Your task is to write a thoughtful, coherent, original essay on some topic directly relevant to my Religions of The East class.
Thoughtful means that you take the time to think about what you are going to say before you write anything. A "thoughtful" essay is one that explores the nuances and subtle implications of some set of ideas. A mass of undigested facts is not a thoughtful essay, and will not get a good grade.
Coherent means that the essay hangs together. A "coherent" essay is one in which every part of the discussion is relevant to, and in some way illuminates every other part. A series of unrelated paragraphs is not a coherent essay, and will not get a good grade.
Original means that you, and only you, wrote the essay. An "original" essay is one in which every sentence was actually composed by the author of the essay without reference to any wording anybody else ever used to say anything ever. A mass of sentences wholly or partially copied, transliterated, or paraphrased from other people's work is not an original essay, will not get a good grade, and is probably plagiarism.
The prompts below are suggestions. You can, if you wish, write
about any aspect of any religious or "philosophical" tradition
or practice in what westerners are pleased to call "The East."
Here are some topics off the top of my head.
-4. Maya and Karma, Brahman and Moksha. Maya stands
between us and experience of Brahman. Karma stands between us and Moksha.
Coincidence? What do you think? Explain your answer.d
-3. Soma.
-2. Purusha.
-1. Sound and Power. Many Eastern traditions place a
great emphasis on the sound of various prayers and mantras. I
personally cannot think of very much to say about this, but the idea that
sounds have power is an intriguing one, and you might find yourself with a
lot to say about it. If you do, that makes it an essay topic.
0. The Self. Discuss the idea of the "self" or "soul"
or "atman" in Hindu, Buddhist or other Eastern Religion. Is the self real
or an illusion? If it's real, what is it? If it's illusory, what is it?
How does it function in religion and how is it related to ultimate
reality?
1. Karma. (Starting p33) What is "karma" exactly, and how does it relate to the rest of the hindu religion or society? What subtleties or paradoxes can you find in the hindu concept of karma? What else can you say about Karma?
2. Jnana Marga. (p 59) What is the essence of The Path of Knowledge? How is moksha achieved on this path? What aspects of this path do you find illuminating? What do you like and dislike? What do you think is the basic point of Jnana Marga? (You can focus on just one aspect of Jnana Marga if you like, or you can try to cover the whole thing.)
3. Bhakti Marga. (p 71) What is the essence of The Path of Devotion? How is moksha achieved on this path? What aspects of this path do you find illuminating? What do you like and dislike? What do you think is the basic point of Bhakti Marga? (You can focus on just one aspect of Bhakti Marga if you like, or you can try to cover the whole thing.)
4. Worship of The Feminine. (p 78) What exactly is going on here? How is the "feminine" conceived? What does it mean to say that the feminine is "worshipped?" How does this work out in practice and how does it affect the status of women in Hindu society?
5. Cow Veneration. (p 81) What does this mean exactly?
What does cow veneration symbolize? How does it relate to the rest of
Hinduism? How does it play out in Hindu society.
6. Reform Movements. (p 84) Discuss any or all Hindu reform movements. You can take one movement and discuss it in detail, or you can take several movements and write about their commonalities and differences.
7. Japanese Buddhism. (p 159) Discuss Tendai, Shingon, Pure Land, Nichiren or Soka Gakkai. You can pick one sect and discuss it in depth, or you can take one or more and discuss their differences and commonalities.
8. The Life of Confucius. (p 189) Discuss the life and times of Kung Fu Tse ("Confucius") and explain how he developed his way of thinking. You can discuss how his thinking was influenced by his times, or how his "philosophy" is related to religion, or both.
9. Confucian Virtue. (p 197) Pick one Confucian virtue and discuss that virtue in depth, explaining exactly what it means, how it is properly practiced, and how it relates to Confucianism in general or perhaps how it relates to human life. Alternatively, you could discuss two or more virtues and say how you think they are all different from and related to each other.
10. Confucianism Through Time. (p 211) Discuss how Confucianism has developed through history, explaining what you think are the deepest changes and saying what you can about how different versions of Confucianism are different from and related to each other.
11. Religious Taoism. (p 241) Discuss how Taoism is taken by some people as a religion. You can discuss the differences between "philosophical" and religious Taoism, and through that discussion say what you can about the differences between religions and other kinds of paths. Or you can discuss some other aspect of religious Taoism.
