Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy with Bee Scherer: Introducing the key concepts of Indian Buddhist thought

Bee Scherer · Wise Studies

Jul 2020 · Wise Studies

About this eBook

This course introduces key concepts of Indian Buddhist thought. Over 5 lectures Bee explains the fundamental themes and problems of Buddhist Philosophy; from the early Buddhist teachings on ‘suffering’, ‘karma’ and ‘No-Self’, to the later scholasticism and the famous schools of thought around ‘emptiness’ and ‘mind-only’. Each chapter introduces another layer of Buddhist philosophical development and depth. The course forms a very clear and intriguing introduction to the wealth of Buddhist thought.

Session One: Introduction – Buddhism as religion, philosophy or psychology? Modernism and Buddhist thought; the Buddha and the Four Noble Truths

Session Two: Understanding the Four Noble Truths – unsatisfactoriness, afflicting emotions, nirvana and the eightfold Path

Session Three: Buddhist psychology of no-self – heaps of grasping, dependent arising and cause & effect (karma)

Session Four: Buddhist ontology. Scholasticism and reality (Abhidharma); perfection of wisdom and emptiness (Madhyamaka)

Session Five: Buddhist metaphysics. Mind and Buddha-Nature.

is buddhism a religion or a philosophy of life

what is buddhism religion or philosophy

what is buddhism religion all about

philosophy of buddha

buddhist philosophy religion psychology ethics

buddhist ontology metaphysics psychology no self

four noble truths eightfold path karma abhidharma

About the author

Professor Bee Scherer, PhD is a long-time practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and has been globally teaching as a Buddhist teacher.

After the study of classics, Indic (Sanskrit, Pāli, Prakrits) and Tibetan philology in Germany and the United States, completed by a PhD (Groningen, The Netherlands 2002), Bee published among others on karma; Nāgārjuna and early Mind-only; and, in recent years, on transnational Tibetan Buddhism; radical, reform and socially engaged Buddhism in Asia; and on Buddhist perspectives on disability, gender, and sexuality.

Bee is chair (full professor) of Buddhism at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and rector of the national Dutch Buddhist seminary. As a trans/non-binary scholar-cum-activist Bee has established the interdisciplinary, transnational Queering Paradigms Social justice academic network and conference series and directs the INCISE research institute (http://incise.center).

Prof. Scherer has authored more than a dozen monographs and edited volumes in various languages, among which features the substantial Introduction to Buddhism (2005, in German) with a foreword by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama.

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