The Buddha at Eranos

The Eranos conferences between 1933 and 1939 brought together psychologists and scholars of Eastern religions to take part in annual meetings that aspired to provide a “meeting place between East and West” (Hakl 2013: 25). At these meetings a group of international European scholars developed a shared understanding of Buddhist doctrine and meditation that has become widespread, namely, the notion that Buddhism is, first and foremost, a noetic science the principal concern of which is the transformation of human psychology. Their interpretations were the catalyst for the uptake of Buddhism in the American counterculture of the 1950s and 60s that, in turn, spawned a host of psychotherapies seeking to integrate these so-called “Buddhist” practices into their therapeutic systems.