Final Exam Questions  (last edited on Dec. 8)

Alternative to Final Exam: Read Michael Collender's thesis "Buddhism Reconsidered" on reserve in the philosophy department, write up a 10 page response (with style sheet attached). The paper will be due on December 19 at 3 PM.   You may write on one single topic or a number of topics.  You may have to do extra reading, including some of Collender's sources.

I will choose four of these questions for your final exam on December 19 at 1 PM in our own class room.  You should bring several exam blue books with you.

1. Critics of Nagarjuna charge that his doctrine of shunyata destroys the basis for the Four Noble Truth. How does Nagarjuna respond? See the Stryk reading. (10 pts.)

2. One of the early scriptures states that "A monk sees the Dharma and seeing the Dharma he sees me [i.e., the Buddha]." Which followers of a Mahayana sutra or school would be most likely use this as support for their views? Why would they especially like this statement? What would Kalupahana say about this statement? What would the Buddha have said? Note: this statement does appear in a Pali sutra as well. (10 pts.)

3. Review Vasubandhu's critique of realism. Choose and explain one argument that you think succeeds and one that you think does not succeed.  Note: there is one set of critiques in Kalupahana (1) and another in Burtt. (10 pts.)

4. Choose one of the following pairs of quatrains (III & X; IV & V; VI & VII; VIII & IX) from Nagarjuna's chapter on conditions/causality." Please attempt to solve the riddles that they propose. Note: please differentiate between Being and being (and non-Being and non-being) whenever appropriate. (15pts.)

5. Choose two or three of the quatrains on Nirvana that your group did not cover. Please attempt to solve the riddles that they propose. Note: please differentiate between Being and being (and non-Being and non-being) whenever appropriate. (15 pts.)

6. Write a concise essay about the several ways in which this famous statement can be understood: Nirvana is Samsara and Samsara is Nirvana. (15 pts.)

7. Explain the positions of absolutism, positive transcendentalism, negative transcendentalism, and experientialism. Choose a Mahayana sutra that best expresses each of these views and demonstrate how this is. You may want to read all the selections in Stryk Chap. 17 and the chapter on the Lankavatara Sutra in Kalupahana (2). (15 pts.)

8. Analyze the Sutra in 42 Sections. Is is Theravadin? Is it Mahayana? What exactly is it? Support your position with evidence and good reasoning.  A copy is on reserve in the philosophy department. (15 pts.)

9. Explain some of the unique characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism and how the Vajrayana differs from other "ways" in Buddhism. What sort of dialectic is dominant in Tantric Buddhism? (10 pts.)

10. Compare and contrast Zen and the philosophy of Gautama Buddha. How do you respond to the claim that Zen masters managed to express the essence of Buddhism better than its founder? (10 pts.)

11.  Explain the "is of identity" and the "is of predication" and show what difference this makes for the Mahayana Buddhist understanding of reality.