Living a meaningful life: Wisdom traditions and their contemplative practices

This unit will be informative, experiential and reflective. You will use teachings and texts from a number of the world's great wisdom traditions, and their contemplative practices to help you reflect on and discuss some of life's most important questions. The wisdom traditions explored will vary across historical periods, from ancient to modern, and cultures, from east to west. You will investigate the application and relevance of these teachings and contemplative practices in daily life through direct experience to see if deep and direct insights might be gained into questions such as:

• What is wisdom and is there such a thing as perennial wisdom?
• What is the purpose and meaning of life?
•  Is there more to life than just material existence?
• What values should we base our life on ?
• How should we relate to each other (and why)?
• What is our place in the Universe?
• What is the self and what is its relationship to consciousness?
• How  can contemplative practices  help us to answer these questions?