Buddhism and the Body

Bodies shape our experiences of the world in manifold ways—just as they did for people in the past. In this class, we take the body as a starting point for thinking about religious discourses in some of the oldest Sanskrit and Pali texts in South Asia in translation. Reading about men, women, nuns, monks, ascetics, Buddhas, and their relationships with their family, religious practices, and even their sex lives (or lack thereof), this course surveys how key religious concepts like karma, punya, and liberation shaped discourse around individuals and their bodies. With this focus on the body, this course not only provides introduction to key concepts in the study of premodern Buddhism, but also touches on several broader topics like gender, sexuality, renunciation, and monasticism.