Four educators* with ties to The American Embassy School in New Delhi joined forces with Eden Merritt, SINI’s director of EDP and the author of the program’s textbook, for a powerful hybrid online/in-person two-month program for SINI students.
Preliminary online sessions in February and March laid the foundation for an intensive in-person program conducted during the month of April. The curriculum spanned concepts in biology, ecology, physics and geometry.
Questions posed by the students served as springboards for the activities, and parallels and divergences were identified between Buddhist philosophy and scientific modes of investigation.
One SINI student, upon completing the program, noted (edited for grammar):
“Buddhism investigates through the inner mind and scientists through the material world. The goals are the same; investigate in order to realize the truth. The means to create peace on our mother earth require collaboration between eastern and western approaches…science makes a good house and Buddhism can make a good relationship between the family members who live there.”
* Dr. Richard Frazier, Dr. Mary Catherine Frazier, Melanie Fraga, and Zoe Gare
