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3rd International Conference on the Eastern Thought

Word in the Cultures of the East: Sound - Language - Book

Kraków, 28-30 November 2013

Book of Abstracts

The Conference is part of the project that supports the launching of the new faculty of Eastern Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, UJ. The project is partly financed by the European Union within the framework of the European Social Fund.

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FERHAT ABDELHAKIM, Prof., Batna University, Algeria

Symbolism of Letters in Islamic Sufism Ilm al ḥurūf is the Science of letters in traditional Islamic Sufism, which deals with the symbolism of the Arabic letters, their similarities to the existence, and their spiritual meanings. For Sufis, the world of letters is similar to the world of human being, as well to the cosmos. They have the same ontological order, and similar spiritual meaning; they have the same system. In this paper I try to analyze the symbolism of letters in Islamic Sufism, and t show its spiritual meaning, and to present its ontological for Sufis, using analytical method. The Author is a professor of Sufism and comparative religion at Batna University, Algeria, a visiting professor at International Islamic University of Malaysia, and a director of a research project about Sufi Orders in Algeria. He is an author of 15 books about Sufism. MASHHAD AL-ALLAF, PhD, The Petroleum Institute, UAE

The Biography of the Word “Philosophy”. From Greek to Islamic “Philosophy” as a Greek word carries its own cultural connotation. When this word was transliterated into Arabic language as Falsafah, it became loaded in the Islamic culture with additional positive connotation and yet become vulnerable to criticism. In this paper I discuss how the biography of the word “philosophy” itself changed in the Islamic Culture from that of a cultural bridge, intellectual interaction and coexistence, to a negative pursuing of wisdom that was heavily criticized by many Muslim Scholars. I discuss in this paper how Muslim scholars criticized philosophy in its Greek and Islamic manifestations, especially issues related to Metaphysics (Ilahiyyat) and Logic (Mantiq) as this criticism presented in the writings (books) of Al-Ghazali and Ibn Taymiya. The Author holds a doctoral degree from the USA in Modern Philosophy: Science & Metaphysics (1995). His bachelor’s and master’s degrees concentrated on the Philosophy of Science. He has taught at Washington University, St. Louis University, and Webster University and is the author of several works, including The Basic Ideas and Institutions of Islam (2008), Locke’s Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics (2007), and The Essential Ideas of Islamic Philosophy (2006). ADA AUGUSTYNIAK, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Problems with the interpretation of the Later Mohists' theory of language Western taxonomy for different theories are not always easy to apply to ancient Chinese concepts of language. Later Mohists' philosophy of language is based on the idea of distinguishing kinds. Similar issues in the West usually can be classify in the category of realism, conceptualism and nominalism, but according to Chris Fraser, different Chinese theories 'all tend to fall roughly under the label of nominalism'. He thinks that a 'realism - conventionalism-relativism' spectrum would be more useful, where the realist position does not represent any concept of universals, but the idea that the distinctions between kinds are fixed and independent of human cognition. Later Mohists' theory seems to represent the realist side of this spectrum and would be the only realist position in Warring State period's

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philosophy of language. Fraser states that Later Mohists' text is so vague that actually any interpretation is partly conjectural. In my presentation I would like to discuss the problem of the classification of the Later Mohists' theory of distinguishing kinds. I will try to show the possible ways of solving it. The Author is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She is now finishing her thesis concerning the Chinese philosophy of language in the Warring State period.

RAFAŁ BANKA, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Script as Communication Medium in Xu Bing’s Artworks Writing is a means of linguistic communication. Among the forms of script it assumes, Chinese characters, which are considerably graphically iconic and not primarily representation of the phonetic side, are considerably special. In spite of the fact that Chinese characters are used as artistic medium in calligraphy for aesthetic reasons, they are concurrently not deprived of their semantic function. Xu Bing’s (b. 1955) print works seem to be a very special case of resorting to Chinese characters, because of processing their core iconic identity. In my paper, I am going to focus on Xu Bing’s new employment of script in artistic communication, as well as try to refer it to the Chinese calligraphic tradition. The Author works at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. His fields of research are Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy and Chinese aesthetics. MAREK BARANIAK, PhD, University of Warsaw, Poland

Tetragrammaton - word or sign The Greek term tetragrámmaton "four letters" refers to the Hebrew theonym written as the four consonants transliterated to the Latin letters YHWH, which are considered to be a proper name of the God used in the Hebrew Bible. Although it is not certain when the Tetragrammaton ceased to be pronounced, ultimately lack of use resulted in uncertainty over the tradition of vowel sounds in the name and hence in its meaning. Already Van der Toorn in analyzing potential sources for the name YHWH, has pointed out that the significance of the name Yahweh has been the subject of a staggering amount of publications - including the story from Exodus. The developed by J.M. Hoffman magic-letter theory accounts for lack of etymological derivation for YHWH by specifically claiming that the Hebrews appreciated the value of their newly-found vowel letters [waw, heh, yud] so much that they used them to define membership in their group, as with the name Abraham (from Abram), Sarah (from Saray), and one name for God. The Hebrews took the letters yud, heh, and waw, which had already been used to represent consonantal sounds, and used them to represent vowel sounds as well. In so doing, they paved the way not only for the preservation of their own writings, but also the widespread use of alphabets throughout the world. These vowel letters were destined to play a pivotal role in all of Hebrew’s various stages. The Hebrew writers by the connection between the name of God and the vowel letters seem to tie the idea of (heno)monotheism to their works. It should be over looked that the names have meaning, just as words do. But a name is primarily used to refer to a person, and so it contains the identity

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of a particular person whose name is heard or seen. When the Israelites saw the Tetragrammaton YHWH they saw it as a reference to their God. In some contexts certain connotations of YHWH are essential to the meaning of the text, while in other contexts YHWH should be transliterated as a sign, but elsewhere only the word for ‘God’ could be substituted without any loss of meaning. The Author works at the Department of Hebrew Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He graduated at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and specializes in biblical studies and early Jewish literature. ARYYA BHATTACHARYA, PhD, Calcutta University, India

Vak: Its Ontological Status And Importance In Prayer And Rituals Of Sakti Oriented Tantric Tradition This paper explores the nature, ontological status, different spheres and symbolic representation of ‘Vak’ in the Sakti oriented Tantric tradition, and how it lends credibility to the theory of emancipation through prayer , worship and mantra-sadhana. It is pertinent to mention here that in Tantric tradition, written mantras are devoid of power. They become effective only when heard from the lips of one’s spiritual master or an unattached Yogini. The importance of Word is also affirmed by Vedic cosmogony. Vedas, or the canons of Hindu philosophy, proclaim that in the begining was ‘Brahman’and Brahman is ‘Vak’. The word ‘Vak’ comes from the root ‘Vach’, which in Sanskrit can mean both the voice and the word it utters. Word is created by letters and letters are the products of sounds. Sound or ‘Nada’ can be of two types – one that is produced by the contact of two objects and another (called ‘Anahata-Nada’) that is uncreate and self produced. Supersonic primordial sound AUM is Anahata-Nada. This sound is followed by alphabets, which, in turn, are followed by words. The meaning of Word, according to Vedic-Tantric traditon, is not conventionally determined as is usually held by the Western thinkers but Word always has its corresponding Meaning and referent and neither can be dissociated from the other. Language therefore, is not something arbitrary and invented. In the words of Tantra ‘Vak’is ‘Prakasha’ or illuminating consciousness and the meaning of it is ‘Vimarsha’ or the object of consciousness. Word is eternal in nature, by which it is meant that even after ‘mahapralaya’ or complete annihilation of the universe, Word shall remain in seminal form(bijarup). So Vedic Word along with the alphabets and the primordial sound AUM is never created by any mind but revealed to it. The Author is the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Vivekananda College for Women under the Calcutta University, India. She studied Hindu religion and philosophy under the guidance of Anantasri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. SZYMON BOGACZ, B.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

What does it mean that the statement (vacana, vākya) has an essence (svabhāva)? Nāgārjuna's Vigrahavyāvartani 1-4, 21-29. Vigrahavyāvartani is one of the best examples of the madhyamaka dialectics method in refuting opponent's standpoint. It is also the only treaty in which Nāgārjuna deals with language. In the first four stanzas of Vigrahavyāvartani Nāgārjuna's opponent suggests that it is impossible to reject anything in discussion using statements (vacana, vākya) devoid of essence (svabhāva). The purpose of my paper is to clarify this objection and to present how

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Nāgārjuna responds to it. The central issue of my work is to determine what is essence and how it can be related to statement. First of all essence could be understood as something inherently included in the manifold of dharmas or skandhas. It guaranties identity and stability of this manifold (Hayes 1994, Ronkin 2005). Second of all essence is what our cognitions refer to, it is something “to be known” in or about dharmas (Hayes 1994, Willemen Dassein Cox 1998). According to this distinction, I will present two understandings of vacanasvabhāva: (1) as a feature (lakṣaṇa) of a statement; (2) as a reference (asadgrāha) of a statement. I will argue that Nāgārjuna's respond to opponents objection consist of not only a thesis that meaneing and truth cannot correspond to mind independent reality (Westerhoff 2010) but also a thesis that statements as speech acts are dependent and unstable. The Author graduated at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland (specialization: Eastern Philosophy) and is now working on his M.A. thesis entitled ‘Buddhist metaphysics. Mahayana sutras, sarvastivada abhidharma and Nāgārjuna’s madhyamaka’. Beside his interest in Buddhist philosophy, he is working on some topics in contemporary metaphysics (theories of meaning, process metaphysics, theories of agency). PIOTR BOREK, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Unstable polyglossia of the early modernity in North India. A sociolinguistic approach to the history of literature. As many categories elaborated within the human sciences by the Western academia, the concept of a single history of literature proved unsuitable to a bulk of empirical evidence of the exotic world. The post-Enlightment and modern intellectuals seem to interpret the past from its contemporary point of views, i.e. ignoring the possible perspectives of this past's agents. The problems arise when we try to reconstruct the history of India, the history of Hindi or any other oriental literature or when we attempt to find out what is a nation or democracy in the South Asian context, and so on. We are left with the neti neti outcomes, but our neti neti is not of deep philosophical but of disappointing pragmatical nature. When faced with the still exotic, the nomothetic theories decline. Are there any firm categories in the human sciences that we may apply to the outer evidence or are we definitely re-condemned to idiosyncrasy? The focus of my research for the purpose of this paper is on the sociolinguistic category of diglossia/polyglossia. I will provide an outline of more than half-century development process of this category. My aim is to suggest its application to the work on the early modern literatures which may consecutively support Sheldon Pollock's claims to replace the domain of the history of literature by the history of literary cultures. When attempting to adjust the sociolinguistic tool to the knowledge on literature I will also add the argument to break the understanding of the exotic as a concept limited to the non-Western. The Author is a PhD student in Literature at the Department of Philology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. The main area of his interest is so called ‘classical Hindi’ literature, i.e. Braj courtly literature produced on the fringes and behind the brajbhūmi area. His thesis is based predominantly on the Śivarājhūṣaṇa, 17th century poetical treatise.

