June 22-25, 2011 at the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg. The State University hosted the seventh international conference on Oriental Studies "Torchinov Readings", the main organizer of which was the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies of the East. The organizers of the event took the name "Metamorphoses" as a sub-section of the conference, suggesting such possible vectors for discussion as Eastern philosophers ' understanding of the processes of transformation of the world, man, society and consciousness; transformation of norms and values in the cultures of the East; images of the East in the culture of Russia, metamorphoses of religious and philosophical systems of the East.

The conference was organized in eight sections: "Sinology", "Muslim East", "Russia and the East", "Buddhology", "Japanese and Korean Studies", "Indology", "East and West", "Mysticism and Magic in the East". At the end of the sessions, three round tables were organized.

The conference was attended by 99 participants. It aroused great interest of the scientific community in Russia and other countries.

The Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of SI addressed the audience with welcoming words. Dudnik, Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts I. F. Popov, Acting Head of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies of the East T. G. Tumanyan, Consul General of Japan in St. Petersburg Ichiro Kawabata, representatives of the press service of the city government, etc. Sergey Pakhomov, the main initiator and coordinator of the conference, addressed organizational and conceptual issues in his speech.

Kh.S. Gafarov (Minsk) presented the report "The problem of the necessity of epistemological and germs-neu-tic changes in the actual analysis of Oriental cultures", prepared in collaboration with Yu. Y. Gafarova. The speaker argued that understanding the current cultural situation-globalization and modernization, when autochthonous loci lose their specific local characteristics, become hybrid cultures, operating in the global communication space, requires abandoning the East-West dichotomy. When we study a number of modern cultures as "Eastern", we lose sensitivity to the differences within these cultures, to the variability of their types of thinking and cultural practices. We need both a hyperogenization of epistemological approaches and a broad appeal to the methodological potential of hermeneutical philosophy.

During the rest of the day on June 22, the first section "Synology"was held intermittently. The section included 11 reports by scientists from Russia, Belgium, Germany and Poland. The reports were devoted to various aspects of the spiritual life of Chinese society, including modernity; their main scientific feature is the consideration of individual facts and realities of the history of Chinese culture, based on the general historical and cultural context.

For example, a PhD candidate from Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) R. Bank presented a report in English "Repetition or Progress? The Question of the Originality of Thought in "The Liezi"». He argued that the content of the "philosophical" chapters of "Le Tzu" is not limited to the translation of the ancient Taoist ideas set forth in "Tao te Ching" and "Chuang Tzu". There is an obvious attempt to develop these ideas by introducing them to a slightly different conceptual context, new interpretations, and lexical and terminological solutions.

Shin Muller (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany) in her report "From the State of Dai to the Dynasty of the Northern Wei: the Transformation of the Tuoba Xianbei Society" noted that the processes of Sinicization and self-identification that took place in the State of Toba (386-535) were most clearly embodied in the material world. evidence related to the "Luoyang" period of the history of this state. At the same time, the process of Sinicization can be traced in epigraphy through the predominance of the Chinese name of the Tobian state (Wei) over the national one (Great Dai, or Da Dai) in inscriptions, and the process of self - identification-through artistic interpretations of characters.

M. E. Kravtsova (St. Petersburg State University) presented a report "On the cultural and ideological policy of the ruling regimes of the North Chinese states of the IV century AD". Based on the original written sources, it was proved that the leaders of the" barbarian " nationalities initially sought to build their own statehood on the model of the Chinese empire, using for this purpose

religious and ideological forms developed within the state ideology of ancient and early imperial China, primarily the cult of Heaven and the concept of the "heavenly mandate" (Tian Ming), the cult of ancestors, as well as Confucian moral and ethical attitudes. In addition, it was in the "northern" states that the experience of combining various religious values and formed ideological systems in official ideology was used: national beliefs, Chinese state cults and ritual practices, Confucianism and Buddhism.

