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The Numata Foundation supports a Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, hosted at the ISTB, to teach about the history and practice of Buddhism. The Numata Visiting Professor delivers a yearly Numata Lecture about ongoing research that is co-organised and is now held alternately each year at the University (ISTB) and the Academy of Science (IKGA) for a wide exposure to the academic community.

This year, it will take place at the ISTB and we are delighted to welcome Prof. Jacob Dalton. In his Lecture Jacob Dalton will examine Namkha Jikmé's discussion of the senses and meditative visions.

The relationship between the conventional and the ultimate is a question that has vexed Buddhist thinkers throughout history. Within Great Perfection writings, it has been explored through ordinary beings with their fleshy eyes directly encountering sublime buddhas in the sky.

Namkha Jikmé defends the Great Perfection tradition against criticisms of the idea that ordinary beings can experience immediate perceptions of saṃbhogakāya forms. In defending his tradition, Namkha Jikmé draws on centuries of Nyingma scholarship as he compares his visions to both the illusory body (sgyu lus) practices associated with the Ārya school of Guhyasamāja exegesis and the empty form (stong gzugs) visions of the Kālacakra."