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ŁUKASZ BYRSKI, B.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Divine Origins of the Writing Systems in Cultures of the East – A Comparative Study The main issue of this presentation is how people of the past have seen origins of their own writing system. What is the difference between native beliefs on the beginning of writing and that what we know today about invention of graphic signs representing the words of a language? What was the reason of explaining creation of the script by the divine intervention? In trying to answer those questions there is a need to look for examples in different cultures. Similar legends were common among the great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, but they were also present in some other cultures, like Persian, Armenian, Georgian and Slavic. In ancient Mesopotamia have existed several different beliefs connected with writing system. Patrons of the script were goddess Nidaba and god Nabu, but credited for the creation of cuneiform writing were god Enki (myth: “Inanna and Enki”), king Enmerkar from divine inspiration (epic: “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta”) or strange watery being called Oannes (“Babyloniaca” of Berossos - known in fragments from “History of Chaldea” by Alexander Polyhistor). In Egypt it was believed that hieroglyphs were created by the god Thoth, but strong connection with Egyptian script had also goddess Seshat. The hieroglyphs themselves were often called mdw ntr or the “the words of god [Thoth]”. In China contribution for creation of characters of the script was granted to three mythical divine emperors or their officials. For the ancient Persian view on beginning of the writing system we have two sources: inscription on rock in Behistun of Darius the Great and legend recorded later by Ferdousi in epic “Shahnama”. The comparison of those examples will be helpful in determining the answers for questions stated above. The Author holds B.A. titles on Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Archeology. He is now an M.A. student in the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Poland. His research interests include writing systems - especially non-alphabetical scripts, epigraphy, ancient linguistics, paleography and calligraphy. JIAMING CHEN, Prof., Xiamen University, China

On the Special Language Views in Chinese Traditional Philosophy With to the view of language, there are two notable features in traditional Chinese philosophy. One is that the role of “name” was concerned by its political significance, i.e. taken as the right principle of government, such as “let the rule be rule, the minister minister, the father father, and the son son”. Every name has its own implications which constitute the objects’ essence and their duties. Confucius’ such kind of doctrine of “rectification of names” can be seen as a special “political Pragmatics”. Another is, based on the idea that “words cannot fully express meaning”, some ancient philosophers maintain that “images (words) can be abandoned after meaning has been got”. According to this view, language is just like an instrument. When fish is captured, the fishing net may be threw away, so does the language. Similar to this kind of idea of language, Chinese native religions Zen, even created a particular doctrine and cultivation practice of “understanding by heart”，i.e. not by the means of language expression, but through personal contacts and hints of behavior, to achieve the goal of grasping its religious significance. The Author is a professor of philosophy at Xiamen University, China and the Chief Editor of the Journal of Xiamen University. He got his PhD title at The Graduate School of Chinese Social

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Academy of Science, participated in the Fulbright Fellowship at Harvard University and K.C. Wong Fellowship at British Academy. HERMINA CIELAS, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Sound, image and meaning. Many aspects of Sanskrit figurative poetry Citrakāvya is a Sanskrit concrete poetry, in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important as the other elements of the poem, such as the meaning or the rhythm, the meter. It has entertaining and educational purposes. Graphic side of the poem is approachable for everyone – also those, who cannot read. On the other hand, to notice visual side of the poem (which is not indicated directly as in case of European concept of carmina figurata), a reader has to have particular knowledge or needs a help of guru – a teacher. Citrakāvya is the result of combining word, sound (śabda) and its meaning (artha) with image (citra) which as a graphic sign conveys meaning with symbolic value and has its own denotation. In Sanskrit elements of figurative poetry were used to emphasize certain content. To read such work fully we have to pay an attention to all of domains of language included; otherwise, final aesthetic experience will not be completed. The aim of the presentation is to investigate a relationship between them, used to create this complex system of interdependence called citrakāvya. The main goal is to define how those tools play a special role in emphasizing particular contents in a text and to designate in what narrative points poets were using elements of figurative poetry. The Author is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Philology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Her thesis concerns the relationship between Indian literature and art. Her fields of interest are the concept of figurative poetry, philosophy of language and Indian aesthetic theories. RENATA CZEKALSKA, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

The real and the mythicised function of word in the work of a modern Indian poet The paper is dedicated to analysing the function of word, which in the poetic oeuvre of Ashok Vajpeyi – a modern Indian poet writing in Hindi – is treated not only as a tool of artistic expression but also as a material for philosophical meditations. The communicative function of word in this poetry fulfils the role of a craftsman’s tool, but in fact it is an autonomous existence, with qualities allowing it to connect contradictory elements of the poet’s inner world with the outer world of other beings. A spoken or a written word interferes with the beyond-verbal space through its mere existence. It originates in the depths of an “I” and, through perception, connects with another “I”, hence with every potential “you”. A word written down, so in a sense incarnated in letters, lasts longer than even the deepest “I”, it has the quality of timelessness. Treating the source material on the theoretical background of Jerzy J. Smolicz’s core values theory, the paper will aim at presenting the poetic word as the prime carrier of axiological senses. The Author is an assistant professor at the Institute of the Middle and Far East, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She specialises in South Asian culture, 20th century Hindi literature, the modern history of South Asia, translation practice and theory, as well as intercultural communication.

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ROBERT CZYŻYKOWSKI, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Divine sound – Tantric mantras as a tool of transformation Lecture is intended to throw the light on the topic of special kind of sound - the form of Tantric mantras, its generation, structure and its psychosomatic effects. In many Indian traditions (Hindu and Buddhist) mantras are viewed as a basic tool for realizing the religious goal or for achieving the various kinds of siddhis (perfections). Sound lays as a foundation of Indian culture and conception of language. Divine sound was main interest of Vedic and later Indian thinkers. This reflection led to development of various elaborated and subtle philosophies but in large degree had also a pragmatic side. This practical aspect will be my main interest – how concrete sounds, Tantric mantras were supposed to be means to affect human psyche and how structure of the mantras and modes of incantation were expected to be efficient means for alternating human consciousness. I base my presentation on analyze of various medieval Hindu and Buddhist Tantric and Yogic texts (in Sanskrit and Bengali language). The cultural and theological aspects of mantras, for example their cosmological roots, were supposed to be confirmed by practice of uttering these mystical incantations. Next I try to include some reflections on this subject using the some contemporary methodologies formulated in Religious Studies and Indology. The Author works at the Institue for Scientific Study of Religion, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. He obtained his PhD title in Religious Studies with thesis entitled ‘Mystical and Physical Body in Selected Traditions of North-East India’. His area of interest are Indian religions, Tantric and Yoga traditions, the question of mystical experience and anthropology of religion. MARTA DMUCHOWSKA, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Selected contemporary views on the language in Śankara’s Vedanta The presentation is a critical discussion of Śankara’s views on self-knowledge. His ideas are inspired by the śrutis and organized into a system of ontologic-epistemic-exegetic syntheses. In his texts, he revises the archaic idea of the world as a dream, and argues for illusiveness of death and transience. Trying to solve teleologic-eschatological issues based on canonical texts, Śankara finds sannyasa, renunciation, the best interpretation of the śrutis. He translates the Upanishadic metaphorics into a logical discourse, overcoming the inaccessible mysticism. The present analyses of his works aim at a compromise between analytic-critical attitude and respect for the Vedic message. There are also arguments for a kind of syncretic picture-like thinking that transcends and overcomes the limited and finite personal perspective. Hence the use of the peripheries of word meanings, vagueness of concepts, metaphors. The presentation is a review of selected contemporary texts on the nature of the Vedantic language. The views of Hacker, Mayeda, Rao, and some others, are taken under consideration. The Author is a PhD candidate in the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Her interests include vedānta, yoga and Sanskrit. Her research concerns mainly the issues of self-knowlegde.

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AGNIESZKA ERDT, M.A., Warsaw University, Poland

Word that created the universe. The function of God`s word in the emanationist doctrine of creation in Shi’i philosophy and exegesis In Islam, revelation starts with the word ‘Read!’ (Ar. iqra`), uttered by the angel Gabriel and addressed to Muhammad. The same root q-r-` is also found in the word ‘Qur`an’. The Qur`an is thus the word of God recited, or read to the humankind, comprehensible to all, through which God guides His creation. Theologians perceived the Qur`an fore and foremost as the direct, literal word of God revealed in the beautiful Arabic language. Philosophers, however, differed in this regard. The paper expounds their views in some detail, while concentrating mainly on Shi’i philosophy. In general, philosophers have argued that the Qur`an is only the last of the instantiations of Divine speech. God, who was initially alone in his singleness and in the primordial silence, uttered the first command ‘Be’. Subsequently, the cosmos was created in a series of emanations of various beings and modes of existence (worlds) descending from the highest to the lowest level, each of which had its own revelation. To put it differently, God`s word was one reality which had different levels corresponding to different stages of creation. Word, while limiting itself, existentiated also more limited and specific beings. The paper, after having presented the outline of the doctrine, moves on to analyzing some key interrelated issues. These include the status of the Qur`an as the incarnation of Divine speech, which makes it equivalent to the status of Jesus in Christianity; the role of prophets and Shi’i Imams in bringing the revelation and their special knowledge of God`s word; and lastly, the possibility of acquiring the knowledge of the meanings of the Qur`an through exegesis. The paper is informed by a wide range of sources from ahadith (narratives attributed to Muhammad and Shi’i Imams) to the writings of key Shi’i philosophers: seventeenth-century Mulla Sadra and modern-day Iranian philosopher Allama Tabatabai. The Author is a PhD candidate in the Department of Iranian Studies at Warsaw University, Poland. She is now finishing her thesis entitled ‘Allama Tabatai’s Qur’anic Commentaries on the Creation of the Human Soul’. She studied at the University of Tehran wan was a Fulbright grantee at the University of Texas, Austin. Her research interests include: Qur’anic commentaries (tafsir), Shi’i philosophy and theology, and the image of the West in Iran.

