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Welcome to Buddhism
Welcome to Buddhism.
About half a billion people around the world are Buddhists, most of them in Asia. In the United States, Buddhists include Asian American families whose temples have stood for over a century, refugees from Southeast Asia, Tibetan exiles, and converts drawn to meditation. Millions more who would not call themselves Buddhist practice mindfulness, which comes from Buddhist tradition.
In this course you will study the life of the Buddha, his core teachings, the great Buddhist traditions of Asia, meditation and practice, and Buddhism in America. You will learn from Buddhist voices across Asia and the West, including Asian, Black, and women teachers. And you will look honestly at how Buddhism has treated women, from the first nuns who wrote poems of liberation to the struggle for full ordination of women today.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | None. Titles and degrees begin with ordination through the Ordination Orientation. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in four to six weeks, studying about four to five hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one essay of 1,500 to 2,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (one essay, 1,500 to 2,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
- The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Dhammapada, translated by Eknath Easwaran
- When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chödrön
Many of these books are available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks.
What you will study
Module 1: The Life of the Buddha Module 2: The Core Teachings Module 3: Theravada: The Way of the Elders Module 4: Mahayana: The Great Vehicle Module 5: Vajrayana: Tibetan Buddhism Module 6: Meditation and Practice Module 7: Buddhism in America Module 8: Women, Life Passages, and Ministry
Book report choices
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula; When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chödrön
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted.