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BTI Consortium | Last Updated April 11, 2023 - 5:00PM
BUDDHIST STUDIES
School
Boston University Graduate Program in Religion
GRS RN612
Buddhism in America
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
The transplantation and transformation of Buddhism in the United States. Time period ranges from the 18th century to the present, but the emphasis is on contemporary developments, including the new Asian immigration, Jewish Buddhism, feminization, and engaged Buddhism. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Laura Harrington
TR
2:00-3:15
Grading Option
Audit; Letter; P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
DOCTORAL; MA allowed
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3049
Introduction to Buddhism
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
This course explores key aspects of Buddhist thought, practice, and social institutions across historical eras and diverse cultural areas. We read Buddhist primary texts that offer a rich array of perspectives on the challenges and potentials of being human. We pay special attention to Buddhist understandings of consciousness and embodiment as well as to the ideal types of persons and communities envisioned by Buddhist traditions. The first part of the course focuses on central elements of Buddhist religion as they developed within South Asia. Topics include Buddhist forms of meditation, expressions of devotion, artistic creativity, and understandings of emotions and interpersonal relations. We then use those topics as a basis for comparison as we investigate forms of Buddhism (e.g. Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada) in Asia and beyond, including in America. Throughout the course we attend to how Buddhists from around the world bring their sensibilities to bear upon contemporary situations, generating ongoing debates about today�s ethical, political, economic, and spiritual landscapes.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Goldstein, Elon
MW
10:30-11:45am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
Prerequisite: Elementary Greek or the equivalent. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3469
The Museum as a Buddhist Institution
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
As is well known, the institutional and sociological settings for religious life have become increasingly diverse and dispersed in recent times. Such changes have made it necessary for students of religions to expand their frames of vision about what should be considered relevant to their investigations and descriptions of particular religions. This course takes up museums, both art museums and ethnological museums, as institutions of public culture which shape collective understandings of Buddhism by the varied ways in which they "represent" Buddhism. Museums also provide, at least for some of those who visit them, sites for religious and/or spiritual reflection and growth. The course thus is also an exploration of the place of museums in both the social imagination of Buddhism today and Buddhist life in contemporary North America. At a second order level, it considers what students of religion more generally can learn from these explorations of museums as Buddhist institutions with respect to theory and method in Religious Studies.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hallisey, Charles
T
3-5pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
This course is a limited enrollment course. A statement of interest in the course and how it connects to your larger plans of study should be sent to Charles Hallisey (challisey@hds.harvard.edu). Permission to enroll will be sent on or before 6 September 2023.
School
Boston University Graduate Program in Religion
GRS RN752
Buddhism as Philosophy
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
An exploration of the major problems of Indian Buddhist thought, with special attention to theories of knowledge and rationality, ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. The course will study the arguments Buddhist philosophers used to defend their views against their critics. It will also consider what we can learn from them philosophically today.�
Professor
Class Day & Time
David Eckel
T
3:30-6:15
Grading Option
Audit; Letter; P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
DOCTORAL; MA allowed
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3056
Spiritual Formation on the Buddhist Path
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
This course focuses on the Buddhist spiritual Path or �marga� through the lens of spiritual formation theories. Students will be introduced to religious and secular theories of spiritual formation, human development, and moral growth. They will then examine Buddhist literature on the Path from Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana sources for their applicability to contemporary human spiritual development. Students will gain the ability to analyze and compare Buddhist and other models of spiritual formation, articulate important aspects of their own spiritual path, and facilitate the growth of others along their own spiritual path(s). Texts will be read in English translation; no scriptural languages needed.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Sanford, Monica
TR
4:00-5:30pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3471
Friendship and the Religious Life: Theravada Buddhist Insights and Appreciations
BTI Category
Semester
Buddhist Studies
FA23
In the Theravada Buddhist traditions, the Buddha's emphasis on the significance of friendship in a person's spiritual development is often highlighted. For example, when on a certain occasion, Ananda, the Buddha's beloved disciple, speaking to the Buddha about what he had learned from the Buddha's instructions over the years of living with him, said that "half of the good life" is friendship with good people, companionship with good people, closeness with good people, only to be corrected by the Buddha that these are not half but actually the whole of the good life. Elsewhere, the Buddha said that there is no other factor more significant and helpful in the development of the factors of enlightenment than friendship with good people. This course is an exploration of Theravada Buddhist insights and appreciations of friendship and its potentials in religious life, taking up friendship conceptually as well as in its depictions in Theravada Buddhist story literature; systematically, especially in ethics and soteriology; and the place of friendship in various kinds of Buddhist practice, especially in meditation and monasticism.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hallisey, Charles
R
9-11am
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisite?
N
Notes
N
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