Positive Psychology Course

FREE online positive psychology course from Harvard University

Am I Self-Compassionate?

A psychological test to measure Self-Compassion

Neff, Kristin D. (2003) Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2, 85-102.

Mindfulness For Stress Reduction

This is a Dhamma talk on mindfulness-based technique for stress reduction delivered at Shah Alam Buddhist Society. Photo Gallery

Buddhism & Science

A Dhamma talk on Buddhism & Science delivered at Nalanda Buddhist Society

MIND is beyond the Brain

Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

Current mainstream scientific opinion holds that all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by physical processes occurring in the brain. This book demonstrates with empirical evidence that this reductive materialism is not only incomplete but false. Summary of chapter contents.

Buddha's Brain

Buddha's Brain: Neuroplasticity & Meditation

http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/publications/2008/DavidsonBuddhaIEEE.pdf

This is your brain on happiness

Professor Dr. Richard Davidson

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON HAPPINESS

The Oprah Magazine, March 2008

http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/OprahMar2008.pdf

Two Sciences of MIND: Mind & Life Meetings

http://www.mindandlife.org/two.sciences.of.mind.pdf

Do you have a happy brain?

Do you have a happy BRAIN?

Happiness vs Joy

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4132819

The Myth of Happiness

The Myth of Happiness

Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4115033&page=1

Children with spontaneous life between life recall

Buddhist cosmology talks about the 31 realms of existence: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html

This is a paper from the Journal of Near Death Studies that suggests the existence of different realms of existence:

By Poonam Sharma & Jim B Tucker

ABSTRACT: For the last 40 years, researchers have collected cases of children who claim to remember previous lives. In a minority of these cases, the subjects also claim to remember events that took place during the intermission between the end of their previous life and their birth in the current life. Subjects in these cases tend to make more verified statements about the previous life they claim to remember than do other subjects of reincarnation type cases, and they tend to recall more names from that life. Analysis of reports from 35 Burmese subjects indicates that the intermission memories can be broken down into three parts: a transitional stage, a stable stage in a particular location, and a return stage involving choosing parents or conception. A comparison of these reports to reports of near-death experiences (NDEs) indicates that they show features similar to the transcendental component of Western NDEs and have significant areas of overlap with Asian NDEs. http://www.survival-research.net/downloads/2004_Sharma_Tucker_Intermission_memories_JNDS.pdf

Buddhism, Medicine & Bioethics

This was a 15-minute presentation in an interfaith forum organized by the National University of Malaysia (UKM) Medical School (Click on the slide above to download the powerpoint presentation - slide commentary available in 'notes view')

Further readings:

1. Ministering to the sick and terminally ill by Lily de Silva
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/desilva/bl132.html

2. The Buddha's Teachings on Aging, Illness, Death & Separation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/aids/index.html

3. Buddhism & Medical Ethics: A Bibliographic Introduction by Damien Keown
http://www.changesurfer.com/Bud/BudBioEth.html

4. Buddhist Bioethics by James Hughes
http://ieet.org/archive/buddhistbioethics.pdf

5. Bioethics from the view of Buddhism by Shoji Mori
http://www.iop.or.jp/0717/mori.pdf

6. The Lotus Sutra and Health Care Ethics by Robert E. Florida
http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/5/flori981.htm