THIAGARAJAN GANESAN, PhD, French Institute of Pondicherry, India

Nāda and dhvani in the śaivasiddhānta The sound and the word are the fundamental complimentary principles that play a vital rôle in the Śaivasiddhānta philosophy. An oft cited passage states that the “The primordial sound (nāda) is represented by the Liṅga”-- nādaṃ liṅgamiti proktaṃ. The primordial sound is variously called nāda, śabda, unarticulated speech (aghoṣā vāk), etc. The creation of the material universe is conceived in the Śaivāgama-s as that of ‘the universe of sound” and that ‘of the universe of matter’- śabdaprapañca and arthaprapañca. The supreme reality, Śiva is conceived to exist in the form of supreme sound - paranāda - and He is the unique source of the entire universe. The great medieval Śaivasiddhānta philosopher Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha states at the commencement of his treatise on sound—Nādakārikā:

buddhyasmitāmanobhyo vidyāto rāgataḥ kalāyāśca | māyāpuṁśaktibhyo nādo'nyo dṛśyate dhvanibhyo'pi || 1 ||

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—that ‘sound is perceived to be different from all categories such as intellect, mind, matter, power of the self and even articulated sound (dhvani)’. Such is the fundamental importance of sound and its product word in the Śaivasiddhānta system. The fundamental importance of the sound is stated that it is the most important factor in the production of discursive thought in the supreme Reality, not to speak of the human beings, who are of limited knowledge and power. That sound is not produced from nowhere; it has a non-material source called technically ‘bindu’ in the Śaivasiddhānta texts. My paper will be an attempt in exploring briefly into this less known aspect of sound and its material effects as presented and elaborated in the canonical texts (Śaiva Āgama) and in the Śaivasiddhānta doctrinal texts. The Author , with the PhD in Sanskrit, is Directeur de Recherche at the French Institute, Pondicherry (IFP). He joined as cataloguing assistant in the project Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts of the French Institute he is now working on the project A Comprehensive History of Śaivasiddhānta in Tamilnadu surveying the contents of the entire gamut of Śaivasiddhānta literature (published and unpublished) that spans more than a millennium. His book Two Śaiva Teachers of the sixteenth century: Nigamajñāna I and his disciple Nigamajñāna II has been published in the beginning of 2009 from the French Institute, Pondicherry. Śivajñānabodhasūtra with the Laghuṭīkā of Śivāgrayogī, Siddhāntaprakāśikā of Sarvātmaśambhu with Tamil and English translations and a few other important Śaivasiddhānta texts along with Śivajñānabodhasūtra with the hitherto unpublished commentary of Nigamajñānadeśika are some of the important śaiva texts edited by him. JOANNA GRUSZEWSKA, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

The language of Brahmins in the world of the Buddhists – adopting Sanskrit as Buddhist canonical language Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, which is also called mixed Sanskrit, is a unique form of Sanskrit language found in Buddhist literature from the second century of Common Era. According to The Pali Canon, Buddha prohibited the usage of Sanskrit for preaching and prescribed monks to spread the dhamma in one’s own dialect. The presentation will be an attempt to answer how it is possible that Buddhism adopted Sanskrit as a canonical language and what are the most probable reasons for such transformation. It will rely on the perspective of perceiving Sanskrit presented by Sheldon Pollock, to whose book the title refers, and also it will take into account social, religious and historical contexts of ancient India. The Author holds an M.A. in Study of Religions and Indology. She is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Her research focuses on social and political aspects of Buddhism (ancient and contemporary) and Sanskrit and Pali literature. CHRISTINE GUILLEBAUD, PhD, University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre, France

The sound engineering of the Hindu temple: artefacts, perception and effects This paper focuses on sound displays in the Hindu temple and gives an ethnographic insight of the use of musical automatons and sound devices in the main religious centre in South India. It reflects on the hybrid character of mechanically produced music and on its relation to other visual and sound devices such as hand operated bells, recordings on CD’s and other electronic devices. It shows how the controversy surrounding the automaton crystallised the

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debate concerning its intrinsic property, that is the ability to make sound visible by non-human action. The ambivalent character of the machine becomes the source of controversies and negotiations involving the automaton designer (a Madras engineer), the temple priests, the gods, the devotees, religious authorities, the industrial producers and ultimately state ministers. The Author is an ethnomusicologist and a social anthropologist, she is a Research Fellow at the (French Government) National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She belongs to the Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (CREM-LESC), located at the University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre. Specialist of Kerala music, in South India, she is the author of the book Le chants des serpents. Musiciens itinérants du Kerala (Song of snakes: Itinerant Musicians in Kerala, 2008), awarded by the Music Academy Charles Cros and co-editor of the volume La Musique n’a pas d’auteur (Who Owns Music? Ethnographies of Copyright, 2010). She currently coordinates the MILSON research program "For an anthropology of sound milieux" (milson.fr) founded by the Fyssen Fondation, dedidated to the study of sound environments in their sociocultural context of production and perception. Member of the Administrative Board of the French Society for Ethnomusicology, she is also a member of the editorial Board of the scientific journals Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie (Geneva), Gradhiva. Anthropology and Arts History (Paris, Musée du quai Branly), and the Book collection Hommes et Musiques (SFE) JOANNA JUREWICZ, Prof., Warsaw University, Poland

Spoken word and time In the paper I would like to show how the experience of recitation influenced thinking about time in the ancient Indian tradition. The Author is professor at the Oriental Studies Department of Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland. She teaches Sanskrit and early Indian philosophy. She uses philology and cognitive linguistics to analyse ancient Indian texts and demonstrates how the philosophical thought expressed in those texts was closely connected to everyday human experience. She is the author of three books and numerous articles. MAŁGORZATA BARBARA KASZAK, M.A., University of Gdańsk, Poland

Green-blue confusion in the Orient: is language thinking-affective? In Vietnam, Korea, China and Japan, there are no separate terms for colours blue and green. According to Ju Brown and John Brown, “Blue and green have an interesting relationship in the Japanese mind. Green is seen as a shade of blue, and aoi 青い is a sort of ideal blue, halfway between green and blue. Japanese refer to green traffic lights, cucumbers, spinach, and even the grass as blue. The sky is said to be blue, but a different shade than grass” (2006: 59). Why green is not always green and blue is not always blue? Do these unspecified terms for the aforementioned colours affect the way people from the Orient view the reality? The overriding goal of the present study is to try to determine, whether the perception of the world is altered in relation to words for particular hues, which are uttered. Many developmental psychologists have been struck by the correlation between language development and cognitive development. One of the versions of the language-affects-thought claim is associated with Whorf (1956) and Sapir (1921), who believe that differences between languages lead to differences in thought. One of the most prominent cognitive scientists, Steven Pinker in The LANGUAGE INSTINCT How the Mind Creates Language, explains that

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“language pervades thought, with different languages causing their speakers to construe reality in different ways” (1994: 17-18). Bloom and Keil, however, in their Thinking Through Language state that “a strong impression that the language one speaks must influence how one thinks, […] is more seductive than it is instructive” (2001: 365). The Author is a doctoral student whose main scientific interest is linguistics, mainly cognitive linguistics and corpus studies. Her thesis supervisor is prof. UG, dr hab. Olga Sokołowska, who is an expert in cognitive linguistics. SEYAD AHMAD REZA KHEZRI, Prof, University of Tehran, Iran

Persian calligraphy and Its Spiritual Message in Islamic arts Pershian Calligraphy , is the artistic practice of handwriting, in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. This art form is based on the Arabic script, which for a long time was used by all Muslims in their respective languages. They used it to represent God because they denied representing God with images. Persian calligraphy is especially revered among Islamic arts since it was the primary means for the preservation of the Qur'an. Suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous led to calligraphy and abstract depictions becoming a major form of artistic expression in Islamic cultures, especially in religious contexts. In addition the Persian literature emerged as the main sources of the development of Muslim art of calligraphy, painting, architecture and various forms of Islamic decorative arts. The spiritual aspect remained the dominant factor in all art and thought of Islamic World .In order to knows the true spirit of Iranian calligraphy and its spiritual message and significance, we shall have to comprehend briefly its origin as well as some of its main forms such as architecture, painting, music, poetry and decorative arts in general with special reference to Iran as the contribution of Iran to these Islamic art-forms can be deemed to be second to none. In summary , we can say ; Persian calligraphy is the art of the Islamic civilization and it have an important role in other Islamic art like Architecture , painting ,Weaving of textiles , coins and decorative arts, and it have a spiritual message that this paper intended to review it. The Author is a professor of Islamic history and civilization, Department of History and Islamic Civilization, University of Tehran, Iran. He holds a PHD title in Islamic history and civilization in 1995 from university of Tehran. He has 23 years’ experience in teaching in different universities of Iran. He is an author of 6 books in the context of Iranian and Islamic civilization and culture in Persian, of 4 books in the context of Iranian and Islamic civilization in Spanish, and of more than 40 articles in the context of Iranian and Islamic civilization. WOJCIECH KOSIOR, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

El Shadday. The Apotropaic Potential of the Name The rabbinic Judaism is often considered the religion of the book. While pretty much the same could be said about any other spiritual tradition that puts much emphasis on the written word, in the broadly understood Judaism, the “linguistic” notion is particularly developed. One of its aspects is the category of several divine names – initially belonging to particular deities of the ancient Near East and with flow of time attributed to one God of Israel, who is sometimes, nomen-omen, referred to as ha-Shem (“the name”). The supernatural power of these appellations is widely recognized within the Jewish tradition. Since the early midrashes, through medieval exegesis up until the modern era the names have

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been believed to be burdened with kavod and thus bearing the extraordinary performative potential. It is said of Betzalel that he knew the art of the letters permutation (BT Berakhot 55a) or of the four who entered the Pardes that they had done it with the help of the tetragrammaton (YT Hagigah 2:1, BT Hagigah 14b). This is plainly the case with the “capital” divine appellations like Yahveh or, to a lesser extent, with Elohim. Somewhat overshadowed is however the name Shadday, traditionally written on mezuzah cases and expanded as an abbreviation for shomer delatot Israel – “the keeper of Israel’s doors”. Even though the custom itself gets elaborate rationalistic exposition, the strong apotropaic undertones make their way through the “enlightened” explanatory layer. Such clues are present already in the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Genesis 17, Psalm 91) but become more apparent only in later exegesis. A midrash (Tanhuma Tzav 14) describing the bodily inscription of Shadday will serve as the point of departure for the planned presentation. Accordingly, its main purpose is to follow the notion of the apotropaic function conveyed by the name hinted at in the selected pieces of the rabbinic literature. The Author is a psychologist and religiologist. His main field of interest includes the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinics. He has been researching the biblical demonology and currently works on the figures of the dissident rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud. AGNIESZKA KUCZKIEWICZ-FRAŚ, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Qavvālī – the transcendent power of Ṣūfī spiritual texts Qavvālī is a musical performance of Ṣūfī Muslim poetry, sung responsorially by a group of male singers (qavvāl-s) that aims to lead listeners to a state of religious ecstasy. It arose from the combined traditions of Persian mystical poetry and performative practice, and the North-Indian literary and musical environment, blending popular elements with classical convention and remaining in the mainstream tradition of Hindustānī music. The developed tendency to improvisation as well as the types of employed tonal frameworks (rāg-s) bring qavvālī close to other classical or semi-classical North Indian musical forms (like ṭhumrī or ġazal), but with one crucial difference: while the classical music recitals are music-based (with the text playing a secondary role), qavvālī is text-based and the text is of great consequence, as it is the medium for transmitting the hidden message to the audience and for spiritually arousing the listeners. Texts used for qavvālī are centred around the themes of spiritual emotion and mystical love and their role is to facilitate the union between the devotee and God. Being originally based on the classical Persian Ṣūfī poetry, the texts exploit a broad spectrum of artistic expressions for mystical love – mostly images and metaphors which by figurative focus on the earthly, human love serve as an equivalent of metaphysical or spiritual passion. In my presentation I will analyze the main types of texts exploited for qavvālī, dedicating special attention to the power of word used as the means of artistic expression employed by the qavvāl-s to convey the spiritual message. The Author is an Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her main field of research is Hindi-Urdu linguistics as well as the Islamicate traditions and culture in South Asia and intercultural communication. She also translates from Hindi and Urdu into Polish. Her main publications contain: Perso-Arabic Hybrids in Hindi. The Socio-linguistic and Structural Analysis (New Delhi: Manohar, 2003); Perso-Arabic Loanwords in Hindustani. Part I: Dictionary (Krakow: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2008), Part II: Linguistic Study (Krakow: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2012); Umrao Dźan Ada. Pamiętnik kurtyzany (translation, edition & introduction, Krakow: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2011); Islamicate Traditions in South Asia: Themes from Culture and History (ed., New

