Peqod :: Classes - Columbia University Catalog of Classes

Buddhist teachings came to Tibet relatively late in the history of Buddhism’s travels through Asia. Tibetan emperors adopted Buddhism from India around the eighth century, which sounds like a long time ago now, but by that time Buddhism was already well established in parts of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia. In addition to being known as a tradition of renunciants and forest dwelling philosophers, Buddhism was associated with cosmopolitanism—literacy, the arts, architecture, higher education and beyond. Tibetan rulers, like so many rulers before them, turned to Buddhism after amassing power through warfare and violence, and they became interested in Buddhism’s methods for cultivating wisdom and compassion as antidotes to ignorance and selfishness. They were also curious about whether Buddhism could help justify and support their claims to power. Because Buddhism was already a complex system, Tibetans were able to uniquely integrate all three of the major traditions of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism. Thanks to the hard work of Tibetan and Indian translators and artists with imperial support, monks and nuns followed the rules of the earliest disciples of Buddha, philosophers pored over Indian Buddhist treatises, and ritualists fine-tuned the tantric, esoteric, intensive path to liberation from dissatisfaction and suffering. The new expressions of Buddhism that emerged in Tibet have shaped religion, education, literary production, the arts, and language across a massive and diverse swath of Asia, from northern India to Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, and areas of Western China. More recently, Tibetan Buddhism has spread across the globe. In this course, by analyzing primary textual sources in translation as well as visual and material culture, we will investigate the history and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in all its complexity, from its earliest origins to the present. There are no prerequisites for this introductory lecture

MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
Instructor: Dominique Townsend
CULPA: 1 Info
4 points

Details

RELI UN2205

CHINESE RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
Instructor: Zhaohua Yang
Info
4 points

Details

RELI UN2405

Chinese Religious Traditions - Discussio

Chinese Religious Trad -

F 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
R 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
0 points

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RELI UN2406

Laboring in God s image Religion,

Laboring in God's image

The category of labor is often understood as a secular concept – closely and inextricably intertwined with the logic and destiny of capital. In this paradigm the question of the human is teleologically bound to the transverse flows of capital, with the human emerging primarily as an economic subject. This course nudges us to think outside the framework where labor is primarily understood as an economic function, instead exploring how religious traditions have shaped alternative understandings of labor and the human experience. We turn to other imaginations – such as those embedded in and emerging from diverse religious traditions – and consider other trajectories and possibilities of labor. Across religious traditions, labor has been central to the definition of the human, in multiple, cacophonous ways. In this course, we will encounter various religious ideas of labor not only as the process through which world(s) are made, but also as the process through which the idea of the human is made, contested, and remade over and over again. Drawing from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, this course will explore how diverse religious traditions have used the concept of work to define, delineate, and defend what it means to be human. We will pair primary texts with films, short stories and secondary readings, 2 to understand how these traditions provide alternative ways of understanding labor – not merely as a mechanism of economic production but as a critical process through which we engage in the process of becoming human through our interactions with the divine, various non-human actors, and the natural world. In particular, we will examine how religious communities have historically mobilized around issues of labor justice, drawing from their theological and ethical frameworks to advocate for dignity, equity, and justice. These insights are particularly urgent in a time marked by widespread exploitation, the displacement of workers by automation, and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, which challenge traditional understandings of human labor. This course hopes to facilitate a nuanced understanding of labor’s theological, ethical, and political dimensions and consider new possibilities for work and justice in a rapidly changing world.