Wenli Fan
Chinese University of Hong Kong
"Action and Its Results: A Study Based on Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla"
Wenli Fan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was unanimously selected by the KF Dissertation Award Committee for her dissertation, Action and Its Results: A Study Based on Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla. Wenli’s dissertation presents the views of the orthodox Indian schools that endorse the existence of causal activity and examines how Śāntarakṣita establishes the idea of non-activity by discussing his objection to causal activity. In addition, she briefly investigates the history of the concept of non-activity in Buddhist philosophy, showing that Śāntarakṣita contributed to this view by explicitly spelling it out and providing a detailed argument for it.