Architecture of Grace

Buddhist Texts

The Buddha’s life, the Dhammapada and the sutras, K–12. We study them; we never preach them.

Course contents Start at the beginning
  • 17units
  • 34chapters
  • 300lessons
  • 5grade bands
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Grades K–2

3 units · 6 chapters · 36 lessons

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Unit 1

The Buddha's Story

The Prince Who Asked Why

  1. Siddhartha Sees the World
  2. Under the Bodhi Tree

2 chapters · 12 lessons

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Unit 2

Animal Stories

Jataka Tales

  1. The Monkey King's Bridge
  2. The Hare in the Moon

2 chapters · 12 lessons

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Unit 3

Values and Practice

Calm and Kindness

  1. Breathing and Being Still
  2. Kind to Every Living Thing

2 chapters · 12 lessons

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CourseWorld ReligionsThe great traditions in their own words, K–12.

Grades 3–5

4 units · 8 chapters · 68 lessons

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Unit 4

The Library

What the Buddhist Texts Are

  1. The Three Baskets
  2. From Memory to Palm Leaves

2 chapters · 17 lessons

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Unit 5

Life of the Buddha

The Buddha's Life as the Texts Tell It

  1. Four Sights and the Great Going Forth
  2. Teaching, the Sangha and the Last Journey

2 chapters · 16 lessons

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Unit 6

The Dharma

Key Teachings

  1. Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path
  2. Five Precepts and the Dhammapada's Sayings

2 chapters · 17 lessons

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Unit 7

Practice

Festivals and Communities

  1. Vesak, Obon and the Buddhist Year
  2. Temples and Sanghas in Chicago

2 chapters · 18 lessons

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CourseWorld ReligionsThe great traditions in their own words, K–12.

Grades 6–8

4 units · 8 chapters · 75 lessons

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Unit 8

History

From India Across Asia

  1. The Buddha's India and Ashoka's Edicts
  2. Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana: Roads to Asia

2 chapters · 20 lessons

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Unit 9

Genres I

Genres of the Pali Canon

  1. Suttas, Vinaya and Abhidhamma
  2. Verses, Jatakas and Nuns' Songs

2 chapters · 19 lessons

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Unit 10

Genres II

Mahayana Sutras, Zen and Tibet

  1. The Lotus Sutra and the Heart Sutra
  2. Zen Stories and Tibetan Texts

2 chapters · 18 lessons

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Unit 11

The Wider World

Buddhist Texts Come to America

  1. Translators, Scholars and 1893
  2. Japanese American Buddhists and Buddhism Today

2 chapters · 18 lessons

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Practice roomBuddhismThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.Practice roomHow to read a sacred textWho wrote it, for whom and why. Cards, hints and a quiz.

Grades 9–10

3 units · 6 chapters · 62 lessons

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Unit 12

Suttas

Close Reading the Suttas

  1. Setting the Wheel in Motion
  2. The Buddha's Last Days

2 chapters · 22 lessons

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Unit 13

Dhammapada

Close Reading the Dhammapada

  1. The Twin Verses and the Mind
  2. Anger, the Wise and the Self

2 chapters · 21 lessons

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Unit 14

Stories and Inquiry

Jatakas and Hard Questions

  1. Jatakas as Moral Arguments
  2. Questions to the Buddha: Kalamas, Tevijja and the Raft

2 chapters · 19 lessons

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Practice roomBuddhismThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

Grades 11–12

3 units · 6 chapters · 59 lessons

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Unit 15

Interpretation

Interpreters Across the Centuries

  1. Not-Self and Emptiness: Classical Readers
  2. Modern Readers: Engaged, Reform and Convert Buddhism

2 chapters · 20 lessons

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Unit 16

Comparison

Comparison

  1. Suffering and Its End Across Traditions
  2. Ethics Across Traditions

2 chapters · 20 lessons

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Unit 17

Capstone

The Texts in Life, and Capstone

  1. Texts in Art, Ritual and American Life
  2. Capstone: A Passage, Its Readers and Your Argument

2 chapters · 19 lessons

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Practice roomBuddhismThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.Practice roomOne question, many lensesEach tradition answers the same big question.Practice roomCapstone: the sources speakAsk a question. Answer it from three traditions’ texts.

Practice every day

Ten short lines a day: a reading, key words and quick questions from the Buddhist texts.

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Resource libraryTrusted places to read, watch and explore, chosen for this course.
For the teacher

What the course covers

The course studies the Buddhist scriptures in a public school: the Buddha’s story and the Jataka tales for the youngest readers, the Three Baskets, the key teachings and the festivals in the middle grades, history, schools and genres in 6–8, and close reading of the suttas, the Dhammapada and the Jatakas in public-domain translation in high school — as units, chapters, sections and numbered lessons, in original text at each band’s reading level. Beliefs are attributed (“Buddhists believe…”), meditation is described and never led, passages are quoted from public-domain translations or paraphrased plainly, and every lesson ends with three checks answerable from its reading.

Sources

Quotations come from public-domain translations, or are retold in plain words. A belief is always named as someone’s belief: “Buddhists believe…”. Everything else is original text written for this course.

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Add the band to the address, like /buddhist-texts#6-8. Tap Show on the board to show a unit’s short address, big enough for the back row.

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