A.D. Zelnschky (St. Petersburg)GU) in his report "Transformation of the ritual sphere and construction of deities in traditional China", using a number of specific examples, showed that deities were often introduced into the state pantheon, whose veneration had either never been practiced before, or they were worshipped in a different form. That is, in fact, we are talking about constructing new forms of deities from elements that, for various reasons, were significant for representatives of the political and cultural elite. Subsequently, these deities acquired national veneration in the form that was given to them as a result of these processes.

E. V. Glukhova, a graduate student of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, in her report "The Qing Tradition: from music to words, from words to music", raised the question of the nature of the relationship between vocal parts and the verbal (poetic) component in works for performing on the qin (Chinese zither). She focused on ways to adapt the verbal component to the musical vocal part. The possibility of using the actual poetic texts in qinge was proved. The presentation was accompanied by a demonstration of illustrative materials and a performance (playing the qin and performing fragments of qinge vocal parts).

D. E. Martynov (Volga Federal University, Kazan) in his report "The social ideal of Kang Yu-wei and Nobuya Hamada: a comparative comparison" made a comparative analysis of utopian theories of global reconstruction put forward by the famous statesman and thinker of China Kang Yu-wei (1858-1927) and a little-known representative of Japanese socio - political thought-Nobuya Hamada. It is noteworthy that a number of details coincide in the views of Kang Yu-wei and Nobuya Hamada on the perfect society and how to create it. The most significant differences include the degree of globality of both projects, the interpretation of "happiness", and the understanding of"creative life". Despite such discrepancies, it is obvious that utopian ideas in the second half of the XIX century became widespread in the Far Eastern socio-political thought.

Graduate student of the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology E. M. Breus in her report "Transformation of religious norms and preservation of traditional values in modern China" focused on the semantic features of modern "afterlife banknotes". Samples "issued" by various "divine banks", marked with different divine characters, and imitations of dollar bills were presented. A separate story in the report was a story about the latest practice of virtual execution of a monetary sacrifice - using a special program developed by Apple for modern i-phone phones. Thus, the Chinese tradition, namely the ancestral cult, successfully uses new digital technologies and steadily adapts to the context of modern society.

At the Muslim East section, 26 reports were read, mostly presented by St. Petersburg specialists. The work of the section was dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of the famous St. Petersburg professor O. B. Frolova, who personally attended the Arabistic meetings and received numerous congratulations.

The reports covered a large number of regions in the Middle East and even the Caucasus, Africa and Brazil. Issues of diplomacy, history, literature, and philosophy were discussed.

The work of the section was organized in four subsections. The sub - section "Language and Literature in the Cultures of the Middle East" was opened by O. B. Frolova (St. Petersburg State University), who made a report based on her personal memoirs - "Russian language and literature in Egypt: memoirs of a Russian professor". She told about her teaching activities in Egypt in the 1960s, as well as in Sudan in the early 1980s, about meetings with interesting statesmen, writers, and scientists who left unforgettable impressions in her memory. S. M. Vinogradova (St. Petersburg State University) noted O. B. Frolova's contribution to the development of "gender identity"."an Arabistic theme. Her articles provide an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how the fate of women in the Arab East reflected the trends of the historical development of this region and the peculiarities of its culture.

M. A. Rodionov (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after M. A. Rodionov). Peter the Great, St. Petersburg) in his report "The historical memory of Hadhramaut and Humayni poetry" analyzed the role of poetry in preserving and representing the past in one of the societies of South Arabia. If in the Western tradition rhymed fragments are often used as stylistic decoration, here they serve as eloquent proof of a specific historical fact. A. L. Vassoyevich (St. Petersburg State University) considered the Arabic version of the Egyptian royal lists of Manetho of Sevenit, preserved by Biruni and still unknown to Egyptological science.

