Buddhist Yoga and the Nature of the Mind: Sources of Buddhist Spirituality - Period 2

In this seminar, we focus on an intriguing and crucial concept in later Buddhism: the so-called nature of the mind (Tibetan: sems nyid). The translation ?mind? here, as a kind of umbrella term, refers to the entire mental domain, including feeling etc. We consider discussion about this ?nature of the mind? against a backdrop of fundamental categories of Buddhist worldviews and self-understanding, such as sa'sara and nirvana, self and non-self, but also emptiness and the like. We also pay attention to social-historical backgrounds wherever possible, in order to be able properly to contextualize doctrinal content.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.