This unit introduces Buddhist traditions from their Indian origins to developments elsewhere in Asia, such as Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, and Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism in Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. Students will study literary, philosophical, social, cultural, artistic and contemplative expressions of Buddhism, and are introduced to academic approaches within Buddhist Studies. Emphasis is laid upon understanding Buddhist writings and practices in larger doctrinal, historical and cultural contexts.

This unit critically examines the place of meditative practices within Asian and Western Buddhist traditions, introducing students to the social, cultural and historical contexts in which these practices emerged and developed, as well as their theoretical and doctrinal underpinnings. Issues explored include the notion of 'pure experience' and its relation to conceptuality and language, the role of ethics, and the relation between meditative practice and philosophical analysis. Methodological issues in the academic study of meditative experience will also be introduced.

This unit introduces Buddhist texts and the ways they have been used, understood and interpreted. Beginning with the Buddha's discourses in India and their eventual composition in written form and transmission across Asia, it addresses the communication and function of Buddhist teachings in oral, textual and visual form, as well as Buddhist attitudes to language and representation. Students will study selected Buddhist texts in translation from a variety of genres such as philosophical treatises, commentary, poetry and narrative.

This unit provides a history of Buddhist ideas. It begins by introducing basic Buddhist teachings before moving on to their later philosophical systematization. Students are introduced to the assumptions of traditional scholasticism and the methods of comparative philosophy in exploring Buddhist approaches to such issues as selfhood, ethics, being and knowledge, and language and conceptuality. A key focus is on how ideas originally formulated in an Indian Buddhist milieu were later transformed and elaborated upon in Tibet, China and Japan.