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Delhi: Manohar, 2013), etc. At present she is preparing a comprehensive study of Indo-Muslim courtesans (tawa'if) and the socio-cultural role they played in the Islamicate society of North India. HANG LIN, PhD, University of Hamburg, Germany Paratext in Manuscripts and Imprints: A Glimpse at the Social History of Book in Late Imperial China China enjoys (probably) the longest history of printing in the world. The evolution in print technologies facilitated an initial growth in book production and the expansion of commercial printing in China, in particular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yet manuscripts continued to exist in China until the introduction of of Western mechanized printing technologies in the late nineteenth century. Both types, manuscripts and imprints, together comprised the world of Chinese books throughout imperial China. What else is an old Chinese book but a treasured artwork? Surely books as objects can tell us much about the social history of the book. Certain features of a book, often collectively referred to as the paratext - all the materials other than the main text - can yield valuable information unavailable elsewhere concerning the history of the Chinese book. While a number of paratextual elements were already evident in manuscripts prior to the spread of woodblock printing in China, they became far more evident and developed among imprints. In this paper I intend to illustrate some of the essential facts about the books, such as the publication date, location, transmission, publishers, and collectors. In doing so, I will focus on a wide range of manuscripts and imprints from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), especially after 1500, to examine various paratextual elements of manuscripts and imprints. Such a comparative analysis can provide valuable insights into the production, distribution, and consumption of books in late imperial China. The Author is currently research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on the history of non-Chinese peoples in China, material culture in Medieval China, and the manuscript culture in late imperial China. His recent publications include "Cross Culture Borders: Marriage Customs of Non-Han Peoples in Jin China (1125-1234)," Crossroads: Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World 6 (2012): 127-144; “Silk Production in Song China (960-1279): An Investigation of the Treatise on Textiles in the Official Dynastic History of Song,” Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies 3 (2013): 32-44; “Traditional Confucianism and its Contemporary Relevance,” Asian Philosophy, vol. 21, no. 4 (2011): 437-445. OŁENA ŁUCYSZYNA, PhD, University of Humanities and Economics, Poland

Sāṁkhya View on the Relationship between the Word (śabda) and Its Meaning (artha) The nature of the relationship between the word and its meaning was vividly discussed in Indian philosophy. The main contributors to this discussion were Mīmāṁsā, which held that the relationship was natural (autpattika), and its rival Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, which defended the theory of a conventional (sāmayika) origin of this relationship. The aim of my study is to reconstruct the classical Sāṁkhya view on the nature of this relationship. The study is based on all the extant classical Sāṁkhya texts, which embrace the Sāṁkhyakārikā by Īśvarakṛṣṇa and eight commentaries on it, but its chief focus is on the Yuktidīpikā, for this classical Sāṁkhya commentary provides the main material for our analysis.

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The view on the relationship between the word and its meaning that can be reconstructed from the classical Sāṁkhya texts is not clear and consistent. On the one hand, the Yuktidīpikā contains the evidence for ascribing to Sāṁkhya the theory of a conventional origin of language. In the Introduction to the Yuktidīpikā the author claims that the supreme seer (ṛṣi) Kapila, who was born in the beginning of the world (viśvâgra-ja), gave names to all the principles (tattva), being the ultimate objects of knowledge, and the later teachers (ācārya) do not introduce new names into the highest science. On the other hand, the Sāṁkhya texts provide the evidence that does not agree with the theory of a conventional origin of the relationship between the word and its meaning, implying that this relationship is natural. In the Yuktidīpikā 10 the author argues that words do not arise and disappear, but they are just manifested in the process of human communication and have permanent connection with their meanings (in the context of Sāṁkhya this permanence can be understood as duration from pralaya to pralaya and reappearance from prakṛti in the beginning of a new creation after the period of cosmic dissolution). The author of the Yuktidīpikā and Vācaspati Miśra in his Sāṁkhya commentary called Tattvakaumudī state directly that the Vedas have no author (Yuktidīpikā 5; Tattvakaumudī 2 and 5); the idea of the authorless Vedas, reemerging from prakṛti in the beginning of a new creation, is incompatible with the theory that primary linguistic convention is the source of language. In my presentation I shall analyze the evidence mentioned above and test the compatibility of each of two theories of the relationship between the word and its meaning with the Sāṁkhya doctrine. The Author is a researcher of Indian philosophy. She earned her doctoral degree in Philosophy in 2004 from the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Her teachers of Indian philosophy are Maciej St. Zięba (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland), Paweł Sajdek (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland), and Liudmyla Fylypovych (Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). She is the author of more than 40 scientific publications (including one monograph) in Ukrainian, Polish, English, and Russian languages. Currently, she teaches philosophy (as an associate professor) at the University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, Poland and preparing the habilitation thesis on Sāṁkhya epistemology and philosophy of language. MAREK ŁYCZKA, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

“Conciousness without Awareness” (vijñānaghanaṃ saṃjñābhāvaṃ ca) and “The Son of Barren Woman” (vandhyāputra). Is Pure Consciousness An Empty Notion? Every act of speech, in particular, in the context of debate, involves using expressions that are meaningful. This is because of the fact that the main goal of our speech and conversation is to be understood by the audience. In other words, we speak in order to transmit some content to other people. Nonetheless, syntactic rules of language permit creating expressions or even whole sentences that are meaningless. ‘The son of barren woman’ or ‘circle square’ are just examples of a few of them. These phrases are empty, that is, they fail to refer to something because of their self-contradiction. Are we allowed to use these kind of expressions in philosophical statements? If not, why do we come across them reading some classical Indian treaties? Why do we sometimes refute some and accept others empty notions trying to defend their usage? Are there any semantic or other criteria that we have? In other words, why in the ground of Sankhya, Yoga and Advaita

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schools, philosophers apply double semantic standards speaking, for instance, about consciousness? Why do they permit empty notions in the systems and at the same time they fight against them in natural language? Can ontology solves these questions? My presentation deals with these problems and tries to find their linguistic-logical genesis. The Author is a PhD student in Department of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University. He studied theology at The Pontifical University of John Paul II where he undertook the philosophy of religion in the light of Christian-Hindu dialog, especially of works of Jules Monchanin (Swāmī Paramārubyāndam) and Henri Le Saux (Swāmī Abhishiktānanda). Later, he graduated in philosophy from the Jagiellonian University. His MA thesis “Conscious Mind in Shankara’s System. Towards a Cognitive Analysis” constitutes the first phase of the current project on confronting the classical Indian models of mind with the most recent research in cognitive sciences. He is interested in working at the interface of philosophy (Western and Indian) and science. FARHAD MAZLUM, Prof, Maragheh University, Iran; HASSAN AZIZI, M.A., Islamic Azad University, Iran; SAFAR KHAZAEI, Payame Noor University of Amol, Iran

Word and Language: Moslem Thinkers and Philosophers’ Views Historically speaking, Moslem thinkers have taken an interest in investigating the nature of 'word' and 'language' for two main reasons. The first one is the belief that the Holy Quran as the unique and sacred Book is full of lexical and semantic structures which make It the eternal miracle. To prove that the Holy Quran is a miracle, different Moslem thinkers have followed different approaches and have dealt with different issues; (e.g., whether God's Messages/Revelations were communicated through usual 'words' or through 'meanings'). All this has led to interesting discussions about the nature of the word, its relation to sound and thinking. The second reason is the question of how God 'speaks'; does He speak the same as human beings or differently? This paper aims at discussing two different lines of arguments about the nature of 'word' and its relation to thinking. The first argument is that of Hakim Abu-Nasr-Farabi—known as the founder of Islamic philosophy. He is the first Moslem thinker who studied the nature of 'word' and its relation to thinking. His studies then belong to what is generally known as philosophy of language today. The second argument belongs to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Abu Mohammad al-Ghazzali. Their approach to 'word' and 'language' is rooted in philosophy of religion. Both argue that God speaks through His Words in general; the same as two human beings speaking to each other. They further hold that such an argument does not go against the Divinity and Greatness of God. Farhad Mazlum is a faculty of Maragheh University. He holds a PhD in applied linguistics and has been teaching different EFL courses for more than 10 years. He has published a paper on Iranian teachers’ views on educational philosophies of Dewey, Aristotle and Rousseau (co-authored with M. R. Atai). Hassan Azizi is currently doing his PhD in philosophy in Islamic Azad University, Isfahan. His research interests include philosophy and Islam and the nature of material. Safar Khazei is a Public School teacher in Amol, Iran.

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RAFAŁ MAZUR, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Music as a tool for self-realization in the Chinese culture. Philosophy of guqin In Chinese culture, music has always had an important place, and its relationship with philosophy are very deep and ancient. In fact, one can say that it played a central role in shaping the culture of China. We can conclude that one of the most important concepts of this culture, if not the most important - Harmony, has its roots in practice and musical terminology. Music was very much linked to the official ideology / social philosophy of Chinese Empire – the Confucianism. Being inseparable from ritual music has become one of the elements responsible for the social order. In addition to the essential social/global functions, the music was also of great importance in the practice of achieving personal excellence. Very strong is its relationship with the Chinese ideal of the wise man, which in the Chinese culture is related to the sense of hearing, not sight, as is the case in the cultures of the Mediterranean or India. Inalienable attribute of the sage became a musical instrument - guqin, and the practice of playing music on it, has become the way to wisdom, allowing for improvement of cognition and action. The paper will present the qin music-making associations with the philosophy and the attainment of wisdom. The Author, holding M.A. in Philosophy, is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Philosophy of Culture at Jagiellonian University. His research field concerns the reconstruction of the Taoist strategical basis used in the art practices of Wenren, a circle of Confucian philosopher-clerics. In addition he is a musician focused on free improvisation in contemporary music. TERESA MIĄŻEK, PhD, University of Wrocław, Poland

The role of the Hindi writer and the idea of communication in modern society in the writings of S.H. Vātsyayān "Ajñeya" S. H. Vātsyāyan known as Ajñeya, paved his way into the realm of Hindi literature in the fourth decade of the 20th century with the collection of short-stories:Vipathagā and the lyrical volume : Bhagndūt. He became popular after the publication of the novel Śekhar: ek jīvnī. Awarded by the Indian Academy of Literature already in 1964, he received in 1978 the highest Indian literary prize. But the first complete critical edition of his literary output Ajñeya racanāvalī appeared only in 2011 published in the series dedicated to the best Indian authors. Ajñeya’s literary and theoretical works reflect his belief that the role of Hindi writer in modern society is to renew the tradition. He defines Indian poetic tradition as „fabric woven around three strands”: the concept of vāc, the re-enactment of yajña and the idea of the union of man with the nature. Ajñeya was aware that the modernity in Hindi literature demanded the move from „tradition” to ”actuality”. It required addressing the reader who became mass, but still involved in the oral-audial situation, and only gradually shifting to printed texts and private readings. By using the examples from Ajñeya’s short stories, poems and theoretical works I depict how the writer imagines his “audience”. I also make a claim that Ajñeya while focusing on the reader is well acquainted with the Sanskrit theory of rasa. He is convinced about the necessity of providing the possibility of the communication, which in the multi-layered context of modern Hindi language could be endangered. The function of words is for Ajñeya to be “the instrument of communion” between man and God, between writer and reader. The perpetual tension between the writer and the audience, reflecting also the struggle of standardized language and the colloquial one, is for Ajñeya the source of creativity.

