Exercise: Infinite Reincarnation
This series of activities helps students come to grips with the concept of samsara in Buddhism and Hinduism.
Exercise: Buddhism and Bad Desires
This activity helps students provide their own evidence for Buddha’s argument against desire.
Exercise: Why I am not a Buddhist
This activity asks students to evaluate the argument against Buddhism’s stance on desire presented in a poem by Molly Peacocke.
Exercise: Freedom From Fear
This essay assignment asks students to connect ideas they’ve learned from studying the Dhammapada to Aung San Suu Kyi’s essay “Freedom from Fear.”
Unit: The Cartesian Self and Buddhist Alternatives
Descartes provides a classic example of a individual, substantialist conception of the self, and Buddhists deny precisely such a view. Consequently, they present intriguing alternatives for students. Theravada Buddhist argue that there is no self, but that it is conventionally useful to talk as if there are selves. Mahayana Buddhists frequently argue that there is no completely individual self, but there is a transpersonal self that we are all manifestations of.
Unit: Theism and Atheism in Classical Indian Philosophy
The unit provides an overview of some of the debates between theists and atheists in classical India.