About this talk

A world in which spirits stand guard, animals gravitate toward sages, and the Earth itself expresses its opinion is par for the course in both Indic and Chinese texts. It is the backdrop of the earliest biographies of the Buddha– a mahāpuruṣa, or 'superman' – and countless later accounts of eminent Buddhist monks and Daoist adepts in China. In the modern era, with the rise of secular discourses, the ubiquity of autobiographical writing, and the prominence of scientific inquiry and experimentation, we might anticipate that such otherworldly accounts would become less common or be reinterpreted. But this is not the case. This talk focuses on the autobiographical writings of the eminent 20th century Chan master Laiguo Miaoshu (1881–1953), who, in addition to his voluminous teachings on meditation and monastic life, left a robust record of his encounters with the spirit world. This lecture is part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series, kindly sponsored by the Tzu Chi Foundation. Discussant: Gregory Adam Scott is a scholar of modern Chinese Buddhism and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Culture and History at the University of Manchester.

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