On the second sub-section "The Muslim world in modern and contemporary times: society, state, politics" N. N. Dyakov (St. Petersburg.GU) made a report "East and West between tradition and modernization at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries". By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, in most Arab countries, there was a separation between the majority faithful to the heritage of their ancestors and the modernists, who advocated updating the foundations of society, introducing them to global," universal " development trends. The confrontation between" traditionalists "and" modernists " largely determined the nature of the evolution of social thought and society itself in Islam. The search for a balance between "old and new", tradition and innovation brought forth at that time many bright names of thinkers both in the East and in the West, who sought to return the spirit to its origins and at the same time free it for movement towards the future.

A. P. Kornilov (St. Petersburg)In his report "Coptic Pharaonic Republic as the crowning achievement of the idea of Pharaonism", he described a unique virtual state that appeared on May 1, 1992 and has a number of features of an independent state, although without its own territory and recognition by the international community.

I. A. Dobronravii (St. Petersburg State University) made a report on "Flagged tribes" and unrecognized African States: problems of sovereignty "and recalled S. Huntington's formulation of "flagged tribes" in relation to the states of the Middle East, in particular Somaliland and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The specifics of the ethno-political basis of quasi-state entities allow them to exist stably for a long time. States that do not recognize Somaliland or SADR use the "Huntington" argument as a basis for non-recognition, preventing the sovereignty of such political entities.

U. Bekjan (Pamukkale University, Turkey) in the report "The Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878: Metamorphoses of consciousness" considered the prerequisites, causes and results of this war from the positions of Russian and Turkish researchers.GU) in his report "Theoretical concepts of revolution and modern political processes in the Arab East" argued that the political changes taking place in the Arab world can be explained using theoretical concepts of revolution developed within the framework of modern political science and sociology. For example, to the revolutionary events in Tunisia and Egypt, we can apply the concept of relative deprivation by T. Garr and J. R. R. Tolkien. For events in other Arab countries, see the concept of Charles Tilly in his work From Mobilization to Revolution. Provisions put forward by Ch. Tilly's research provides an insight into why Egypt and Tunisia saw a fairly rapid and almost bloodless change of power, while Libya saw a prolonged armed conflict with foreign participation.

A. I. Matochkina (St. Petersburg)In her report "Reforming the Muslim society through a return to "pure" Islam in the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah, " she analyzed the views of a well - known Muslim jurist, according to whom the only correct way for a person is to follow Sharia law, which implies performing righteous deeds determined by the will of God. T. G. Tumanyan (St. Petersburg State University) considered the key problems of the Turkish state of law.- Israeli relations. At the end of the last century, Turkey and Israel formed a military-political "alliance". After the events of September 11, 2001, these relations reached their peak, receiving additional support from the United States and the prospect of becoming the basis for stability and security in the Middle East. The trend of cooperation in bilateral relations began to change in connection with the war in Iraq in 2003.The diametrically opposite positions of states in relation to Iraq, as well as on other fundamental issues, confirm the shakiness and shakiness of the foundations of such an "alliance".

As part of the subsection "Ethnography and Culture of the peoples of the Muslim East", we note the speech of I. A. Osmanova (State Museum of the History of Religion, St. Petersburg), who analyzed the manuscripts of the collection of the well-known orientalist A. S. Firkovich in the report " Arabic manuscripts of the collection of A. S. Firkovich (based on the materials of the Eastern Manuscript Fund of the National

M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin)". I. V. Gerasimov (St. Petersburg.GU) in the report " Everyday culture of Sudan of the XVI-XVIII centuries. (based on the work of Ibn Dayfallah "Tabaqat") " paid attention to the production of bread and other culinary products.

R. S. Zelnitskaya (Shlarba) (Abkhazia) in her report "Social crisis in the Abkhazian society during the establishment of the collective farm system (on the example of the village of "Jgerda")" noted that in the 1930s the traditional system of relations was broken down. The social and estate hierarchy was destroyed, property stratification was eliminated, as a result of which the status of the privileged population was lowered, personal land plots were sharply reduced, and surplus land was distributed among the poor.

