The University of Arizona is opening a Minor program focusing on Buddhism in the fall. The program will cover a range of disciplines to provide students with a deeper understanding of the culture, traditions, and values of Buddhism. The new program will give students the chance to study topics like Asian religions, Indian and Japanese religions, Zen Buddhism, the history of East Asian Buddhism, and Buddhist meditation traditions as well as other historic studies of Buddhism. Students will be able to use this minor to complement UA’s well-known East Asian studies program.
From uanews.org
Dr. Albert Welter, head of the UA Department of East Asian Studies, is overseeing the development of the program. His academic specialty is the history of Buddhism in the late Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties of China. He has written several books on the subject, including Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (2006). He said, “The idea came about a year and a half ago or so, when the Confluence center, headed by Javier Duran and dedicated to interdisciplinary collaborations, brought many of us together in what came to be known as the Contemplative Traditions Working Group. The group spawned a few different offshoots, one of which was a group to initiate a Buddhist Studies minor.”
Albert Welter. From news-centre.uwinnipeg.ca
The new Buddhism minor complements a number of courses already offered by the University in the area of contemplative studies. These include the Arizona Meditation Research Interest Group, the Center for Compassion Studies, the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Program in Medical Humanities. Welter said, In many ways, we are only consolidating, affirming, and emphasizing what has existed on campus and in the East Asian Studies department for some time.
Much, if not most, of the Asian world is Buddhist or has Buddhist traditions, and Buddhism is a large component of the Asian value system regardless of the country you visit (in Asia), said Welter. We are here to inform people and to create knowledge and understanding about different traditions. Overall, the program is meant to help students appreciate different philosophical, ethical and spiritual approaches to knowledge.
Jiang Wu, who is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UA, is currently teaching a course on Zen Buddhism at the University and will be teaching courses in the new minor. When asked about the need for the course