ENROLL

Arthur McKeown

This course provides students with an introduction to the history of South Asian Buddhism. Using primary and secondary sources and resources available to us in Bodh Gaya, we evaluate competing perspectives on the history of Buddhism and debate significant historical and ethical questions. How did Buddhism relate to other ancient Indian religions? What was the relationship between Buddhism and ancient Indian political, social, and economic structures? How did Buddhism change during its 2000 years in India? What impact did South Asian Buddhism have on the ancient and medieval world? What is the relationship between modern Buddhism and ancient Buddhism?

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

Participation in GEP India Program

Arthur McKeown

Students spend three weeks of the program engaged in independent study of a topic related to Buddhist Studies, utilizing the unique resources available in India and neighboring countries. At the completion of the Independent Study period, students return to the Burmese Vihar, where their work is reviewed by their advisor and presented to the group.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

Participation in Buddhist Studies India Program, winter break

Arthur McKeown

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India ASST 101 3/30/23

Arthur McKeown

This course builds on the student’s previous training in spoken and written Hindi language.  Students will gain the ability to initiate and sustain conversations with Hindi speakers, read and write in Hindi about personal and social situations, as well as extract the main idea and information from descriptive and narrative texts. Students will apply their language learning and deepen their understanding of Indian culture through interaction with local residents and participation in seasonal festivals and other activities.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Arthur McKeown

This course introduces students to major trends in Buddhist philosophy as it developed in India from the time of the Buddha until the 11th century CE. The course emphasizes the relationships between philosophical reasoning and the meditation practices encountered in the Buddhist Meditation Traditions course. With this in mind, the course is organized into three units covering the Indian philosophical foundations for the Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan Vajrayāna traditions. While paying attention first and foremost to philosophical arguments and their evolution, we also examine the ways in which metaphysics, epistemology and ethics inform one another in each tradition.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Arthur McKeown

Students will complement their understanding of Buddhist thought and culture through the study and practice of traditional meditation disciplines. This course emphasizes the history, characteristics, and approach of three distinct meditation traditions within Buddhism: Vipassana, Zazen, and Dzogchen. Meditation practice and instruction is led in the morning and evening six days a week by representatives of these traditions who possess a theoretical as well as practical understanding of their discipline. Lectures and discussions led by the program director complement and contextualize the three meditation traditions being studied.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India

Arthur McKeown

This course introduces students to the complexity and plurality of Buddhist traditions that have flourished in diverse societies and cultures in the modern era. This course enables students to sympathetically understand and critically investigate various Buddhist traditions and their historically and culturally specific configurations of philosophical beliefs, cultural values, everyday practices, social institutions, and personal experiences. Focusing on Buddhist traditions of South and Southeast Asia, Japan, and Tibet, we explore topics including syncretism and popular religion, monasticism, gender, economic development, social movements, political violence, and religious revival. Students expand their research skills in anthropology through field assignments in Bodh Gaya.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Carleton-Antioch Program required

OCP GEP Buddhist Studies India