An innovative academic program for the Spanish-speaking world
The fascinating confluence between an ancient spiritual tradition and the challenges of the contemporary world comes to life once again in the second edition of the innovative academic program announced by the Fundació Universitat Rovira i Virgili (FURV) and the Dharma-Gaia Foundation (FDG). This online course, focused on exploring modern and contemporary expressions of Buddhism, has opened its registration period and offers a unique opportunity for Spanish-speaking students.
A consolidated academic collaboration
This training proposal is the fruit of the solid alliance established between FURV and FDG in 2021. It represents the natural evolution of a shared commitment to the rigorous dissemination of Buddhist knowledge in Spanish-speaking academia. Scheduled for the last quarter of 2025, the course responds to the growing academic and social interest in understanding how a philosophy with twenty-five centuries of history establishes a living and relevant dialogue with the paradigms and challenges of the contemporary world.
The announcement of this program comes after the resounding success of the previous courses that provided a complete overview of the main Buddhist traditions: "Early Buddhism and the Theravāda Tradition: Teachings and Practices" (October-December 2024); "Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Expansion in East Asia" (April-June 2025); and "Vajrayāna and Tibetan Buddhism: Teachings and Practices" (October-December 2025). Each of these trainings had between 60 and 80 participants and received exceptionally positive evaluations, consolidating an educational trajectory of excellence.
Program approach and contents
This course is designed to provide, from various perspectives and disciplines, a comprehensive overview of modern Buddhism and Buddhism's presence in the contemporary world. It examines the ways in which modernity has influenced our understanding of the Dharma from the 19th century to the present day, and how the modern world has also been influenced by this ancient tradition.
We will begin by examining the concept of modern Buddhism and look at the history, multiple trends and main features of Buddhism's adaptation to today's world. We will then focus on two thematic areas of particular relevance: the intersections between Buddhism and science, and between Buddhism, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. We will then analyze the presence of Buddhism in contemporary societies and see how this tradition has responded to current issues such as gender equality, homosexuality, feminism, the climate crisis, interreligious dialogue, bioethical concerns and artificial intelligence. We will pay special attention to the history, situation and defining features of Buddhism in Ibero-America, Buddhism in cyberspace, and the impact of the dharma on contemporary art and popular culture.
After a description of how the great traditions of Buddhism have adapted to the modern world, we will explore the movements that shaped humanistic or socially engaged Buddhism. This course has a large experiential component, with several meditation workshops in which we will learn modern expressions of ancient meditative practices.
Methodology and learning experience
Transcending the purely academic approach, the course incorporates practical workshops where participants will directly experience different meditative techniques that have been creatively adapted to the contemporary context, thus establishing an experiential bridge between theory and practice. This multidisciplinary approach combines the highest academic rigor with practical experiences that enrich the learning process.
One of the most valued features of the program is its flexible format, allowing students to choose between attending live sessions -with the possibility of interacting with the teachers- or accessing the recordings afterwards, adapting to the diverse needs and time zones of participants from anywhere in the world. This hybrid modality guarantees an accessible, personalized and high quality learning experience. The sessions have been scheduled at times that are compatible with participants from Latin America.
Practical details
Language: It is taught in Spanish and is aimed at both university students and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of contemporary Buddhism.
Duration: The course comprises 60 teaching hours (equivalent to 6 ECTS credits), distributed in two weekly sessions of 2.5 hours each through the virtual campus (Moodle) of the URV.
Dates and schedule: From September 30 to December 19, 2025. The sessions will be held in the afternoon (16:00 to 18:30, Spanish time), facilitating participation from different time zones.
Enrollment: With a limit of 50 places, which will be filled in strict order of enrollment, the course has a cost of 180 €. The only academic requirement is to have completed secondary education.
Certification: Participants who attend at least 80% of the sessions and complete the final paper will receive an official certificate issued jointly by FURV and FDG.
Final paper: To obtain certification, students will be required to submit an essay of approximately 2000 words on one of the topics covered during the course. Detailed guidelines and advice will be provided for the preparation of this paper.
