PAPER TOPICS I: REL 440/540 Buddhist Scriptures, Spring 2004

Due Tuesday, April 27, due in class.

* Three pages: Not more than 1000 words (You may use parenthetical notation to indicate page numbers for textual references.)
* 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 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."

The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti
Select EITHER Ch. 3: The Disciples Reluctance to Visit Vimalakirti, or Ch. 7: The Goddess. First, discuss the place of this sutra within the historical context of the development of Mahayana Buddhism, identifying three factors (i.e., the relation between Mahayana Buddhism and earlier Buddhism; issues related to women and gender; lay and ordained, etc.). Second, show how your selected chapter illustrates the following Buddhist notions: suffering, attachment to views, impermanence, emptiness, interdependent co-origination, and liberation from suffering. Much of your analysis of the first part will be inferential but still grounded in our knowledge of Buddhist history. See articles on gender and Buddhism for historical background on gender.

The Lotus Sutra
In the Lotus Sutra (pp. 58-64), the parable of the burning house and carriages is one of the most famous episodes illustrating the Mahayana Buddhist notion of upaya or skillful means. First, analyze the status and nature of skillful means. Does this parable suggest that the end (liberation from “fire” [suffering]) justifies the means (luring children [suffering sentient beings] out of the burning house by deception? Or is there another way to interpret this? Second, discuss whether this parable means that all three vehicles (voice-hearer [sravaka], pratyekabuddha, Buddha) are equally valid at skillful means or whether the Lotus Sutra sets them up in a hierarachy. Can the idea of skillful means be reconciled with a hierarchical view of different vehicles. Why or why not? (See Mark Unno, Shingon Refractions, pp. 73-75).

Gregory Schopen
Schopen discusses what he calls the Protestant assumptions in the study of Indian Buddhism. First, briefly summarize (one page) Schopen’s key arguments. Second, see what the potential strengths and weaknesses of his argument are by applying it to one or two of the sutras we are sampling in this course.

Robert Buswell
What does Buswell mean by “Buddhist Apocrypha”? How does his defintion of Buddhist apocrypha help us to understand the status and function of Mahayana Sutras? What is the relation between the fact that all Mahayana sutras are in some sense apocryphal with the fact that supposed Indian origins are still considered important? Discuss this in relation to one or two sutras we are sampling for this course.