Course description:

The course introduces students to common themes
found in selections from the sacred and canonized literature of three major
Eastern world religions. In the course of study, students compare the sacred
works according to themes such as creation, facing a great challenge, the fall
of man, God’s punishment, sibling rivalry, the rewards of virtue, and the power
of love. The sacred works from the East also include views on astrology and
acceptance of a relationship between the cosmos and life on earth in excerpts
from:

• The
  Rig Veda and Upanishads (excerpts), Hinduism;     
    
• The
  Bhagavad-Gita and The Ramayana (excerpts), Hinduism;
• The
  Wheel of Life (story of Siddhartha), Buddhism;
• The
  Dhammapada (excerpts), Buddhism;
• The
  Analects and the I-Ching (excerpts), Confucianism
• The
  Tao te-Ching (excerpts), Taoism, off-shoot of Confucianism

 H106 or H107 may be taken for
expanding cultural understanding OR as an elective for the Diploma program,
which will also count toward a certificate in Astrological Heritage OR
Multi-Cultural Traditions.

 Required Text:

Novak, Philip, The World’s Wisdom: Sacred Texts of
the World’s Religions, Harper ……Collins, San Francisco, 1995, 425 pps., ISBN
10: 0-06-066342-1

Pre-requisite: none

Weekly topics:

1.   
Ancient Mid-Eastern influences on
Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Sacred Literature Transference

2.   
Common Ancestor of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam

3.   
Prophets and Proverbs: Forecasts, and
good advice

4.   
A Jew fulfills the Messiah Prophesy in
The Gospels

5.   
Islam emerges from a Common Ancestor:
The Koran and forecasting