Program and teachers
Agustí Pàniker Vilaplana (Barcelona, 1959) is director of the Kairós publishing house, essayist, lecturer, and a great scholar of India and world religions. He is a professor in several university masters, among them the Master of Religions and Societies of the Pablo Olavide University (Seville). He has also taught on the Master's Degree in History of Religions at the UAB-UB, on the Master's Degree in Asian and Pacific Studies at the UB and on the Master's Degree in Immigration and Intercultural Education at the UB. He is the author, among others, of the books: Jainism. History, society, philosophy and practice(Kairós, 2001); Índika. Una descolonización intelectual: reflexiones sobre la historia, la etnología, la política y la religión en el Sur de Asia (Kairós, 2005); Los sikhs (Kairós, 2007); El sueño de Shitala. Journey into the World of Religions (Kairos, 2011); The Caste Society: Religion and Politics in India (Kairos, 2014) and The Three Jewels. The Buddha, his teaching and the community (Kairos, 2018). He has written numerous articles in university publications and popular magazines on different aspects of societies, traditions, religions and cultures of the world.
In this course, Agustín Pániker will teach the fundamental sessions on the historical development of modern Buddhism:
September 30 (Tuesday): Introduction to modern Buddhism, bibliography, definitions (traditional/modern/postmodern)
2 October (Thursday): Developments of modern Buddhism in Sri Lanka (unity, textualization, rationalization).
6 October (Monday): Developments of modern Buddhism in Southeast Asia (meditation centrality, politicization).
10 October (Friday): Developments of modern Buddhism in Japan (romantic filter, "new Buddhism", Suzuki).
14 October (Tuesday): Developments of modern Buddhism in China (worldly oriented, engaged Buddhism).
16 October (Thursday): Developments of modern Buddhism in Tibet (demythologization).
21 October (Tuesday): Developments of modern Buddhism in the West (encounter Buddhism, Irradiations, subjective turn, individualism, interaction with science).
23 October (Thursday): Developments of modern and postmodern Buddhism in the West (psychologization, inclusivity, mindfulness, critical potential).
Sergio Stern Nicolayevsky has been a psychoanalyst in private practice since 1989. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and did postgraduate studies at the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association, the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom, and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he completed a master's degree in existentialism and phenomenology. Born in Mexico City in 1963 into a family of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, throughout his career Sergio has given numerous talks on Buddhism and psychoanalysis in various meditation centers and published academic and popular articles on the subject. He lives in the city of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, and is the founder of Montaña Despierta, a space for the practice of meditation inspired by Zen Buddhism, located in that city since 2008. Montaña Despierta is a member of Branching Streams, a network of practice centers in the tradition of Master Suzuki Roshi and belonging to the San Francisco Zen Center, where Sergio has practiced and learned from his masters for many years(www.mdzen.com). He is the author of El cuenco vacío: Aportaciones de un psicoanalista al estudio del Buddhadharma published by Ed. Gedisa, Barcelona, 2022.
Sergius Stern Nicolayevsky will lecture on Buddhist psychology and its contemporary applications on the following days:
28 October (Tuesday): Buddhism, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy I.
30 October (Thursday): Buddhism, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy II.
María Elvira Ríos Peñafiel (Santiago, Chile 1980) holds a master's degree and PhD in Asian and African Studies, with a specialization in China, from the Center for Asian and African Studies at El Colegio de México (2015). She was a doctoral student of the renowned professor Luis Óscar Gómez. She has published her research on Buddhism and Chinese culture in multiple academic journals. She is coordinator of Nuevos diálogos: Asia y África desde la mirada latinoamericana, El Colegio de México (2019). She has been advisor of the Chinese Language Project of the Ministry of Education of Chile (2015-2018), researcher-coordinator of the project Licenciatura en Estudios Chinos, Universidad Santo Tomás (2018). She has taught courses on Buddhism in various Latin American academic institutions, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Aesthetics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with the research "The ecological reflection of Chinese Buddhism". She is currently an adjunct researcher at the Millennium Nucleus ICLAC, Catholic University of Chile, professor at the Dharma Gaia Foundation and member of RIEB, ALADAA Chile and LEB.
