(IS) RELI 26 Buddhism in America

Ann Burlein
104K Heger Hall
Ann.Burlein@Hofstra.edu
516-462-7238

Books | Assignments| Grading Policies | Late Work Policy | Course Schedule


Traditions are contingent processes. They recommence, with other givens.

Course Goals:

What happens when a religious tradition with historical and cultural roots in Asia comes to the U.S. and is practiced in contexts that are quite different historically, socially and culturally?This course will introduce you to the diverse forms in which Buddhism has emerged in America. We will pay attention to how Buddhism is lived by immigrants as well as by American converts.

This course fulfills the following learning goals in the department of religion:
Goal # 3 -- Students will be able to analyze the social implications of religion.
Goal # 4 -- Students will be able to interpret a variety of religious texts.
Goal # 5 -- Students will be able to evaluate religious phenomena.

This course fulfills the following goals for distribution credit:
Goal 1. Students will demonstrate the ability to think critically and creatively.
Goal 2. Students will apply analytical reasoning across academic disciplines.
Goal 5. Students will develop an awareness of and sensitivity to global issues.

Books to buy:

• David McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (NY: Oxford, 2008). $29
• Wendy Cadge, Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America (Chicago: Univ of Chicago, 2004). $30.
• Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind $10.
• Joan Halifax, Being with Dying (Boston: Shambhala, 2009) $11.50
• Richard Seager, Richard Seager, Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism (Berkeley: Univ of California 2006). $30 but used is $2.
• Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are (Boston; Shambhala, 1994). $10.

Recommended but not required -- ONE of the following:

• Charles Prebish and Kenneth Tanaka (eds), The Faces of Buddhism in America (Berkeley: University of California, 1998) $30 new OR
• Richard Seager, Buddhism in America (NY: Columbia, 2000). $25.50

Course Schedule

Unlearning, Learning and Re-Learning

Mahayana Buddhism

T Mar 20 - Th Mar 22
Popular Journalism

Zen Buddhism
Michael Downing, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (Counterpoint, 2002). excerpts.

Vajrayana Buddhism

T Apr 24
Ethnography
1) "Ethnic" Tibetan Buddhism
2) "Convert" Tibetan Buddhism

Assignments:

• There is no one textbook that holds this class together. To do well in this course, attendance is crucial. To reflect this, 15% of your final grade will come from your participation. You are expected to 1) ATTEND ALL classes, 2) have read and PREPARED all assignments before coming to class and 3) DISCUSS relevant issues.  If you are someone who rarely speaks, then this will be an opportunity for you to find ways to feel more comfortable speaking in class. If you are someone who often speaks in class, this will be an opportunity for you to learn how to monitor your speaking by limiting your contributions so that others have a chance to jump in.  

Because there is no one textbook that holds this class together, absences in this class work like karma. You have two days to be absent without consequences. On your third day of absence, you lose all benefit of the doubt when it comes to your final grade. For every absence thereafter, you lose 1/3 of a letter grade from your final grade. (If you cut class twice in the beginning of the semester, and then become sick for two days at the end, karma will take effect and your final grade will go down).

When you are absent, YOU are responsible to find out from another student what went on in class and for making up the work that you missed.  MAKE FRIENDS. If you are absent on a day when we are scheduled to take a test, see my policy on late work.

• 35% of your final grade will come from daily timed blackboard quizzes that you will take on blackboard before you come to class every day that we have a new reading assignment. The purpose of these quizzes is primarily to make sure that you do the readings. The timing will be set so that you can look at your text and find an answer IF you have already read the text and know where to look. My goal in devising these daily quizzes is to make sure that you have already gotten the main pieces of information so that our class discussions can be more substantive and probing.
  
  
• 50% of your final grade will come from an interdisciplinary project that you will complete in 3 stages (receiving feedback on stages 1 and 2, with the option to rewrite based on my feedback to receive an average of the two grades). The project will focus on an American Buddhist figure -- you can select from the list I provide or suggest one of your own.The purpose of the project is to enable you to use and synthesize the different disciplines upon which we are drawing in the class: by this I mean integrating primary and secondary materials with diverse academic disciplines. (See the left hand side of your syllabus, where I have noted that information for the readings we discuss each day).
  • Part One: Biography (Individual & Institutional) -- 10% -- at least 5 pages. Provide a biography of your particular figure AND of their institution (or lineage) -- how it came to the US. You MUST draw on primary materials (insider accounts, interviews with the figure, etc) as well as secondary scholarship (outside academic scholarship). You must have at least one paragraph in which you reflect on how you negotiate the differences between primary (or insider) and secondary (or outsider academic) accounts.
  • Part Two -- 30% -- a total of 15-20 pages. The Buddhist Path is often divided into meditation, morality and wisdom. Your task in Part Two is to write 5 pages on the practice of meditation according to your figure (10%), their practice of morality (10% and 5 pages), and their practice of wisdom (10% and 5 pages). You must use some combination of the following kinds of primary sources: their own writing (required for each section); interviews with the person and/or followers, if available; as well as accounts by insiders in their organization (published or on the web). In Part Two, you must use a total of at least 5 secondary academic sources. These can be: ethnographies of this or a similar organization; participant-observation performed by you if possible; and historical accounts by scholars.
  • Part Three -- 10% -- at least 5 pages. Our major framework for understanding what happens with Buddhism when transplanted to America is the notion of a contingent process: Buddhism recommences, with other givens. Your task in this final essay is to reflect on this process of recommencement amid different givens, through the prism of your figure. You must reflect upon (not necessarily answer) the following two questions: 1) How has your figure understood and lived this process of recommencement? What were their achievements -- and their failures? 2) How do the academic disciplines of ethnography and history help you sort out your position on this question of Buddhism's contingent recommencement?

