PRAMANA Course - TERM 1 - FALL 2014 resources

In accordance with the suggestion of H.H. Dalai Lama to our teacher, Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, in May 2014, the Advanced Buddhist Philosophy in English program of the Institute for Buddhist Dialectical studies is offering a new course on the Second Chapter of Dharmakirti's Commentary on [Dignaga's] Compendium of Valid Cognition (Skt. Pramāņavarttika; ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་).

The multi-year Perfection of Wisdom course (based on Maitreya's Ornament for Clear Realizations (Abhisamayalamkara) that began several years ago is on temporary hiatus and will resume upon completion of this course.

Following His Holiness' advice, Geshe Wangmo is translating the Second Chapter of Dharmakirti's Pramāņavarttika and other commentarial materials that are used in Tibetan Monastic institutions to present this very important text and its deep meaning to students.

The Text [Handout for the Fall 2014 Term] prepared by Geshe Wangmo for the first term of the Pramana Course includes:

• An INTRODUCTION to the Pramana course.
• Gyaltsab Je's Elucidation of the Path to Liberation, a Detailed Explanation of the Verses of the Pramāņavarttika [tshad ma rnam 'grel gyi tshig le'ur byes pa rnam bshad thar lam gsal byed - ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་གྱི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱེས་པ་རྣམ་བཤད་ཐར་ལམ་གསལ་བྱེད།], commonly known as, Elucidation of the Path to Liberation [ཐར་ལམ་གསལ་བྱེད་].  
• The verses of the Pramāņavarttika are embedded into Gyaltsab Je's commentary.  They are distinguished in the course text by different formatting and fonts - see, Technical Note on page 11 of the Fall 2014 Text.
• Geshe Wangmo has translated relevant recordings and notes of oral teachings by prominent contemporary Geluk scholars and inserted those into the text to provide explanation of difficult points.  Some of those masters are:  Geshe Yeshe Thabgyal, Geshe Palden Drakpa, Geshe Wangchen, Geshe Gyatso, Geshe Tsering Norbu.

Additionally, Geshe Wangmo prepared three Handouts of Charts, Illustrations, Diagrams as study aids for topics raised in the text.

As an aid for students, Study Questions regarding most important important points raised in the text are included therein.

Because of extensive materials that required translation, etc., and prior commitments, the Fall 2014 Term will be limited to the Month of October.  The next term will be for two months in the Spring of 2015.

DOWNLOAD PDF COURSE MATERIALS

TEXT for FALL 2014 TERM. 

3 PDFs of CHARTS, ILLUSTRATION &  DIAGRAMS: CHARTS 1-12. CHARTS 13-15. CHARTS 16-28.

DOWNLOAD CLASS TRANSCRIPTS for this COURSE

TEXT for each Class appears in body of transcript when Geshe-la reads it out loud and, otherwise, in footnotes.

DRAFT Transcript of Class 1 (Oct. 1, 2014).
DRAFT Transcript of Class 2 (Oct. 3, 2014). 

DOWNLOAD MP3 Recordings for Fall 2014 Course Term

See, CLASS ONE Blog Post for information about this class and links to the MP3 tracks.

See, CLASS TWO Blog Post for outline of this Class & links to MP3 tracks.

Download a single track for Classes 3-13 below. These are rather large files, so please give your feedback regarding any difficulties you may encounter in downloading them. Once Blog Posts are created for a class, the single track will be replaced with edited tracks.

CLASS THREE - Friday, October 10

CLASS FOUR - Monday, October 13

CLASS FIVE - Wednesday, October 15

CLASS SIX - Friday, October 17

CLASS SEVEN - Monday, October 20

CLASS EIGHT - Wednesday, October 22

CLASS NINE - Friday, October 24

CLASS TEN - Monday, October 27

CLASS ELEVEN - Wednesday, October 29

CLASS TWELVE - Friday, October 31

CLASS THIRTEEN - Monday, November 3