To illustrate how, this talk focuses on Morita and Naikan therapies. It shows that, unlike mindfulness in North America, Buddhist-influenced psychotherapies in Japan attributed emotional suffering to self-centeredness and emphasized stronger social relations as a cure.
The lecture recording is now made available:
Research Seminar:
Listening to Lives: The Personal History of a Naikan Meditation Director
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
12:00pm – 1:45pm PST
Location:
The lecture will take place online only.
Presented in English.
Seminar abstract:
The life history of a man who has been running Naikan training centers in Japan for over 30 years, based largely on a life-history interview he did with Clark Chilson. Prof. Chilson will also discuss the value of such life histories and how we might interpret them in general as well as the one presented in particular.
Free & open to the public. Registration is required via the form found below.
The Department of Asian Studies and the Asian Centre adhere to Provincial Health Orders and Public Health Guidance for all in-person events. Please check back regularly for specific information and details about attending this event safely and in accordance with the current phase of B.C.’s Restart Plan.
We look forward to seeing you.
About the speaker:
Clark Chilson is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches on religions in Asia and the relationship between Buddhism and psychology. He is the author of Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment and the co-editor of two books: The Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions (with Paul Swanson), and Shamans in Asia (with Peter Knecht). He has published articles on Shin Buddhism, Kūya, Ikeda Daisaku, non-religious spiritual care in Japan, and Naikan, a meditative practice that has been used as a psychotherapeutic intervention.
About the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies:
John Howes was a founding member of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies, which he joined in 1961 after earning his doctorate from Columbia University. During his 30 years of active teaching and research, Professor Howes was at the forefront of Canada-Japan cultural, educational and people-to-people relations and inspired countless young Canadians to dedicate their careers and lives to the Canada-Japan relationship in one way or another. In 2012, a number of UBC faculty, staff, and Professor Howes’ devoted former students came together to launch an endowment in his honour. The fund supports the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies, an annual public lecture for prominent scholars from around the world to speak to the university community and alumni on topics in Japanese Studies with a focus on Humanities. Dr. Howes passed away peacefully on February 4th, 2017, at the age of 92.