Grading Policies

Studying religion is both an academic and a personal exercise. In your written assignments you will be graded on thinking and argumentation. I will not grade your personal beliefs or non-belief.  Nor will I grade or the particular position you take. I will grade how well you articulate why you (or someone) thinks this way as well as your ability to reflect critically on the position you take.

Late work policy: In order to give you timely feedback, I cannot accept late work. This means that if there is an emergency in your life and for some reason you cannot turn you work in on time, you must contact me BEFORE the work is due to let me know so that I can make the appropriate adjustments in my schedule in order to read your work. If you do not give me advance notice I will not accept the work regardless of your reason (short of being in a coma).

Academic Dishonesty: This course is dedicated to helping you develop your own thinking about what religion is. Thus I regard plagiarism as a serious violation of the academic compact, because it involves passing off someone else's thought as your own. This can happen by copying someone else's words or re-phrasing someone else's ideas in your words. Neither is your own thought: If through conversation with you I determine that you have committed an academic violation, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will file a report to the Provost and Dean (as per University policy). I regard cheating on a test similarly: you are encouraged to work and study with others before the test, but when you are in a test you are on your own, without notes or cell.   

Plagiarism is a serious ethical and professional infraction.  Hofstra’s policy on academic honesty reads: “The academic community assumes that work of any kind [...] is done, entirely, and without assistance, by and only for the individual(s) whose name(s) it bears.”  Please refer to the "Procedure for Handling Violations of Academic Honesty by Undergraduate Students at Hofstra University" for details about what constitutes plagiarism, and Hofstra’s procedures for handling violations.

Disabilities Policy: If you believe you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Services for Students with Disabilities(SSD). In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, qualified individuals with disabilities will not be discriminated against in any programs, or services available at Hofstra University. Individuals with disabilities are entitled to accommodations designed to facilitate full access to all programs and services. SSD is responsible for coordinating disability-related accommodations and will provide students with documented disabilities accommodation letters, as appropriate.  Since accommodations may require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact SSD as soon as possible. All students are responsible for providing accommodation letters to each instructor and for discussing with him or her the specific accommodations needed and how they can be best implemented in each course.

For more information on services provided by the university and for submission of documentation, please contact the  Services for Students with Disabilities, 212 Memorial Hall, 516-463-7075.

Bibliography

Coleman, James. 2002. The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. NY: Oxford University.

Desmaries, Michele Marie. “Buddhism and Film.” In The  Continuum Companion to Film and Religion, ed. Willima L. Blizek. NY: Continuum, 2009.

Dobbelare, Karel. 1998. Soka Gakkai: From Lay Movement to Religion. Torino, Italy: Signature Books.

Dresser, Marianne, editor. 1996. Buddhist Women On the Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.

Findly, Ellison Banks, editor.  2000.  Women’s Buddhism Buddhism’s Women.  Boston: Wisdom Publications.

Harding, John S., Victor Sogen Hori and Alexander Soucy, editors. 2010.  Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queens’s University Press.

Heine, Steven and Charles S. Prebish, editors. 2003. Buddhism in the Modern World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Learman, Linda, editor. 2005. Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

McLellan, Janet. 1999. Many Petals of the Lotus Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

McMahan, David L.  2008. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mullen, Eve. 2001. The American Occupation of Tibetan Buddhism: Tibetans and their American Hosts in New York City.  New York: Waxmann Munster.

Numrich, Paul David, ed. 2008. North American Buddhists in Social Context. NY: Brill.

Prebish, Charles S. and Martin Bauman, editors. 2002. Westward Dharma Buddhism Beyond Asia.  Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Prebish, Charles S. and Kenneth K. Tanaka, editors.  1998. The Faces of Buddhism in America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Scherer, Burkhard. 2009. “Interpreting the Diamond Way: Contemporary Convert Buddhism in Transition.” Journal of Global Buddhism 10: 17-48.

Seager, Richard Hughes. 2006. Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism.  Berkeley, California: University of
California Press.

Seager, Richard Hughes. 1999. Buddhism in America. NY: Columbia University.

Storhoff, Gary and John Whalen-Bridge, editors. 2010. American Buddhism as a Way of Life.  Albany, New York: State University Press of New York.

Tweed, Thomas.  2000.  The American Encounter with Buddhism (1844-1912): Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: the University of North Carolina Press.

Tweed, Thomas. 2001.  “Theory and Method in the Study of Buddhism: Toward Translocative Analysis.” Journal of Global Buddhism. Vol 12: 17-50.

Tworkov, Helen. 1994. Zen in America: Five Teachers and the Search for an American Buddhism. New York: Kondansha International.

Wei, Low Yuen. 2009. “Religious Ecology on the Internet: A Case Study of Tibetan Buddhism.” In Mediating Piety, eed. Francis Khek Gee Lim. Boston: Brill.

Williams, Duncan Ryuken and Tomoe Moriya, editors. 2010. Issei Buddhism in the Americas. Urbana, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Williams, Duncan Ryuken and Christopher S. Queen, editors. 1999. American Buddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship. New York: Routledge Curzon.

Wilson, Jeff. 2009. Mourning the Unborn Dead: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America. New York: Oxford University Press.

Page written by Ann Burlein

Last updated January 16 2012