Online Course: Buddhism and Modern Psychology

Starting Wednesday, March 20, Princeton University’s lecturer Robert Wright is offering a six-week free online course titled Buddhism and Modern Psychology. The course is made available through the online education platform Coursera. To register, please go to https://www.coursera.org/course/psychbuddhism. It takes less than a minute and it is available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Thanks to Bonnie for sharing this.

Robert Wright is a visiting lecturer at the Department of Religion and Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Here is a short course description:

“The Buddha said that human suffering—ranging from anxiety to sadness to unfulfilled craving—results from not seeing reality clearly. He described a kind of meditation that promises to ease suffering by dispelling illusions about the world and ourselves. What does psychological science say about this diagnosis and prescription—and about the underlying model of the mind?”

Yoga psychology, described in detail in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and Buddha’s teachings are based on Samkhya philosophy (as is Jainism). They share so much. It is so easy to overlook that yoga is not just asana or physical poses–it is really the science of the mind and psychology. It was the mind that was the object of contemplation and research.