Buddhism

Your final for this course will be a short paper, 3-5 pages, 12pt font, double spaced, in a reasonable font. You should upload this document as a doc or docx file. Less than three pages will not get full credit, and I will not read anything after the fifth page, so stay within the parameters.  Prompts: Please choose one of the following prompts. Do not write on all three prompts! In what ways do Buddhists understand our world to be impermanent, mentally constructed, and interdependent, as described in their principle of dependent arising, also known as dependent origination. How does this affect the way we experience the world and ourselves?   Buddhists have two claims in particular that greatly affect Buddhist ethics. The first is that every experience involves elements of suffering (duḥkha). The second is that we do not have a self. How do these two principles affect the Buddhist ethical project? In what ways does this influence make Buddhist ethics different from more well-known Western theories of ethics?   Buddhists use meditation to transform themselves and their experience of the world. How does this relate to Buddhist ethics? In what ways are the Buddhist theories of no-self, dependent arising, and emptiness related to this transformation? Discuss at least one form of meditation and how it brings about this kind of change.   Because this is a short paper, please do not list every possible answer to these questions or every possible example that illustrates your answers. Instead, be more in-depth and original in a discussion of one or a few elements that can answer these questions. Feel free to bring in sources from outside the course, but you should check with me if you are not sure about the validity of the source you are using. There are a lot of incorrect interpretations of Buddhism on the internet! Send me the outside source in an email if you wish to use it. RUBRIC: Comprehension The student showed reading and listening comprehension skills, with regard to what was said in the lectures and the included readings. This includes comprehension and retention of basic data, and making an assessment of those particular elements. The topics discussed were relevant to the prompt.     40% Argumentation The student showed writing skills for commenting on what they have heard and read, by abstracting elements of these sources from their particular context, and then arguing for their own assessment of these elements. These skills are assed on their own merit as well as their ability to answer the prompt.       35% Writing style and Citation The student showed the ability to form clear and coherent statements and arrange these statements in an order that clearly expresses the main point, claim, or argument that paper uses to answer the prompt. When these statements reference or make use of ideas from other sources, the reference was correctly cited.     25%