Topic Mark II

After a bit of further research, I've decided to narrow down my topic a bit. I realized that doing a comparative project on meditation in Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism is a bit ambitious; there's just too much to learn about all three religions before I can truly understand how meditation fits into the bigger picture. I'd rather go more in-depth into the neuroscience piece than only skim the surface of all four aspects. Because of this, I'm changing my topic to be solely focused on buddhist meditation. Buddhism seems to be the religion that puts the most emphasis on meditation out of the three; meditation in Taoism and Hinduism seems to be more of a footnote in the broader spiritual practices and rituals, whereas in Buddhism, it's central. This also makes sense with the neuroscience aspect because the focus of the studies on meditation I have read has been meditative practices in Buddhist monks, not Taoist or Hindu spiritual leaders.
My goal for the upcoming day or so is to figure out a bit more about what I'm going to be doing for my outside of class 'field trip'. I know I want to take a day and visit the Zen center, but I'd also like to see if I can maybe talk to a local meditation expert, to get their perspective on what meditation means to them, and how it has changed their view on the world. In addition, I'd like to see if I can wrangle an interview with a local professor of psych or neuroscience to find out a bit more about what the new studies on meditation mean for their field.