Webpage established: 25 Jan 2009 Last Update: 9 March 2009
Outline
1. Introduction
The following webpage includes notes that may be useful for students in Robert Sharf’s spring 2009 course, L&S 160. I’m figuring out what to put in this website as I go, but it will include, among other things, some vocabulary words from the readings and lectures. These vocab words are not usually technical words relating to Buddhism or religious studies per se (such as samadhi or constructivism), but rather are standard English words I suspect some people don’t fully understand.
2. Notes by Week
Week 1 (Jan 20, 22): Intro
For more analysis of “perennialism,” “constructivism,” “ineffability,” etc. within the context of mysticism, you could check out the mysticism entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Note that I’m not endorsing the views in that entry, just sharing a resource.
There are a lot of Sanskrit and Pali words with diacritical marks in the Study Guide 1. For our purposes, you can generally ignore the diacritics and pronounce the words as if they were English words. One exception: an “h” after a consonant just indicates aspiration, so “th” and “ph” are pronounced as strongly aspirated “t” and “p,” respectively. Three letters are useful to know: ś and ṣ are pronounced “sh,” and ñ is pronounced “ny” (as in Spanish). If you want more details on Sanskrit pronunciation (and the Pali pronunciation is similar), one place to look is this link.
Quiz Words in the Reading or in Lecture (no diacritics shown): Indo-European, Sanskrit, Pali, Veda, Upanisad, sramana/samana, Asoka, Siddhartha Gautama/Siddhattha Gotama, Sakyamuni, sila, samadhi, prajna/panna, sravaka/savaka, Tripitaka/Tipitaka, sutra/sutta, vinaya, abhidharma/abidhamma, Visuddhimagga, Hinayana, Mahayana, Theravada, Sarvastivada, Mara, Ananda, Nagarjuna, Perrenialism, Constructivis, karma/kamma, rebirth, moksa, samsara, six realms, bodhisattva, buddha. Suggestion: make a list of these words and write definitions and notes for them based on the readings.
Vocab from Tuesday lecture (definitions from Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary or from Random House Webster’s Unabridged)
discursive: 2 : reasoning from premises to conclusions or proceeding from particulars to generalizations : utilizing or based upon analytical reasoning — contrasted with intuitive
ineffable: 1 : incapable of being expressed in words : UNUTTERABLE, INDESCRIBABLE *ineffable joy* *ineffable torture* : UNSPEAKABLE *ineffable disgust* *ineffable bungler*
register: 13. Ling. a variety of language typically used in a specific type of communicative setting: an informal register; the register of scientific discourse.
mendicant: 3. a person who lives by begging; beggar.
analgesia: absence of sense of pain.
Vocab from readings (Gethin 1998, ch. 1)
relic: 6. Eccles. (esp. in the Roman Catholic and Greek churches) the body, a part of the body, or some personal memorial of a saint, martyr, or other sacred person, preserved as worthy of veneration.
reliquary: a repository or receptacle for relics.
palanquin: (formerly in India and other Eastern countries) a passenger conveyance, usually for one person, consisting of a covered or boxlike litter carried by means of poles resting on the shoulders of several men.
sui generis: of his, her, its, or their own kind; unique.
cubit: an ancient linear unit based on the length of the forearm, from elbow to the tip of the middle finger, usually from 17 to 21 in. (43 to 53 cm)
Vocab from Thursday lecture
renunciant: one who renounces (as the world)
ascetic: extremely strict in religious exercises : religiously austere
rarefy: 2 : to make more spiritual, refined, tenuous, or abstruse
suture: 1 a (1) : a strand or fiber (as of silk, nylon, cotton, catgut, wire) used to unite parts (as tissues, nerves, or blood vessels) of the human or an animal body *incisions were T closed with stainless steel sutures— Year Book of General Surgery* (2) : the material used for sutures *silk is the most widely used nonabsorbable suture at the present time— A.A.Stonehill* b : a stitch made with a suture *my right arm was bandaged to my side so as not to open the sutures— Laurence Oliphant* [common word for suture: “stitch”]
mudra: symbolic hand gesture
In lecture, Indo-European was used to mean both (1) a family of languages, and (2) the hypothetical languagefrom which languages in this family derived. This hypothetical language is also called Proto-Indo-European.
