Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies: English classes in Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy: 2011 Class 1 - Abhisamayalamkara

On Monday, April 4, Gen Kelsang Wangmo began teaching the Spring 2011 semester of the multi-year Perfection of Wisdom Studies course offered by the Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies' English Language Program in Advanced Buddhist Philosophy in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala.

You can download PDF's of Class Handout and Notes as well as MP3 Tracks of this class below. The Class Notes are very rough DRAFT offered for 'what they're worth' to aid students of the course. The MP3 Tracks are divided to ease both downloading and listening.

DOWNLOAD PDF's:

2011 Handout 1 - Perfection of Wisdom
Very ROUGH DRAFT of CLASS NOTES

DOWNLOAD MP3 Tracks:

Track 1 - Advice re: Study of Buddhist Philosophy.

Buddha's advice to be applied in the study & practice of the Tibetan / Nalanda Tradition of Buddhism:

“Like gold that is acquired upon being scorched, cut and rubbed,

my word is to be adopted by monastics and scholars

upon analyzing it well, not out of respect for me.”

Hearing, Contemplating & Meditation - Three Steps of Buddhist Practice
Study is for Practice - not for intellectual 'mind games'
   Extensive Study is Extremely Important:
   Precious Human Rebirth – Right here in Dharamasala
   What does Extensive Study mean? Learning / Practices the Buddhist Paths

Track 2 - What is a Path?

“Bodhisattvas should practice all Paths --

whatever is the Path of a Shravaka (Hearer),

a Pratyeka-buddha (Solitary Realizer) or a Buddha --

and should know all Paths. They should also perform the deeds

of these Paths and bring all of them to completion.”

Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eighteen Thousand Verses.

Practice What You Study.
Reasons – False or Correct – guide all our emotions and actions.
Nothing is more difficult to accomplish than Changing the Mind -
Buddhist Goals are Not Achieved in just One Life Time.
Study provides practitioners self-sufficiency – meaningful Reliance on the Lama.
As Era of Degeneracy of Buddha Dharma Deepens – Buddhist practitioners have increasing personal responsibility for its contemporary preservation.

Track 3 - Perfection of Wisdom - ཕར་ཕྱིན་ - Handout 1

Monastic Curriculum studies Five Great Canonical Texts:

Prajnaparamita - Skt. = Perfection of Wisdom = ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་པ་རོལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ - abbrv. - ཕར་ཕྱིན་ Phar Chin. Studies the Implicit meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, i.e., study of the different meditational paths that lead to Enlightenment.
Madhyamika - Skt. = Middle Way = དབུ་མ་ - Uma. Explicit meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, study of the Middle Way - Emptiness.
Pramanavartica - Skt. = Epistemology = ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ། - Tshe ma nam drel = Commentary on Valid Cognition. Study of logic.
Abidharma - Skt. = Phenomenology = ཆོས་མངོན་པ་མཛོད། - choe ngoen pa Dzoe = Treasury of Higher Knowledge.
Vinaya - Skt. = Discipline = འདུལ་བ། - duel wa. Study of monastic discipline.