The Lotus Sutra: Texts, Narratives, and Translations: Proseminar

EASTD 260 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

New This Year: I am offering EASTD 260 in spring 2027 as a PROSEMINAR: All the readings for the seminar will be in English; Therefore, undergraduate students, and those graduate students who are interested in Buddhism but not a student of Buddhist studies are welcome, too.

Why new interpretations of the sutra are needed: The Lotus Sutra is arguably the most popular sutra (Buddhist scripture) in the history of Buddhism in East Asia.  Its richness in metaphors and parables makes the sutra extremely important in understanding the influence of Buddhist scriptural texts on the development of East Asian literary traditions.  Responding to its significance in East Asia, various translations are produced in Western languages.  Yet, even students at Harvard typically find the most “readable” English translation, such as the one by Leon Hurvitz and Burton Watson, not understandable.  A large part of the problem in English versions of the sutra is that they fail to bring to the fore the most seminal strands for the development the sutra’s narratives that run throughout the sutra’s chapters.  Unfortunately, existing secondary scholarly writings on the sutra do not help students much because they more often than not uncritically rely on Hurvitz’ and Watson’s translations (which, in my opinion, are very poor translations) and repeat the errors there.

New approaches taken by this seminar:  In order to bring remedy to this problem and enable us to read the sutra more meaningfully, this seminar takes two new approaches.  1.  To place the Lotus Sutra in the context of its original formation in ancient India of about 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD, the period that coincides the first rise of Mahayana scriptural texts including the Lotus.  2.  Our reading of the Lotus Sutra places it in the intertextual context with other early Mahayana sutras, such as Śrangama-samādhi, Vimalakirti, and Prajñā-pāramitā sutras.  Such reading reveals the Mahayana sutra’s poetic innovations that challenges the legitimacy of Hīnayāna scriptures: such as the inseparability of great compassion from enlightenment experience; and the identity of all the Buddhas of past, present, and future in all the directions of the universe/multiverses. 

Goal of the seminar: In the end, the seminar aims at making the reading of the Lotus Sutra more enjoyable.  It does so by illustrating how the Lotus’s major narrative develops throughout the sutra chapter texts.  That will show us how the major narrative arc brings together its main characters (such as the Bodhisattva Guanyin/Kannon, Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and Dragon Princess) as well as its famous episodes, anecdotes and parables.  I intend to offer this seminar as an effective introduction to Mahayana Buddhism in general.

The course is capped at 11 students.  Please send your enrollment requests at my.harvard website and write in the box there your brief self-introduction and the reason why you want to take the seminar.  One or two short paragraphs will do.

Course Notes

The course is capped at 11 students.  Please send your enrollment requests at my.harvard website and write in the box there your brief self-introduction and the reason why you want to take the seminar.  One or two short paragraphs will do.

Recommended Prep

A basic knowledge of Buddhism is desirable.  If you are graduate student focusing on Buddhist studies, abilities to read the sutra in classical Chinese, Kambun, or Sanskrit is preferred but not required.