Two foreign guests took part in the fourth sub-section "Medieval East: Philosophy, Theology, Law". Researcher from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy M. Shahjway (Tehran) read the report "The Transformation of Western Philosophers "in English' Understanding of the Fate of Islamic Philosophy after Averroes". In it, he argued that the dominant theory in official orientalist circles is that Islamic philosophy ended with Averroes. A. Korben objected to this view, saying that philosophy in the Islamic world, especially in Iran, did not run out from early times, and after Avicenna, it was influenced by Suhrawardi and Ibn al-Arabi, and caused an intellectual flourishing in Iran in the Safavid period. In the report "A Critical Approach to the Orientalist Understanding of the Nature and the Origins of Islamic Law", he continued the theme of criticism of orientalism, highlighting two subjects in the history of Islamic jurisprudence discussed in Orientalist literature - the nature and origin of Islamic law.

I. L. Alekseev (RSUH) in his report "The historical and sociological concept of Ibn Khaldun as an epistemological caesura" believes that Ibn Khaldun's treatise "al-Muqaddima" can be characterized as a kind of" epistemological caesura " and raise the question of Ibn Khaldun's own methodology. Its methodology is based on a type of logical-semantic connection that differs from Aristotelian logic and is characteristic of Fiqh - the so-called logical rationalism. Ibn Khaldun's " New Science "('ilm al -'umran) has" Muqaddimah "as its root, and Kitab al - 'Ibar as its" branch "or" ramification".

B. S. Zulumyan (Gorky Institute of Medical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences) completed the subsection. In her report "A Reasonable Man in Grigor Narekatsi's poem "The Book of Mournful Songs", she showed how the famous Armenian poet and thinker reflects on many problems of human life and soul, including faith. On the one hand, Narekatsi is a mystic, but on the other hand, he believes that frenzied repentance leads to destruction as well as unbridled sin. He calls for a" mature mind " to follow the precepts of Christ through a free choice between good and evil.

The section" Russia and the East " presented six reports.

In the report of E. A. Chach (SPb.A review of articles in Russian encyclopedic dictionaries of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries devoted to the East was made. In particular, she noted the professionalism of the authors of the articles (among them were the largest Orientalists in Russia), and the fact that by the beginning of the XX century, the Eurocentrism characteristic of earlier articles had left Russian encyclopedias.

In the report of V. V. Yemelyanov (SPb.GU) "Nebuchadnezzar II in Russian literature" analyzed the biblical sources of the topic and its reflection in Russian culture. The speaker attributed the decline in interest in the Babylonian myth and Nebuchadnezzar II to the disappearance in Russian culture of the need to compare modern historical events with biblical history. The speaker connected the outbreak of interest in the personality of Nebuchadnezzar with the religious quest of the Russian intelligentsia (V. S. Solovyov's article "Nebuchadnezzar and V. Ya. Bryusov's poetic performances").

S. Kh. Shomakhmadov's report (IVR RAS, St. Petersburg) "Ideas about India in Europe and Russia in the Middle Ages" introduced the audience to the problems of studying the sources of the legend of Prester John, the good Christian ruler of India. The ideological reasons for the appearance of texts about Prester John and his rule of the Indian kingdom, related to the idea of Christianization of India, were considered. Report by N. N. Mikhaylyukova (Tula State Pedagogical University). Tolstoy University) was devoted to the historical and religious views of the famous Russian Slavophile A. S. Khomyakov, which were reflected in his little-known work "Semiramis", in which Khomyakov's interest in the East was shown and an attempt was made to develop the so-called Iranian-Kushite religious concept. GU) in the report "H. P. Blavatsky in the assessment of N. S. Leskov (based on the unfinished story "The Visionary Hindu")" considered it

contradictory assessments of the personality and creativity of H. P. Blavatsky, who, despite the theoretical vulnerability of her teaching, had an impact on Russian and European culture.

The report of M. V. Golovizpin (Institute of Globalization and Social Movements, Moscow) "Orthodox-Buddhist dialogue" in Southern Siberia of the XVII-XVIII centuries and its cultural and historical consequences " was based on material that has not yet received scientific understanding. The result of the Orthodox-Buddhist dialogue was the architectural monuments of Southern Siberia of the XVII-XVIII centuries. An important role in this dialogue of cultures, according to the speaker, was played by Russian tea merchants from Totma, who were customers of religious buildings in this region, and later transferred their typical architectural features to buildings in their small homeland - in the city of Totma.

