Project Title: Exploring the Multicultural Dialogue between Buddhism and Cognitive Neuropsychology
Project Author: William Farrar (Estrella Mountain)
Abstract: Write a concise summary with descriptive information about your project, location, time span, your relationship to it, etc. Include specific information-- since you have completed your project, your knowledge is valuable and can be shared with your colleagues.
Psychology is generally understood as a Western science that emerged from philosophy in the final decades of the 1800s. However, a more global understanding of psychology recognizes that many psychological insights had been discovered and encoded in the literatures of other cultures. My summer project aimed to contribute to this broader, multicultural perspective by synthesizing and integrating the academic literature on relationships between the Buddhist meditative tradition, cognitive neuropsychology, and the philosophy of psychology. This project May 29 to June 30.
The project resulted in a set of resources and recommendations integrating the insights of eastern traditions into psychology.
Outcomes: In a paragraph or two describe what worked well. Did you accomplish your objective(s)? Were you able to complete your summer project as written? If not, what did you modify and why? What did not go as well as expected, if anything? Were there any surprises? Note: Use the questions as guides for your outcomes. Do not include detailed list of workshops attended, speakers who presented, or a list of items you have seen, heard, or read.
The core of the project was successfully accomplished. I read and notated most of the readings that I had assigned myself and constructed a set of resources based on the work. The most intriguing findings is that Buddhism is often portrayed in terms of it’s therapeutic impact, such as described in De Silva’s (2001). An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology. Yet, the information that I found most useful as a community college faculty member was the research related Zen practice to brain theory, such as Austin’s work (c.f., Zen-Brain Connections). Though I achieved my project objectives, I am reworking the draft of my material using Kandel, Schwartz, and Jessell's (200) Principles of Neural Science as I guide. One interesting outcome was how much impact the dialogue with Buddhism had on the philosophy of mind. I particularly appreciated howbuddhist phenomenology could be used to construct a theory of mind that includes both brain and environment in a dynamic system (e.g., Varela, Thompson and Rosch’s The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience).
The exploration of brain physiology and the theory of mind in the light of buddhist practice have helped me reconceptualize my teaching of biological psychology. The hardest part of this work is that I underestimated the amount of work it takes to integrate the brain theory component.
Professional Growth: Your own professional growth is a large part of your project. Your professional growth is important to you, your students, your college, and possibly other colleagues. How did project affect you professionally? What skills did you learn? What environments were you working in and how might your summer project influence your teaching or other responsibilities? Did you gain a different perspective? Was it professionally valuable for you?
I think the most valuable aspect of this project was the perspective it gave me. What I learned was that the dialogue between two diverse perspectives, such as Buddhism and brain physiology can give rise to insights that inform one’s understanding of both content areas. I believe that this project made me more aware of how Eastern religious traditions can inform our understanding of western science. Such a view, when shared with peers and students, both broadens our understanding of our own world and the world of others and expands our horizons as to the empirical and psychological validity of other world views.
In other words, this project has broadened my outlook on how psychology can be viewed and has helped me to appreciate the depth with which eastern perspectives intuitively used concepts that are only become explicit in the West in the 21st century.
Dissemination: How will you share this information with your colleagues, department, students, or college?
I think this project will have its greatest impact when shared with my students. I have already integrated the material of this project-links, information, and bibliography- into the introduction of psychology course by discussing how “mind” can be viewed as an emergent interaction between the substance of the brain and the structure of the environment (i.e., the life-world). In addition, I have integrated this material into the psychology of religion course I am currently teaching.
For more information about this project, check out the "package" in the Maricopa Learning eXchange:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/slip.php?item=01894