RMA Specialization Courses

This course will start with Vedic Hindu religion and philosophy, then proceed to look at the philosophies of Jainism and Buddhism. It will look at Buddhism in detail in terms of its origin and development into the eighteen schools of Indian Śrāvakayāna Buddhism, the two schools of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism and the lives and times of some major monks of Indian Vajrayāna Buddhism. Finally, the course will look at the seven systems of post-Buddhistic Classical Hindu philosophy through the six-fold method (epistemology, ontology, theology, cosmology, psychology, and soteriology) of inquiry of each system of Classical Hindu thought. The seven systems are: Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, Sāṅkhya-Yoga, Prabhākara school of Mīmāṁsā, Kumārila school of Mīmāṁsā, Śaṅkara school of Vedānta, Rāmānuja school of Vedānta and Madhva school of Vedānta.

This course will look into the life of Confucius (551-479 BCE), his disciples and Confucian classics and then move on to study the history, teachings and practices of the Confucian tradition. It will also look at the origin and development of Neo Confucianism.

This course will begin with the origins of Daoism from Chinese folk religion. It will look into the teachings of Lǎozǐ 570-490 BCE) as enunciated in the Daodejing. Further, it will look into the teachings of Zhuāngzǐ (399-295 BCE) and his work in detail. It will also study the history and practices of religious Daoism in terms of its mythology and rituals. It will also look at Daoist spiritual and health-oriented practices such as diet, Taiji, and Qigong. It will also look at the various sectarian traditions of Daoism.

This course looks into the origins, Vedic Hinduism, mythologies-Vedic, Epic & Puranic of Hinduism, sacraments, Temple Hinduism, sectarian Hinduism and modern Hindu movements.

This course looks into the origins of Shinto from Japanese folk religion. It will also look at the mythology and rituals of the Shinto tradition. It will further look at the festival traditions, and types of Shinto. It will also look at the beliefs and practices of the various sectarian groups of Shinto and Neo Shinto traditions. Finally, it will look at the establishment and demise of State Shinto.

This is an intensive course which looks into medicinal, health and healing systems of ancient China and ancient Japan in terms of anatomy, physiology, diet and medicinal cures as well as health maintenance and management systems such as Taiji and Qigong exercises in Daoism and practices of Johrei and similar types of healing practices from the various Shinto traditions.

This course will start with Vedic Hindu religion and philosophy, then proceed to look at the five little rival traditions and Jainism. It will look at Buddhism in detail as not only a major alternative to the Vedic tradition but its impressiveness in spreading all over eastern Asia. The course will look at Theravāda Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It will also look at Mahāyāna Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Finally, the course will look into Vajrayāna Buddhism in Tibet, Bhutan, Ladakh and Sikkim regions of India, Mongolia, and the Kalmyk region of the Russian Federation.

The course will begin with the investigation of the contents of the Buddhist scriptures in its three phases Tipitaka, Mahāyāna sutras and Vajrayāna tantras. It will look at the epistemology and metaphysics of the various schools of Buddhist thought, and the practices of eight types of meditational techniques such as Vipassana, Zen, Dzogchen etc. 

This course will look into the origins, nature and development of religion from several angles such as historical, anthropological, psychological, sociological, political, economic etc.