Syllabus: Important Topics in Mainstream Buddhism

In the eight weeks of this course, we will look into eight topics that have concerned the followers of the Buddha since the very early days of his teaching. To the extent that there is some consensus within the Buddhist community regarding these topics, it is partly that consensual understanding that defines Buddhism itself, and to the extent that there is disagreement, it is the nature of that disagreement that distinguishes one Buddhist tradition from the others. I make no claim that these are the most important topics in Buddhism; someone else might make another list of eight that’s different, but any list is bound to cover, in some way or another, such topics as the Dhamma, the nature of Enlightenment, and the notion of kamma.

The topics I’ve chosen, and the order in which I’ve chosen to present them, will, I hope, result in a comprehensible and reasonably accurate overview of the Buddha, the path he taught, and the fundamental unity of the many traditions that have developed their very different ways of practicing the Buddha’s path.

I will introduce each class by talking about the day’s topic, trying to explain what it is that makes it a distinct topic, and what it means in the context of Buddhism in general. Whenever possible, I’ll use the Buddha’s own words, as those have been transmitted in the Pali Canon, as the starting point for my explanation, although I will also feel free to use classic texts from later Buddhist traditions, especially those of the Mahayana traditions of Nepal, China, and Eastern Asia. When the topic is one (as it almost always will be) that is interpreted differently in different Buddhist traditions, I’ll do my best to explain what those differences are and what their significance is to those who practice in each tradition.

The last part of each class will be devoted to questions and discussion. I am particularly interested in exploring how the ideas of Buddhism appear to those who follow other traditions, both classical Western religious traditions and the more skeptical philosophical traditions that underlie humanism, atheism, and scientific materialism.

We will be making heavy use of the Internet for the readings that I will recommend for each class; there’s a wealth of material out there, much of it of very high quality—intelligent, scholarly, useful. If you don’t have an Internet connection, or if you are not comfortable with using it, I’d recommend that you make some arrangements with a friend to print out the study texts each week. The class is simply too large for me to print those out for all the members.

What follows is an outline of what I plan, at this point in time, to be discussing in each class; if it turns out that this is more ambitious than we can handle in an eight-week course, the outline may change. The first three classes will cover what are known as the Three Refuges: the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

• Class 1: Who (and what) was the Buddha?

  “The Buddha” is a descriptive term, similar to “the Christ”; it means, approximately, “the awakened one”, and Buddhist tradition views Siddhatta Gotama, the Buddha we know, as the latest in a long line of Buddhas, each separated from the next by eons. In this class, we’ll look at the life of Siddhatta Gotama, the man whose teachings we’ve received, and we’ll explore the way in which various traditions view his Awakening, his person, and his Buddha-nature.

• Class 2: The Dhamma

  The truth that the Buddha taught, indeed, the fundamental truth about how the world works, is known as the Dhamma (Dharma in Sanskrit, which is the more familiar term for most Westerners). In this class, we’ll look at what that word means, with special reference to the formulation of the Dhamma that the Buddha presented in his first sermon and which establishes the foundation for all the rest of his teachings:

  • The Middle Way

  • The Four Authentic Truths

  • The Eightfold Path

• Class 3:The Sangha

  Like many of the other teachers traveling through India at the time, the Buddha attracted followers. Unlike those other teachers, however, the Buddha’s assembly of disciples was well-organized, exceptionally well disciplined, and contained members from every caste and social stratum. Uniquely, in India and in the world at the time, the Buddha’s Sangha (a Sanskrit/Pali word meaning “assembly”) also was open to women. In this class, we’ll look at the evolution of the Sangha, its importance in the spread and preservation of the Buddha’s teachings, and the rules that governed the behavior of its members in the Buddha’s time and today.

• Class 4: Kamma and rebirth

  This one is a sticking point for many Westerners, particularly those who are attracted to Buddhism because of its non-theistic nature. We’ll see how kamma (Skt. karma), i.e. intentional action, determines who we are and who we will become, and we’ll see how those notions derive from the Brahminic culture in which the Buddha lived, the radical way in which he re-interpreted them, and how they might be understood to co-exist comfortably with rationalist world views.

• Class 5: The nature of the Buddha’s Enlightenment

  In this class, we will build on the understandings we’ve developed by now to re-examine exactly what happened when the Buddha became enlightened, when he “woke up” to an understanding of contingency and the nature, cause, and cessation of suffering in this world. We’ll look at the nature of nibbana (nirvana in Sanskrit), the state that the Buddha experienced and in which he dwelt following his awakening, and we’ll examine how the ideas of Enlightenment and nibbana have been understood by various Buddhist traditions.

• Class 6: Dependent arising

  This class will build on the preceding class, taking a more detailed look at the idea of contingent existence that provides the dynamic for the establishment of the Dhamma. The idea is simple: everything is process, and every process unfolds dependent upon pre-existing conditions. But when you apply that idea to concepts such as the “self”, or “perception”, it can get complicated pretty fast. And very interesting. And uncommonly convincing and relevant to the processes we see unfolding around us.

• Class 7: The Pali Canon

  Here we will examine how the Buddha’s teachings were preserved after his death, how they were compiled into several different canons, how those different canons relate to one another, and how the canons themselves and attitudes toward them have changed through the ages.

• Class 8: Schools, traditions, lineages: the transmission and transmutation of the Dhamma

  As the Buddha’s teachings spread from Northern India, where he lived and taught, the different varieties of Buddhism that developed took on forms and practices derived from the cultures into which they spread. We’ll see how that process occurred as Buddhism moved to the South, the North, and the East, and how it is occurring now as Buddhism continues to evolve distinctively Western forms.