What is Buddhism? It can be hard to categorize since it is not strictly a religion, a philosophy, or a psychology. At bottom, it is really a practice.

This five-week course will offer a survey of Buddhist practice. We will look at four major Buddhist schools, all of which have a substantial following in the Bay Area: Vipassana (Insight), Zen, Pure Land, and Vajrayana (Tibetan). We will consider the unique approach of each, and engage in representative practices applicable to our everyday lives. We will also examine how practice itself might be antithetical to an awakened way of life.

Gary Gach is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism and editor of What Book!? Buddha Poems From Beat to Hiphop (which received an American Book Award). In 2007, he was awarded the Northern California Book Award for Translation. Co-editor of World Haiku Review, he hopes to write two or three immortal haiku in his lifetime.

5 weeks
Tuesdays Jun 24 - Jul 22
7:00 - 8:50 pm
1 unit $200

Online registration:
http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu
(Course #: REL 69)
or by phone (650) 725-2650