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The Author is a lecturer in Hindi and Hindi Literature in the Department of Indology, Institute of Classical, Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, University of Wroclaw. She holds a PhD title in Hindi literature on the subject “Ajñeya’s short-stories in the light of old-Indian theory of aesthetics rasa (from Wroclaw University). Graduated from Jagiellonian University, Oriental Institute, Department of Indology. Research training at the Indology Department of the University of Zurich. The area of research: Hindi literature, the genre of short-story in Hindi literature, Ajñeya’s life and work, the rasa theory, Nāṭyasāstra, Indian aesthetics. MARIA MIKHEYEVA, PhD, Moscow State Institute for Tourism Industry, Russia

Knowledge and Language in Eastern and Russian Philosophies From ancient times philosophers, including teachers of India and Tibet had diversified views as regards to the amount and specific features of the means of knowledge (pramāṇas). Perception was the most widely, almost unanimously accepted pramāṇa. Inference and verbal testimony were among other pramāṇas of primary importance. When speaking about verbal testimony, an expert’s utterance could be meant or a statement from a knowledge thesaurus such as the Vedas. Actually, the method of evidence/testimony, which was developed in the Ancient East remained neglected for centuries and was rediscovered in the 20th century by the Russian researchers Nikolai and Helena Roerich in their philosophic system of the Living Ethics originated by them in India and developed in their Himalayas Research Institute. According to their philosophical system developed by their two sons – George and Svetoslav, verbal testimony was considered to be another important source of knowledge along with sensory apprehension and deductions. They also completed the notion of a competent testifier as a trustworthy researcher having direct knowledge, willing to communicate this knowledge and capable of expressing it (with language being the best means of expression ever to the mankind). The Living Ethics that united the best achievements of the Eastern and Western thoughts along with scientific and extra-scientific knowledge, according to L. Antipenko, implied “the relationship between two kinds of reality – sensual, or empiric, and super-sensual, or extra-empiric. In confessional language, they are usually correlated with the earthly and the heavenly worlds constituting a single Divine Universum” [Antipenko 1922]. Both realities contributed to human knowledge, which can only be disseminated with the means of human languages. The philosophic system of the Roerichs was later developed by V. Soloviev, N. Berdiayev, and A. Chizhevsky and, in a specific way, by N. Fyodorov and K. Tsiolkovsky. The Author is Associate Professor at Moscow State Institute for Tourism Industry n.a. Yu. Senkevich where she teaches and does research work on linguistics, philosophical and cultural issues and their interrelations in national development. Dr Mikheyeva received her PhD from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 2010 and taught at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. She is the author of about 40 published works and a developer of novel cultural and philosophical conceptions. NORIE MOGI, M.A., Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

How is the Japanese language influenced by gender? This study looks into the ways in which gender plays out in the Japanese language. Departing from the differences observed on the lexical and pragmatic levels we argue that language is in fact a means of control exerted by the Japanese society.

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Female students who learn Japanese often complain about what they perceive as unfairness in the use of the language. They are expected to use certain forms in order to sound pragmatically appropriate, whilst no restrictions of this kind are imposed on the male speakers.

The existence of male and female speech registers is a well-known systemic property of Japanese. These differences are prevailingly observed in the standard Japanese rather than dialects or informal language and they heavily depend on the situational context. Nakamura (2012) points out that the female language itself is an artificially construed device which appeared around the end of 13th century in the feudal society of the Kamakura period. This subsystem of Japanese has since then undergone substantial evolution which was strongly influenced by the social changes, in particular in the post-war society. In the remaining of the talk we shall demonstrate specific instances in which authority and control are intrinsically bound with language. For example, many cultures of the world ascribe the property of talkativeness to women who are considered as saying a lot of unimportant things. However, as pointed out by Ide (1979), in the case of the Japanese society this stereotype is extended to situations in which the behaviour of a woman speaking in a clear and logical manner is considered culturally inappropriate, violating the commonly accepted social norm. Furthermore, we demonstrate examples from the mass media discourse, such as the division of labour common in Japanese news programs in which questions asked by coquettish young ladies are authoritatively answered by male anchors, but the opposite is never the case. The Author, after graduation from London University, has worked as a Japanese instructor on various levels since 1998. Her research interests encompass cross-cultural communication (in particular the ways basic cultural notions are reflected in language) and feminism, especially in its Japanese flavor. DAVID MUNSON, M.A., Texas A&M University, USA

Bridging the Gap: A Rhetorical Approach to Ancient Confucianism The idea of cross-cultural or multiculturalism in contemporary academic scholarship has created platforms for both inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary discussions on rhetorical and linguistic concepts. “Rhetoric”, defined by Aristotle as the art of persuasion, often gets essentialized as an art of oration and many times gets further reduced to a form of chicanery and witty language in political communication. This form of thinking arises because of the seemingly inseparable connection between language, rhetoric and persuasion. Some contemporary feminist thinkers, for example, have sought to counter this by approaching the idea of rhetoric from a perspective that focuses on values of equality and self-determination, and seeks to use these values to de-center the Platonic/Aristotelian notion of rhetoric as antagonistic argument and persuasion. Without a consistent resistance to modes of rhetoric and language that are deemed “classical”, contemporary scholarship is in danger of overlooking and under appreciating the many valuable and unique rhetorical and linguistic insights found in cultures and traditions other than ancient Greece or Rome. In this project, I analyze Confucianism’s Analects and the Mencius alongside the feminist principles of equality and self-determination in order to place a spotlight on ancient Chinese linguistic traditions and to offer productive rhetorical insights without relying on antagonistic or forceful modes of persuasion/argumentation. The resonance occurring between ancient Confucianism and contemporary feminism catalyzes the evolution of rhetorical and language to focus more generally on “traditions”, instead of a single tradition rooted in set traditional

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values. The feminist concepts of equality and self-determination illuminate the rhetorical vision of Confucianism’s style and value system, while simultaneously providing validation for its move to de-center Platonic/Aristotelian notions of rhetoric as antagonistic argumentation and persuasion. The Author has just finished an MA program in the dept. of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. He is now a PhD professional graduate student at Texas A&M University. SVITLANA NESTEROVA, PhD, Artvin Coruh University, Turkey

The Nature and Functions of Language in the Sufi Doctrine of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi In this study Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī’s doctrine is reviewed in comparison with the basic assumptions of contemporary Philosophy of Language. Rumi describes his views on the essence of understanding and the nature of the language in his treatise "Fihi ma Fihi" and also in the philosophical poem of "The Mathnawi-i Ma'navi". According to it, work of language is provided by the interaction between two components: an "Image-Form" (suret) and "Sense" (ma'na). This model resembles to the modern definition of the linguistic sign as the structure, combining the plans of the expression (the signifier) and the content (the signified). Underlining the dominance of the meaningful element, Rumi indicates importance and indispensability of the ‘image-form’. As people aren’t able to comprehend the sense in its pure form, they have to seek the assistance in the sign-form. Sense without image is incomprehensible and image without sense is useless. Speaking about the importance of communication, epistemological and educational functions of the language, Rumi at the same time points to the dangerous tendency of linguistic signs not just to represent, but to substitute and simulate Reality. The image has a significance and value only as the indication of the sense. Form without content is the object of harsh criticism of the thinker. In Rumi’s doctrine language is not an independent essence, but an index, a handler, a medium. The language performs an epistemological function up to a certain point, but in the field of metaphysical meaning these are powerless. The truth is still hidden, not because we cannot find the right words, but because we are obstinately trying to express in words something inexpressible. The research shows that Rumi’s views greatly anticipated the discoveries of the 20th century’s Philosophy of Language and continue to maintain its relevance. The Author is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Artvin Coruh University, Turkey. She was born in Ukraine, where she completed undergraduate studies in philosophy at T.Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, graduated with honor. As she has always been interested in Eastern philosophy as well as in the problems of intercultural communication received, she continued her studies in Turkey, at Ankara University, from which she received MA in philosophy in 2004, with master’s theses "Dialogue as a Model of Understanding in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Hermeneutics". In 2011, she received Ph.D degree with the dissertation entitled "The Metaphysical Aspects of Metaphorical Expressions in Rumi’s “Mathnawi”. Her research interests lie in the area of Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Hermeneutics, Philosophy of Religion, Sufism.

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YEN-HOANG NGUYEN, M.A., National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Vietnamese envoys’ observation and reaction to Beijing royal opera in the Qing dynasty It’s well-known that the scholars and spectators always pay great attention to Chinese royal opera in the Qing dynasty, for it can help us learn more about the real life and entertainment of the Qing royal family, its impact on Chinese popular opera’s trend and development in this period. While many studies in the past have attempted to explain the Chinese royal opera history, its impact on popular opera in the Qing dynasty from the general point of view, so it leaves Chinese royal opera still a not-complete riddle. This paper uses the appropriate records of Vietnamese envoys, which is talking about the Qing dynasty royal opera with detail contents and great pleasure. It’s the books written during their diplomat trip to Yanjing, now Beijing, during eighteen and nineteen century. These books clearly note not only how and when Vietnamese envoys went to watch the opera with the Qing emperor, but also the whole process, ceremony, theatre and repertoires of that day...The more important thing is that, it also reveals the knowledge, reaction and identity of Vietnamese envoys toward Chinese opera, culture, as well as its nation. Hence, these books play specially important role in Chinese royal opera studies in the Qing dynasty, as well as enrich the content of the cultural exchange between Vietnam and China in the past centuries. The Author is with the Department of Chinese Literature, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan ROC. Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 10, 1985. She hold Master Degree in Comparative Literature from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, in 2010. Her interested field is comparative literature and culture, Vietnamese Chinese, folklore. Her current research is regarding literature and culture exchange between Vietnam and China during 18th, 19th century. JAGNA NIEUWAŻNY, M.A., Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

