Buddhism (REL 253) Dr. Matthew Sayers MWF 10 10:50 Humanities 304 Office Hours: MW 11 12 & TTH 9:30 11, Humanities 307-D, 867-6133 Course Description This class will introduce students to diverse traditions that claim descent from Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. We will explore the historical roots of the religion, beginning with the context in which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment, insight into the true nature of reality and the ability to transcend death. We will further examine the historical developments of the tradition that the Buddha left behind when he died. We will engage the religious traditions of Buddhism in textual form, through its art, and by seeing the lived tradition in action. In the end, students taking this class should leave with three things: an appreciation of the historical development of Buddhism, an understanding of the basic ideas shared by most Buddhist traditions, and a sense of the diversity of Buddhist expressions of religiosity. With respect to the IDEA teaching evaluations, this class addresses most directly the following goals: Gaining factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends) Learning fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view This class has a Foreign Studies designation with respect to the General Education curriculum. As such this course intends to increase students global awareness by introducing them to an important aspect of Asian culture in order to foster an understanding of cultural, social, political, religious, and/or economic systems outside the European tradition. Sources This class will draw on many sources to understand Buddhism. Primary among these are the books that students will be required to buy. They are available at the College Store. CHARLES PREBISH & DAMIEN KEOWN, Introducing Buddhism ASVAGHOSA, Life of the Buddha, translated by Patrick Olivelle N. A. NIKAM & RICHARD MCKEON, The Edicts of Asoka Other materials will be made available on the Blackboard site for this class. Students will also be required to make use of the variety of resources for the study of Buddhism available at Bishop Library and in my personal collection. More will be said about this below. Many selection are taken from The Experience of Buddhism, edited by John Strong. These will be marked with the abbreviation TEB.
Schedule Date Topic Assignment Aug 26 Introduction, etc Aug 28 Miner, thinking Read: Miner, Body Ritual among the Nacirema Macauley, selections from Motel of Mysteries Aug 31 Indian cultural context No reading relevant to these two classes, but begin reading ahead Sep 2 Indian cultural context Sep 4 Mini-xam 1 Sep 7 The Buddha s life in brief Read: (Prebish) 2 The Buddha Sep 9 Early Textual sources Read: Selections from TEB Buddhism1.pdf Sep 11 The Buddha s life not so brief: Buddhacarita Buddhacarita, introduction xix-li Sep 14 Buddhacarita Buddhacarita, text Sep 16 Basic ideas of the Buddha Read: (Prebish) 3 The Dharma Sep 18 Ideas in his own words Read: Selections from TEB Buddhism2.pdf Sep 21 More basic ideas of the Buddha Read: (Prebish) 4 The Buddhist Sangha Sep 23 The Sangha in the early imagination Read: Selections from TEB Buddhism3.pdf Sep 25 Early Buddhism Read: (Prebish) 5 Buddhism in India Sep 28 Early Indian Buddhist Art Mini-xam 2 Sep 30 The Rise of Mah y na Read: (Prebish) 6 Mah y na Oct 2 Mah y na Texts Read: Selections from TEB Buddhism4.pdf Oct 5 Not-so-early Indian Buddhist Art Oct 7 Practice Read: (Prebish) 7 Meditation Oct 9 Practice: Let s give it a try Guest Meditation leader Oct 12 Fall Break Oct 14 How do we know what we know about Buddhism?: A oka Read: Gombrich from http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/king_asoka.pdf Oct 16 A okan Edicts Read: (Nikam) Edicts Oct 19 Orientalism: Discovering the Buddha 19 th Century Scholars Group Project Oct 21 How do we know what we know about Read: Schopen: Protestant Presuppositions Buddhism?: Orientalism: The Protestants schopen-archaeology.pdf Oct 23 Orientalism: Two Paths Read: Hallisey: Roads Taken and Not Taken Hallisey.pdf Oct 26 Student-determined Readings Mini-xam 3 TBA
