"Buddhism and Modern Psychology" course is now available again " on demand" at Coursera

BhikkhuJayasara · September 2015

I wanted to spread the word about this interesting course I took on Coursera a while back called " buddhism and modern psychology". This was a very interesting and insightful course with interviews with Bhikkhu Bodhi and other Buddhist teachers/scholars.

The professor, Robert Wright, is an evolutionary psychologist out of Princeton and a practicing meditator who appears to follow Buddhist practices but hesitates to directly call himself a Buddhist. Some of the highlights that interested me was learning about the "default mode network" (ie the monkey mind) and his postulations that the Buddhist practice "goes against the stream" of natural selection in many aspects. I don't remember feeling he misrepresented Buddhism in any way or caused any issues, and the weekly discussions with the other "students" was interesting.

Here is some info about the course and the link to go to it from the email I received from the professor:

I’m writing now to say that I’ve just re-launched the course in what Coursera calls “on demand” mode, meaning that this time around all the lectures are available from the start, so students can move through them at whatever speed they prefer.

Here’s where you’ll find the course: www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation. I hope you find some value in the material the second time around, and that you’ll feel free to bring it to the attention of any friends who might benefit from it.