The section "Buddhology" was opened by the editor-in-chief of the journal "Buddhism of Russia" A. A. Terentyev. He made a presentation "Transformation of consciousness - transformation of the world": what are the similarities between Buddhism and quantum mechanics?" In his opinion, such concepts as "tathata", "dharmadhatu", "tathagatagarbha" is very similar to the concept of superposition in the interpretation of the famous physicist Hugh Everett, and especially in the" extended concept of Everett " by M. B. Mensky. In addition to questions from the audience, the report attracted criticism from the audience.

13 reports on the section dealt with various aspects of Buddhism in its regional manifestations-Indian, Tibetan, Japanese. Considerable attention was paid to modern forms of Buddhism, as well as to the comparison of Buddhism with other systems of thought. Among the speakers were representatives of Russia, Poland and Ukraine. Colleagues from Poland read their reports in English. Especially noteworthy is Y. Grelu (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) with the report "Selected Orthodox and Unorthodox Elements in Buddhism in Tibet", devoted to the influence of the autochthonous Tibetan concept of 'yoga' (soul) on the Buddhist concept of sems.

Independent Kiev researcher A.V. Demchenko in his report "On the relevance of Pierre Hadot's methodology for comparative philosophy: Spiritual exercises of Hellenistic philosophers and Indian Samana ascetics" compared Hellenistic and Buddhist meditation on the elements that make up the body: in both traditions, this was done to achieve renunciation of the body.

PhD student D. A. Komissarov (RSUH) in his report "The Temptation of the Bodhisattva on the banks of Nairanjana: a new understanding of the old plot" told about an episode from "Lalitavistara", where the Bodhisattva, in response to Mara's suggestion to leave asceticism and return to Vedic rituals, vows not to leave austerities until his body withers up and its elements crumble. According to the speaker, this passage is probably a non-Romanian interpolation. However, when discussing the report, A.V. Demchenko gave an example from the Pali Suttas, when such a passage is used as a traditional form of oath and its connotations do not make sense to consider as non-Buddhist.

E. S. Lepekhova (Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev) made a report on the Japanese deities Dakini and Nagakandi "Transformation of female Shinto deities in esoteric Japanese Buddhism of the XII-XIV centuries". She spoke about the various interpretative metamorphoses of the Japanese translation of the term "dharma "as" [verbal] teaching "and as the" practical path " of the Buddha.

Student E. S. Bushuev (St. Petersburg State University) presented a paper "Formation, Version and Authorship of the Script the 10th Chapter of the Hevajra-tantra and the Muktāvaī-hevajra-pañjikā of Ratnakaraśanti". This was the only report devoted to the textual study of the Sanskrit text, which attracted the attention of the audience. The purpose of the report was to provide a general overview of the tenth chapter of the Hevajra Tantra (on initiation) and the commentary "Muktāvalī-hevajra-pañjikā" by a famous Buddhist scholar of the XI century. Ratnakarashanti. Post-graduate student B. E. Gurin (St. Petersburg.GU) in the report "Research approaches to collecting objects of Tibetan-Buddhist fine art in Russia in the XVIII-XX centuries." spoke about the collectors of collections now stored in the Hermitage, Kunstkamera and Ethnographic Museum of St. Petersburg, a student of RSUH Yu. V. Polevaya about the Buddhist Internet forum that has existed for 13 years, which she conditionally she called it a " new type of sangha."

The section "Japanese and Korean Studies" was opened by V. A. Rubel (Kiev National University). Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). He also gave the only Koreistic report at the entire conference, "Historical and chronological metamorphoses of Hwandan Kogi", in which he showed that the semi-mythical chronology of the "Hwan-guk era", based on the "Hwandan Kogi" collection

texts describing early Korean history can serve as a useful source in part, if one approaches the concept of "year"differently. If we take the lunar "year" rather than the solar one as the basic system of calendar cyclicity, then the Hwandan Kogi data is quite representative.

