Topics for Paper I, REL 440/540 Buddhist Scriptures

Due date: Thursday, Feb 7, 5 p.m., PLC 812

• Double-spaced, not more than 750 words. (You may use parenthetical notation to indicate page numbers for textual references. Provide a bibliography at the end.)
• 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 (The Goddess and Hui-neng, Bodhidharma and Hui-neng ) 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."

Topics

1. Chuang Tzu's Conversion Experience

In "Zhuangzi's Conversion Experience," P. J. Ivanhoe argues that the point of the episode in the park is, "In looking at the chain of predator and prey, Zhuangzi realized the danger of allowing one's desires to blind one's awareness of the world around one. One cannot get rid of one's desires, but one can preserve one's natural state (in accord with the Tao): a state in which one's desires do not obscure one's awareness and lead one into danger." Yet, there is a potential problem here: According to Chuang Tzu's Taoism, "one's awareness" of the natural Tao entails the realization that the "ten thousand things are one with me" (Watson 38). How can one honor this oneness if one is out hunting and killing other creatures. That doesn't seem to express the spirit of oneness. (There is a similar problem in the episode involving Cook Ting who is said to attain oneness with the Tao while butchering an oxen [46-47]). Can this contradiction be resolved? How?

2. Sacred Scripture and Emptiness

In the Buddhist sources we have read so far, there seems to be a tension between the wordless realization of emptiness and the expression of emptiness through words. Identify two or three passages from the primary sources we have read so far and discuss how Buddhist have argued that words can effectively express the wordless.

3. History, Myth, and Emptiness

One could argue that, in terms of time, history corresponds to form, emptiness remains unspoken, and myth provides the bridge between history (form) and emptiness. Discuss two or three cases of this from the scriptures we have read so far, examining some of the problems involved in trying to bridge history and emptiness through the use of myth (and its corresponding practices - such as those of the Pure Land schools and Chih-i's T'ien-t'ai).

4. The Goddess and Vimalakirti

Discuss the significance of the "Goddess" Chapter of the Vimalakirti Sutra in light of Kate Wheeler's article, "Bowing, Not Scraping." Who is Sariputra as presented in this chapter? Is he the historical Sariputra? A straw man for the "corrupt Hinyanists?" What might have been the circumstances of Buddhist India at the time the "Goddess" chapter was composed, and how does it, based on emptiness theory, relate to Kate Wheeler's questions and assumptions about Western notions of self-identity?