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BUDDHIST STUDIES

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 2935

Compassionate Care of the Dying: Buddhist Training and Techniques

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

Traditional Buddhist monastics and teachers have long played a key role in helping others prepare for death. This course will explore the central approaches to death and dying in Buddhism, the Buddhist view of compassion, and how these are being adapted in the US for professional end-of-life care. Students will develop an understanding of basic skills in compassionate care of the dying, and tools to approach death as an opportunity for spiritual growth through readings, meditation exercises, listening practices, group work, and discussions with guest speakers. Some prior knowledge of Buddhism preferred. Prerequisite: Spiritual Care, Chaplaincy, or CPE required.This class has a limited enrollment to facilitate a personal group dynamic of safety and support around issues of death and dying, collective processing, and contemplative cultivation. Priority will be given to students who have completed one or more prerequisite courses with the instructors, have a basic knowledge of Buddhism and Buddhist practice, are third-year M.Div. students about to graduate, or will be in CPE or a field education placement working with end-of-life care. During the first class, Thursday, January 27, instructors will ask prospective students to write a one-paragraph summary of their readiness, aspirations for the class, and above criteria to determine the class cohort. Decisions will be made by both instructors on the same day of the first class and they will email students that evening to let them know if they are in the class.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Berlin

R

03:00pm-05:45pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

Y

Prerequisites?

Y

Notes

This class has a limited enrollment to facilitate a personal group dynamic of safety and support around issues of death and dying, collective processing, and contemplative cultivation. Priority will be given to students who have completed one or more prerequisite courses with the instructors, have a basic knowledge of Buddhism and Buddhist practice, are third-year M.Div. students about to graduate, or will be in CPE or a field education placement working with end-of-life care. During the first class, Thursday, January 27, instructors will ask prospective students to write a one-paragraph summary of their readiness, aspirations for the class, and above criteria to determine the class cohort. Decisions will be made by both instructors on the same day of the first class and they will email students that evening to let them know if they are in the class

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3252

The Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines: Engaging a Budddhist Text as Scripture

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

A critical introduction to the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines (A__as_haskrik_ Praj�_p_ramit_ S_tra), considered in the light of the historical contexts of its formation, its connection to earlier Buddhist texts, and the contexts of its subsequent reception across Buddhist Asia, including commentarial, intellectual, and ritual contexts. The course will also introduce key interpretive challenges and issues in the study of Buddhist �scripturable texts.�

Professor

Class Day & Time

Hallisey

R

09:00am-10:59am

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3471

Friendship and the Religious Life: Buddhist Insights

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

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

T

09:00am-10:59am

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3170

New Buddhist Groups: Evolution, Revivals, and Reforms in the Contemporary Buddhist World

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

The course will focus on new Buddhist groups emerging in the contemporary Buddhist world. The evolution, revivals, and reforms in the Buddhist world have occurred in response to socio-political and economic changes. Changes in communication technologies such as print media, television, radio, and the internet have altered the structure of Buddhism as well as its following. For example, instead of followers going to the temple, the temple has entered the individual�s life through cyberspace. One can even imagine attaining nibb_na while lying in bed and scrolling through social media. While all these changes are occurring, have these new groups changed in their approach to gender? Have women become more present in these male-dominated truth-seeking spaces? At the same time, scholars from various social sciences and humanities backgrounds are trying to understand these new transformations through their scientific categorizations and labels. The course will be exploring these aspects in effort of understanding new Buddhist groups emerging in the Buddhist world across the globe.  Aims and Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, students will be able to understand how social, political, and economic changes influence religion, as well as how religion, in turn, shapes society. Within this discussion, we will explore how market forces, the relative weakening of the state, modern education systems, political changes, and the spread of media and technology have affected dharma and the structure of new Buddhist groups. Students will also gain an understanding of the new Buddhist movements emerging in Buddhist countries and how these groups are intertwined with the socio-political and economic conditions of those contexts.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Kahandagama

TBD

TBD

Grading Option

Letter

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

Y

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3467

Women and Gender in Buddhism

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

This course spotlights the history of women in Buddhism, both their obstacles and their brilliances. It explores a diverse range of gender conceptions that impacted that history, as well as how issues of fairness, access, safety, and freedom were understood in Buddhist contexts. We range from ancient and medieval histories of women�s renunciation and leadership to early modern textual traditions displaying repressive, subversive, and liberative moments of women�s lives. We also study key contemporary cases involving women�s ordination; women�s leadership; sexual violence; and queer Buddhisms. While gender is an important analytic category throughout the course, we are just as much interested in centering women as a category of people whose histories and experiences require telling. Another major aim of this course is to critically examine if feminism is a tool of justice in diverse global contexts, as well as the place of scholarly activism in Buddhist Studies.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Gyatso

TR

01:30pm-02:45pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3888

Buddhist Studies Seminar: Early Tantra and Vinaya Text

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

SP26

This is a seminar for advanced Buddhist Studies doctoral and masters students, including doctoral students taking generals exams in Buddhist Studies. A minimum of two years study of at least one canonical Buddhist language is required for enrollment. The seminar takes a close look at selected canonical texts in their Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and/or Tibetan versions, and the evolution of some of their contents, organization, and conceptual structure, not to mention editions and translations. The purpose of the seminar is to familiarize students with research methods in working with Buddhist canonical texts, from online resources and critical apparati to strategies of readings and pursuing themes of interest. This year the seminar will focus for half of the semester on ritual and physical structures of early kriy_ and cary_ tantras as available in Sanskrit or other Indic languages, Chinese, and/or Tibetan. The other half of the semester will compare versions of the Vinaya in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and/or Tibetan, through the lens of particular foci of interest to students in the seminar; possibilities include gender issues, monastic structure, material culture, ritual structure, community versus personal values. The particular foci for both parts of the course will be decided by all members when the seminar convees. The seminar will also consider relevant modern academic Buddhological research relevant to our topics. Requirements: One research paper at the end of the semester, and full participation in ongoing source discovery, in-class readings, and discussion.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Gyatso

W

03:00pm-05:30pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

Y

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

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