J. Havlicek (Masaryk University, Brno), in his report "Imagining Religion in Japan: Transformations of the Category of "Religion" in the Japanese Context", analyzed various approaches of Western religious scholars dealing with Japanese specifics (T. Fitzgerald, J. Reeder, M. Pai), showing different aspects of the applicability of the term "religion" to the Russian language. the concept of "suke". According to the speaker, the concept of "religion" can be a useful analytical category in the context of studying Eastern cultures. The report by A. M. Dulina (MSU ISAA graduate student) "The doctrine of salvation in the Hachiman cult as one of the main features of the religious consciousness of the Japanese of the XII-XIV centuries" describes how the concept of salvation in the cult of the Hachiman deity is formed in the religious consciousness of the Japanese under the influence of Amidaism, which becomes the guarantor of "liberation from suffering" for all believers A. I. Motrokhov (Kharkiv National University). V. N. Karazin University) in the report "On the interpretation of some songs of wandering in the Japanese poetry anthology "Manyoshu"" considered some songs of wandering presented in the first Japanese poetry anthology "Manyoshu" by V. A. Fedyanin (Moscow. mountain ped. un-t) in the report " Notes of a Fool "("Gukanse"): Japanese for Japanese ideas "noted that" Gukansho " can not be considered only as a historiosophical work. The author of this text, a Buddhist priest named Jien, has focused his historical research on the origin, rise, and future prospects of the Fujiwara family in general and the Kujo house in particular.

A.D. Bertova (Vostochny Institute, St. Petersburg) presented an overview report " The specifics of the Japanese Christian movement "Primordial Gospel": an attempt to create a variant of Christianity for the Japanese". The Original Gospel (Genshi Fukuin) was created in 1948 by the charismatic leader Teshima Ikuro, who sought to develop a special kind of Christianity based on Japanese cultural heritage and popular beliefs. Teshima believed that Japan had a special role to play in spreading "true Christianity" around the world. At the same time, the movement has a distinct Pentecostal character, which makes it a very interesting example of an eclectic mix of Western and Japanese religious ideas on Japanese soil.

MSU ISAA Master's student A. S. Borisova in her report "Translations of the Book of Psalms into Japanese: Opposition to centralization and nonselection "presented a comparative analysis of tropes and considered the mutual influence of religious discourse and the linguistic picture of the world on the example of two modern translations of the Psalms into spoken Japanese. The material for the analysis is Japanese ritual and artistic poetry. The main problem of the study is the resistance of language in translation, which is a clear indicator of the opposition between the principle of centralization, which is subordinated to the metanarrative of archaic Judaism, which served as the ideological basis for the authors of the Psalter, and the principle of nonselection, which prevails in Japanese culture formed by Shintoism.

V. V. Shchepkin (IVR RAS, St. Petersburg) spoke about the famous Japanese thinker of the second half of the XVIII century. Hayashi Shihei ("Hayashi Shihei: between Confucianism and European science"), which largely anticipated the economic success of Japan in the XIX century and in the post-war period and showed the possibility of a harmonious combination of Confucian and European ideas.

13 reports were presented at the Indology section.

The report of M. S. Zemba (Catholic University named after him. John Paul II, Lublin) "Transformations of Indian Understanding of the Reality of Atman as Seen through the Light of Udayana's Classification of Doctrines", in which he presented the results of his research on the work of a famous Indian thinker of the tenth century. S. D. Serebryany (RSUH) in the message "Philosophy as a Free Search for Knowledge: The Concept and Its Transfer to Russia and India" offered the audience the experience of comparing the history of philosophy in India and Russia in the XIX-XX centuries. In both cases, modern philosophy was imported from Western Europe, but it took root in different ways. E. A. Desnitskaya (St. Petersburg State University) in her report "The concept of action in the Indian grammatical tradition" proposed an analysis of the classification of states and actions in the Sanskrit grammatical tradition.

