The aim of this course is to examine the formal features as well as the content of early Buddhist ethics. An attempt will be made to understand the different perspective from which an inquiry into ethics may be made and to clarify the standpoint from which it is most fruitful to study Buddhist ethics. The course will attempt to understand the Buddhist ethical system in terms of familiar concepts, categories, and methods of analysis in modern moral philosophy.
The study will be mainly based on Mahāyāna literature (Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan) and is designed to provide an insight into the basic doctrines of main Mahāyāna schools.
It is often that Buddhism and other religions are examined from a modern scientific viewpoint. This course, however, is designed to view science from a Buddhist standpoint. The course begins with a discussion of the philosophical and attitudinal changes which influenced and transformed the European enterprise of science and its subsequent developments in knowledge and technique, Darwinism and the secularization of the concept of self, materialism and the reductionist philosophies which emerged from them.
A study of the dynamics of home and human relations. The course deals with the influence and role of family, its values as they relate to society, and factors that relate to its success.
Conjugation of the athematic verb classes II, V and VIII; more declensional cases of nouns and pronouns of the three genders with vowel and consonant endings; the denominative; the imperfect tense; the conditional tense; the periphrastic future; the locative and genitive absolutes; the future passive participles (gerundive); the present participles; further forms of bahuvrīhi samāsa; the avyayībhāva samāsa; possessive and adjective suffixes; past active participles.
The purpose of the course is to identify and interpret the original doctrines of what is generally known as Early Buddhism. Therefore the course will be mainly based on the Buddhist discourses of the Pāli Canon. Topics of study will include Four Noble Truths, Three Signs of Existence, Dependent Origination, Analysis of the empiric individuality, theory and practice of moral life, and Nibbāna as the final goal of religious life.
A study of the dynamics of home and human relations. The course deals with the influence and role of family, its values as they relate to society, and factors that relate to its success.
A continuous survey of Pāli Grammar covering all forms of declension, conjugation, sandhi, samāsa (nominal compounds) and taddhita (secondary derivation). The extension of sentences with adjectives, adverbs and indeclinables with the correct observance of syntax. Simple extracts, both prose and verse, from Pāli texts will be used for further clarification of syntax and for comprehension.
A practical course designed to acquaint students with the process of public speaking and the basic principles involved in speech preparation and presentation.
Study and practice in the forms of writing necessary for all college writing. Students will also be introduced to library skills.