Ajikan- "Looking at the A Letter", Meditation Technique in Japanese Shingon Buddhism Literally meaning "Looking at the A Letter", ajikan is a meditation technique performed by monks and lay followers of the Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism. It evolves around observing, copying, intoning and meditating on the A syllable of a North Indian script called Siddham written on a scroll, all this while believing that those actions can lead the practitioner to the ultimate goal of salvation . In this presentation I want to ask why is it A that was believed to have such magical powers, how to perform this ritual as well as follow its evolution through the ages and take a glimpse of the monks-authors who considered the sole act of chanting "Aaaa" an ultimate way of attaining spiritual bliss. The Author acquired MA in Japanese Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznań, devoting her thesis to two monks of the Tendai and Hossō sect, Saichō and Tokuitsu, and their correspondence on the interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. Currently enrolled as a third year PhD student at UAM, she is planning on publishing a PhD thesis concerning the meditation ritual of ajikan

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MONIKA NOWAKOWSKA, PhD, University of Warsaw, Poland

Early Mīmāṃsā on language(s) Mīmāṃsā’s championed doctrine of the eternality of the authorless Vedas was supported by a highly developed, sophisticated philosophy of language and related to it epistemology. The focus was on understanding and interpreting the Vedas – Śabda in is authoritativeness as the source of knowledge of dharma. Śabara (5th century C.E.) announces in the beginning of his commentary to the Mīmāṃsāsutras that the words of the MS should be understood in the same sense as they have in “common parlance” (loke) (cf. Jha’s translation; 1933). Kumārila (7th century) in his commentary Tantrāvarttika famously mentions some Dravidian words and jokes on their morphologic and semantic distortion by people who try to Sanskritize them. What was then the status of “common parlance”? What should we understand by it? What language(s) did normal people use in their everyday, not ritual, activities? Did the Mīmāṃsā care about it at all? What was the relation of Śabda to “common parlance”? This paper tries to look for answers to those questions. The Author is an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Chair of South Asian Studies, specializing in the Sanskrit language (in its various usages), with a slight philosophical and, recently, cognitive linguistic bias. Her doctoral thesis was on negative cognition in Indian philosophy as discussed by Bhaṭṭa Jayanta in the Nyāyamañjarī. STANISŁAW OBIREK, Prof., University of Warsaw, Poland

Two Concepts and one Memory. An attempt to reconsider Religion and Culture in light of Memory. Already in 1964 Wilfred Cantwell Smith wrote that: “the term ‘religion’ is confusing, unnecessary, and distorting”. Since than many new definitions were elaborated. In 2012 Jared Diamond not only remembered sixteen of them, but also proposed two new definitions. The multiplicity of definitions for ‘culture’ is well known. In the recent anthropological reflection the basic concepts of Western civilization underwent a dramatically transformations. This is true also for religion and culture and found a specific culmination in the theory elaborated by Clifford Geertz, who saw religion as a cultural system. The aim of this paper is to reconsider these two concepts in light of the notion of memory. The two questions asked by Paul Connerton – “How Societies Remember” and “How Modernity Forgets” are crucial also for correct understanding of religion and culture. The contribution by Maurice Halbwachs who indicated a close link between religion and memory has to be included and also more recent analysis by Jan and Aleida Assmann, particularly their emphasis on cultural memory. It will be important for this paper to notice the difference between Western and Eastern approach to religion and to culture as well. The Author, a culture anthropologist, is a professor at University of Warsaw. He teaches in the American Studies Center. He was a visiting professor in Holy Cross College in Worcester MA, and a fellow in St. Louis University. His books include The Jesuits in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, 1564-1668 (1996); Religion a Shelter or a Prison? (2006), On the fringes of Catholicism (2008); Catholicism as a Cultural Phenomenon in the time of Globalization: A Polish Perspective (2009); Winged Mind. Walter Ong’s Anthropology of Word (2010); Liberated Mind. In Search of Mature Catholicism (2011), with Zygmunt Bauman, On God and Man. Conversations (2013). He is interested in the place of religion in modern cultures, interreligious dialogue, and strategies for overcoming conflicts between different civilizations and cultures.

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KAMILLA PAWLIKOWSKA, PhD, Seikei University, Japan

Poetics of Kanji and Western Poststructuralist Linguistics The study of structure and functions of Chinese kanji characters is essential for a better understanding of both Japanese language and culture. While Saussure’s stable and predictable binary model of the linguistic sign is inadequate to explain kanji, concepts coined by poststructuralist thinkers can help us to explain the construction and distribution of meaning in this system. Japanese written language consists of three scripts, hiragana, katakana and kanji. When kanji logograms were imported from China in the 6th century CE they did not sufficiently and adequately represent Japanese language. Although each kanji had a particular meaning, it did not have a Japanese pronunciation. Therefore, two other scripts had to be developed in order to represent Japanese phonemes. Each hiragana symbol was originally a kanji but became abbreviated in the process of adaptation to everyday use so as to be intelligible for the Japanese. A modern kanji character consists of (usually) several elements, often ideograms, which, combined with other elements produce different meaning(s). For example, kanji 寺 means both ‘temple’ and ‘stillness’ (consists of ideograms for ‘earth’ and ‘hand’); kanji 言 means ‘words’ (ideogram is ‘face’); the two combine into 詩 (‘language’ + ‘stillness’) which means ‘poetry’. In addition, kanji has usually two pronunciations (and sometimes more), kun (Japanese) and on (Chinese). It is necessary to learn both since phonetic readings may be used independently, and form a part of a different word. What does this tell us about the organization of the Japanese language? How is language perceived and practised? Which model of the linguistic sign is adequate to explain it? I will try to answer these questions with the help of concepts such as ‘interpretant’ (Charles Sanders Pierce), ‘free play’ (Jacques Derrida), ‘connotation’ (Roland Barthes) and ‘unlimited semiosis’ (Umberto Eco). The Author graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury where she obtained a BA in English Language and Culture, MA in Comparative Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature. She is currently working on a research project related to Japanese literature and culture as a British Academy/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Seikei University, Tokyo. As a JSPS Research Fellow she examines cases where depictions and evaluations of Japanese culture have been manufactured to serve external goals – be they political, social, ethical or aesthetic. In order to demonstrate that persuasive discourses can use different (often contradictory) notions of ‘culture’, she compares Polish and English ‘japonist’ authors of the period 1967-1930 and explain how they used Japan and Japanese culture to support their own personal and national agendas. KATARZYNA PAŻUCHA, M.A., University of Chicago, USA

How to talk about poetry? A special case of Sanskrit literature, kāvya and its theory, alaṅkāraśāstra This paper will discuss the relationship between poetry and its theory. It will focus on Sanskrit poetry (kāvya) tradition, and Sanskrit theoretical framework to explain the poetry (alaṅkāraśāstra). The problem of language needed to explain language itself was an on-going concern of Sanskrit writers and thinkers for centuries - with many attempts made in linguistic disciplines such as grammar, hermeneutics and commentary. This paper will situate alaṅkāraśāstra within Sanskrit theories of language to observe that unlike grammarians and mīmāṃsākas, who discussed the unchanging language of Vedas, theoreticians of literature were concern with kāvya, constantly changing language of poetry.

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The Author holds a degree from Jagiellonian University, Poland in Indian Philology as well as a Master's degree from the University of Chicago. She is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago in the South Asian Languages and Civilizations department. Ms. Pażucha is interested in Sanskrit kāvya and alaṃkāraśāstra. For her dissertation she is working on the 10th-century poet and theoretician Rājaśekhara and his Kāvyamīmāṃsa. JAKUB PETRI, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland The Making of Relational Space in Japanese Electronic Music Project’s Audio – Visual Performances Masami Akita, the godfather of Japanese noise music scene once stated that “Japanese artists use Noise simply as cathartic release without the philosophical underpinnings”. Paradoxically, one of the Japan’s greatest philosophers Shuzo Kuki, also used to emphasize a cathartic role of music, treating it as a way of liberating from measurable time and space. In an essay entitled The Expression of Infinite in Japanese Art, Kuki highlights his conviction that Japanese arts in general, are guided by the desire of breaking the perspective of time ad space. The paper follows those suggestions in quest to characterize a phenomena of making a specific type of space experience during some modern, Japanese electronic music project’s, audio visual performances. The Author works at The Department of Aesthetics at Jagiellonian University. He holds a PhD title in philosophy and specializes in transcultural studies and Asian aesthetics. ARTUR PRZYBYSŁAWSKI, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Lung, or the power of spoken word in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism Text presents an analysis of lung being oral transmission of texts of Buddhist tradition of Tibet. What is taken under consideration is the role of the above mentioned ritual which aims at preserving living transmission of philosophical and spiritual experience rooted in the teachings of Buddha himself. The Author works at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. He is a translator (he was awarded by the Polish Translators Association), holder of the scholarship of Foundation for Polish Science. The Author of books Coincidentia oppositorum, The Buddhist Philosophy of Emptiness, and Pustka jest radością, czyli filozofia buddyjska z przymrużeniem (trzeciego) oka. KAROLINA RAKOWIECKA-ASGARI, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Between a Symbol and a Weapon. Zoroastrian Conception of the Word In Zorostrianism a pious believer is granted a powerful weapon – manthra spenta, the holy word – with that the powers of evil are to be weakened and eventually destroyed. Although Zorostrians are required to use the good word (part of the ethic triad of the religion), they are not meant to create or understand it without supernatural assistance by any means of contemplation. It is always with the God's inspiration that the human being obtains

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understanding of the word. Nevertheless, only in the process of mutual communication divine word transforms the world and affects the final combat of good and evil. Thus, a question arises about the nature of the word in Zoroastrianism. The paper argues that in this religion the conception of the word arises from the ritualistic interpretation of a symbol requiring constant actualization in particular speech acts, be these word duels involving two competing parties (one of them being representative of daevas) or an extraordinary relation of hearkening between man and Ahura Mazda personified by Sraosha. The Author have completed a MA in Iranian Studies in Jagiellonian University (2003) as well as in Persian literature in Tarbiyat Moallem University in Tehran (2006) and later on a PhD in Faculty of Philology of Jagiellonian University (2008). She is currently involved as a lecturer (adiunkt) in Institute of Oriental Studies. She has also lectured for students of Asian Studies in Collegium Civitas. In 2012 awarded by Foundation For Polish Science with the START scholarship for young researchers. Her research interests include comparative studies in ancient word cultures, in particular cultural implications of the riddle traditions and word duels in Iran, India and Greece. DAWID ROGACZ, B.A., Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

The Four Levels of the Two Types of Discussion (sizhong erdi) according to Jizang Jizang (549-623 AD) was one of the earliest and most prominent representatives of the Chinese Madhyamika (sanlun zong). Developing the skeptical method of Nagarjuna, Jizang fought with all of the forms of dogmatism in his approach ''to reject false and reveal the truth” (poxie xianzheng). He emphasized relativity, conventionality and dichotomy of all dṛṣṭi, including the Madhyamika school. ''Emptiness of the doctrine of emptiness" is shown on an example of ''the four levels of the two types of discussion” (sizhong erdi) – the model of regressus ad infinitum of any knowledge founded upon principles about the nature of the world and the cognition. Compared with the Vigrahavyāvartanī of Nagarjuna, Jizang's method constitutes well-known in contemporary epistemology Maensshauen's trilemma, pointing to the limitations of our language and its problematic reference to reality. Presenting this aspect of Jizang's thought, I would show at the same time that he cannot be considered as a nihilist because of pragmatic and pedagogical dimension of the thought of this Chinese Buddhist. The Author is a student of philosophy and Chinese at Adam Mickiewicz University. Laureate of three nationwide contests (Philosophy, Literature, History of Art). Scholar of Fundacja Dzieło Nowego Tysiąclecia, Collegium Invisibile and local authorities: mayor's and rector's scholarship. Author of seven articles in philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. His main interests: Chinese philosophy, Buddhism, epistemology. SHOSHANA RONEN, Prof., University of Warsaw, Poland

