Professor Lauren Bausch arrived in Pune, India on July 4 after getting the prestigious Fulbright Scholar award for research. She is hosted by the Department of Pāli and Buddhist Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University, where she enjoys regular Sanskrit workshops on Buddhist texts. At Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, she has been meeting regularly with Professor Thite, a leading expert in the field of Brāhmaṇa texts, to translate Vedic passages and discuss what they mean. She spends most of her time reading, translating, and gathering materials for her research. She has written almost 150 single-spaced pages since she arrived but still has much work to do in her remaining time in India.

Lauren shares photos from her experience in India so far. She is determined to make the most out of her time as a Fulbright-Nehru scholar doing research in India. She devotes most of her time to researching and writing her book on Vedic philosophy, but she has also started interviewing Brahmins to find out more about the living Vedic tradition. To support her meditation practice, Lauren practices yoga twice a week under a longtime student of Iyengar. She was fortunate to spend a week writing in the Himālayan region of Leh (Ladakh), which has a millennium-long Buddhist tradition.

Here is her message to the DRBU community – 

I hope everybody’s having a great year! I’ve been talking about DRBU with many people here. I’m working with the head of the Department of Pāli to lead a Contemplative Exercise Immersion (CEI) for the Department of Pāli and Buddhist Studies in December. I hope also to share with them our pedagogy of ‘Shared Inquiry’. Hopefully, they can get a taste of it, and I can share that on behalf of DRBU. This time to think through Vedic philosophy and answer some long-standing questions is extremely satisfying. I am thoroughly enjoying being part of the vibrant community in the Pāli Department and learning from my colleagues here.

Read more about her Fulbright award and research