現在、CourseraでBuddhism and Modern Psychology（仏教と現代心理学講座）を学習しています。ようやく中間レポート（Mid-term Assignment）を作成しましたので備忘記録として残しておきます。レポートの評価基準を事前にチェックして、自分のレポート作成で、どの要素が重要なのかを整理しておきました。これは、ピアレビューでも役立ちそう。
（この講座は無料講座でインターネット環境が整っていて、PCやスマホ、タブレットがあれば誰でも受講できます。修了証の発行はありません）
課題
課題の進捗としては、ようやく3まで終わったところですね。
与えられた2つのテーマから1つを選ぶ（済）選択したテーマについて800字以内でレポートを作成する（済）作成したレポートを提出する（済）- 提出したレポートのピアレビューを2名から受ける（未）
- 自分も2名分のレポートをピアレビューする（未）
選択した課題
2つある課題のうち、質問1を選択しました。
質問1
質問1は、仏陀が「人間の苦しみはどこから生まれると考えていたのか」を説明したのち、それが自分自身にどのように当てはまるのか2つの具体的な理由または経験から説明しなさい、というもの。
Question 1: The Buddha offers a specific diagnosis of the suffering that is part of human existence. Explain the Buddha’s diagnosis. Does this diagnosis ring true to you, or has the Buddha ignored some aspect of human life, or made some other mistake? Offer two specific reasons or experiences that support your answer, and explain how they support it.
質問1：仏陀は人間の存在の一部である苦しみの特定の診断を提供します。仏陀の診断を説明してください。この診断はあなたに当てはまりますか、それとも仏陀は人間の生活のある側面を無視したか、あるいは他の間違いを犯しましたか？あなたの答えを裏付ける2つの具体的な理由または経験を提供し、それらがどのようにそれを裏付けるかを説明してください。
作成したレポート
800字以内で作成できたし、2つの具体的な経験も盛り込んで、科学的な裏付けも書いたつもり。日本語から英語に訳すのではなく、最初から英語で書くこともできたので、時間はかかったけど良い勉強になりました。
According to Buddha’s sermons, he showed us “The Four Noble Truths” which includes diagnoses and solutions about human suffering. The first and second noble truths are the details of that. Our life is full of suffering because living itself brings anxiety. Buddha’s diagnosis rings true to me. I’d like to share my two experiences related to this topic after describing the two noble truths that I learned from this course. After that, I’ll combine the idea of Buddhism and the study of neuroscience and lead to a conclusion.
We cling to our emotions, such as envy, fear, anger, and so on. He taught us that the key to solutions is detachment from that. Our existence itself makes trouble because we never get satisfaction. By modern psychology, we already know that our desire is made from survival instincts. we subconsciously search for an excellent partner to leave our own species. we should survive this world and compete with others. we must get food to avoid hunger. It is an obvious fact based on evolutionary science.
Now I’ll introduce why I agree with Buddha’s diagnosis through my youth experiences. First, I had a binge eating disorder when I was a college student. I couldn’t control my appetite thus I ate tons of junk food. After that, I felt guilty because I didn’t want to gain weight. I put my fingers into my throat and I vomited it. I had been that bad habit for many years. I diagnosed my symptoms by myself. It is related to my instinct and social envy. I was never satisfied to eat and my outward appearances. I was completely deluded by appearances.
Second, I experienced lost love with my colleague when I was around the middle of my 20s. I suppose many people easily understand my situation because why there are so many love songs in the world. I loved him so much but he immediately lost his interest in me. I waited for his phone call for a long time and shed tears a lot and drank many kinds of alcohol with other male friends. My suffering increased day by day nonetheless. I had no idea how to solve it. I stuck with his existence and I had been repeatedly thinking about why he didn’t love me again and how to get his interest again. The suffering gave me huge pain in my brain and heart that I’ve never experienced before.
Finally, we go back to our main topic about the relation between Buddhism and the study of neuroscience. It shows the reason why our satisfaction does not for very long. There is a study in which the neurons in monkeys are involved in the release of dopamine and are in a part of the brain where dopamine seems to be correlated with pleasure and reward. The monkey’s brain had a dopamine spike when the monkey got fruit juice unexpectedly at the beginning. Next, the scientist turned the light before giving it to the monkey. Then the monkey’s dopamine more correlated with the light, and evaporated the pleasure about the juice. From this result, we can remember that the Buddha said that pleasure tends to evaporate, and it leaves us unsatisfied.
Why do our pleasures evaporate so rapidly? Because It’s a kind of strategy of natural selection that our genes into the next generation. There are 3 principles of design that would make sense if you want animals to reach these goals. First of all, If animals are fulfilled by small food for a long time and don’t search for food, they will die. Secondly, If animals get satisfied at one intercourse for a long time, their genes fail the competition. The last, if animals focus on achieving the goal, pleasure is what reinforces the behavior. That is the reason we can not be satisfied at all.
In conclusion, Buddha’s diagnosis exactly pointed out the suffering aspect of human life even if he didn’t know neuroscience and modern psychology. I recognized why I was clinging to food and emotion that is uncontrol for me. Both embarrassing old memories do not hurt me anymore because I’m matured enough and I learned how to put aside my desires of instinct.（702words）
Guidelines for Grading Assignments （採点基準）
採点基準が明示されているので、それを基に下書きをチェックしました。サイトに書かれていた内容をMicrosoftワードのSmartArt（縦方向画像リスト）でイラスト付にしたら、ちょっと理解度が上がった気がします。ピアレビューで評価が得られたら、それもブログにアップします。
自己評価
いちおう自己評価もしておこう。読んで理解できる文章は書けたので、さすがに0点の項目はないでしょう。「公平性と正確性」「証拠と議論」は、もっと他の文献や資料を調べて、引用するなどの工夫をして精度があげられたら満点かな。「質問への回答」は、冒頭のパラグラフに入れたから3点。シンプルな文章しか書けないので、分かりやすさは満点の3点。合計12点満点中の10点としました。甘い採点かもしれませんが。。。（追記：朝になって読み直したら、全部2だと気づきました。8/12点ですね。。）
| Grading | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1 | Fairness and Accuracy 公平性と正確性 | 2 | |||
| 2 | Answering the question 質問への回答 | 3 | |||
| 3 | Evidence and Argument 証拠と議論 | 2 | |||
| 4 | Clarity 明瞭度 | 3 | |||
| TOTAL 合計 10/12 | 6 | 4 |
