Kwanon Z by Wang Zi Won
Speaker: R. John Williams, Professor of English, and Film and Media Studies, Yale University
Date & Time: April 10, 2025, 5:30 pm ET
Location: Harvard University
Abstract:
A number of influential criticisms of the practice of meditation have emerged recently, many of which frame the technique as part of a larger neoliberal endeavor meant to privatize emotional well-being. Others have pointed to potential dangers of the practice, identifying cases where, for some people, it may actually trigger some of the dilemmas it is meant to treat, including anxiety, depression, and dissociation. And yet, it is difficult to find a major institution today that does not have some kind of training program or space devoted to various forms of meditation, accompanied by claims that it will help you live longer, enhance your performance at work, stay focused in an age of distraction, heal from trauma, and increase your compassion. Rather than offering yet another take on the presumed effects of meditation, this presentation aims to examine the philosophies of mind informing the practice. Does meditation presume in advance a particular theory of mind or consciousness as a “medium,” and if so, what are the media-theoretical assumptions underpinning that theory? What would it mean to view meditation as an “internalist” technique of contemplation marked by constantly evolving epistemes of media engagement?
About the Speaker:
R. John Williams, PhD, is Professor of English, and Film and Media Studies at Yale University. He is the author of The Buddha in the Machine: Art, Technology, and the Meeting of East and West, and has published as well on a number of topics including religion, futurology, systems theory, psychoanalysis, and film and television. His forthcoming manuscript, Out of Mind: A Media-Theoretical Critique of Meditation (University of Chicago Press) examines the role of communication technologies in the evolution of contemplative practices during the twentieth century.
About the Respondent:
Johan Elverskog is Dedman Family Distinguished Professor at Southern Methodist University and currently Editor of Modern Asian Studies. He is the author and editor of eleven books, including most recently, The Buddha’s Footprint (2020), The Precious Summary (2023) and A History of Uyghur Buddhism (2024). He is the recipient of numerous fellowships, and his work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian and Turkish. His current projects include A Barbarian History of China and The Fathers and Sons of Chinggis Khan. In 2025-2026 he will be a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
This event is part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies.
Launched in September 2021, the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series (印證佛學傑出學術系列講座) is a collaborative, multi-university partnership between Peking University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Inalco (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of British Columbia.The Lecture Series is established in honor of Venerable Cheng-yen 證嚴, founder of Tzu Chi, and her mentor Yinshun 印順 (1906–2005), with the goal of promoting topics in Buddhist studies.
Free and open to the public.