Week 2 (Jan 27, 29)
Notes on Essay Assignments
1. They should be 400 words or less, in a 12-point font, with 1” margins, printed in black ink.
2. In the top left corner, give the following information:
Lastname, Name
Section #, day and time
Date assignment is due
Example:
Doe, John
Section 3, M 11-12
February 3, 2009
3. Then space down two lines before you start the essay. You can repeat the question if you like, but it is not necessary. It might be helpful to repeat it if you have a tendency to go off on a tangent and not directly address the question.
4. I read all essays anonymously—I cover your name when I read them, so the grading process is impersonal. They are also completely shuffled when I grade them. I want you to leave two spaces between the top matter and the essay itself so it’s easier for me to keep your names hidden from view.
5. Please hand in all essays to me Tuesday in class by 2:10pm. If you want to hand them in to me earlier in section, that’s fine, too. We do not accept late papers.
6. Essays are graded on a scale from 0 to 10. Take care to demonstrate that you have (1) read the material carefully, (2) thought carefully about the question (remember to answer the question, not go off on a tangent about the material), and (3) written clearly, coherently, and concisely, and have taken the time to check and polish your essay. It is recommended that you have someone else read your essay to look for unclear passages and for spelling, grammar, etc. mistakes that you may have missed.
The first week, the average essay score for all students in our sections was about 8.0, and the averages in each section were close, with each section’s average ranging from about 7.8 to 8.25. Unfortunately, if you excel at expressing yourself in class and section, but your writing needs work, please do note that most of the grade is based on writing!
7. For citations from the packet, you are welcome to use simplified parenthetical citations such as “(p. 6),” which I will assume to mean “packet, page 6.” For citations in Gethin’s book, you can use “(Gethin, 42),” for example. Other mainstream citation methods (such as that of the MLA or Chicago Manual) are fine, too, but be consistent in which method you use.
8. If your English writing skills could use some work, it is highly recommended that you see a tutor, perhaps for free at the Student Learning Center to help you with your compositions.
9. Please don’t hesitate to come to my office hours, talk with me after class, or contact me. In particular, let me know if you can’t make out what I’ve written on your paper. I apologize in advance for my penmanship, I’ll try my best to be legible—I’ve been scolded about handwriting since kindergarten!
Notes on Quizes and Exams
Whereas the weekly assignments are relatively creative, the quizes and tests are more straightforward, testing you on the basic information presented in the readings and lectures. Take note of the terms on the study guide and be prepared to provide short definitions for them and to spell them. Yes, spelling counts, but knowing the definitions is more important. Also, you only need to know the Sanskrit forms of the terms, not the Pali forms. On the study sheet, remember that the Sanskrit terms are the first ones given in the pairs of terms linked by a slash. So in “sramana/samana,” for example, “sramana” is the Sanskrit term, "samana" the Pali term. And, just as I’ve done on this webpage, you can drop all the diacritical marks in your essays and on the quizes.
Of course, testing is not limited to vocabulary terms. There will also be short essays on the exams, so pay attention to the central points of the readings and lectures.
Notes on Attendance/Participation
This part of your grade includes attendance and participation in both class and section.
Vocabulary from Lectures, Week 2
eon: an indefinitely long period of time; age [also spelled aeon; can translate the Skt. word kalpa]
constituent (adj): serving to compose or make up a thing; component: the constituent parts of a motor.
ramify: to divide or spread out into branches or branchlike parts; extend into subdivisions. [n.: ramification]
substratum: Philos. substance, considered as that which supports accidents or attributes.
[substance: a. something that exists by itself and in which accidents or attributes inhere; that which receives modifications and is not itself a mode; something that is causally active; something that is more than an event. Also see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.]
ephemeral: lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory: the ephemeral joys of childhood
cenobite: a member of a religious group living in common — opposed to hermit [adj: cenobitic]
caricature: a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things: His caricature of the mayor in this morning's paper is the best he's ever drawn. [What did Prof. Sharf say was a caricature?]
polemic: a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc. [adj: polemical]
epithet: any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality: “Richard the Lion-Hearted” is an epithet of Richard I. [What was the Buddha’s epithet?]
prescriptive: serving to prescribe : laying down rules or directions : giving precise instructions *direct primary legislation is largely permissive rather than prescriptive— V.O.Key* *traditional grammarians gave prescriptive rules of usage— A.S.Hornby* [vs. “descriptive”]
Week 3 (Feb 3, 5)
Notes
In class, Prof. Sharf presented vipassana meditation as taught by the famous Burmese monk Mahasi Sayadaw. (“Sayadaw” is a title meaning “venerable teacher.”) A translated lecture of his method of vipassana meditation is available here, under the title “A Practical Vipassana Meditation Excercises” [sic]. You might listen to this to hear a lot of Buddhist vocabulary words in use and to get a deeper understanding of what Sharf conveyed in class about this method. His method is perhaps the most popular vipassana method in the Theravada world today. Another well-know vipassana teacher, especially in the West and in India, is the Indian-Burmese lay Buddhist S.N. Goenka.
