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Cultural Bias In English Courses
I'm taking English 112, which requires three 500 word papers and a 1500 word research paper to be written. The first paper is supposed to be a debate paper, on Antigone I think (which is a Greek play that is the sequel to Oedipus). Ultimately, the topics are going to boil down to something like who's "right" or "wrong", which not only mandatorily enforces dichotomous thinking, but punishes any area of grey that's made. I'm finding the experience to be biased, and I'd like to talk to someone who would be sympathetic to my cause. What I was thinking would be more appropriate is having some topics where analysis and deconstruction were emphasized, or even positing probable causes for certain turns of events, but all in a noncommittal tone.
Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Has anyone encountered more enlightened circumstances? I feel I have an obligation to cut a path for any future lay Buddhists. If I wanted to build a case, does anyone have any related material on hand?
Has anyone out there had a similar experience? Has anyone encountered more enlightened circumstances? I feel I have an obligation to cut a path for any future lay Buddhists. If I wanted to build a case, does anyone have any related material on hand?
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I spent 5 years in a Zen seminary training program, by correspondence and 1:1 mentorship.
In this training I was required to write many papers on topics related to Buddhism in general and specific to Zen - often in the style of formal debate, backed-up by interview/debate with a Zen priest.
I had the same issues with the writing assignments as you are expressing here. I imagined the Western University style of writing required in these assignments as contrary to the spirit and practice of Zen, and Buddhism in general.
What I was finally told was, if I wanted to graduate from the seminary program, I must comply with the requirements of the program, very directly and simply - that was it no argument.
As hard as it was to swallow, I had to simply surrender what I imagined as the correct way and follow the way of my teachers or abandon the seminary.
Shugs! (man, Palzang!! I really like that word!!)
Very interesting, but it does seem somewhat inline with the Zen school's methods, especially when it comes to Koans. I recently started reading the Shobogenzo, and maybe its the translation, but Master Dogen does come off somewhat "bold". That being said, do you remember what any of your debate topics were?
Regarding the Shobogenzo. Last night (Thursday) I attended a meeting with Chosan and Hogen Bays, the Zen Community of Oregon and Kaz Tanahashi, where he spoke on Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo, which he recently finished translating. 'Kaz is renowned world-wide as a Zen scholar, translator and author of over 25 books. He has been translating Dogen's writings throughout his life and as a result of his work a new translation of Dogen's semial work, the Shobogenzo, is on the verge of being published.' Kaz said, "By Shambhala Books, in March."
Regarding the debate papers - they were on such topics as the difference between the early and late writings of Dogen Zenji; including the Shobogenzo, The meaning of the record of Zen's Chinese ancestors (pick, analyze and comment upon the meaning a story of an ancestor from each of the three periods of Ch'an development in China), Is lineage true or fictitious (what skillful means does it provide?) The Debate between the Tibetan and Zen Lineages; especially the Cittamatra and Madhyamaka schools, Buddhist stories as historical vs mythical, Zen vs other forms of meditation, man I can't recall them all! Faith based vs experiential Buddhism (i.e. Nichiren vs Zen), The value of koans, monasticism vs lay practice, The meaning and value of the Abdhidarma, the debate between the northern and southern Abdhidharma, etc, etc, etc.
I was doing this seminary stuff back in 1998 - 2003 and didn't keep papers etc. I just did the assignments, sent them in, did the interviews and let it go!
At the time it felt really tedious and I was just doing it to have deeper understanding of these things and to satisfy my teachers, who graciously offered me the opportunity to be one of the first members of the new seminary and of just three prisoners allowed to take the course by correspondence and interview, as an experiment. As a matter of fact, it's no longer offered.
Shugs!
Your class sounds like quite a relief compared to the one I had to endure this past fall. I would have loved to have had a debate about the right and wrong actions of Antigone. Instead, when our discussion class was covering Antigone, all we talked about was gender relations and status in the play. The same with Pericles' funeral oration! Perhaps the greatest speech of the ancient world; the Gettysburg Address of Ancient Greece! And all we talked about was the two or three lines that Pericles made a condescending remark towards women.
Such is the state of modern humanities classes.