Gethin, Rupert (University of Bristol, GBR) How Only Buddhists Can Stop Thinking and Get Away with It: A Theory of вЂThe Attainment of CessationвЂ™ ( nirodha-samДЃpatti) in Early Buddhist Literature The distinctive identity of the MahДЃyДЃna was not seen in its conception of ultimate reality, but in its ability to ensure the attainment of all the qualities and powers of a Buddha before engaging in its direct realization.

Realization of emptiness was considered ethically problematic, not an automatic trigger for compassion. When вЂњacceptance of the non-arising of all dharmasвЂќ is achieved by a bodhisattva, Buddhas must intervene to rouse them and prevent the cessation of their compassionate activity. Compassion generating meditation techniques served to prevent the premature 'fall into emptiness' and thus ensure samyaksambodhi. Bodhisattvas study, analyze, and investigate emptiness, while skillfully applying special upДЃya to avoid its direct realization.

They are particularly warned not to directly realize emptiness as arhatвЂ™s do. Bodhisattvas are told to view samДЃdhi as an intoxication that undermines compassionate engagement and to avoid it like AvД«ci hell. Jenkins, Stephen (Humboldt State University, GBR)ДЄmbivalence toward meditation generally and particularly the direct meditative realization of emptiness played a role in the MahДЃyДЃnaвЂ™s rhetoric of superiority, practical ethics, and path. Leaving aside the contentious (and, perhaps, ill-phrased and unanswerable) question of whether the doctrine of avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa originally emerged from meditation practice itself, I will endeavor to show that within these meditation texts, the doctrinal implications of meditative visions being in contact with avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa is a crucial element of the meditation system proposed.ДЄvoiding the Void: Ambivalence toward SamДЃdhi and the Realization of Emptiness As a step towards answering this question, in this paper I will explore a number of 5th-century meditation treatises preserved in Chinese that are either translations of texts associated with the SarvДЃstivДЃdin-influenced yogДЃcДЃra meditators of North-west India, or which are Chinese developments of the practices associated with these groups. We may wonder, however, whether the role of avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa in meditation was something that had any particular significance within SarvДЃstivДЃdin-influenced meditative traditions themselves. It is undeniable that avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa plays several important roles within the overarching framework of the SarvДЃstivДЃdin doctrinal system. Certain visions experienced by advanced meditators are, it is claimed, instances of avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa, and this view on the nature of these visions is presented as contrasting with the position of at least some other doctrinal schools. Within many of their major doctrinal treatises, SarvДЃstivДЃdins are presented as defending their doctrinal position on the reality of вЂњunmanifest matterвЂќ (avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa) with reference to, among other things, meditation practice. Greene, Eric (University of Bristol, GBR) Material Visions вЂ“ avijГ±apti-rЕ«pa in Practice

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