According to modern Theravada Buddhism:
Samatha meditation leads to calmness (serenity) and to concentration (samadhi). It can also lead to a special state called a jhana (Skt. dhyana), a state of heightened concentration which is sometimes called an “absorption” or a “trance.” Synonyms: calm meditation, serenity meditation, jhanic meditation, dhyana meditation, etc.
Vipassana (Skt. vipasyana) meditation leads (after a limited level of concentration) to insight or wisdom, called prajna in Sanskrit. It can also lead to “breakthrough” experiences called “enlightenment” or “awakening.” Synonym: insight meditation.
A famous Theravada teacher of jhana meditation is the Burmese monk Pa Auk Sayadaw. He used to study vipassana meditation with Mahasi Sayadaw but later came to believe that many people should start with jhana meditation. One of his talks (with chanting mixed in) is available here.
(You may need to develop some samadhi to comprehend some of Pa Auk’s English.)
Keep in mind that there are many different interpretations of how to do samatha and vipassana. The methods mentioned above are relatively well known. In class, Sharf suggested that perhaps originally, vipassana was not a method per se but was the result of other meditation methods combined with doctrinal reflection.
Paul Williams is a scholar whose books might be useful as a supplement to this course. See his esp. his Buddhist Thought (2000) and (for later in the course) Mahayana Buddhism (2nd ed, 2008). He covers many of the same topics Gethin covers, sometimes more concisely, and shows additional perspectives based on Western philosophy and religion.
Vocabulary from Lectures
affective: 1. of, caused by, or expressing emotion or feeling; emotional.
scholasticism: 1 usually capitalized : a philosophical movement dominant in western Christian civilization from the Carolingian period in the 9th century until the rise of Cartesianism in the 17th century; specifically : the philosophical systems and speculative tendencies of various medieval Christian thinkers who working on a background of fixed religious dogma sought to solve anew general philosophical problems (as of faith and reason, will and intellect, realism and nominalism, and the provability of the existence of God) initially under the influence of the mystical and intuitional tradition of patristic philosophy and especially Augustinianism and later under that of Aristotle
2 : close adherence to traditional teachings or methods prescribed by schools or sects; specifically : a viewpoint dominated by scholastic modes of thought
epiphenomenon [adj: epiphenomenal]: 1. a secondary phenomenon accompanying another phenomenon and thought of as caused by it *fate determines what will happen to us, while ideas, convictions, and intentions are no more than phosphorescent epiphenomena— J.W.Krutch*
2 : an accidental or accessory event or process occurring in the course of a disease but not necessarily related to that disease
autonomic nervous system: a part of the vertebrate nervous system that innervates smooth and cardiac muscle and glandular tissues, governs actions that are more or less automatic (as secretion, vasoconstriction, or peristalsis), and consists of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system
Benedictine: 1. Rom. Cath. Ch.
a. a member of an order of monks founded at Monte Cassino by St. Benedict about A.D. 530.
b. a member of any congregation of nuns following the rule of St. Benedict.
efface: 1. to wipe out; do away with; expunge: to efface one's unhappy memories.
2. to rub out, erase, or obliterate (outlines, traces, inscriptions, etc.).
Saivite: see this Wikipedia entry on Saivism.
Week 4 (Feb 10, 12)
Notes for next week (Feb 17, 19): We have no class on Feb 17, but we will have class on Feb. 19. Also, attendance at section meeting this week (Tuesday Feb 17, 11-12pm, 2311 Tolman) is *optional*, and people from section 3 (Monday 11-12) are welcome to attend the Tuesday section for this week, subject to classroom space. The format will be open Q&A, nothing more. Finally, as Monday is a holiday there are no regular office hours this week, but I could be in my office Tuesday 2-3pm if one or more people want to make an appointment (via email) with me.
In the readings for Feb. 10, a quotation by Louis de La Vallee Poussin was repeatedly cited, in French, as if everyone could read French. My French is not great, but here’s my translation of that quotation as it appears on page 241 of the packet: “One can, without imprudence, discern within Buddhist sources two opposed theories…the theory that makes salvation purely or mostly intellectual; the theory that puts salvation at the end of ascetic and ecstatic disciplines.”
