The world of Mahayana Buddhism includes China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, and Nepal. This course explores Mahayana Buddhist thought, meditation practices, narratives, and ritual practices across Asia. We consider texts ancient and modern. After a basic introduction to Buddhism, we take up topics ranging from meditation, to nirvana, compassion, emptiness, Buddha nature, Zen, and ethics. Our focus is on fundamental theological questions: What are the causes of suffering? How can meditation and ethical practices illuminate sufferings causes, and put an end to them? What is the state of unconditioned awareness, freedom, and joy that lies beyond suffering? Most importantly, what does this all have to do with me? No background in Buddhism is required.

Sangha, or the "Buddhist spiritual community," as one of the Three Jewels is seen to be a refuge for community support, dharma practice, and personal transformation through the teachings of the Buddha. This course explores sangha from a range of Buddhist traditions in the context of "polity," the way a lived spiritual community is organized and functions to meet the needs of its members. Themes central to the course will include: how monastic traditions are being adapted in the present-day modern West; the nature and organizational structure of various forms of American sanghas and their practices; leadership, power and governance; the concept of a "Buddhist identity" in community; issues of race, gender and diversity; and the nature of power and authority between ordained and lay leadership. We will also explore liturgical practices and together seek to build a resource for ritual and core texts that support and represent a diverse range of community praxis. We will also discuss shaping sustainable polity among developing Buddhist communities in terms of "skillful means" as attending to the specific needs and structure of a given organizational vision. The course will include group discussion, in-class presentations, guest speakers, and research and analysis of a dharma community or Buddhist-inspired organization.

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.

Mahayana Buddhism, a widespread form of Buddhism in both past and present, is distinguished in part by its remarkable body of scriptures. The numerous Mahayana Buddhist scriptures (sutras) are greatly varied in their content, form, and literary qualities, endlessly thought-provoking, and often wonderfully entertaining. With all readings in English translation and with no prior background assumed, this course explores seminal examples of different types of Mahayana sutras. Our foci are the spiritual, ethical, philosophical, and meditative teachings within the scriptures. We attend to the literary elements employed by sutras to bring about transformations in their readers, to issues of interpretation, and to the ritual uses of the texts. We inquire into the contexts of a sutra's production and into the cultural reception of a text in various places and moments in history. Ideas of special interest are the arenas of a bodhisattva's or a Buddha's salvific activity, Pure Lands, Buddha-nature, levels and dynamics of consciousness, the paramitas or transcendent activities, and the path to Buddhahood. Sutras read in English in their entirety or in part may include the Vimalakirti, Sukhavativyuha, Samdhinirmocana, Ashtasahasrikaprajnaparamita, Vajracchedika (Diamond Sutra), Prajnaparamitahrdaya (Heart Sutra), Suvarnaprabhasottama (Golden Light), Nirvana, Gandavyuha and Dashabhumika sutras. The course concludes by appraising how a key Mahayana thinker systematizes and draws from Mahayana sutras, for instance, Asanga in his Mahayanasutralamkara (Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras) or Shantideva in his Shikshasamuccaya (Compendium of Training).

This seminar will primarily involve a close reading of the 8th century Buddhist philosopher Śāntideva’s magnum opus Bodhicāryāvatāra (How to Lead an Awakened Life) along with his Śikṣāsamuccāya (A Student’s Anthology).  But we will read the text in some context, with some commentaries, and against some contemporary secondary literature and moral theory. The goal is to develop a cogent reading of the entire text.  Context will be provided by selections from Buddhaghosa’s Visudhimagga (The Path of Purification).  We will also examine  some Tibetan commentaries, including the 19th century Tibetan scholar Kunzang Sonam’s A Lamp Completely Illuminating the Profound Reality of Interdependence:  A Progressive Overview of the Wisdom Chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.  We will also read a fair amount of recent scholarship on Bodhicāryāvatāra and recent work in the theory of moral perception and cultivation.