This fall, as we embrace the new experience of being a university, students will also have the opportunity to embrace a new class that is being offered. The philosophy department at UVU is giving students, according to Professor Hanewicz, the opportunity to discover more about a foreign culture, “so that it won’t be so foreign to them.”
PHIL 400R will be focusing on the Dalai Lama and some of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism. Professor Hanewicz plans on using the Dalai Lama as the main force in teaching aspects of Buddhism.
Hanewicz said that the key text in his class will be a translation by Graham Coleman of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. He said that although the title might be misleading, it is a great book to learn about the principles of Buddhism. Along with this text, there will be three others — one of which is written by the Dalai Lama himself.
Along with the texts, Hanewicz will be including videos about the Dalai Lama in the course.
“Because of the current topic, and what (the students) have been seeing in the newspapers,” Hanewicz said, “what would be enticing is for them to learn more about the detail of what’s going on in the papers and the public about the Dalai Lama and Buddhism in China — the philosophical background of those political issues.”
The Dalai Lama recently celebrated his 73rd birthday, July 6. According to news reports, his birthday was low-key because of the recent rioting in Tibet, which started when 300 monks demanded the release of other detained monks. While the Dalai Lama has been accused of leading the uprising, he denied all accusations.
This class is being offered on MWF from 12:00 to 12:50. It is listed as PHIL 400R: Great Philosophers Dalai and Buddha. There is only one prerequisite for this course, PHIL 2050.