Vocabulary from Lectures
liberative: liberating or tending toward liberation
scholiast: a maker of scholia: COMMENTATOR, ANNOTATOR
[scholium (plural: scholia): a marginal annotation : an explanatory remark or comment (as on the text of a classic by an early grammarian)]
cockamamie: RIDICULOUS : INCREDIBLE *of all the cockamamie excuses I ever heard — Leo Rosten*
kundalini: the yogic life-force that is held to lie coiled at the base of the spine until it is aroused and sent to the head to trigger enlightenment
virtuoso: one who excels in the technique of an art; especially: a musical performer (as on the violin or the piano) synonyms see EXPERT
bifurcation: separation or branching into two parts, areas, aspects, or connected segments *the Cartesian bifurcation of reality into mind and matter*
Week 5 (Feb 19)
We had no class on Tuesday and the reading was Franny and Zooey. In class, Sharf spent much of the time talking about Descartes. For the assignment on the Heart Sutra, this link might be helpful, but don't worry about if you don't have time or it's too confusing. It's purely optional reading, and unfortunately the reading provided online is missing some pages.
Vocabulary from Lecture
referent: that which is denoted or named by an expression or a statement : a spatiotemporal object or event to which a term, sign, or symbol refers : the object of a reference
homunculus: a little man : DWARF : MANIKIN; specifically : a manikin that is artificially produced in a cucurbit by an alchemist (But: also see the Wikipedia entry on this for use of this term within philosophy of mind.)
noumenon (adj noumenal): 1 Kantianism a : an object that is conceived by reason and consequently thinkable but is not knowable by the senses : THING-IN-ITSELF b : an unknowable object (as God or the soul) whose existence is theoretically problematic
2 : an object of purely rational apprehension as opposed to an object of perception
consecrate: 2 a : to make or declare sacred or holy : effect the consecration of : set apart, dedicate, devote to the service or worship of God *consecrate a church* b : to effect the liturgical transubstantiation of
amblyopia: otherwise known as lazy eye, is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by poor or indistinct vision in an eye that is otherwise physically normal, or out of proportion to associated structural abnormalities (from Wikipedia, s.v. "amblyopia").
Week 6 (Feb 24, 26)
The OCF server was down over the weekend and so I didn’t upload materials for this week. I will add a few notes about vocabulary. First, when you are reading for this course, I highly recommend that you look up words you do not know in a dictionary. There are many online dictionaries. Perhaps the best dictionary for difficult words is the Oxford English Dictionary, which all UCB students have access to for free. Also, I recommend that you jot down and look up any unfamiliar words you hear in class. I won’t provide definitions for words from lecture anymore, although I may list them here.
Some words from lectures this week: lay movement, reliquary, circumambulate, mantra, heuristic, pedagogical, kilter, vestibular, percept, medial, syllogistic, rarify, gestalt, lama, tulku, khan, Mongol, diaspora, regent, idealism, physicalism, materialism, tantra.
Week 7 (March 3, 5)
Some vocabulary words from lecture:
reductio ad absurdum, vulgate, Dunhuang/Tunhuang, animism, idolatry, polytheism, monotheism, suttee or sati (NOT= “mindfulness” in this usage!), phenomenology, epoche.
Nagarjuna, whom we’ve read about and discussed, is probably the most important of the Madhyamaka philosophers. But we haven’t actually looked at his actual philosophical argumentation, we’ve looked at predigested summaries of his argumentation and how it has been interpreted. If you want to look at his arguments as well as critical philosophical analysis of his arguments, here is where you could look:
(1) Williams, Paul. 1977. “Nagarjuna: Selections from the Madhyamakakarika.” Middle Way 52 (1-3): 15-18, 72-76, 119-23. See some of Nagarjuna’s arguments for yourself.
(2) Robinson, Richard H. 1972. “Did Nagarjuna Really Refute All Philosophical Views?” Philosophy East and West, Vol 22, No. 3, pp. 325-331. A concise critique of Nagarjuna, available here.
(3) Hayes, Richard. 1994. “Nagarjuna’s Appeal.” Journal of Indian Philosophy. A newer, but much longer, critique of Nagarjuna, available here.
On Thursday, March 19, 4pm—5pm, there will be a performance, talk, and question and answer session by Chinese Shaolin martial monks. Everyone is welcome to attend. The abbot of Shaolin Monastery, Shi Yongxin, will be present. Location to be determined.
3. Questions
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