One fundamental thing about the Buddha’s teachings is that they are rooted in the world; in words that are repeated many times in the texts, those who follow the Path realized by the Buddha will come to enlightenment “right here and right now.” And because those teachings, like everything else we experience in the normal course of events, are contingent upon the conditions and circumstances from which they emerged, it helps, in understanding the teachings, to understand (however dimly we might understand across a gulf of half a planet and 2500 years of time) the place and the culture into which Siddhattha Gotama was born and in which he delivered the discourses through which we know him.

I’ve created and compiled a set of maps that can help us with that understanding; the maps will be useful in both courses, and it would be good to print them out, especially the second one—the political map—and bring the printed map(s) to class with you.