4 November (Tuesday): Buddhism and ecology
Francisco Díez de Velasco
Professor of History of Religions and specialist in Buddhism in Spain:
He is a professor at the University of La Laguna (profile: history of religions). He holds a PhD in History and a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology. His publications include: La diversidad religiosa en España: reflexiones y ejemplos ( Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas, 2023); Budismo en España: historia, visibilización e implantación (Madrid, Akal, 2013); Budismo en España: historia y presente (Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas, 2020); Religiones en España: historia y presente (Madrid, Akal, 2012); Introducción a la Historia de las Religiones (3rd edition, Madrid, Trotta, 2002); La historia de las religiones: métodos y perspectivas ( Madrid, Akal, 2005), Breve historia de las Religiones (Madrid, Alianza, 2006-2014) or as editor El estudio de la Religión (Madrid, Trotta, 2002 with F. García Bazán), Religiones entre continentes: Minorías religiosas en Canarias (Barcelona, Icaria, 2008); Las iglesias ortodoxas en España ( Madrid, Akal, 2015); Ephemeris Blázquez I: José María Blázquez y la Historia de las Religiones (Madrid, Ediciones Clásicas, 2020). He has been from 2006 to 2021 editor of the journal Bandue. Revista de la Sociedad Española de Ciencias de las Religiones. He teaches History of Religions (Degree in History, ULL), Religious Diversity and Cultural Integration (Degree in Anthropology, ULL) and Theory and Methodology of the History of Religions (Master in Sciences of Religions UCM and UPO/UCIII/ULL). He is a Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academy of History since 2013.
6 November (Thursday): History, situation and features of Buddhism in Spain.
Catón Eduardo Carini holds a degree in Anthropology from the Universidad Nacional de la Plata (UNLP), a master's degree in Social Anthropology from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and a PhD in Anthropology from the UNLP. He is an associate researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina and professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the UNLP. He became interested in Buddhism in 1999 when he began practicing Zen meditation with the French master Stéphane Thibaut of the Zen Association of Latin America. Subsequently, she focused on the practice of Vipassana meditation in centers linked to the Burmese master S. N. Goenka, as well as in the practice of the dzogchen tradition of vajrayana, under the guidance of the Tibetan master Chogyal Namkhai Norbu.
Anthropologist specialized in Latin American Buddhism and meditative practices:
11 November (Tuesday): History, situation and features of Buddhism in Ibero-America.
13 November (Thursday): Buddhism in cyberspace, in contemporary art and future trends.
December 2 (Tuesday): Meditation Workshop 1: Vipassana Meditation linked to Master S. N. Goenka
December 4 (Thursday): Meditation workshop 2: Zen meditation in the line of Deshimaru
December 9 (Tuesday): Meditation workshop 3: The practice of the dzogchen tradition of vajrayana.
Montserrat Castellà Olivé has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since the late 1970s. Under the authorization of her teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe, she conducts retreats and meditation workshops integrating the practice of Qi Gong. She is an editor and translator of Buddhist texts, including Tsultrim Allione's Women of Wisdom and Judith Simmer-Brown' s The Warm Breath of the Dakini. She is the author of several articles on women and Buddhism, as well as on interreligious dialogue. Co-founder and current vice-president of the Coordinadora Catalana d'Entitats Budistes (CCEB), founding president of Sakyadhita Spain, the association of Buddhist women, and former president of the Associació UNESCO per al diàleg interreligiós (AUDIR).
18 November (Tuesday): Buddhism and women and interreligious dialogue.
José Antonio Rodríguez Díaz completed his PhD in Sociology at Yale University (USA) with grants from the Social Science Research Council and the Fulbright Commission. He is Professor and has been Director of the Department of Sociology and Director of the Doctoral Program in Sociology at the University of Barcelona. He has been a visiting professor at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Yale University and the University of California at Santa Barbara. His current research and publications focus on the role of social networks in organizations and societies, futures studies and the social dimensions of happiness. These lines of research converge in the study of the processes of transformation and articulation of Buddhism in modern society.
