Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy with Bee Scherer

Summary

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.

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

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

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

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

5: Buddhist metaphysics. Mind and Buddha-Nature.

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 is chair (full professor) of Buddhism at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam.

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.