Buddhist / Eastern Philosophy Graduate Classes

Can anyone recommend some inexpensive* RA distance Graduate-level courses in Buddhism, Eastern Philosophy, Eastern Religions, etc.? This is for personal enrichment rather than a degree program.

I have scoured the forums but can't seem to locate anything in my price range (about $200 range per credit). Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

Check out Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. It is expensive though.... a Buhddism Reglious Institution.

 

While not RA, The University of Sunderland, in the UK, offers a PG Certificate and Diploma in Buddhist Studies.

http://seacoast.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0phr/

It looks like the Professor who runs this program is set to retire in a couple of years, so don't waste any time if you're interested in enrolling! The MA is no longer available.


Good Luck!
Tom

 

If you stick to 'RA' and 'graduate level', there's not a whole lot to choose from.

Sadly, the DL MA program in Buddhist Studies at England's University of Sunderland is being discontinued:

http://seacoast.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0phr/

The University of the West in Rosemead California is RA, affiliated with the Taiwanese Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order, and offers Buddhist studies up to the Ph.D. level. Although it doesn't offer any DL degree programs, it does offer an online certificate program in Buddhist studies and offers several classes each semester that can be taken individually.

During the 2008-9 academic year, they have already offered or will be offering...

XSREL 301 Fundamentals of Buddhism
XSREL 402T Buddhist Sutras in English: The Prajnaparamita
XSREL 672 The Spread of Buddhism to North East Asia
XSREL 435 Tibetan Buddhism
XSREL 670 The Spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China
XSREL 560 Religion and Meaning

...as well as this...

XS REL 605 Research Methodology
This course, taught by Dr. Lewis Lancaster of UC Berkeley, meets on four Saturdays in the Fall 2008 semester and four Saturdays in the Spring 2009 semester and is broadcast live from the UWest campus. Classes are held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each session.

(Lewis Lancaster has taught several of UWest's online courses. He's currently an emeritus professor at UC Berkeley, an internationally known authority on the Buddhist canon, was longtime chairman of Berkeley's Buddhist Studies Ph.D. program, and was the UWest university president who guided the new Buddhist school to its initial regional accreditation a couple of years ago. He's worth the price of admission all by himself.)

http://www.uwest.edu/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=208&Itemid=156

Naropa University in Boulder Colorado is RA and it offers a larger collection of rather more trendy online classes, listed here:

http://www.naropa.edu/distancelearning/courses.cfm

If you are willing to drop the 'RA' requirement, quite a few additional options open up.

If you are serious about graduate level study, you probably need to think about tackling the relevant languages.

There are a number of non-credit online Sanskrit offerings. Sanskrit is relevant to Buddhism (particularly Mahayana) an is a good foundation for the rather-similar Pali.

Here's a free online self-study Sanskrit course. It includes an introduction to the Devanagari script and 12 lessons. You can kind of putter around with it and test the waters.

http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sanskrit/lessons.php

For something a little more ambitious, here's a 2-year university level correspondence course.

http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/main/distance_education.htm

"...the Sansthan started an English medium course of twenty lessons in 1973... In order to make it more fruitful, a higher introductory course of one year... was incepted in 1978... These two lower and higher courses are also known as the first year and second year introductory courses consisting of 21 and 20 lessons respectively.

In brief, the introductory courses cover all the important items of Sanskrit language and grammar, highlighting the general rules and ignoring most of the unusual exceptions, the items of grammar based on the actual requirements of the texts supplied in the lessons...

The learners residing in India and abroad have to pay a nominal fee of Rs. 50/- (Rupees fifty only) and $20.00 (Twenty U. S. Dollars) respectively..."

Apparently the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in New Delhi is funded by the Indian government for the purposes of promoting Sanskrit, is a "deemed university" and is recognized by the University Grants Council. But considering as how this is only a certificate course and only costs $20/year, there's not a great deal of risk, whatever it is.

Moving even farther from RA university courses, here's a comprehensive Tibetan Buddhism program, offered in English, with most of it available by DL. It's offered by Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a prominent Gelugpa organization in the West.

The thing comes in a series of stages.

First there's the introduction level lasts two years part-time.

http://www.fpmt.org/dbhome/default.asp

Graduates can then progress into a more ambitious intermediate-level five year (part time) 'Basic Program'.

http://www.fpmt.org/education/bpdescription.asp

It includes introductory study of several traditional texts (in translation) and an introduction to some of the traditional Tibetan philosophical subjects.

Finally, there's a rather ambitious 6-year-long "master's program". ('Master' in the sense of teacher, this is nothing like a traditional academic masters degree.)

http://www.iltk.it/mp/en/on-line/index.html

The format seems to be the Tibetan medieval-university-style of education, in which students study a small number of traditional "root texts" very intensively, line by line, along with the whole Tibetan commentarial apparatus that's grown up around them.

This 13-year sequence might be the closest thing to a traditional geshe degree that's available by DL, and at a very reasonable price, too.

 

Thank you so much! I wasn't sure anybody would even respond and am very grateful to each of you. This is exactly the information I was looking for!!!

I'll take a look at all of these sites after I finish this post. Although I specifically asked about graduate level, I'm now wondering if anybody knows of any RA undergrad courses by DL in Eastern Philosophies? If so, could you let me know?