Oct 28 Student-determined Readings TBA Oct 30 Student-determined Readings TBA Nov 2 Nov 4 Nov 6 Tibetan Monk Visit Tibetan Monk Visit Research Paper Due AAR travel Nov 9 AAR Nov 11 Group Presentation Preparation Day TBA Nov 13 Group Presentation Preparation Day TBA Nov 16 Groups: Contemporary India TBA Nov 18 Groups: Sri Lanka TBA Nov 20 Groups: China TBA Nov 23 Groups: Japan TBA Nov 25 Groups: Tibet TBA Nov 27 Thanksgiving Nov 30 Groups: South East Asia TBA Dec 2 Groups: America TBA Dec 4 Sum up, review, prep for Final Exam
Evaluation Inevitably, this is a class taken for credit and I must evaluate your absorption of the material presented in class. Central to the learning experience is preparing for, attending, and participating in class. You will be expected not only to have read all assigned readings by the class period, but also to have reflected upon them, and to bring the readings to be discussed that day to class. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. You are adults and I leave the management of your lives to you; I will not ask for, nor do I want to see excuses for missed classes. It is your responsibility to get the information covered in class. You will be allowed three absences throughout the semester. Any absences in excess of three will reduce your ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION grade by one point. Participation can be as easy as asking for clarification on a concept, or as challenging as trying to engage the instructor directly on the relevance of the material to your everyday life. Participation is the best way to ensure you understand the material, and that is the best way to ensure you do well in the class. At a minimum, students are required to come to class with one typed question about the reading to be discussed that day, which will be collected. In order to ensure that you are absorbing material there will be three MINI-XAMS throughout the semester. Each will cover a cohesive section of the class: 1-the cultural context of Early Buddhism, 2-Early Buddhism, and 3-sources for Buddhism. Each mini-xam will be composed of short answer questions and will test your understanding of the material covered in each section. The mini-xams are scheduled for September 4 th, September 28 th, and October 26 th. During the last section of the class, student groups will be responsible for two GROUP PRESENTATIONS. The first project is the 19 th Century Scholars Group Project. In Class on October 19 th each group will be responsible for researching a single influential scholar from the 19 th century, bringing to class a single page handout of information about that scholar, and introducing the class to that scholar. For the second, larger project groups will, in conjunction with the professor, research Buddhism in one of seven cultural settings, determine which materials are to be read by the remainder of the class, and conduct the class for the prearranged session on that topic. More details about this project are included below. The evaluation of the groups presentations will be a combination of my evaluation and a peer review rubric, both of which I will distribute in class on the day that groups are formed. During the second half of the class, students will be expected to produce a RESEARCH PAPER on a topic chosen in collaboration with the professor. The paper should be approximately 8 pages in length, when printed with the default margins in a 12 point font. Students will be required to have a topic chosen by October 16 th and a draft reviewed by the professor by October 23 rd. The final draft will be due no later than November 4 th. No exceptions will be made for any of these deadlines. The FINAL EXAMINATION will be held in the college-allotted time during exam week. The exam will be cumulative in the sense that the essays on the exam will challenge you to relate material from the entire semester in synthetic arguments about themes that run throughout both Buddhist history and Buddhist Studies. The Final Exam will be held December 9 th 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Final grades will be allotted based on the following distribution of grades earned on the previous assignments: Attendance and Participation: 5% Group Presentation: 15% Mini-xam 1: 10% Research Paper: 20% Mini-xam 2: 15% Final Examination: 20% Mini-xam 3: 15% Grades will be assigned on a 100 point scale: A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F 100-93 92-90 89-87 86-83 82-80 79-77 76-73 72-70 69-67 66-63 62-60 <60 Grades will not be rounded, so a 79.99 is a C+.
