NOTES ON PAPER TOPICS I:

BE SURE TO PROVIDE PAGE REFERENCES AND/OR DIRECT QUOTATIONS FROM THE READINGS.

TOPIC 1. Compare the creation account in the Rig Veda with Genesis from the Hebrew Bible:

Hints: 

Similarities are primarily in the themes contained in the two accounts.

Differences are primarily in the forms of logic and the ways of thinking. 

Genesis expresses itself in terms of linear logic, with God creating the world in a straightforward sequence A—>B—>C and so on.

The Rig Veda is non-linear and is based on the four-step logic. It also uses questions to express doubt that one can know the source of all reality, the nature of ultimate reality, in a straightforward way, with clear labels. It uses paradox (apparent contradictions) to express how something can be itself and its opposite at the same time (ultimate reality as both an It and a He).

TOPIC 2. Krishna’s teachings/instructions in the Bhagavad Gita versus the Gita Govinda (Song of the Milk Maidens).

Hints: One story emphasizes following duty to one’s station in society as the best way to realize the Hindu goal of liberation (moksa). The other story emphasizes ripping the mask off of false pretenses to duty first, and then showing the way to liberation free from hypocrisy. Both stories emphasize the path to liberation by acting appropriately without attachment (non-attachment).

TOPIC 3. Karma in early Buddhism (see Peter Harvey, Introduction to Buddhism [CR4]) versus karma in Hinduism as found the Bhagavad Gita. 

Hints: a) Even though the Bhagavad Gita does not mention the word karma that often, this concept is in the background of most of the work, wherever Krishna and Arjuna is examine intentions, actions, and consequences. b) Based on the stories of Arjuna (Hinduism) and Siddhartha (who becomes the Buddha), we can see that the former emphasizes purifying one’s karma by doing one’s duty to society while the latter emphasizes purifying one’s karma by setting out on the path of individual virtue and awakening (enlightenment). c) Karma and Rebirth. In Hinduism, one’s soul (atman) is reborn with a different body in each life. In Buddhism, there is continuity in the chain of causation and the web of interdependence, but there is no soul, no self (anatman) that remains essentially unchanged from birth to birth. One can think of the idea that the body is recycled into the earth, and one’s thoughts and emotions continue to carry their impact through family, friends, and others. So, there is continuity, but no essence.

TOPIC 4. The ascetic path, the householder path, and the different types of yoga. 

Hints: There are many ways to think about this topic, but here is one fairly clear way: 1) The ascetic path of the solitary seeker, meditator, and holy person represents the path of direct knowledge (jnana-yoga). The path of the householder requires both faith and devotion, on the one hand (bhakti-yoga), and pure actions (karma-yoga), that is, actions without attachment to results or expectations. 2) The ascetic path of direct knowledge is focused on the impersonal expression of Brahman (ultimate reality), as “It.” The householder path of devotion and action is more focused on the personal expression of Brahman as “He,” since the householder cannot contemplate ultimate reality directly, as that which “neither exists nor doesn’t exist.”