Welcome to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation

in the Modern World. As you know, this is the first of four

courses that David Germano, myself, and others are offering on
Buddhist meditation. In very brief terms, the course hopes
to cover several distinct areas. The history of meditation in Tibet,
India, and elsewhere. The scientific study of meditation,
over the past 50 years or so. And finally, the modern adaptation,
mutations and analogues of Buddhist meditation over the past 100
years in Europe and the United States. We hope that this makes sense as we move
along, to think of these three things as a whole that express
something significant about Buddhist meditation in our contemporary,
in our current day, right now. The way that we've chosen to organize all
these lectures is to use a Tibetan scheme. This is a Tibetan scheme that's
very old and it's used to organize the many types of Buddhist thoughts and
practice that Tibetans were heir to. Equally as many practices that they saw
coming in India from Tibet as we see coming in from all over Asia into Europe
and America over the last century. This was originally a three-fold scheme. We'v
e developed this into a four-fold
scheme, which we feel reflects the ways in which especially later Tibetans under
stood
the developmental history of Buddhism. We think it makes sense to
understand our own closer history of Buddhist meditation as well. So the first c
ourse is dedicated to
what Tibetans term the lesser vehicle of Indian Buddhism. The second course deta
ils
the great vehicle. The third course details
the diamond vehicle, what is more commonly
known as Buddhist Tantra. And the fourth course deals with
the natural vehicle, which tries to, which suggests that there are certain kinds
of Tibetan Buddhism, which are unique reinterpretations of Indian Buddhism
that deserve a category of their own. And certainly, how later Tibetans
understood this developmental history as well. David will get into the distincti
ons
between these four more. This first course, dedicated to
the lesser vehicle has five modules. In it, out of a total of 12 modules. Now ea
ch module consists of five different
lessons, and three types of lessons. In each module we have lectures,
a contemplative lab, and interviews. The lectures are of three kinds. We have on
e that explores the history and scope of a particular
traditional form of meditation. These are given by two people,
David Germano and whom I'll introduce in a moment. The second kind is on scienti
fic
research of the particular type of meditation under
discussion in that module and scientific research on related
forms of meditation as well. The third is on the history
of adaptations and analogs in the secular sphere
in contemporary society, places where we see these types
of meditation being adapted for new uses, new wishes,
new desires in Europe and North America. Next we have the contemplative lab. Thi
s is where you get to
experiment with secular versions of these meditations that are developed
by experienced meditation teachers, and I'll introduce those teachers
to you in a moment as well. And finally we have interviews. Over the course of d
eveloping
Buddhist Meditation in the Modern World, we've been very fortunate to
interview many very thoughtful and knowledgeable people about
the present state of Buddhism and meditation in especially
the United States. And we wanted to give you the benefit of
hearing what they have to say about their own work, their own thoughts on
meditation in modern life, at length, beyond the lecture. Before we get started,

I need to introduce our team of instructors that have helped

us to create this course. So let's turn to that. Before we get started. With the
course, I want to introduce you to the team that
helped make this course in to a reality. We've worked with
an amazing group of people. And, it's actually been the best thing
about working on this course is getting to know so many people who are so though
tful,
and creative in their thinking and practice in Buddha's meditation. There are 15
people, other than David and
myself, who you will encounter in this, the first course of Tibetan Buddhist
meditation in the modern world. Let me go through those people. I'll first speak
about
the lecturers that we have. In these five modules of
part one of the course. I will then introduce you to
the meditation teachers in the contemplative lab. And then I'll introduce you to
the people
that we've interviewed over the course. First off, we have Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro
. Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro is a Tibetan monk,
a scholar and a leader. He the head of the largest monastic
establishment in the world, in Sichuan province in China. He is a prolific autho
r. He has written extensively in Tibetan
language on Buddhism and science. He's one of the first Tibetan intellectuals to
grapple
with this in a detailed way. Reading extensively through,
primarily through Chinese translation, on science and materialistic views that
drive science research in the West. He offers for us and for you, a complete set
of lectures on
traditional forms of meditation. And these offer a wonderful complement
to David Germano's introductions to the various forms of meditation as well. Cli
fford Saron is associate research
scientist at the UC Davis Center for the Study of Mind and Brain. Clifford's goi
ng to offer
us two types of lectures. The first is focused on
the training of attention and emotion, regulation through
contemplative practice. And he's going to introduce us to these
two themes through a very important project that's he's been involved with,
called the Shamata Project. It's perhaps the largest long term, scientific resea
rch project dedicated
to the effects of meditation. What he's gonna do as well,
which is very helpful for those of us who are not scientists,
such as myself, is he's gonna give us a crash course in neuroscience that
gives us the basics to understand both the significance and the potential
of scientific research about meditation. But also the challenges and the pitfall
s
of doing that kind of research as well. Tsoknyi Rinpoche is another
Tibetan teacher and intellectual who offers lectures for us. He's one of the for
emost Tibetan
meditation teachers in South Asia and in the west working today. He's a very pro
lific author. I encourage you to go look at
his books including Open Heart, Open Mind, Carefree Dignity and
Fearless Simplicity. Tsoknyi Rinpoche has a keen
interest in the ongoing dialogue between western research,
especially in neuroscience. What he brings to this course
is a traditional perspective. That also is very acutely attuned
to what's happening globally with Tibetan Buddhism on the adaptation
of something like Buddhist tradition in a secular context, and he has a very
particular viewpoint on that, so that'll Be in contrast with some
of the things that I say or stand in interesting tension to those. We're glad th
at we can provide
both of those for you, both two types of viewpoints. Susan Bauer-Wu is both