Two reports were presented by employees of the Department of Philosophy of the Ural State Forestry Engineering University: P. V. Khrushcheva ("From the ideal of strength to the ideal of cleanliness: transformation-

interpretation of the Tamil myth"), SP. Kemenev ("Interpretation of the symbolic space of the path on the example of R. Tagore's work").

One of the most interesting reports in the "religious Studies" section of the section was the report of L. Y. Kelim (Institute of Internal Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "March of Nonviolence: modification of the Jain ascetic tradition" on modern Jains, based on field research. It was shown that Jainism can turn into a proselytizing religion before our eyes. S. V. Kardinskaya (Udmurt State University, Izhevsk) presented the report " Discursive figures of modern religiosity (on the example of the Society for Krishna Consciousness in Izhevsk)".

Using the means of visual representation, independent researcher from Belgium K. Elst described the history of the controversy surrounding the" Babur Mosque " in Ayodhya before and after its destruction. Secularism was also discussed in the report of D. B. Abramov (IMEMO RAS) "Western philosophical foundations of secularism and its Indian specifics". In it, he compared the Western philosophical foundations of these concepts with their interpretations in modern India.

K. A. Demichev (University of the Russian Academy of Education, Nizhny Novgorod) made a report "Caste and its place in the military-administrative and political system of the Sikh state of Ranjit Singh". He considered the problems of the inclusion of the institution of caste in the military-administrative and political system of the Sikh state of Ranjit Singh in the first half of the XIX century, noted the features and metamorphoses of caste in the context of the transformation of the Sikh state into a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional regional empire.

O. Y. Kornienko's report "Cultural and linguistic identification of India in the context of economic globalization" focused on the future of Indian languages in the context of globalization. The speaker showed how the economic and political upswing in India contributes to increasing cultural and linguistic identification in society.

The seventh section of the conference is called rather abstractly and deliberately broadly "East and West". Torchinov Readings regularly receive a number of reports exploring various problems of contacts between Eastern and Western cultures.

The section opened with a report by D. O. Paramonov, an independent researcher from Moscow ("Tradition and Revolution: Metamorphoses of the Subject in Europe and India"). Modern revolutions often declare a "return to traditions and foundations", making the question of the rational foundations of these traditions themselves relevant. For the European classics, the revolutionary state of consciousness can only be "lifted" by self-consciousness. Indian philosophy gives a different answer to these questions. Thus, the school of Mimans developed a system of concepts that allow" linking " the revolutionary energy and directing the spontaneity of consciousness to strengthen the tradition itself. The concept of apurva solves the problem of the "split" subject and is intended to ensure the spiritual enrichment of the individual as a result of the constant updating of tradition.

S. V. Pakhomov (St. Petersburg)GU) in his report "The image of the East in the works of Rene Guenon" noted that the famous French thinker offers a rather idealized, schematic image of the East, which is always given in comparison with the equally schematic image of the West. While the West is mercilessly criticized, the East is just as radically exalted. At the same time, when Guenon talks about the East, he narrows this concept, with its external expansion, to the main region - India, and in India he is directly interested in Advaita Vedanta. Therefore, when Guenon mentions the "East," it is mainly Advaita that he is referring to.

G. E. Bokov (St. Petersburg State University) devoted his report "Modern synergetic theories, parascience and religious and philosophical traditions of the East" to the metamorphoses of modern mass consciousness and the problem of forming a new picture of the world based on attempts to combine religious and philosophical Eastern motifs and modern synergetic theories related to modern natural science achievements.

Traditionally, the organizing committee of the Torchinov Readings selects reports related to the problems that once interested E. A. Torchinov, as well as those devoted to his scientific work to one degree or another. Thus, in line with the theme of "mystical experience", a report was presented by E. N. Sobolnikova (Tobolsk State University). social service provider. D. I. Mendeleev Academy of Sciences) "Metamorphoses of philosophical rationalization of transpersonal (mystical) experience". The speaker, referring to the legacy of E. A. Torchinov, analyzed the concepts of "mysticism" and "mystical experience" and distinguished between them.

