what will you learn
Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and the Modern World explores the immense
variety of meditation practices past and present. We present their
histories, their philosophical underpinnings, their transformations in
the modern global world, and we give you a chance to reflect upon
meditation practices through secular contemplations designed just for
this course.
We use a traditional, if overly simplistic, way of grouping Buddhist
philosophical systems and ritual-contemplative practices into “three
vehicles”, three programs of theory and practice supporting the personal
journey from suffering to enlightenment. This scheme became normative
in India and Tibet: (i) the Lesser Vehicle (Hīnayāna), (ii) the Great
Vehicle (Mahāyāna), and (iii) the Adamantine Vehicle (Vajrayāna), also
referred to as “esoteric Buddhism” or “Buddhist tantra”. To this, we
will add a fourth Vehicle which is explicit in many Tibetan materials,
though no standard term ever emerged that was accepted by all sectarian
traditions - we will thus term it as the “Natural Vehicle” or “Post
Tantra”. We follow an indigenous Tibetan tradition in terms of
characterizing each with a specific orientational paradigm - repression,
refinement, transformation, and natural freedom. These twelve
meditative traditions constitute the framework for the course’s
discussion of the main streams of Tibetan Buddhist meditation.
The five modules of the present course, dedicated to "Lesser Vehicle"
practices and perspectives, treat the first five of these twelve types.
Each module in turn has four components: (i) the specific Buddhist
meditation in its traditional presentation and practice; (ii) modern
scientific research into its efficacy and dynamics, or on practices,
principles, and processes related to this type of meditation in our
analysis; (iii) the fact, problems, and opportunities of modern secular
adaptations in a variety of educational, professional, and personal
settings; and (iv) secular practices for experimentation, which are
either direct adaptations or new practices designed to give an
experiential sense of some of the principles underlying the Buddhist
meditative practice.
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