Teaching Buddhism New Insights on Understanding and Presenting the Traditions

Description

Buddhist studies is a rapidly changing field of research, constantly transforming and adapting to new scholarship. This creates a problem for instructors, both in a university setting and in monastic schools, as they try to develop a curriculum based on a body of scholarship that continually shifts in focus and expands to new areas. Teaching Buddhism establishes a dialogue between the community of instructors of Buddhism and leading scholars in the field who are updating, revising, and correcting earlier understandings of Buddhist traditions. Each chapter presents new ideas within a particular theme of Buddhist studies and explores how courses can be enhanced with these insights. Contributors in the first section focus on the typical approaches, figures, and traditions in undergraduate courses, such as the role of philosophy in Buddhism, Nagarjuna, Yogacara Buddhism, tantric traditions, and Zen Buddhism. They describe the impact of recent developments-like new studies in the cognitive sciences-on scholarship in those areas. Part Two examines how political engagement and ritual practice have shaped the tradition throughout its history. Focus then shifts to the issues facing instructors of Buddhism-dilemmas for the scholar-practitioner in the academic and monastic classroom, the tradition's possible roles in teaching feminism and diversity, and how to present the tradition in the context of a world religions course. In the final section, contributors offer stories of their own experiences teaching, paying particular attention to the ways in which American culture has impacted them. They discuss the development of courses on American Buddhism; using course material on the family and children; the history and trajectory of a Buddhist-Christian dialog; and Buddhist bioethics, environmentalism, economic development, and social justice. In synthesizing this vast and varied body of research, the contributors in this volume have provided an invaluable service to the field Cover......Page 1 Teaching Buddhism......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Foreword: Tensions in the Field of Religious and Buddhist Studies......Page 10 Editors’ Preface......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 20 A Note on the Transliteration of Asian Languages......Page 22 List of Contributors......Page 24 Part I: Updating Perennial Course Subjects......Page 32 1. Teaching Buddhism as Philosophy......Page 34 2. Teaching Nāgārjuna......Page 48 3. Teaching Yogācāra Buddhism Using Cognitive Science......Page 83 4. Teaching Tantric Buddhism in an Undergraduate Classroom Context......Page 103 5. Rethinking the Teaching of Zen Buddhism......Page 120 Part II: Reimagining the Content of “Buddhism”......Page 132 6. In Defense of the Dharma: Buddhists and Politics......Page 134 7. Conveying Buddhist Tradition through its Rituals......Page 153 Part III: Issues in Teaching, Practice, and Connecting Students with the Tradition......Page 180 8. Teaching Buddhism in the Western Academy......Page 182 9. Teaching Buddhist History to Buddhist Practitioners......Page 197 10. Deconstructing Fixed Identity Categories and Cultivating Appreciation for Diversity: Teaching Buddhism and Feminism......Page 217 11. Teaching Buddhism in the World Religions Course— ​Challenges and Promise......Page 232 Part IV: Buddhism and the American Context......Page 242 12. When the Iron Bird Flies: Seeking Western Buddhism in the Classroom......Page 244 13. Conveying Buddhism in the Classroom: Working with Assumptions on Family and Children......Page 268 14. Teaching Engaged Buddhism in Uncertain Times......Page 282 Part V: Buddhism in New Academic Fields......Page 300 15. History of Buddhist–​Christian Dialogue......Page 302 16. Teaching Buddhist Bioethics......Page 327 17. Buddhist Environmentalism......Page 349 18. Buddhism and Economic Development......Page 375 19. “We Can Do No Less”: Buddhism and Social Justice......Page 392 Index of Names......Page 406 Subject Index......Page 412