This graduate seminar aims to discuss the thematic topics in Buddhist context that motivates the rise of a series of modern Buddhist discourses, collectively named Humanistic Buddhism (HB) or renjian fojiao 人間佛教 nowadays. It provides a research arena for participants to lay down their own intellectual groundwork for studying the different types of HB movements that all respond to various social issues arising from the predicament of modernization process among the countries and regions in the world.
- Učitel: Shou-Jen Kuo
This class is a survey of the doctrinal contexts, theoretical frameworks, and the practice of and approaches to early Buddhist meditation. The course will contain both the emic/practitioner’s perspective as well as the study of meditation as an academic discipline.
Topics to be covered and discussed in this course include (primarily presented in this order): The etymology of meditation; the soteriology of Buddhist meditation; The dynamics of Calm and Insight (śamatha-vipaśyanā); the role of concentration and the nature of attention; mindfulness, clear comprehension, ardency, and other requisites in the culture of Buddhist mental development; meditative absorption/immersion/composure (jhāna); the controversies over jhāna and other aspects of meditation; stages of insight and the supramundane fruitions; eidetic and “antidotal” meditations; and new horizons in the study of meditation and consciousness.
- Učitel: William Chu
- Učitel: Alexander Amies
- Učitel: Christopher Johnson
- Učitel: Lewis Lancaster