READINGS IN EARLY BUDDHIST TEXTS (SA-1615)

(01/30/2023-05/19/2023)

Course Memo

Texts selected by instructor from the early Buddhist tradition. May include Pali and early Mahayana texts, read in English translation. May be repeated for credit when a different text is chosen for study. SP23 Subtitle: Affect and Emotion This semester the course will focus on affect and emotion in Buddhist traditions. Primary sources in English translation will include selections from Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women, narratives of Buddhist lives, Mahayana sutras, Buddhaghosa's Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), Abhidharma literature, and Sanskrit literary and dramatic theory. These will be supplemented by secondary scholarship from within and beyond Buddhist studies. We will study how affect and emotion may differ across religious, historical, and cultural contexts, especially by investigating Buddhist representations of and perspectives on joy, wonder, mental pain, compassion, solitude, and more. Format: Hybrid [20 max enrollment; Auditors with faculty permission]

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