This one is hot off the presses - the dateline on this over at The Atlantic is about 20 minutes ago. The Atlantic, IMHO, vies with The New Yorker as the current preeminent publisher of top feature writing. And Olga Khazan has a pretty impressive track record. So, reading this is on my to do list. After grading, course planning, Refuge business meeting prepping, etc. In the meantime, if you get a chance, tell me what you think. 

From the website: 

This was the first of two meditation sessions of the Kadampa Buddhism class I attended this week near my house in Northern Virginia, and I did not reach nirvana. Since we were in a major city, occasional sirens outside blasted through the quiet, and since this was a church basement, people were laughing and talking in the hallways. One guy wandered in to ask if this was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The more we focused on our breath, the teacher assured us, the more these distractions would fade away.

Read more at The Atlantic.

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Did you know you can take courses offered by Princeton University via Coursera, an "education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take" completely free? Including "Buddhism and Modern Psychology"?

About the Course [from the website]

​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 about the human mind. A number of scientists and philosophers have taken up this challenge. There have been brain scans of meditators and philosophical examinations of Buddhist doctrines. There have even been discussions of Darwin and the Buddha: Do early Buddhist descriptions of the mind, and of the human condition, make particular sense in light of evolutionary psychology?

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? All the features of this course are available for free. It does not offer a certificate upon completion.

Another course that may be other interest is Buddhism Through Its Scriptures offered by Harvard University. 

Thanks to Steve W. for the suggestion and Craig O. for passing it along!

Howard Cohn, a founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, is coming to the Valley the weekend of March 15-17. His host, Insight Meditation Scottsdale, PHXvipassana's Scottsdale sangha, is pleased to invite you to a free Dharma Talk on Friday night, March 15th, entitled, "Finding Refuge in the Midst of It All." 

This will be followed, Saturday and Sunday, by a two day, non-residential retreat, "Awakening, Truth & Community: Celebrating the 3 Jewels of Buddhist Practice - Meditation on the Buddha, Dharma & Sangha."

REGISTER for your FREE TICKETS for the Dharma Talk here: https://howard-cohn-public-talk.eventbrite.com

For more information about the two day retreat with Howard Cohn, Insight Meditation Scottsdale, and PHXvippassana, check out https://phxvipassana.com and www.meetup.com/PHXvipassana/events/.