Comparative Religious Thought I, Fall, 2010; Jeffrey Wattles
Project 1—Spiritual centering and the duties of one’s station in life
In every religion that we shall study this semester, we can observe an overarching twofold moment: first, a deepening realization of truth in the inner life, and, second, an expression of goodness in the outer life. That twofold core of religion is sometimes expressed in terms of the worship of God and the service of humankind. With Buddhism, in the classical period, we should substitute the word “meditation” for “worship.” These dimensions of religion intertwine and vary interestingly.
I would like to invite you, in this first project to deepen these two dimensions of experience in conversation with Hinduism. (Note that I am not asking you to undertake specific Hindu practices or to experiment with specific Hindu beliefs. You are never required to practice or experiment with anything that does not feel right to you.)
The first part of the project is to come into closer relation with . . . how shall we say? There are so many different ways to say it. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God within you. The Hebrew book of Proverbs includes a line about the spirit in man, the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts. Many religionists feel comfortable talking of the indwelling spirit of God. In Hinduism, one may speak of the eternal spirit self; in Mahayana Buddhism one speaks of the Buddha nature. Psychologists who do not believe in God or in the reality of divine spirit find ways to talk about what so many people discover in “peak experiences,” which are sometimes explained in terms of brain process and psychological interpretation. Leaving open the questions of religious and scientific interpretation, I sometimes call it the wonderfulness within.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the atman or “self”—eternal spirit self—is mainly presented as the gift of a loving God (even though there is a strand of Hindu tradition visible in the Gita that speaks of atman with no reference to the God concept).
Along with the golden rule, the teaching that there is spiritual treasure within is one of the most common themes in the religions of the world. To be sure, conceptions differ and experiences differ, but there is enough commonality, enough overlap, to give some support for the hypothesis that, in their wisest interpretations of their clearest experiences, these persons of various traditions are trying to convey the same insight. You are of course free to accept, suspend judgment on, or reject, any or all of these ideas.
If you are willing to work with the hypothesis that there is something wonderful within you, how to proceed? There are so many ways, and you will pursue your own inquiry and make your own discoveries. If you meet a new friend, you would normally take time to be together, perhaps going out to some lovely place to converse. You might enjoy speaking together and then allowing words to fall away. In the back and forth, the give and take, you may make use of words or simply venture into the soul’s communication and receptivity. (Note: from a classical Hindu perspective, the atman is the eternal witness, not an agent, and thus not inter-active.)
If you want more definite advice, there are countless practices that people have used, and not all of them are, in my opinion, psychologically sound. Therefore it is necessary to give a caveat, to propose some criteria for healthy practice, and to offer a couple examples of very simple practices. For these things, please see the document on Religious experience and a phenomenological (phenomenology = experience-ology) approach to the study of religion in the methods section here: https://sites.google.com/site/jeffreywattles/ . In addition, please be sure to visit the general instructions about projects, with additional key information about projects and writing in documents to which you will find a link on the home page of this google site. The instructor is happy to help you find a practice that fits you.
The second part of the project, the outward expression, works with the Hindu idea that there are different stages of life with different main goals. You are a student? Be a good student. This is the main emphasis in this part of the assignment. You are a family member? Employee? Citizen? Be a good family member, employee, citizen. Let’s focus on being a good student. At this stage (the first stage in the Hindu sequence), and the duty of a student is to be diligent. With all duties for action at any stage of life, there is more to it. There is a discipline of action called karma yoga (karma means action). This is a path in itself. The main idea is that one must act—in this case, study—without being distracted by craving for the personal benefits or rewards that come from success, and without being distracted by fear of the bad consequences to oneself that come from failure. Think what it is like trying to study for an exam in a state of anxiety. One can hardly learn a thing. Anxiety must be abandoned. Focus on the study to gain knowledge, wisdom, and insight. Seek for what is true. Delight in that. Put that to work.
Some students protest that a certain amount of tension and self-interest is a normal, positive, and necessary part of human motivation. Those who wish to modify the project along these lines are simply encouraged to place greater emphasis than usual on studying to gain understanding, and encouraged to seek whatever may be inherently worthwhile in an inquiry.
After ten days of sincere, wholehearted, and persistent inquiry and practice, it will be time to write up your report, which will have the following structure.
1. Write a three-page experience report. Give some idea of the overall shape of the experience, how the project developed over the unit. In addition, write down particular experiences that were, in some way or other, noteworthy. Cover both parts of the project, the inner communion or meditation and outer dimensions of action.
2. Write a two-page commentary on that experience report expressing a Hindu perspective. Use about four brief quotations, commenting on their meaning and showing how they relate to the experience report. Include parenthetical references to chapter and verse in the text, e.g. (chapter 2, verse 48).
Evaluation: Part I, 40%, Part II, 50%, English, 10% unless the writing is poor, in which case it will count more, as indicated in the syllabus. Evaluation of Parts I and II will be guided by the following rubric.
A. The experience report gives evidence of genuine and sustained involvement in the details of the assignment. The student did not waste time with the wheels spinning in confusion about how to approach the assignment. Note that there is no pressure to produce a dramatic result. Even an instructive “failure” is perfectly acceptable if you learn the lessons. The experience is described in a way that sets up the commentary to follow.
B. The report indicates some sincere effort in the direction of the project, but the report indicates an experience less sustained, less wholehearted, and written with more unnecessary or chatty detail. The learning was average.
C. The project experience seems to have been brief and half-hearted and shows little discovery. The experience is described with unnecessary, chatty details, and does not sustain a focus helpful to the dialogue to be established in the paper.
D. The report indicates a severe misunderstanding of the assignment. The student complains of problems that should have been discussed earlier with the instructor.
F. The report gives little or no evidence of effort along the lines of the assignment.
Part II.
A. A full two pages with at least four quotations representing Hindu perspectives from the Gita and other sources such as Mohandas Gandhi. The quotes you choose do not come only from the instructor’s handouts or web notes, but show a careful study of the Gita. The relevance of each quote to your experience is clearly discussed.
B. Quotations are limited to those discussed in class. There is some attention to showing the relevance of the quotes to the experience report.
C. The commentary is too brief, and it does not draw on text materials except to cite information already given out by the instructor. It gives no evidence that the student read the text. Passages are cited from the text with very little commentary or very little explanation of their relation to the experience report. There are some significant misinterpretations of the text.
D. The paper indicates a severe misunderstanding.
F. The paper gives little or no evidence of effort along the lines of the assignment.
The grade may also be affected by poor use of English. Please review the syllabus statement about English, and review the “papers’ web document for key guidelines about usage.