Part of the Boston University’s Institute for Philosophy & Religion 2015-2016 Lecture Series, “Faith and Doubt."

Dale Wright, David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor in Religion, Occidental College

Supported by the Boston University Center for the Humanities.

This lecture will explore the role of religious faith in Buddhism by setting it in context of the ethical and meditative disciplines through which Buddhists strive to cultivate insights conducive to enlightenment. We begin this exploration with the Buddhist concept of bodhicitta, the thought of or aspiration for enlightenment, and show how this thought or aspiration either leads to an experience of religious discipleship or results from it. Tracing these two possibilities, the lecture seeks to develop an understanding of the relationship between ethical discipline and religious faith in the Buddhist tradition.