Buddhism & Quantum Physics

This interactive online course on Buddhism & Quantum Physics will provide you with new tools to analyse your mind and investigate the nature of reality and the self.

With this fundamental shift in perspective, you can become more open to experiencing joy in daily life. This can help you to expand your worldview, improve your well-being, experience mindfulness, and cultivate a deeper meditation practice.

In this course you will learn to:

• Develop a deeper understanding of the connections between science and spirituality.
• Learn. about quantum mechanics and Buddhism in an easy, accessible way.
• Investigate the nature of reality, the mind and the self.
• Deepen and enrich your meditation practice.
• Enhance your mindfulness, awareness and well-being.

Syllabus

Module 1

A Beginner’s Guide to Quantum Mechanics – Dr. John Realpe & Dr. Marco Colnaghi

Lesson 1: What is Quantum Mechanics?

• The uncertainty principle
• Describing quantum states
• Schrödinger’s cat
• Wave–particle duality & double–slit experiment
• The measurement problem (Wigner’s paradox)
• Non–locality and entanglement

Lesson 2: What is Quantum Mechanics?

• The Copenhagen interpretation
• David Bohm’s implicate order
• The Multiverse (many–worlds)
• Carlo Rovelli’s relational interpretation
• QBism
• Other interpretations of QM

Module 2

Metaphysics, Buddhism, and Quantum Physics – Dr. Michel Bitbol

Lesson 1: Appearance and Reality in Western thought

• Plato and the reality/appearance dualism
• Heraclitus and Democritus
• The birth of modern science: Newton, Kant, Husserl

Lesson 2: Buddhist epistemology & Quantum physics
• Buddhist epistemology: Mind–Only and Middle Way schools
• The paradox of quantum reality
• Interpretations of quantum mechanics
• Quantum mechanics & Buddhist philosophy

Module 3

Reality and the Nature of the Mind – Prof. John Dunne

Lesson 1: Buddhist epistemology
• Dharmakirti and Shantarakshita
• “Sat”: the primacy of experience
• Causality, cognition, and reality

Lesson 2: Models of the world
• The mind, discrimination, and mental models
• Do patterns truly exist in nature?
• What constrains our models of the world?

Lesson 3: Illusion and reality

• Reality as a mental construct
• Is there an ultimate model of reality?
• The illusion of separation: conceptuality, suffering, and wisdom

Module 4

From Nagarjuna to Heisenberg and back — Prof. Carlo Rovelli & Geshe Tenzin Namdak

Lesson 1: Nagarjuna & Quantum mechanics
• The observer and the observed: the relational interpretation
• Without foundation: Nagarjuna & modern physics
• Emptiness and dependent origination

Lesson 2: Bias, discrimination, and models of the world
• Models in classical and quantum physics
• Ultimate and conventional reality

Module 5

Mind, Matter, and Quantum Physics – Prof. Carlo Rovelli & Geshe Tenzin Namdak

Lesson 1: On the nature of the observer
• Consciousness and quantum mechanics
• Dependent origination and the nature of the mind
Lesson 2: The mind and the brain
• The nature of consciousness
• What is the relation between mind and matter?
• Do laws of nature exist beyond our minds?

Module 6

How things Exist, Experiential Meditation Workshop – Scott Snibbe

Part 1: Analysis of Objects
Part 2: Analysis of the self

What’s Included

• Over 5 hours of video teachings
• Course handbook
• Special access to video archive
• Downloadable lecture notes
• Meditation workshops
• Short quizzes to test your learning