Policies ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Lebanon Valley College expects its students to uphold the principles of academic honesty. Violations of these principles will not be tolerated. A student shall neither hinder nor unfairly assist the efforts of other students to complete their work. All individual work that a student produces and submits as a course assignment must be the student s own. Cheating and plagiarism are acts of academic dishonesty. Cheating is an act that deceives or defrauds. It includes, but is not limited to, looking at another's exam or quiz, using unauthorized materials during an exam or quiz, colluding on assignments without the permission or knowledge of the instructor, and furnishing false information for the purpose of receiving special consideration, such as postponement of an exam, essay, quiz or deadline of an oral presentation. Plagiarism is the act of submitting as one s own the work (the words, ideas, images, or compositions) of another person or persons without accurate attribution. Plagiarism can manifest itself in various ways: it can arise from sloppy note-taking; it can emerge as the incomplete or incompetent citation of resources; it can take the form of the wholesale submission of other people s work as one s own, whether from an online, oral or printed source. The seriousness of an instance of plagiarism its moral character as an act of academic dishonesty normally depends on the extent to which a student intends to deceive and mislead the reader as to the authorship of the work in question. Initially, the instructor will make this determination. (From LVC s Undergraduate Academic Regulations and Procedures: http://www.lvc.edu/catalog/acad-reg-procedures.aspx?bhiw=1024) Details on plagiarism and how to avoid it can also be found at this site: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis_plagiarism.php You will be held responsible for understanding what is and what is not plagiarism. I will not give anyone a second chance on this issue. STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: If you have a physical, medical, psychological, or learning disability that is going to impact your attendance or require accommodation, please let me know. In order to ensure that your learning needs are appropriately met, you will need to provide documentation of your disability or medical condition to the Director of Disability Services in Humanities 206-D, 867-6071. The Office of Disability Services will then provide a letter of verification of disability that describes the accommodations needed for this class. ABSENCE FOR RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS: If you must miss class for the observance of a religious holy day, inform the instructor as far in advance of the absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete an assignment within a reasonable time after the absence. Notice given at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates the student will be absent will constitute an excused absence. For religious holy days that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, notice should be given on the first day of the semester. SYLLABUS: The syllabus is a tentative schedule and is subject to change as the need arises students will be made aware of any changes with enough time to adequately prepare for class.
Student-determined Readings The readings for the last week of October will be determined by a majority vote of the students in the class. Students will determine the readings to be completed from a pre-set list of options and the professor will prepare and present the material for those readings. The readings will be selected from the following list: Student-determined Readings: Bryan Jare Cuevas: Predecessors and Prototypes: Towards a Conceptual History of the Buddhist Antarabhava in Numen 43.3 Janet Gyatso: Sex in Lopez, Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism Janet Gyatso: One Plus One Makes Three: Buddhist Gender, Monasticism, and the Law of the Excluded Middle in Defining Buddhism: A Reader Anne Hansen: The Image of an Orphan: Cambodian Narrative Sites for Ethical Reflection in Defining Buddhism: A Reader Richard M. Jaffe: Seeking akyamuni: Travel and the Reconstruction of Japanese Buddhism in Defining Buddhism: A Reader Francoise Pommaret: Returning from Hell Gregory Schopen: The Suppression of Nuns and the Ritual Murder of their Special Dead in Two Buddhist Monastic Codes Gregory Schopen: A Well Sanitized Shroud: Asceticism and Institutional Values in the Middle Period of Buddhist Monasticism The Tibetan Book of the Dead Turell Wylie: Ro-langs: The Tibetan Zombie in History of Religions Group Presentations Groups will be formed on September 30 th and will have two projects throughout the semester. 19 TH CENTURY SCHOLARS GROUP PROJECTS: Groups will be responsible for researching a single influential scholar from the 19 th century and bringing to class a single page handout of information about that scholar. The handout should contain, at minimum, the following information: Name, Birth and Death dates; a short paragraph on his or her place in the historical context, e.g., job, citizenship, role in India, how they came to be interested in Buddhism, organizations founded or joined; contribution to the study of Buddhism; and any relationship with the other scholars on the list below. Pictures would be nice, but are not necessary. If you have pictures, let me know and I will arrange to have them presented in class. Groups should choose from the following 19 th century scholars: Dr. Francis Buchanan, James Prinsep, Alexander Cunningham, Sir William Jones, Dr. Horace Haymen Wilson, Colonel Colin Mackenzie, and James Alexander. I only want you to create brief sketches, so I will lend each group a book, The Search for the Buddha, which you should SKIM and glean clues about each person. Additionally, I encourage you to search on the internet. This is the ONLY time I will accept, even encourage, you to use Wikipedia. Since you are creating only outline sketches of these people Wikipedia will be acceptable. Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source for research papers! GROUP PRESENTATION OF DIVERSE BUDDHISMS: During the last few weeks of the class, student groups will be responsible for presenting the course materials to the rest of the class. Groups will, in conjunction with the professor, research Buddhism in one of three cultural settings, determine which materials are to be read by the remainder of the class (including a primary source from TEB), and conduct the class for the prearranged session on that topic. Additionally, groups must generate 5 questions to be used on the Final Exam. The cultural areas to be addressed are: Contemporary India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Tibet, South East Asia, and America.