Transfigurations of a book: The Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides In my paper I would like to discuss the metamorphoses of a book: The Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides. The text itself, from the time of its publication (1191), and especially his translation into Hebrew (1224) by Iben Tibbon (who consulted the translation with Maimonides himself), hasn’t gone through any changes; however the reception of it was changed during the last eight centuries. From its publication the book caused a storm among Jewish thinkers and rabbis, and was accused of being profanation, was banned, and even

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sometimes burned. These facts are particularly intriguing taking into account the authoritative role of Maimonides in the Jewish world, who was considered as the second Moses, and whose book Mishne Torah, a comprehensive code of Halkhah (Jewish law) is, till today, the canonical interpretation of the Talmud and every orthodox Jew is obliged by it. Acceptance and rejection of this book can be observed in the Jewish world till today. Each era, and each Jewish trend, read and interpreted it differently. The book was understood as the source for very different philosophical theories, even opposed to the intention of Maimonides himself, like Spinozistic Pantheism or modern secularism. Therefore, it has a sense to talk about ‘many Guides for the Perplexed’, the many metamorphoses, or various faces , of this one book. The Author is a professor of Warsaw University, the head of Hebrew Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. Among her publications: In Pursuit of the Void: Journeys to Poland in Contemporary Israeli Literature, (2001); Nietzsche and Wittgenstein: In Search of Secular Salvation, (2002); Polin – A Land of Forests and Rivers: Images of Poland and Poles in Contemporary Hebrew Literature in Israel, (2007). Polish and Hebrew Literature and National Identity (edited with Alina Molisak) (2010). She is interested in Modern Hebrew literature, Jewish thought, and modern philosophy. Particularly she is dealing with questions like: The Holocaust in Hebrew literature, Jewish philosophical and theological thinking after Auschwitz; women in Judaism and Hebrew literature, memory, identity and nationhood in Modern Hebrew literature. MAŁGORZATA RUCHEL, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

The talking pot – gaining Speech in a ritual way (Vedic pravargya rite) The main act in the pravargya ritual is offering the hot milk and clarified butter beverage to Aśvins, the twin gods of medicine. All the texts of Indian ritual connect this rite mainly with the Sun and its light, but there is also an important relation with the Speech. In my paper I am going to present in short the process of pravargya offering and the mantras used within it, with connection to the idea of Speech as a divine entity and as a power or gift that can be gained by the Brahmin learning the procedure of this rite, preparing himself and actually processing it. The Author holds PhD in Philosophy and M.A. in Indian Philology. She works at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, and teaches Indian Philosophies and Sanskrit. Her main field of interest are classical Indian philosophies of language and epistemology, she researches the thought of Bhartr̥hari, vyākarāṇa and mīmāṃsā. She is also an organizer of the biannual Krakow Eastern Conferences, of whose the present one is the third. WOJCIECH RUCHNIEWICZ, M.A., Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

The Labirynth of Meanings - The Liberating Potential of Chinese Homophones. Homophones (and homophonic puns) have always played an important role in Chinese society and media. With increasing globalization of China, they became not only an element of culture or tool of marketing but also an instrument of political criticism and a mean to avoid the ever-growing presence of digital media censorship. This presentation is going to discuss (with examples) the presence and role of homophones in Mandarin Chinese with regards to culture, business, politics and mass media.

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The Author is a Chinese Studies Graduate at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. PhD candidate at Neofilology Department of Adam Mickiewicz University. His academic interests lie primarily in the fields of history of China and theory of propaganda. MAGDALENA RYDZEWSKA, M.A., University of Szczecin, Poland

Expressing inexpressible. Cultural differences in explanations of meditation practices The aim of the presentation is to show specifics of explanations on meditation practices. Meditation as understood in Tibetan tradition leads to recognition of the mind, to an experience which goes beyond dualistic way of experiencing the world. The dimension of emptiness and absolute level of experience are inaccessible for psychology and remain beyond its interests. It is therefore virtually impossible to describe the way leading there. However, meditation also works on relative, psychological level which can be captured in words. Presented results are based on qualitative psychological research on set of a preliminary practices (tib. sngon ‘gro) of Tibetan Buddhism. Half-open interviews were conducted with experts, both Eastern and Western teachers in Karma Kagyu order. The main focus of interviews, were descriptions of mechanisms of meditations, how do they work and change practitioner’s mind. Differences between Western and Eastern ways of explanation will be shown. The Author holds MA in Psychology, she is an assistant in Institute of Psychology at University of Szczecin. She is interested in positive psychology and connections between psychology and Buddhism; she makes qualitative and quantitative research on meditation. PAWEŁ SAJDEK, PhD, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland

Śabda in Ancient Grammarians’ Doctrines Notwithstanding its pivotal role in the thought of Indian early grammarians, the exact meaning of the term śabda remains vague and hard to determine for an unexperienced student. The difficulty is not simply due to polysemy or ambiguity. The ancient user of the term śabda seems entirely unaware of any distinctions within the semantic range of the word, taking its meaning for granted. The objective of the present paper is to investigate various context of the word in order to elucidate its meaning as understood by Indian of grammarians, with particular emphasis laid on the followers of śabdādvaita-school. The Author holds a PhD title from Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and a postdoctoral degree, both based on works devoted to the Indian grammarian and advāitin Maṇḍana Miśra. He works as a assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. He gives lectures on Sanskrit, Indian philosophies and Chinese religions. His main research field is philosophy of the Indian grammarians.

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C. D. SEBASTIAN, Prof., Indian Institute of Technology, India

Language and Meta-language in the Mādhyamika Buddhist Thought Nāgārjuna (c. 150 AD) is said to be the founder of the Buddhist philosophical school called the Mādhyamika. Nāgārjuna wrote in Sanskrit and his magnum opus is the Mādhyamika Kārikā. According to Mādhyamika, words do not acquire meaning by referring to something outside or external to language system of phenomenal level (samvr̥ti). For words in language are saṃvr̥ti distinctions which have meaning only in their contextual relation to each other, and they do not pinpoint to any ontological status of something per se. Further, he argues that all distinctions we make, such as, subject and object, seer and the seen, cause and effect, or even motion and rest are inter-dependent, and they are relative to each other. All such inter-dependent distinctions (pratītya-samutpanna) obtain their meaning only in contextual relation to each other, and they are śūnya (empty) of any ontological standing (śūnyatā sarva-dr̥ṣṭiṇām). The proposed paper analyses the riddle of language and meta-language enshrined in the philosophy of Mādhyamika Buddhism and looks at it anew... The Author is Associate Professor of Indian Philosophy in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India. He holds his M.A. in Indian Philosophy and Religion and Ph. D. in Indian Philosophy with specialism in Buddhism (both degrees from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi). He did his Postdoctoral Research at the University of Bristol, UK, and was DAAD Fellow at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He is editor (Indian Scriptures) of Journal of Sacred Scriptures (ISSN: 0974-0090). He has published more than 80 papers, and his books include Metaphysics and Mysticism in Mahayana Buddhism (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 238, 2005) and Recent Researches in Buddhist Studies (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 248, 2008), Buddhism: Essays on Ethics and Religion (Delhi: Buddhist World Press, forthcoming). For more details see his URL: http://www.hss.iitb.ac.in/sebastian/ MAGDALENA SERAFIN, M.A., Akademia Ignatianum, Poland

‘Amari čhib s’amari zor’ (Our language is our strength) – Understanding Roma culture and philosophy through proverbs Each culture has not only its peculiar proverbs, sayings, maxims, truisms, but also idiomatic phrases which reflects much of its attitudes. Although proverbs are not considered as high philosophy they are called ‘the children of experience" as they reveals the truth about people's values and beliefs. Even if they are transmitted only orally from one generation to the next, as in the case of Romani people, they preserves the knowledge of internal features of the community, such as customs, traditions and practices. They mirrors people’s attitudes to love, family, friends and features their philosophy of life. Until this century, Romani was an exclusively unwritten language transmitted orally in different forms and dialects. Although not all Gypsy people speak the language and some Romani speakers have consciously remained functionally nonliterate it is the most obvious indicator of their origin. In this culture language is as a symbol of identity and emotion and have been practised in communities geographically and socially isolated. Romani uses many neologisms, expressions and sayings often with metaphorical qualities. Sharing the proverbs can be the way to learn about Roma culture and philosophy so this essay shall explore the concept that the Romani language reflects culture values of this population. The author will analyze popular proverbs in Romani language to reveal the image of Roma people created by themselves.

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The Author graduated in Sociology at Jagiellonian University (Cracow, Poland) in 2002, and at present she is ‘on the way’ to obtain her PhD degree in Culturology at Akademia Ignatianum (Cracow, Poland). Her research interests are focused on European volunteering especially in culture field. Since 2005 she has been the President of European Forum of Social Initiatives (Poland) where incorporates ideas of European youth movement. Other interests include: culture tourism, ethnics groups, cultural anthropology, crowd psychology ROBERT SZUKSZTUL, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Sound And Speech Act – The Early Buddhist Debate On The Nature Of Language In the time of the Early Buddhist schools, the question was raised whether the phenomenon of language requires the existence of a special kind of otherwise unperceivable dharmas, or is it enough to explain it by mere proper sequence of sounds. I will try to recount and evaluate this controversy. The Author works at the Center for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. His main research interest lays in the Buddhist thought, mainly the Pure Land school and the Early Buddhism. JACEK TRZEBUNIAK, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Sound healing in Tibetan Bon tradition Bon is the native religion of Tibet, still alive and practiced today. In its doctrine, Bon is very similar to Buddhism but it roots do not go back to ancient India. It originated in an ancient kingdom of the Tibetan plateau – Zhang Zhung. This presentation will describe and analyze different meanings of sacred sounds in the Bon tradition and their connections with the Bon philosophy, medicine and cosmology. The philosophy of this tradition perceives sound as sacred. Many sacred syllables connected with tutelary deity (Tib.Yid dam) exist in the tantric tradition. Dzogchen considers all sounds a spontaneous manifestation of primordial essence (Tib. Kun shi). Bon uses sacred syllables and their sounds as a way of healing. The healing can take place on the psychological, social and spiritual level. Bonpos believe that singing, writing or even seeing holy syllables in tantric rituals can evoke the energy of different deities and buddhas. Bon medicine uses not only plants but also rituals and sacred syllables to heal physical illnesses. In the Dzogchen philosophy some syllables can help recognize the nature of mind, in particular, the syllable A is regarded as most important. Dzogchen practitioners stare at the syllable A as a way to calm the mind (Tib. Zhig nas) or sing this sound as a way to induce the natural state of the mind (Tib. Khregs chod). Some bonpo texts say that not only special syllables are sacred but even all letters of alphabet are holy because the teachings of buddhas can be written and spelled thanks to them. In some meditation techniques, practitioners sing the entire alphabet as a form of a blessing (tummo practice). The Author is a Ph.D. student at Department of Comparative Studies of Civilizations, where he works on his Ph.D. dissertation about Tibetan rituals. His main topic of interest is Tibetan culture and Buddhism.

