PFA is pleased to cosponsor with UC Berkeley's Center for Buddhist Studies the film-lecture series Thinking About Not Thinking: Buddhism, Meditation, and Film. Like Film 50, this series is in conjunction with an undergraduate course (offered in the College of Letters & Science Discovery Course program), and is open to the public as space permits.
Taught by Robert Sharf, director of Buddhist studies at UC Berkeley, Thinking About Not Thinking will use film to explore some seminal and controversial issues in Buddhism and Buddhist meditation theory, and at the same time use Buddhist views of meditation and meditative experience to reflect on film. In viewing a selection of contemporary films, the class will consider such topics as the Buddhist understanding of death, rebirth, and liberation; the ethical tension between ascetic withdrawal and compassionate engagement; and contemporary...
