Terje Sparby

My background is in my philosophy, in particular German idealism. I received my PhD from the University in Heidelberg. The topic of my thesis was Hegel’s logic. Over the last years my focus has been meditation research. The change of focus started when I was a visiting scholar at the Mind and Life Institute. Currently, I’m working on a project on anthroposophical meditation in cooperation with the Bender Institute of Neuroimaging at the University of Giessen. The center of my interest is increasingly introspective/phenomenological research and the first person perspective. My aim is to find ways of cross-pollinating anthroposophical meditation and academic research methods.

For me anthroposophical meditation is a way of uniting spirituality with science; a way of fully accepting, honoring, and developing what has happened within the natural sciences throughout the last centuries, within society and culture, while retaining a deep and experientially based connection to divinity. The ability of working creatively with the tension of spirituality and science is something I find unique to anthroposophy. It allows me to be fully human, fully present in everything life has to offer, while at the still time uniting scientific objectivity and rigor with devotion and wonder. This gift that anthroposophy presents can hardly be underestimated.

I will present some results of my own research on anthroposophical meditation and share thoughts on the way I have been struggling with, and developing through, my encounter with anthroposophy, both personally and academically.

Terje Sparby will be part of the workgroup <Anthroposophische Meditation und buddhistische Meditation - Ergänzungen und Widersprüche>

Read the interview with Terje Sparby here