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ROMAN VYSOCHANSKYY, PhD, Ivan Franko National University of L’viv, Ukraine

The image of a letter in Borges and persian mo’amma riddles During all his life Borges was interested in the spiritual traditions of the East, including the Middle East. A number of the writer's works contain persistent motif of the image of the Universe or God himself which its “all in all” is contained in the mysterious characters and signs made up of the letters of a certain alphabet. Borges’s own Odyssey within the metaphors of the alphabet letters potentially opens the behind picture lights of spiritual life of awaken one. It is interesting to pay attention on the process of individuation through enigmatic letters in several short stories of Borges, especially in the Aleph. There we have a brilliant meaningful game of imagination, as Borges would say. We noticed some profound agreements between Borges’s writings and enigmatic writing knowledge of the Middle East. In particular: Hurufiya – the Muslim order that dealt with mystic means of the alphabet letters in Arabic and Persian. In this context we want to present little known genre of Persian enigmatic poetical games – mo’amma riddles. Like in Borges, in mo’amma we find out a process of reading of letter as the enigmatic scripts by themselves. The persian riddles mo’amma (معما), as well as the phenomenon of enigmatic writing/word in general, is a text of exceptional originality, which is based on the idea of sophisticated and logically leveled word-guessing game where interpretation of letters or hints of syllables make up, as a rule, a personal name as the answer. One can imagine that some letter is a dictionary entry, the word-answer is a library combined of such every single letter. The examples we want to demonstrate show some ways of using the graphical image of the letters and how this image falls to pieces to lead altogether to the possibility of appearing a new metaphor. The Author is an Assistant Lecturer on Philosophy in the Ivan Franko National University of L’viv, Ukraine. He holds a Ph.D in Philosophy. Concentrations: Middle East Philosophy, Existentialism, Western Politics and Dialog of Civilizations. His dissertation’s title was: Orientalism as a discursive practice of social representation of the Other (2011). He holds also M.A. in Philology (Middle East Studies).Concentrations: Persian Language and Literature, Politics and Culture of modern Middle East. ANNA IWONA WÓJCIK, PhD, Jagiellonian University, Poland Reading as a part of Chinese Philosophy of Art The aim of my paper is to describe and examine unique way of reading classic Chinese philosophical texts. I would like to introduce the concept of reading as an artistic undertaking described by Lin Yutang in his book The Importance of Living. I will try analyze some ideas and problems arising from this point of view. The Author, holding a PhP hab. title, works at the Department of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Her areas of research interest include: Confucianism, Chinese philosophy of art, philosophy and aesthetics of the garden.

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ROSTYSLAV YAKUTS, PhD, Ivan Franko National University of L’viv, Ukraine

Inward path of the words understanding: from “sacca-ñana” to “kata-ñana”(on the base of Dhammacakkapavattana sutra) In the case when we deal with sacral text we can find some unexpected ontological dimension of the word. This dimension connected with changed state of mind and consciousness. That’s why we can talk about a principal difference between usual, habitual meaning and the inward meaning which includes inward experience of spiritual act. So kind of act, of course, can’t be characterized only as a semiotic. The most difficult and important act is a non verbal. This is the act which has no signs for descriptor and has no reason to be. The real understanding is a result of inward work or stepping by the word’s inward path. Behind the outward, ordinary, shallow meaning exists the path of deep and concentrated reflection. In Dhammacakkapavattana sutra we can find 3 steps of understanding: “sacca-ñana”, “kicca-ñana” “kata-ñana”. Every step and every point of this difficult path coincides with a fundamental ontological change of consciousness – change of knowledge. This specific knowledge we can’t perceive and deeply understand only by means of words. One and the same word can be a word of the truth and a word of the lie. Even Buddha’s words are empty without stepping by individual inward path which exists behind the words, even if we are talking about it using these words. So, the inward path of Dharma exists out of logical description. Anyway, meta-description will not give us productive results; it can give only simplified picture of the world. Such description continues to be quiet about most interesting things. May be silence keeps truthful answer, but as a rule we perceive silence with a “silence” word. Who can hear silence without “silence” word? Buddhists tradition answers this question: Bodhisattva can. But after it Bodhisattva always returns to the world of normal people, to the world of words. The Author, holding PhD, is a philosophy teacher (Ivan Franko National University of L’viv, Department of philosophy). He gives lectures on ontology, metaphysics, phenomenology of space-time for the students of philosophical faculty. Now he works on a book on a buddhistic phenomenology. Field of interest: Buddhism, Sanskrit and Pali languages, ontology, phenomenology, metaphysic, analytical psychology.

MOSTAFA YOUNESIE, Prof., Iran

Exploring the Relations of Reading and Writing in DB IV, 70 In the context of classical ancient Persian with focus on DB IV, 70, the relation of reading and writing in a state document will be explored in order to consider the rationale of it. According to the pertinent inscription there happens a process of complicated orderly recycling which begins by saying (by the King himself); inscription / engrave; writing; reading; hearing and at last ends with dissemination - the relevancy of "writing and kingship". What is the logic and rationale of behind this inscription ? It seems that the speaker as king (Darius) knows that his speech is in flux and should be gradually slowed down in two phases by two distinct uninterchangeable words such as inscription and writing. But it is not enough therefore this static phenomenon should be read aloud to its initiator in order that he hears and evaluates its fluidity as its initial starting point and if he approved it is ready for sending out in all places and otherwise not. The Author is an assistant professor in the field of comparative classical Greek Iranian History of Ideas and working in these two spheres at the same time with focus on original extant texts and

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inscriptions. His field of interests comprise: Greek Iranian Intellectual History (1 - Pre-philosophical Period: a- Mystic / Mythic; b- Theogonies; 2 - Philosophical / Theosophical Period: a- Themes [being; wise; time; soul; cosmos; destiny] / Texts) and Recycling of Aristotelian Logic in classical Greek, Syriac and Pahlavi (a- Paul the Persian Classification and Translation of Logic; b- Mana the Persian Classification and Translation of Logic). JAROSŁAW ZAPART, M.A., Jagiellonian University, Poland

Essence of Music, Essence of Life. A word on Rāga, Rasa and the Uniqueness of Aesthetic Experience The presentation will revolve mainly around the interrelations between rāga – the melodic core of Indian music and rasa – a theory of aesthetic feeling and “taste” – inextricably linked with every manifestation of artistic expression in India. Indian music, and music in general, will be shown as a phenomenon which constitutes an intuitive combination of form and emotive content that can transport the listener into a sphere of enjoyment that is both pure and other-worldly (alaukika). Some parallels will be drawn between rasa and Western aesthetic theories in order to show that an intense listening experience can become a life-changing event. The author will raise some questions concerning the nature of this unique experience. What lies in the centre of aesthetic pleasure? What do we really enjoy when we listen to music? How is it possible that even a shocking aesthetic experience can never result in a negative emotional state? What did Ravi Shankar mean by giving his on-stage feeling the name of “sweet pain”, and why even cheap thrills are not to be discarded, but cherished? The Author is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University. His interests encompass Buddhist Tathāgatagarbha-Yogacāra tradition and its developments in Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist traditions of meditation, Indian theories of aesthetic, Indian classical music and its effect on contemporary popular music scene.

ANDREI G. ZAVALIY, PhD, American University of Kuwait, Kuwait

The Philosophical Assumptions behind the Non-Cognitive Use of Scriptures in Eastern Religions It is well-known that the sacred scriptures play a dual function in many religions – the cognitive (or informative) and the non-cognitive (or performative) one. Arguably, the non-cognitive use of scriptures is especially prominent in Eastern Religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The use of a text as a talisman to ward off evil forces, the uttering of mantras and sacred sounds, and the spinning of the “prayer wheels” containing scrolls of paper with excerpts from various sutras, are all examples of the use of the written word in a performative way. The paper aims to examine the philosophical background of such practices, and to identify the implicit metaphysical assumptions that allow the practitioners to use the word, whether in its written or uttered forms, as a sacred ritual object with magic powers. One such assumption is the belief in the ontological independence of a spoken or written word. A word, once uttered, takes a life of its own and is capable of effecting change in the external world. The other assumption deals with a peculiar theory of the mind, characteristic of the eastern religious philosophies. Unlike the western emphasis on the rational aspect of our mental life, the eastern religious practice prioritizes the non-rational capacities of the soul. It is further argued that the non-cognitive use of the sacred texts is in important sense primary, which

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should be always remembered during the attempts to understand the eastern scriptures in translated versions. The Author is currently an Associate Professor of philosophy at the American University of Kuwait. He received his B.A. from Nyack College (USA), and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the City University of New York in 2008. His research interests include the history of world religions, moral psychology, philosophy of religion, and the applicability of the experimental methods to philosophical controversies, especially in ethical theory. He has published in the subjects of moral psychology, history of ancient philosophy, philosophy of science and religious studies, and serves as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of the Humanities and as the member of the editorial board of the Online Dictionary of Intercultural Philosophy. DONG ZHAO, PhD, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China

Chinese Folk Mantric Practices: A Case Study of Jinzhuang Village Based on my field studies in Jinzhuang Village of Northeast China in 2011, this paper aims to illuminate formative process and mechanisms of Chinese folk religious mantras and their performative power in fulfilling the villagers’ social and psychological needs. The research is done through an anthropological examination of mantras as a type of power-laden language rooted in Chinese folk Taoist and Buddhist beliefs and practices. The common mantras in the village such as agricultural mantras, healing mantras, protection mantras, marriage mantras, house-building mantras, funeral mantras, etc., can be categorized into three major types of mantras: esoteric, exoteric and heart mantras. These self-efficient, peculiar forms of language are ritually activated as spiritual and vital forces predominating the villagers’ daily activities. The words and their meaning constitute the core of the folk mantras’ performative power and will be studied through spiritual, magical and religious perspectives by employing a careful examination of all the relevant texts, facts and uses in the village. The finding is that the source of the mantras’ performative power is not of a divine origin but rather from the power of the language itself, that is, from the Chinese folk religious view of language. This study tries to shed new light on the theorization of mantra researches by studying historical, folk sources and texts. The Author got his PhD in Religion and Literature and started teaching in the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China in the year 2000. He teaches and researches in the field of Chinese religions from cross-cultural perspectives. The courses he teaches include Buddhism in Chinese Culture, China’s Religious Culture, Readings in Classical Buddhsit Sutras, etc.. His ongoing research project is the reinterpretation of classical Chinese Buddhist sutras through linguistic perspectives.