Preliminary Programme
for the
Second International Symposium on Buddhism & Neoplatonism

Juxtaposing Damascius’ heaven-fallen baetyls with Shingon iwakura and shinbutsu shūgō consecrations, we sketch how stones, as ensouled media, mediate transcendence and ritual agency through oracular presence, mantra–mudrā sealing, and the sacralisation of landscape.

Exploring the tensions generated by basic Christian tenets in relation to the Plotinian / Dionysian assertion that God is all things: there is only the One.

This talk juxtaposes Abhidharma’s practical mind-taxonomy with Neoplatonic emanation to probe being and becoming. It ties doctrine to form: Neoplatonic verticality and luminosity mark ascent, while Buddhist circular, layered plans invite cosmological circumambulation.

This talk clarifies Plotinus’ account of the ‘self’ by showing how the transient subjects of actions and states are unified by an embodied rational subject that has ontological and axiological priority over its derivative roles. It shows that this rational subject is not essentially embodied; embodied self-reflexivity is only an image of a disembodied paradigm, thereby grounding our access to the true intellectual self.

On In this talk, I draw on Buddhist resources to explore two different readings of ‘awareness’ vocabulary in Neoplatonism – such as sunesis, sunaisthēsis, parakolouthēsis, and antilēpsis. I investigate how the Neoplatonic hypostases can be interpreted in terms of Yogacara-like layers of awareness present in every moment – from simple, pre-reflective awareness to more complex representational consciousness – or by reference to a quickly-moving flux of different modes of cognition, closer to Theravādin Abhidharma. Absolute through a reading of Sthiramati and a comparison with Damascius’s Difficulties and Solutions.

For the twentieth-century Japanese historian of philosophy Toshihiko Izutsu, Neoplatonism—above all Plotinus—played a central role, receiving extensive treatment in his early study Mystical Philosophy and remaining a significant point of reference after he shifted his focus to his conception of ‘Oriental philosophy’. This paper offers a critical reassessment of Izutsu’s interpretation of Neoplatonism, tracing its trajectory from his early study to its culmination in his later reflections, where he underscored parallels between the Neoplatonic and Huayan Buddhist cosmologies.

Buddhists and Neoplatonists alike cautiously approached astrology, but for both traditions there was always the question of how to free oneself from a fate determined or signalled by the stars and planets. A comparison of the two traditions reveals that both attempted to rely on divine or supernatural assistance to liberate oneself from fate.

Symbols, maṇḍalas, yantras, statues, and images of the divine are not mere objects: they are instruments that, when properly mastered, can serve as bridges between this world and that of the deity they embody. Both Vajrayāna Buddhism and certain Neoplatonic currents developed elaborate visualization practices that, through these instruments, activate the imaginative capacities intrinsic to the “subtle body” in order to bring about a spiritual elevation, a theurgic transfiguration.

This paper will offer a comparative approach to the concept of soul applied to plants in Plotinus, paralleled with Kūkai and Ryōgen's positions on buddhahood in plants.

The idea is to examine what both philosophers say about the conditions for meaningful linguistic predication and consider how they understand, on this basis, the linguistic/logical form of an understanding of the totality of (in Nagarjuna’s terms) conditioned existence.

This talk explores how Plato and Neoplatonic philosophers envisioned the cosmos and how it was represented on celestial globes. It considers both the philosophical significance of the sphere as a symbol of cosmic order and the role of physical models in illustrating and contemplating the intelligible universe.

This paper explores the resonance between Neoplatonic and Japanese Buddhist thought through the lens of attunement, syngeneia, and the unifying presence of the One in all things. It examines how music, myth, ritual, and artistic imagination serve as symbolic and theurgical media, with musical instruments as symbols of celestial music, which manifest as a bridge between heaven and earth, realizing the embodied, lived, and historical experience of cosmic unity—from Pythagorean ether and cosmic breath to Iamblichus' and Proclus' theurgy and Kūkai’s esoteric practices and the reception of Buddha-nature in Nishida, Suzuki, and Miki Kiyoshi. By tracing these threads, the study highlights how imaginative and pathic engagement mediates conceptual and existential understanding, harmonizing beings with the dynamic, living order of the cosmos.

On Mahāyāna Absolute through a reading of Sthiramati and a comparison with Damascius’s Difficulties and Solutions.

Theurgy in Neoplatonism is often regarded critically as a kind of mystical obscurantism, yet its treatment can be viewed as highly rational in its attempt to bring various rituals and cultic objects within a philosophical framework. Theurgy’s efficacy depends upon a doctrine of cosmic sympathy. Similarly, Buddhism has a concept of Brahma-faring that can roughly be equated with theurgy, aiming at divine ascent, prophesying, particularly with regard to certain objects, and control over demons. This paper shall focus on the extent to which theurgy in both traditions attempts to rationalize and solve similar problems.

The paper reflects on how myths are variously demythologised, sublimated (or sublated), subjected to speculative reinterpretation, or actually invented for speculative purposes in Buddhism (Lotus and Vimalakirti Sutras) and Neoplatonism (Plotinus and Iamblichus). How much belief is invested in the myths, and what kind of belief? At what point does mythic belief change into philosophical insight? How can we appropriate the ancient myths and their philosophical sublimations today?

This paper examines the ritual grammars of image consecration in Neoplatonism, as represented by Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, and in Vajrayāna Buddhism, as presented in Kuladatta's Kriyāsaṃgrahapañjikā. It contrasts Iamblichus' telestikē, or "perfecting art," which uses external material tokens (synthemata) to sympathetically attract a divine presence into a statue, with the Buddhist prāṇapratiṣṭhā, or "establishment of life-force," which uses lifecycle rites and visualisations to regenerate the image as a living deity infused with a "wisdom-being" (jñānasattva). Despite their differing approaches, this paper argues that both traditions developed sophisticated ritual technologies for achieving the same end: transforming an inert, lifeless (nirjiva) object into an efficacious, living vessel of the divine, thus making the transcendent immanent.

Plotinus, in Ennead 3.8, speaks of contemplation as a kind play within the moment, in which all things engage, including nature itself - despite lacking the faculty of reason; Shinran describes jinen honi, or "Dharmic Naturalness,” as the non-calculative outworking of Amida Buddha’s Primal Vow. Both are framed in terms of formlessness and inconceivability, which nonetheless lead to a certain non-discursive vision or knowledge of reality. In this paper, the two are critically compared.

The lecture maintains that Plotinus’ henōsis is ontological identity with the One, actualised only in a death-like trance that extinguishes all mental activity. It then sets out Buddhist criteria and contemplative practices capable of approximating this Neoplatonic vision, offering a practical path beyond discursive awareness toward becoming ‘no-one.’

Henôsis with the One in Plotinus seems to be a temporary and exceptional experience. In contrast, in Buddhism and Dzogchen, full awakening, understood as a continuous state of contemplation, appears to be achievable within this very lifetime. Are these two perspectives truly incompatible, or are there ways to refine and perhaps reconcile both understandings?