a lecturer in the course and a leader of one of the contemplative labs. Susan Is
the Tussi and
John Kluge Professor of contemplative end-of-life care and director of
the Compassionate Care Initiative in the School of Nursing here
at the University of Virginia. She also has an appointment here in
my department in religious studies. Susan has been involved along with
Clifford Saron in the Shamatha Project as a research scientist. But she's also b
een at the forefront of bringing contemplative practice
into a health care setting. And that's one of the things
that she will be talking about, is both the challenge and
the promise of doing that. She is also a very experienced
meditation teacher and she will be giving us introductions to
mindfulness and mindfulness research as an opening for her meditation
instructions in the [INAUDIBLE] Lab. Jamie Morris is another of my colleagues
here at the university of Virginia, he's an assistant professor in
the department of phycology. His work focuses on normal, and
abnormal social behavior, and he uses techniques of
contemporary brain research and narrow science research,
to try and get at these issues. Jamie offers us a tour of one of the tools of th
e trade in neuroscience that gets
a lot of use in meditation research and that's a magnetic resonance imager,
which measures, in the case of meditation,
blood flow in the brain. He's gonna introduce us
to a particular technique of using the MRI that's functional
magnetic resonance imaging, which is one of the main tools that people
are using now to try and understand the brain basis of the changes that
we've seen through meditation. We have a number of instructors who
are working in the contemplative lab. Let me tell you a little bit about
what the contemplative lab is going to consist of. We've asked each of our instr
uctors
to give three sorts of lectures. One is an introduction to the practice
the second is the practice itself. And the third is musings or heartfelt ideas a
bout what this practice might be
good for in actual life and live life. So in conceptual overview of the practice
,
the practice and what are you going to
do with that practice. All of our instructors have extensive
meditation instruction experience. Experience and
they've developed these courses that they're giving in Buddhist mediation
in the modern world specifically for the contemplative so we are very fortunate
that they are participating with us. So, let me tell you about them
Susan Darwoo/b we've already spoken about she's a research scientist,
she's a professor of nursing and she's also a well known
meditation instructor too. We'll be hearing from her and then practicing with he
r at
the beginning of the course. We'll also be learning
from John Makransky. John Makransky is an associate
professor in the theology department at Boston College. He's the author of a won
derful book of
intellectual history called budahood and body he's an old colleague of David's a
nd
myself. He's also the author of a very interesting
book on contemplative practice called, Awakening through Love,
in which he argues and shows that meditation practice, specifically
those dedicated to compassion and devotion offer powerful tools to
rethink how we do social work, how we engage is difficult professions. He's been
a much sought after meditation
instructor in the helping professions. And, he brings his expertise to us,
and of course as we will see primarily when we're looking at the great vehicle i
n

the next course and the course after that. Anam Thubten is a wonderful person,
he's a Tibetan who has lived in the United States for quite
a while now, a couple of decades now. He's a well-known meditation teacher
in the San Francisco bay area. He has a very successful Dharma center, called th
e Dharma Tau Foundation
in Point Richmond California. He's the author of some just
wonderfully readable books about what you might think are very
abstruse Tibetan ideas, but he brings them down to
Earth with humor and wit. So I suggest reading his books, The Magic
of Awareness and No Self, No Problem. He also happens to be a great poet,
and he's working on being the next Gary Snyder of the California interstate. Aut
umn Tipton gives lovely
meditation instructions throughout the entire 12
modules of this course. And we also were fortunate
enough to interview him too, and that'll show up later in the course. Anne Klein
, offers wonderful
meditation instructions again, for the entirety of the course. Anne Klein is pro
fessor in the department
of religion at Rice University. She also happens to be a graduate of the program
in Buddhist studies
at the University of Virginia. She's was one of the first and certainly the most
prominent
graduates of this program. She's the author of at least a half
a dozen books on British philosophy, British practice,
British intellectual history. She's also the cofounder of the Dharma
Mountain British Center in Houston, where she actively teaches Buddhism
meditation, too, and she does so around the United States as well. So she's deve
loped a set of meditation
instructions in the contemplative lab for us as well. So those are our contempla
tive
lab instructors. We were very fortunate to interview
a number of people throughout the creation of this course. And I wanna tell you
who we interviewed. We'll be able to get to
know them very well. The interviews are located
at the end of every module, if we have interviews that
are relevant to that module. We begin with David Mcmahan. David is the Charles A
Dana professor
of religious studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. He's the a
uthor/editor of three books. But for our purposes we wanna highlight
his book the making of Buddhist modernism. The making of Buddhist modernism
is probably the most eloquent and well argued book on how Buddhism
became modern over the last century, specifically in the United States. How Budd
hism moved from being something that we really
didn't know very much about. In 1900 to something that
can be used in boardrooms with relative ease in the year 2000. We'll interview h
im about his book,
but also about his thoughts on the present state
of things like Buddhist meditation centers around the country,
but especially the mindfulness movement. Jim Coan is an associate professor of c
linical psychology here at
the University of Virginia where he's the director of the Virginia
Effective Neuroscience Laboratory. He's the author of more than 50 articles. His
specialty is the science of emotions. This work has been featured in TV,
radio, print media and other popular press venues. We're really lucky to
have him here with us. He gives us a couple lectures
later in the course, and we all also interview him on
the challenges of developing a rigorous scientific program
of research on meditation. Tish Jennings is associate professor in
the Curry School of Education here at UVA. Where she's the Director of the
Contemplative Teaching and Learning Lab. Tisha's work focuses on

