The Science of Buddhist Philosophy [Level 1]

Kick off the course by waking students to death and impermanence. Learn to detach from external wealth and seek inner happiness and peace.

Explore what truly makes us happy by distinguishing external sources and internal happiness, and learn practical techniques from positive psychology to maximize the 40 percent of happiness within.

Explore how thoughts shape happiness, linking positive thinking to longevity, health, and better relationships. The lecture highlights resilience, self-control, and cultivating a reservoir of happiness through practical tools.

keep a positive journal to record daily positives, elaborate on them to rewire the brain, and note three things you are grateful for and what you look forward to tomorrow.

Explore how stress triggers the fight-or-flight response and how daily hassles impact happiness. Learn to cultivate resilience by reframing daily thoughts and improving coping with stress.

Demonstrate diaphragmatic breathing to shift from the sympathetic stress response to the parasympathetic relaxation, boosting resilience, mental clarity, and health by increasing oxygen and calming the heart.

Discover how thoughts trigger biochemicals that produce negative emotions and how training your brain to overcome addiction to negative feelings by favoring positive emotions disrupts this cycle.

Identify the root causes of unhappiness by tracing emotions to your thoughts rather than external triggers, and address underlying factors like dehydration or posture.

Examine how our neurological network acts as a cognitive filter, deleting, distorting, and generalizing information based on past experiences, beliefs, and biases.

The lecture explains how a neural filter deletes, distorts, and generalizes information to shape beliefs, causing learned helplessness; a two-group experiment shows 70 percent give up, while 30 percent persevere.

Examine why depression rises with wealth as money boosts happiness only up to a point, and how 1950s films promoting opulence shifted happiness from within to external aspirations.

The American freshman survey shows a shift from valuing a meaningful life to wealth since 1967. Happiness resides not in money or possessions but in internal belief and self-mastery.

Explore how moving away from your current situation creates a temporary happiness, leading to a repetitive cycle, while moving toward a clear life vision sustains motivation.

Direct your attention toward what you want, not what you fear, to break negative cycles and rewire your mind, as the Facebook analogy reveals neurological filters shaping perception.

Increase positive emotions to build a reserve of happiness that strengthens resilience in daily life. Gradual, sustainable habit changes—not drastic diets or overexertion—drive lasting well-being and better stress management.

Define what you truly want and paint a vivid eight-year image of your ideal future, then set your satnav and move toward it with a crystal-clear vision.

Develop an internal locus of control and self-efficacy to boost motivation and healthful changes. Those with external locus of control tend toward higher risk and poorer outcomes.

Explore the four noble truths by examining life’s changing reality, recognizing how trying to control external change causes suffering, and pursuing self-mastery through understanding, mindfulness, and concentration.