PAPER TOPICS I: REL 440/540 Buddhist Scriptures, Spring 2004
Due Tuesday, April 27, due in class.
* Three pages: Not more than 1000 words (You may use parenthetical
notation to indicate page numbers for textual references.)
* I encourage you to discuss these topics with one another.
* Be sure to write your name, the name of the class, and the title of
your topic at the top of the page.
* I also strongly encourage you to read the essays on my Writing web
pages, especially "Four Keys to Writing in the Humanities," "Paper
Writing Guidelines," "Checklist for Papers," and "Writing: The Bridge
between Consciousness and Unconsciousness."
The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti
Select EITHER Ch. 3: The Disciples Reluctance to Visit
Vimalakirti, or Ch. 7: The Goddess. First, discuss the place of this
sutra within the historical context of the development of Mahayana
Buddhism, identifying three factors (i.e., the relation between
Mahayana Buddhism and earlier Buddhism; issues related to women and
gender; lay and ordained, etc.). Second, show how your selected
chapter illustrates the following Buddhist notions: suffering,
attachment to views, impermanence, emptiness, interdependent
co-origination, and liberation from suffering. Much of your analysis
of the first part will be inferential but still grounded in our
knowledge of Buddhist history. See articles on gender and Buddhism
for historical background on gender.
The Lotus Sutra
In the Lotus Sutra (pp. 58-64), the parable of the burning
house and carriages is one of the most famous episodes illustrating
the Mahayana Buddhist notion of upaya or skillful means.
First, analyze the status and nature of skillful means. Does this
parable suggest that the end (liberation from fire
[suffering]) justifies the means (luring children
[suffering sentient beings] out of the burning house by
deception? Or is there another way to interpret this? Second, discuss
whether this parable means that all three vehicles (voice-hearer
[sravaka], pratyekabuddha, Buddha) are equally valid at
skillful means or whether the Lotus Sutra sets them up in a
hierarachy. Can the idea of skillful means be reconciled with a
hierarchical view of different vehicles. Why or why not? (See Mark
Unno, Shingon Refractions, pp. 73-75).
Gregory Schopen
Schopen discusses what he calls the Protestant assumptions in the
study of Indian Buddhism. First, briefly summarize (one page)
Schopens key arguments. Second, see what the potential
strengths and weaknesses of his argument are by applying it to one or
two of the sutras we are sampling in this course.
Robert Buswell
What does Buswell mean by Buddhist Apocrypha? How does
his defintion of Buddhist apocrypha help us to understand the status
and function of Mahayana Sutras? What is the relation between the
fact that all Mahayana sutras are in some sense apocryphal with the
fact that supposed Indian origins are still considered important?
Discuss this in relation to one or two sutras we are sampling for
this course.