Thank you!!!

 

Rigpa, the Tibetan Buddhist organization my wife has belonged to for about 20 years, offers quite inexpensive on-line or correspondence courses, deriving from the writings of their Cambridge-educated lama, Sogyal Rinpoche (The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, etc.). http://www.rigpaus.net/curriculum.htm The courses seem rather comprehensive, individual on-line instructors, around $160 each. No academic credit, just knowledge.

 

Just wanted to share a few RA undergraduate DL courses that I came across:

Course: PHIL 018 - Eastern Religions
Butte College: http://www.butte.edu/distance/
Description: A study of major Eastern religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism

Course: REL 105 - Eastern Religious Traditions
Lake Tahoe Community College: http://www.ltcc.edu/onlineservices.asp
Description: This course is an exploration of the religious and philosophical traditions of India, China and Japan - Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Shinto.

Course: HUM 014A/RELGN 014A
San Joaquin Delta Community College: http://www.deltacollege.edu/onlineclasses.html
Description: This course is a survey of the historical development and essential beliefs of the major religions of the Eastern world. Primary emphasis is on the major phases of development and comparative insights among the great religions of the world. Course work consists of readings, lectures, and discussions in the areas of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

I searched nationally but haven't been able to uncover any others

 

May be RA accredited The University of the West has some courses:
http://www.uwest.edu/site/index.php

 

Even though I'm a Christian , I have an interest in this myself, so it's nice to see there are some options. Thanks for the links.

 

Check out the American Military University/American Public University -- there are graduate courses in Buddhism and Hinduism for $275 per credit hour; also a history of religion course at the graduate level (but no degree program in that area yet).

There are also undergraduate courses in the religion and philosophy departments, including BA programs, for $250 per credit hour.

 

Very cool find, thanks.

 

As was noted above, the University of Sunderland's DL MA program in Buddhist Studies is being phased out. (Its organizer is retiring.)

But there's hope that it might be subsequently reborn, in even more auspicious karmic circumstances. (Perhaps as a wheel-turning DL chakravartin.) The news has recently been added here:

http://seacoast.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0phr/

Seems that Sunderland is in talks to have the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies take over the program. Background on the OCBS is here:

http://www.ocbs.org/content/view/35/45/

and

http://www.ocbs.org/content/view/39/50/

OCBS is closely associated with and recognized by Oxford University, though it's separately funded. Because OCBS doesn't have British degree-granting powers, its students are enrolled at Oxford and receive that university's degrees. Oxford students attend lectures at OCBS and some MPhil and DPhil students are doing research there.

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/html/isa/buddhist_studies/buddhist_studies.html

If the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies does agree to take over Sunderland's DL program, it isn't clear which university its students will enroll in and who will actually award their degrees.

There's at least a chance (I don't know how remote it is) that Oxford University might begin awarding a DL MSt (Masters of Studies) in Buddhist Studies.

And it's also possible that Sunderland will "validate" OCBS to offer teaching leading to award of a Sunderland MA degree. (That might be the way things are heading, since Sunderland's webpage refers to an MA rather than an MSt.) If that's what happens, then OCBS will have both Oxford and Sunderland degree students studying with them, the Oxford students on-site in Oxford and the Sunderland students remotely online.

I don't know what, if anything, will eventually come of all of this. Things are currently in flux (not exactly surprising to Buddhists).

But it's something to keep an eye on.

 

Latest news is that this isn't going to happen and that the Sunderland MA program will be history when it teaches out its current students.

But here's another considerably more exotic Buddhist-studies DL offering that's appeared in the last year or so.

It's an online MA program, taught in English, offered by the new International Buddhist College in Hat Yai, Thailand.

http://elearning.ibc.ac.th/MA/Curriculum

International Buddhist College is the work of ethnic Chinese Buddhists from Penang Malaysia who apparently decided that it would be easier to create a new Buddhist university across the border in neighboring Buddhist Thailand.

I believe that the Thai education ministry has given it their equivalent of accreditation. I'm not sure of the details though.

The school is listed in the Thai education ministry's English language listing of Thai higher-education institutions.

http://www.mua.go.th/data_main/directory_che.doc

So its likely 'GAAP', if obscure.

It has a modern physical campus. Google image results are here. From the looks of it, a large percentage of its students are monastics. That says something positive about its authenticity, I guess.

The American 'Chronicle of Higher Education' visited the newly opened college in Thailand and did a long and favorable illustrated story on it, published in the March 30, 2007 issue.

The First IBC Buddhist Studies Conference in August 2006 attracted an all-star cast of American Buddhist Studies scholars to Asia to present papers, suggesting that IBC might not be quite as obscure to interested people in the US as one might think.

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~hlye/IBCTitles.htm

It looks like some of IBC's funding might be coming from the Ho Family Foundation in Hong Kong. This charitable foundation has funded Buddhist studies activities at U. Hong Kong, U. British Columbia, U. Toronto and at Stanford University, as well as as IBC.

http://hcbss.stanford.edu/Partners/ho-foundation_statement.html

 

Hi Folks,

I'm just wondering if anyone is aware of any new courses/programs in this area? Thanks for any leads!

vanadoo