*Required Course

This nine-month course offers a comprehensive introduction to contemplative care from a Buddhist perspective and is ideal for health care professionals who wish to integrate contemplative practice as well as those interested in becoming caregivers. This course requires 100 hours of clinical volunteer work.

*Must Choose Two Sutras

The Platform Sutra is considered the formative historical scripture of Zen Buddhism and remains today as the cornerstone of Zen in both the East and West. This course provides students with a comprehensive foundation from which to consider Buddhist theory, differing moral codes, and contemplative techniques.

*Must Choose Two Sutras

Through a close reading of The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti, this course will explore the meaning of the bodhisattva’s compassionate vow to liberate all suffering sentient beings. We will investigate the following questions: What is the nature of sickness? What is its origin? How is it cured? What is the role of the bodhisattva? How can a bodhisattva truly effectuate his/her compassionate activity in the world? What is bodhisattva burnout? And what is the remedy?

*Must Choose Two Sutras

The Lankavatara Sutra is one of the key texts of Zen. Zen’s first patriarch, Bodhidharma, gave a copy of this text to his successor, Hui-k’o, and told him everything he needed to know was in this book. Passed down from teacher to student ever since, this is the only Zen sutra ever spoken by the Buddha. Although it covers all the major teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, it contains but two teachings: that everything we perceive as being real is nothing but the perceptions of our own mind and that the knowledge of this is something that must be realized and experienced for oneself and cannot be expressed in words. In the words of Chinese Zen masters, these two teachings became known as “have a cup of tea” and “taste the tea.”

*Must Choose Two Sutras

The Lotus Sutra, a classic Mahayana scripture, is an influential and beloved collection of parables, teachings, and encouragements. A vital wellspring of Mahayana Buddhism, it serves as a primary text for the Tiantai and Nichiren sects, as well as a literary source for Zen and for lay people in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The drama and wisdom of this text are astonishing and enjoyable to read and study. In this class, we will explore by means of lecture, discussion, writing, and contemplation how the insights of the sutra speak to a contemporary audience in the West.  Issues of gender, accessibility to spiritual insight, and skillful means will be analyzed. While the emphasis will be on the text itself, students will be encouraged to deepen their understanding with the varied supplemental readings.

*Must Choose Two Sutras

Through study and practice we will dive into the Buddha’s awakening, the Four Noble Truths, Awakening Beings progress, conduct, dedication, interdependence, Indra’s Net and journey. Known in Chinese as Hua-yen and in Japanese as Kegon-kyo, the Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture, is held in the highest regard and studied by Buddhists of all traditions. Through its structure and symbolism, as well as through its concisely stated principles, it conveys a vast range of Buddhist teachings.

*Must Choose Two Sutras

The Diamond Sutra, or the Perfection of Wisdom, which cuts like a thunderbolt, is one of the cornerstone texts of Mahayana Buddhism and provides a summary of the core concepts of the Buddha. The Heart Sutra, perhaps the most important of all Buddhist texts, sets out to formulate the very heart, or essence of perfect wisdom and is studied with special reverence in Zen monasteries and the Tibetan Buddhist lamaseries.