Spring 2015: Buddhist Meditation & The Modern World - RELB 2165

Explore Tibetan Buddhist meditation in its cultural contexts, investigate scientific research on meditation’s dynamics, survey contemporary applications (in health care, K-12 education, entrepreneurship, creativity), and experience meditation firsthand in the Contemplative Lab. Undergraduates from all schools are welcome!

 

This course, co-taught by co-taught by Professors Kurtis Schaeffer, Susan Bauer-Wu, covers  (i) the history of Buddhist contemplative traditions in India and Tibet (meditation, yoga, mindfulness, visualization, etc.), (ii) innovations in scientific research on understanding such contemplative practices, (iii) recent adaptations of such practices in multiple professional and personal areas, and (iv) the practices themselves through brief secular contemplative exercises. 

 

Tradition: learn the original practices, their origins, their institutional contexts, and their deep relationships to philosophy, community, and ways of life.

 

Research: learn the scientific exploration of these practices and the neurological, biological, and psychological mechanisms of their effects, as well as research into their impact in specific contexts.

 

Innovation: learn about how based upon such research, people are innovating to create new secular practices adapted from these traditions

 

Engagement: learn about how people are deploying and engaging with such new adaptations in an astonishingly varied array of fields and areas

 

Practice: learn secular contemplative practices, both cognitive and physical, in a Contemplative Lab.