Friday, May 12, 2017

PRAMANA - TERM 6 - SPRING 2017 AUDIO & RESOURCES

      Special Announcement:  Classes have moved from the Main Prayer Hall of IBD.  They are held in a classroom in the IBD building located 
on the steep street from the Temple Taxi stand to Chonor House.  
As you walk up that street  from the Taxi stand, go up 
the first exterior metal stairs on your right.
Timing of the WEDNESDAY Class is from 4:00-6:00 p.m.  

Class Materials

Following His Holiness the Dalai Lama's advice, Geshe Wangmo is translating the Second Chapter of Dharmakirti's Pramāņavarttika.  In accord with the methodology for teaching this ancient text at IBD and the great Tibetan monastic universities, Dharmatkirti's terse verses are embedded into Geshe Wangmo's translation of Gyaltsab (Darma Rinchen) Je's commentary.  Additionally, Geshe Wangmo, having received oral teachings on this text by several contemporary masters, has translated selected portions of those and inserted these explanations into the course text.

This SPRING 2017 Term continues the examination [begun in Class 22 of FALL 2016] of logical reasoning in support of & opposition to the verity of PAST & FUTURE LIVES that is presented in the Pramāņavarttika.

The entire text translated by Geshe Wangmo for prior terms with newly translated pages for this Spring term is posted below.  Geshe Wangmo is continue to prepare new pages of text that will be posted here when finalized.

DOWNLOAD PDF COURSE MATERIALS 


SPRING 2017 TEXT: 


NEW - May 12, 2017 - vs. 3 of Spring 2017 Text - includes 12 new pages [pp. 190-201].


SPRING 2017 TRANSCRIPTS:

 

Class PRAYERS (for before and after teaching) in Tibetan & English.

[NOTE:  If you view this PDF in your WEB BROWSER, the Tibetan Fonts may not display properly.  However, those fonts do display properly in the Downloaded PDF.]
Geshe Wangmo spoke about the class prayers at the beginning of the Spring 2015 Term.  The links to the excerpted recordings of her explanation are here:

Background Resources from Earlier Terms

If you are new to the Pramanavarttika, the resources on this blog can provide background for the studies in this Sixth Term. The first section of the text provides a general introduction.  The Diagrams & Charts provided in the Fall 2014 Term, as well as other class recordings, transcripts or class descriptions provided on the posts listed below may be of use.

DOWNLOAD CHARTS & MP3 Recordings of Classes of the FIRST PRAMANA term held in Fall 2014 here.
  See blog posts for Class 1 & Class 2 for an Introduction to the Pramanavarttika

You can find some CLASS [DRAFT] TRANSCRIPTS & AUDIO RECORDINGS on this BLOG from all the earlier Terms: Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016 & Fall 2016. 

DOWNLOAD MP3 Recordings of SPRING 2017 CLASSES

CLASS ONE - Monday, 10 APRIL 2017:

CLASS TWO - Wednesday, 12 APRIL 2017:

  •  Track 1.  Introduction to Course Text - Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika - a commentary on Dignaga's 2-line Homage for his Compendium of Pramana: 
To the one who has become pramana, the one wishing to benefit migrators, 
To “the teacher”, “the sugata”, “the protector”, I bow down. 
ཚད་མར་གྱུར་པ་འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་བཞད་པ། །སྟོན་པ་བདེ་ཤེགས་སྐྱོབ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ།

The homage refers to Five Factors, i.e., the Causes & Results of Enlightenment, and Dharmakirti analyzes those, first, according to their forward sequence, and then in reverse sequence.    

The prerequisite to the Cause of Intention (Bodhicitta - desire to benefit all sentient beings) is the generation, over many lifetimes, of Great Compassion.

Ancient Indian Materialist [Lokayata/Charvaka] Philosophers Objected to existence of Past & Futures Lives & to the possibility of generating Great Compassion.  Contemporary Materialism, which permeates modern society and education, similarly rejects the possibility of Past & Future Lives.  Buddhism requires the existence of past & future lives.  Even the law of Karma cannot operate otherwise.

In order to ascertain the existence of past & future lives, one must examine the relationship between the Mind and the Body:
  • What is the relationship between Mind & Body?  
  • Is the Mind or the Body a more important factor than the other?  
  • Does one give rise to the other?  Is one Part of the other?
Practice Mindfulness of one's own Body & Mind to investigate the Body/Mind relationship.
  • Track 2.  Discussion and Q&A - Relationship between Mind and Body. 