12. Tantra. (p 277) Discuss Tantra and how it is related to other religious traditions. How does Tantra intersect with Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance? What are the main principles of Tantra, and what do you think is going on in Tantric practices? You don't have to cover every topic in Tantra. You do have to investigate at least one topic thoughtfully and deeply.
13. Shinto. (p 317) Describe Shinto and explain how you think it is different from other religions we have studied. What is the basic idea of Shinto, and how does that idea work out in the beliefs and lives of those who follow Shinto?
14. Explain and explore the concepts of "Shu," (or reciprocity), "Jen," (or human heartedness), "Li," (or propriety). Give examples of how each is supposed to work in real life and explain what it is supposed to achieve. Explain how they fit together and how they all fit into Confucius’ overall goals for humanity.
Margins and boxes: If none of the above topics interest
you, look at the comments in the margins and various boxes scattered
throughout our text. Many of these comments are trivial or inane, but some
of them allude to interesting topics that seem worth exploring. (Of
course, if you find an interesting topic in the main text, you can explore
that too.) If you pick a topic that's not on the above list, please
consider me to be asking you the same kinds of questions about that topic
as I ask about the above topic. Also, the questions I ask about one topic
can often be asked about a different topic, so feel free to combine or mix
and match prompts. The point of every topic here is for you to
think for yourself about some interesting aspect of "Eastern"
religion.
Notice also that I never ask you to tell me what the book says about any particular topic. If your paper consists only of you rehashing a couple of pages of text, you will receive something less than 50% for that paper.
Basically, an essay is a report of a thinking process.
The way to "write" an essay is to spend a long time thinking
about your topic, and then write down the results of all that
thinking. You can mention things other people think (with
citations), but you should always do your own thinking and write
down the results of that thinking.
This is a "religion" class, and frankly I'm not really sure what that means in terms of writing assignments. A philosophy paper would require you to do philosophy, which means analyzing the main arguments regarding a particular interesting issue, and determine which side of the argument was better supported logically. I have no idea what it would mean if I told you to do religion in your paper. So what follows are my vague ideas of the kinds of papers you could do, or the kinds of questions you might want to think about as you prepare to write your paper.
1. Exploration Paper. In this kind of paper you pick something out of our textbook on eastern religion, describe it clearly and completely, illustrate ideas with examples where you can, say what you think it all means and what you think about it all. This is meant to give you an opportunity to explore some small but interesting aspect of eastern religion in all its details, nuances and implications. You don't have to come to any grand conclusion, but you do have to include details and nuances, and all your own thoughts.
2. Deeper Look. If you decide to go more deeply into
your topic than our textbook allows, the place you go is the LIBRARY,
and not the internet.
The library is full of books written by experts who spent years
researching their subjects. The internet is full of blogs and websites
written by idiots who spent minutes thinking up stupid stuff. If you do
research, (and you do not have to do research), do it in the
library. Make sure you cite all your sources.
4. Development Paper. In my lectures, I usually treat things as though the existed in their present form throughout all of space and time. This, of course, is grossly oversimplified. If you're interested in how some idea developed over time, or how it varies from place to place, that might make an interesting thing to write about. Again, the place you go to research is the LIBRARY, and not the internet.
5. Exegesis Paper. "Exegesis" is a cool word. It means
to take a piece of text and say exactly what it means. This is
usually waaaaaaaaay more difficult than it sounds. If you find
some small piece of text and want to talk about all the things
you think it might mean, that might make a good paper. It's important to
pick a small text and focus on what the actual
words actually say, rather than what you think when you
read them. Religious texts can, of course, be found in the library.
6. Combination Paper. Although it's usually better to
just take one approach on a given subject, sometimes the point or points
you want to make can only be effectively made in a paper that doesn't
easily fit in any one of the above categories. Since getting your ideas
across is more important than fitting into categories, you don't have to
worry about what kind of paper you're writing if you know what you want to
say and how you want to say it.
7. Rambling Mess. Sometimes it's hard to figure out
just what you really want to do with your chosen topic. In that case it's
okay to just write down everything you think about your topic in no
particular order and with no organization whatsoever. Thinking is more
important than outlining, and a paper consisting of a series of
disconnected thoughts can be a very good paper.
As you can probably figure out from options 6 and 7, I think your thinking process is much, much more important than how your paper ends up organized. The bottom line is, your paper should be organized in whatever way best allows you to make the points you want to make.
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