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Pooja Ahuja

Buddhism and Modern Psychology

coursera.org
RecurringOnlineFree
Apr 25

Meditation PracticesScience and Meditation

07:42 PM, Thu, April 25, 2024 — 07:42 PM, Thu, April 25, 2024

Worldwide

The Dalai Lama has said that Buddhism and science are deeply compatible and has encouraged Western scholars to critically examine both the meditative practice and Buddhist ideas.This course will examine how Buddhism is faring under this scrutiny. Are neuroscientists starting to understand how meditation “works”? Would such an understanding validate meditation—or might physical explanations of meditation undermine the spiritual significance attributed to it? And how are some of the basic Buddhist claims about the human mind holding up? We’ll pay special attention to some highly counterintuitive doctrines: that the self doesn’t exist, and that much of perceived reality is in some sense illusory. Do these claims, radical as they sound, make a certain kind of sense in light of modern psychology? And what are the implications of all this for how we should live our lives? Can meditation make us not just happier, but better people?
Affiliate: The University of Hong Kong
Instructor: Cheung Siu Nang Bruce, Senior Programme Director
Duration: 3 hours / week
Level: Beginner

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