November 20 (Thursday): Buddhism and contemporary society I
24 November (Monday): Buddhism and contemporary society II
27 November (Thursday): Buddhism and contemporary society III
Denise Welsch holds a BA in Sociocultural Anthropology from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires, is a doctoral fellow at the Institute of Anthropological Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires and a lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology. She is the author of several articles on the Buddhist practice of the Soka Gakkai in Argentina. She is interested in the study of the symbolic aspects of religious practices and how they shape processes of construction and transformation of subjectivity.
December 11 (Thursday): Pure Land Buddhism. Nichiren.
Ferran Mestanza Garcia is an outstanding practitioner and scholar of dhamma since 1996, with a solid background in Buddhist and classical Tibetan studies. A graduate of the Brown University School of Public Health and disciple of Tibetologist Ramon Prats, he holds a BA in Humanities from UPF and a BA in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, specializing in Tibetan, from INALCO, as well as a DEA in Advanced Asian Studies from EPHE. He has lived in India, Nepal and Paris, deepening his knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, and is the founding director of the Mindfulness Center of Barcelona, where he promotes the accessibility of mindfulness practices based on Buddhist teachings for all audiences. His work as a translator of Buddhist texts in Tibetan and his commitment to the authentic transmission of the dharma consolidate him as a key figure in the field of Buddhist and Tibetan studies in contemporary contexts.
December 15 (Monday): Meditation workshop: The practice of mindfulness
December 19 (Friday): Meditation workshop The practice of mindfulness
How to register?
Registration is now open and places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To ensure your participation in this unique program, you can complete the registration form through the official website of the Fundació Universitat Rovira i Virgili(https://www.fundacio.urv.cat/budismo_moderno_y_contemporaneo/of_es/es/CBUDMICCA-A1-2025-2) or contact the course secretariat directly by e-mail: formacio@fundacio.urv.cat.
Do not miss the opportunity to be part of this educational experience that combines academic rigor with the ancient wisdom of Buddhism adapted to our times.
Links of interest:
Rovira i Virgili University 2020 presentation video
Articles published in Buddhistdoor in English
"The situation of Buddhist studies in Spain: teaching programs" by Juan Arnau Navarro, Montse Castellà Olivé, Francisco Díez de Velasco, Ricardo Guerrero Diáñez, Basili Llorca Martínez, Daniel Millet, Agustín Pániker Vilaplana, Aleix Ruiz Falqués, Jaume Vallverdú Vallverdú, Abraham Vélez de Cea.
María Elvira Ríos: "An Ecosophical Interpretation of the Buddhist Experience of Ganying " de
Sergio Stern Nicolayevsky: "The empty bowl: Contributions of a psychoanalyst to the study of the Buddhadharma".
José Antonio Rodríguez Díaz: "Values and actions of Buddhists for more harmonious and sustainable societies".
Montserrat Castellà Olivé: "Emerging Paradigms and Spiritual Traditions".
Dr. Catón Eduardo Carini: "Buddhist traditions in contemporary Argentina".
Other related articles published in Buddhistdoor in English
"Interview with Agustín Pániker, director of Editorial Kairós" by Daniel Millet.
"Contributions to the sociology of Buddhism. Interview with José Antonio Rodríguez Díaz" Daniel Millet.
"Interview with Montse Castellà Olivé, president of Sakyadhita Spain" by Daniel Millet.
Other related articles published in Buddhistdoor in English
"Interview with Agustín Pániker, director of Editorial Kairós" by Daniel Millet.
As a result of this fruitful collaboration between FDG and URV, the following has recently been published Buddhist Studies in Latin America and Spaina two-volume academic work that aims to expand knowledge of this ancient tradition in the Spanish-speaking world. This work was edited by Professor Jaume Vallverdú, PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology and professor of the Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work of the URV, and Dr. Daniel Millet, president and founder of the Dharma-Gaia Foundation. Co-published by Publicacions Universitat Rovira i Virgili and the Dharma-Gaia Foundation, this work brings together the contributions of leading specialists in the field of Buddhist studies in Spanish, consolidating itself as a key resource for research in this field of study. Both volumes are available in PDF format and can be downloaded free of charge through the following links first volume and second volume