Employees of the St. Petersburg Scientific and Practical center "Psychosomatic normalization" A. B. Bulgakov and O. S. Bulgakova made a report "The influence of Eastern applied practices on the mentality of Russian youth". They believe that the adoption of the eastern mentali-

theta promotes the development of such traits as empathy, careful attitude to the surrounding world, which is a natural and healthy environment.

The section included several presentations in English. Thus, D. Kalinowski (Pomeranian University, Slupsk, Poland) in his report "The Inspirers of Buddhist Literature in Poland" spoke about the development of Polish Buddhist literature, its representatives, such as V. Dynowska, V. Misiewicz, A. Urbanovich, J. Seradan, S. Havlichkova Kysova (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) turned to the topic of productions of Oriental plays on the stages of European theaters, attempts by European directors to produce "Asian-like" performances. In addition, the topic of theoretical reflection on the traditional Oriental theater by Czech structuralist thinkers was discussed.

The section "Mysticism and Magic in the East", largely experimental, was first organized at the Torchinov readings.

M. V. Vogman (MSU PSAA) in his report "The Clear Mirror of Scripture: the motif of mystical Transformation and its transformation in Rabbinic Judaism", comparing the later reception of the Talmudic text with its potential Hellenistic sources, demonstrated the deliberate exoterization of the motif of the "clear mirror" into which Moses looks, and the transfer of this motif from the mystical to the ethical level.

V. V. Yemelyanov in his report "Tetramorph Magic based on cuneiform sources" reported on how Russian writers imagined the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II-from the Ancient Russian period to the beginning of the XX century. V. Y. Kryukova (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences) presented a paper entitled "Delineating Space in Zoroastrian rituals", which dealt with one of the characteristic elements of Zoroastrian rituals. This technique is used in typologically similar rites, such as funerary and purifying ones. An employee of the same museum, K. M. Vigan, in her report "The Magico-religious functions of the Bhagat", spoke about the non - Brahmanic priest of the northwestern Indian tribe Varli-Bhagat, who is an intermediary between the world of spirits and the world of people, a medium, a healer, a storyteller and a sender of rituals.

A joint report on "Magic in contemporary Iranian and Turkish Cinema" was presented by N. V. Kazurova and V. V. Ivanova, employees of the Kunstkamera. The phenomenon of Iranian and Turkish cinema allows us to consider the relationship between magical and religious consciousness, the attitude of society and the individual to the supernatural. To solve these problems, six contemporary Iranian and Turkish films from 1990-2010 were studied. The comparison showed the importance of the topic of magic for assessing the political, social and cultural changes in the two countries.

E. I. Serova (St. Petersburg)GU) devoted the report "The tradition of dream interpretation in Islam: prophetic dreams in the Qur'an and Sunnah" to the study of the tradition of dream interpretation in Islam and the reflection of Islamic dream interpretation in the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah. The author highlights the attitude to the special psychophysiological states of prophetic sleep in Islamic culture, the influence of the dream interpretation tradition on the daily life of Muslims.

On the last day of the conference, three round tables were held. Sinological round table "Mental paradigms and cultural and historical factors in the development of modern China"; Buddhist round table" Empirical and theoretical in Buddhology";" Social Philosophy and the modern East".

The Torchinov Readings have shown that they are a solid scientific event, attracting academic forces from various cities and countries. At this broad interdisciplinary scientific "training ground", researchers working in various fields of Oriental studies, as well as specialists from different fields of humanities (philosophy, psychology, history, etc.), attracted by various Oriental subjects, get unique opportunities to demonstrate their scientific achievements, exchange opinions with each other, perceive and implement new approaches. Subsection proposed by the organizers "Metamorphosis" made it possible to bring together multidirectional academic positions even more, creating a single space of" transformed " scientific experience.

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