CLASS THREE - Friday, 14 APRIL 2017:

CLASS FOUR - Monday, 17 APRIL 2017:

CLASS FIVE - Wednesday, 19 APRIL 2017:

  • Track 1.  Introduction & Review:  
    • Hearing, Contemplating & Meditating. 
    • Discussions: Benefits of Watching Our Mind/Awareness; 
      • Body/Mind Relationship; 
      • Out-of-Body & Near Death Experiences. 
      • Is the Mind necessarily Located in the Body?
  • Track 2. Text: Body is Not the Special Base of the Mind:
    • Special Base is Either a Substantial Cause or a Special Cooperative Condition
    • Mind is a special base of the body, i.e., a special cooperative condition of the body. 
    • What about Karma Ripening Instantly?
    • Definitive & Interpretive Teachings.
    • Higher Rebirth, Liberation & Omniscience are only possible with Reincarnation.
    • Importance of certain varieties of Faith.
  • Track 3. Syllogism Through the Power of Fact: 
      • 3 Categories of Phenomena:  
        • Manifest, Slightly Hidden & Extremely Hidden. 
    • Very Hidden Phenomena:  Celestial, Hungry Ghost & Hell Realms of the Desire Realm & the Celestial Beings of the Form Realm.  
    • Hell Realms & the Lack of Any Objective Existence. 
    • Syllogism of Belief.  
    • Considerations for the Next Class

CLASS SIX - Friday, 21 APRIL 2017:

CLASS SEVEN - Monday, 24 APRIL 2017:

  • Track 1.   Q&A, Discussion - Karma

  • Track 2.  Questions for Study on p. 176 - Answers/Discussion:
    • How does the body serve as the mere base of the mind?
    • Why is it necessary to understand and realize Past & Future Lives in order to work for Liberation and Enlightenment?
    • Syllogism through the Power of Fact & Syllogism of Belief
    • Three Natures:  Hearer Nature, Solitary Realizer Nature & Mahayana Nature (awoken upon generating Great Compassion).  
      • Causes for Great Compassion & Causes for Bodhicitta

  • Track 3.  Presentation/Explanation of new text material (p. 176-7):

"Setting forth the Establishing Agent of the Existence of Past & Future Lives:
    (1) Setting forth the Reasons:    [Dharmakirti says in the Pramanavarttika:]

When one has thoroughly taken birth,
Inhalations, exhalations, sense powers, and awarenesses
Do [not] exist independently of similar types.

"Regarding the subject, a newly-born ordinary being’s exhalations and inhalations, [his] lucid sense powers and specific awarenesses such as distractedness, etc., they do not – when [that being] has fully taken birth – exist independently of earlier [continuums] of similar types, because of possessing exhalations and inhalations, and so forth." - 1st Syllogism
  • Three Syllogisms to Establish Continuum of Consciousness
  • Explanation of Syllogisms 
  • [Homework - be Mindful of Anger]
  • Exhalation & Inhalation - Energy Winds

CLASS EIGHT - Wednesday, 26 APRIL 2017:

  •  TRANSCRIPT - Rev. 6/25/17 corrects PDF Mis-Print

  • Track 1.  Review:  Mindfulness of Body, Mind, Feelings & Dharma.
    • Approaches to Studying Our Text
  • Track 2.  Three Syllogisms - Establishing Continuum of Consciousness:
    •  Earlier Continuum of a Similar Type - the Substantial Cause of later continuum. 
      • Is whatever is an earlier continuum of something always its cause? 
    • Lucid Sense Powers. 
    • Specific Awareness, e.g., Distractedness.
    • Newly Born Conception. 
      • Respiration & Sense Powers in Newly Born Conception.
    • Clear Light Mind & Post-Death Meditation
  • Track 3.  Subtle Mind [Clear & Knowing] is One Entity with Its Subtle Energy [Movement]
    • Phenomena Can be Different & Inseparably of One Nature, e.g., 
      •  Consciousness & Its Energy Wind
      •  Color & Taste of Blueberry Cake

CLASS NINE - Friday, 28 APRIL 2017:

  • Track 1.  Analysis of Emptiness & Continua
    • A Seed & Sprout are a Continuum
    • If there is No Smallest Moment of Time, What is the Last Moment of burning Butter Lamp?
    • Lack of Intrinsically Existent First Moment of Sprout Germination
    • Relative & Ultimate Analysis
      • SPACE - Permanent & Impermanent Space
      • Negative Phenomena
    • If First Moment of Consciousness in the Continuum of a Newly Conceived Person is Not from Physical Ovum & Sperm, does it come:
      • From the Parents’ Awarenesses?  
      • As Part of Matter?  
      • From a Single/Divine/Group Origin?
  • Track 2.  Positive & Negative Concomitance
    • Presentation of Gyaltsab Je Commentary, p. 178: 
      "It is through the ascertainment of positive and negative concomitance that it is established that the distractedness, etc., of awareness is generated by familiarity with its cause. Were that not to be the case, there would be a logical absurdity: it would follow that there are no causes and results, because there would be no pramana that ascertains them."
    • Positive Concomitance:   positive relationship between a cause and a result:
      • When you have a result, there must have been a cause.
      • When you have a cause, the result can be created.
    • Negative  Concomitance:   negative relationship between a cause and a result:
      • When you don’t have the result, you didn’t have the cause
      • When there’s no cause, the result cannot be generated.
    • Also:
      • Whenever you have a cause, you don’t necessarily have a result.
      • Any result always has more than one cause:
        • You cannot have a result that has not arisen from many causes.
      • You cannot have a cause that gives rise to only one result
    • Imprints, Potentials, Seeds & Karmic Imprints
    • Habituating Ourselves with the Afflictions
      • Our responsibility to be happier for the sake of others.
      • Positive Counterpart Exists for Every Negative Emotional Affliction.
  • Track 3. Establishing that Familiarity with Afflictive Mental States requires Causes (past Habituation in a Former Mental Continuum).
    • Then Dharmakirt says [p. 179]:  "They are not generated by the body alone,"
    • Gyaltsab Je's commentary:  “Also, regarding that subject, they are not generated by the elemental body alone, because they are generated by an earlier [continuum of] an awareness, etc., that is of a similar type.”
    • Respiration - Mental Effort is Required

CLASS TEN - Monday, 1 MAY 2017:

CLASS ELEVEN - Wednesday, 3 MAY 2017:
  • Track 1.  Review & Discussion:  Feasibility of Rebirth in Lower Realms:
    • Concerns, Worries & Fears about future lower rebirth.  Intention/Motivation of Karma (i.e., Action) Effects Karmic fruit.  Rebirth by a Human into a Lower Realm. How can Carnivore Animals ever attain Human rebirth? Purification of Karmic consequences of negative deeds.
  • Track 2.  Having “proven” existence of Past Lives, Dharmakirti debates with Materialists re Existence of Future Lives:
    • Can Matter [atoms of ovum & sperm] produce Consciousness (Experiencing Minds)
    • Taking Reincarnation as a Working Hypothesis, Supplement Reasoning with Evidence & Personal Investigation
    • Relationship of Mind & Body - Placebo & Nocebo evidence power of Consciousness over matter.

CLASS TWELVE - Friday, 5 MAY 2017:

  • Track 1. Causes & Conditions necessary for rebirth: 
    • Responses to Doubts about one Syllogistic Reasoning supporting Reincarnation: 'Mind of a Newly Born [i.e.., Conceived] Being, Its Cause is a Preceding Mind Because it was Preceded by a Knower that is its cause, because it is a Knower';
    • Syllogism’s Reasoning; Every Impermanent Phenomenon Is a Continuum.  
    • Can the Law of Karma Provides the Causal Explanation to “Nurture or Nature” Dilemma?
  • Track 2.  Any Mind Is Necessarily Preceded by Its Substantial Cause, a Former Moment Of Awareness.  
    • Every Impermanent Phenomenon Is a Continuum.  
    • How to Establish Pervasion of a Syllogism.  
    • Death & Rebirth in Human & Animal Realms per Buddhism & Expression of Prior Life Traits.

CLASS THIRTEEN - Monday, 8 MAY 2017:

CLASS FOURTEEN - Wednesday, 10 MAY 2017:



           If you wish to download a Class Recording within 24-48 hours* of 
the class, before it is posted above due to some delay here, 
 you can request a recording from one of our 
student's DROPBOX account.  
Please send your request to gilahp@yahoo.com.
You will receive a DROPBOX link to download the recording.  
*Due to DROPBOX space constraints, a class recording is available 
for only a limited time period.

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