The Wisdom Academy presents
A Scientific Investigation of the Mind
An online course with Lama Alan Wallace
Discover greater happiness and well-being using insights and methods drawn from both Western psychology and Buddhist contemplative practices in A Scientific Investigation of the Mind (The Dharma of Well-Being Part 1), the bestselling course led by Lama Alan Wallace.
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In A Scientific Investigation of the Mind (The Dharma of Well-Being Part 1), Lama Alan Wallace explains how the teachings of the first turning of the wheel of Dharma emphasize a scientific approach, with seekers being encouraged to look directly inward to examine the real causes of happiness and suffering.
You’ll learn about:
• The inner causes of suffering
• The nature and characteristics of afflictions (kleśas)
• Developing attention, concentration, and insight
• Applying śamatha and vipaśyanā to realize selflessness
• Understanding the truth of cessation and the path to liberation
• Practices to help you develop genuine well-being
• And more!
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Watch the Part One Trailer
In this powerful course, you’ll delve into what genuine well-being is and what it is not as Lama Alan explores the causes of suffering, mental afflictions, and unhappiness along with the internal factors that often prevent us from being truly happy. You’ll discover offers skills, practices, and insights that will help you achieve genuine happiness and well-being in your own life. This foundation in experiential psychological insight will prepare you for deeper insights in your future study, contemplation, and meditation.
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The course explores the foundation of Buddhist practice, the very practical teachings of the Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma that focus on the mind states and meditative techniques that will liberate us from suffering.
Understanding how the self is perceived, we can reveal the process by which we form attitudes and behaviors in our relations to other sentient beings. By unravelling our self-centered delusion, our thoughts and actions are brought in line with reality and have the potential to inspire well-being for all beings including ourselves.
Lama Alan Wallace, internationally renowned for the clarity and profundity of his teachings, invites you to explore the inner causes of suffering alongside the causes of genuine well-being, and learn practices and techniques that will help you on your journey to develop genuine and lasting well-being.
Click the button below to enroll today!
NOTE: This course is the first instalment of Lama Alan’s Dharma of Well-Being course trilogy. While it can certainly be consumed as a standalone experience, we encourage you to also think about taking parts 2 and 3 and the series in the future.
Lesson 1: Introduction & Genuine Well-Being
Lama Alan Wallace begins the course by introducing you to the concept of genuine well-being and delves into how happiness and genuine well-being are different. You’ll join Alan as he also reads from the Kandaraka Sutta to discover the Buddha’s teaching on the three kinds of genuine well-being.
Lesson 2: The Causes of Suffering
Lama Alan explores the causes of both stimulus-driven and genuine unhappiness. You’ll learn about the three tiers of unhappiness as taught by the Buddha, paying close attention to kleśas.
Lesson 3: The Contagious Nature of Mental Afflictions
Lama Alan explores the contagious nature of mental afflictions and how we can prevent the spread of our own mental afflictions.
Lesson 4: Developing Attention
Lama Alan explores the term “refractory period” and how it relates to mental afflictions before he delves into how developing sustained attention can help us on the path toward developing genuine well-being.
Lesson 5: The Inner Causes of Mental Distress
Lama Alan explores various ways mindfulness can be applied before diving into the three root kleśas, also known as the three poisons.
Lesson 6: The Nature of the Mind
Lama Alan explores consciousness and the nature of the mind before turning to how we can help to train the mind on the path to developing genuine well-being.
Lesson 7: Universal Well-Being
Lama Alan introduces us to the four immeasurables as the source of genuine well-being. He touches on each of them, outlining how each is specifically related to genuine well-being, and teaches the traditional Indo-Tibetan liturgy associated with them.
Lesson 8: Developing Genuine Well-Being
Lama Alan delves deeper into how the four immeasurables relate to genuine well-being. He touches on Buddhaghosa’s teachings in The Path to Purification before exploring the characteristics and the near and far enemies of each of the four immeasurables.
Lama Alan Wallace is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and the Center for Contemplative Research. He trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and America since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including H. H. the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he earned his MA and PhD in religious studies at Stanford University. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion.
