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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Asian Studies
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Dr. Dimitry Shevchenko
Coordinator Office Hours:
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Dimitry Shevchenko,
Dr. Yochanan Grinshpon
Course/Module description:
This course offers an intimate encounter with yoga – an umbrella term for various worldviews and spiritual practices, which developed during the first millennium BCE in Southeast Asia. Beyond meditation techniques, breath control, and physical postures, the yogic thinkers were also interested in metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, and moral principles.
During the course, we will closely read the Hebrew translation of the most famous text of the yoga tradition, Patañjali’s Yogasūtra. This text will provide the main route for us, from which we will venture into other yogic texts, primarily the texts of the Jain tradition, such as the Ācārāṅgasūtra and the Tattvārthasūtra.
Course/Module aims:
The primary goal of this course is to allow the students to adopt – even temporarily – the yogic way of thinking, which is an unusual one. Why did the yogis strive to strip themselves of any personal identities? Why did they want to acquire superpowers and gain control over their senses? Why did they want to liberate themselves from the world, and what does this mean? The course aims at placing the yogic thought in the historical and cultural context of classical India, but also at recognizing its universal aspects, relevant here and now.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
understand and discuss two major spiritual traditions in India: Pātañjala Yoga and Jainism;
engage – sometimes critically and sometimes sympathetically - with various arguments put forward by different philosophers from these traditions on metaphysics, philosophy of mind, theology, and soteriology;
use interpretive skills developed through a close reading of a text;
appreciate the relevance of the ideas from the remote past for the present.
Attendance requirements(%):
Not more than two absences.
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Lecture, discussion, close reading, reflection, writing
Course/Module Content:
Will be available on the course portal.
Required Reading:
Will be available on the course portal.
Additional Reading Material:
Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Referat 50 %
Mid-terms exams 20 %
Other 30 %
Additional information:
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