Resources: GENERAL BOOKS: Reat, Noble Ross, Buddhism: A History [BQ 266.R43 1994] Prebish, Charles S. and Damien Keown, Introducing Buddhism [BQ 266.P74] Robinson, Richard H. and Willard L. Johnson, The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction 4 th edition [my copy will be available] Mitchell, Donald W., Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience [my copy will be available] Ridley, Michael, The Art of World Religions: Buddhism [my copy will be available] Cuevas, Bryan J. and Jacqueline I. Stone, The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, and Representations [BQ 4487.B82 2007] Lopez, Donald S. Jr., Buddhism in Practice [BQ 1012.B83 2007] Kalupahana, David, Buddhist Thought and Ritual [my copy will be available] SELECTIONS BY AREA: India Davidson: Indian Esoteric Buddhism [BQ 8912.9.I5 D38 2002]; Fiske: Buddhism in India Today in DUMOULIN; Bechert: Buddhist Revival in the East and West in BECHERT; Sri Lanka Fernando: Contemporary Buddhism in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in DUMOULIN; Carrithers: They will be Lords upon the Island : Buddhism in Sri Lanka in BECHERT; Monius: Imagining a Place for Buddhism [BQ 349.T36 M66 2001]; Gunaratne: Life Means Not to Kill [my copy will be available] China Welch: Buddhism in China Today in DUMOULIN; Zürcher: Beyond the Jade Gate : Buddhism in China, Vietnam and Korea in BECHERT; Welch: The Practice of Chinese Buddhism [BL 1430.W4]; Ching: 8 Buddhism becomes Chinese in Chinese Religions [My copy will be available]; Wright: Buddhism in Chinese History [My copy will be available] Japan Dumoulin: Buddhism in Modern Japan in DUMOULIN; Heinemann: This World and the Other Power: Contrasting Paths to Deliverance in Japan in BECHERT; Saunders: Buddhism in Japan [BL 1440.S32 1964]; Tibet Snellgrove: Tibetan Buddhism Today in DUMOULIN; Kvaerne: Tibet: the Rise and Fall of a Monastic Tradition in BECHERT; Thurman: Essential Tibetan Buddhism [BQ 7604.T496 1997]; Dalia Lama: The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus [BT 205.B86 1996]; Lopez: The Prisoners of Shangri-la [BQ 7604.L66 1998]; Cuevas: Travels in the Netherworld [BQ 4487.C84 2008] South East Asia King: Contemporary Burmese Buddhism in DUMOULIN; Swearer: Recent Developments in Thai Buddhismin DUMOULIN; Zago: Buddhism in Contemporary Laos in DUMOULIN; Bakker: Contemporary Buddhism in Indonesia in DUMOULIN; Bechert: To be a Burmese is to be Buddhist : Buddhism in Burma in BECHERT; Bunnag: The Way of the Monk and the Way of the World: Buddhism in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia in BECHERT; America Benz: Buddhism in the Western World in DUMOULIN; Bechert: Buddhist Revival in the East and West in BECHERT; Bortolin, The Dharma of Star Wars [Chapel BQ 5405.B67 2005]; Dalia Lama: The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus [BT 205.B86 1996]; Inada: Buddhism and American Thinkers [B 162.B83 1984]; Mann: Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America [BL 2525 M356 2001]; Queen: Engaged Buddhism in the West [BQ 724.E64 2000]; Film: Buddhism in the West: Austin, TX [my copy will be available]; Prebish: Luminous Passsage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America [BQ 732.P736 1999]; Boucher: Turning the Wheel [BQ 734.B68 1993] (DUMOULIN, Heinrich, The Cultural, Political, and Religious Significance of Buddhism in the World Today [BQ 4015 D8513]; BECHERT, Heinz and Richard Gombrich, The World of Buddhism [Chapel BQ 4012.W67 1991]); Mackenzie: Why Buddhism [BQ 4012.M33]