the use of mindfulness and contemplative practices both for teacher

training, teacher resiliency, and for student learning and student well being,
especially at the K through five level. She's the author of a very recent
book called Mindfulness For Teachers, Simple Skills For Peace and
Productivity In The Classroom. She's been one of the most successful and
impactful researchers in this area, and we'll hear something
about her current work. Erik Braun is Associate Professor here at UVA in the Dep
artment
of Religious Studies. He's the author of a very wonderful
book called The Birth of Insight. The Birth of Insight is
a history of meditation in Burma from the late 19th century
through the early 20th century. And what Eric shows in the Birth
of Insight is that what we think of now as
mindfulness has a history. And that history can be traced
to the Colonial period, in late 19th century Burma in which
certain leading intellectuals, especially a person named Lady Saidah, were tryin
g to figure out
how to re-frame Buddhism and how to redeploy Buddhism as a mass
movement, as modernization began and colonialism began to deeply
impact Burmese society. Currently Erik's working on a book
on the globalization of mindfulness, which will take him from the early
20th century up to the present. So we talk to him about
both of those things. The past in Burma and
the present here in the United States. David Mick is the Robert Hill
Carter Professor of Commerce and Marketing at the University of
Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. David teaches courses in wisdom and
consumer well-being. His specialty is marketing, but he has an unusual role in
the world of marketing research. And he and several others within
his field have been instrumental in creating something called
transformative consumer research. And he's the editor of a key
book in that field called Transformative Consumer Research For
Personal And Collective Well-Being. And Transformative Consumer Research
argues that research about consumers should not be geared solely
towards creating profit, but should be geared towards creating
well-being, among consumers. Consumers are people too, we can use
that as a platitude but in order to make that a reality in educating business
leaders, David thinks that we need to introduce the idea of wisdom into the
very practice of business and marketing. So he teaches a course on wisdom. He us
es contemplative methods in class. We interview him about his
classroom experience and his thoughts on the present
state of consumer research. You wouldn't think that something like contemplative
practice would show up
in a commerce school, but it does. And in very powerful ways. And David shows us
how. Rhonda Magee is Professor of Law at the
University of San Francisco School of Law. Rhonda works primarily on race law an
d
policy, as well as on humanizing legal
education in the practice of law. Her efforts are dedicated towards helping
law students and law practitioners cope with the intense pressures they face,
both in school and on the job so that they can be more successful,
more effective and more humane. To do this she's begun to integrate
contemplative practices into her teaching and into her suggestions for
legal practice. She recently edited a volume
in the very important journal of higher education called
New Directions for Teaching and Learning. And, she published an article
called Contemplative Practices And The Renewal Of Legal Education
in that journal. She's the author of numerous journal
articles, many of which have to do with contemplative practice, including
recently educating lawyers to meditate, she tells us how and
why this might be a good thing to do. Our last interviewee for Buddhist Meditati

on in the Modern World

Part One probably needs no introduction. Her name is Sharon Salzberg. She's one
of the two or three most influential meditation teachers
working in the United States today. She was there at the beginning of the
meditation movement in the late 60s and early 70s, and she's here today,
as strong as ever. In 1974, she was the co-founder of
the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, and since then she's gone
on to author no less than eight books, including several quite famous books, mos
t
prominent of which is Loving Kindness. This is a book that argued 20 years ago o
r
so that compassion and love and
kindness need to be objects of meditation. They need to be objects of
sustained contemplation. And this was something that was a little
bit different than had been taught up to that point. And she really turned thing
s around and refocused the contemplative movement
in the 70s and 80s towards compassion, and through that towards a discussion of
ethics and contemporary society as well. More recently she's written books such
as
Real Happiness and Real Happiness at Work. We'll talk to her about her amazing
life as a contemplative practitioner and leader and the current states of the
meditation movement in the United States. That wraps it up for team in the cours
e.