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, Dharmakirti'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.Current version of this Term's Pramanavarttika text.
Geshe Wangmo is creating a Glossary of important terminology. The 1st installment is here.
- Class Prayers
- TIBETAN - Pramanavarttika Commentary by Gyalsab Je with Dharmakirti's root verses.
Resources for this Term
H.H. Dalai Lama's teaching* on Buddhapalita's Commentary on Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way in September 2018 includes material Geshe Kelsang Wangmo references as particularly relevant. Video's of the 4-day teaching are available on the Dalai Lama YouTube Channel & linked here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4. *This is the second year of these teachings, which were requested by a multi-national group of Asians.MP3 recordings of Geshe Kelsang Wangmo translating REVIEW Sessions by Geshe Thupten Palsang are being posted here. They are edited to remove the Tibetan & Chinese portions of the original recordings: Day 1: Review & Q&A.
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, Fall 2014, here.
DOWNLOAD MP3 Recordings of FALL 2018 CLASSES
CLASS ONE - Monday, 17 September 2018:
- Track 1. Introduction to this term, praying to God, Compassion.
- NOTE: This track's audio quality suffers due to monsoon downpour & ends after the Power to Geshe Wangmo's microphone went off.
- Track 2. Past & Future Lives. Dharmakirti challenges the ancient Indian materialist/hedonist philosophy school [Lokayata aka Charvaka] which, like our era's dominant Scientific Materialism, rejects karma, past or future lives, etc.
- NOTE: Audio quality is improved by new mike & rain lessening & ceasing.
- Track 3. Q&A re Reincarnation, Bardo, and more.
- Geshe Wangmo speaks of the importance of Reincarnation, which is often hard for Western materialists to accept, in the practice of Buddhism. She advises that we watch YouTube Videos regarding, for instance, the Reincarnation Research of (deceased) Ian Stevenson, MD, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry Chair.
- Track 1. Prayers & Glossary. Introduction to complex study of different types of causation & effects. Chapter 7 of Buddhapalita's Commentary on the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way [which H.H. Dalai Lama taught earlier in September*] is particularly relevant here. Is the Body the indispensable cause of the Mind, or vice versa? Per Buddhism, Mind is the Indispensable cause of the Body, but we must establish convincing proof of this thesis that the Body is result of coarse and subtle thoughts. An indispensable cause can either be the indispensable cause or a Special Cooperative Condition for an effect. E.g., a bottle is the special cooperative condition of a bottle of water as the vessel containing the water. Likewise a Body is the special indispensable condition of a Mind, i.e., a Mental Consciousness. Videos of the 4 day-teaching are on the Dalai Lama YouTube channel {Day 1}.
- Track 2. Subtle Impermanence. How can we say that a sprout that is changing moment-to-moment [e.g., into a flower] is a sprout when during the sprout's abiding as a sprout, it is changing, i.e., disintegrating towards the moment when it is no longer present & a flower has arisen? All characteristics of phenomena can only be designated in relation to other characteristics of phenomena.
[Dharmakirti says in the Pramanavarttika]:
Without a transformation of the substantial cause
The substantial result would be unable to change.
[This is] like, [for] example, without the transformation [61]
Of the clay [there would be no transformation of a clay] vase, and so forth.
[Gyaltsab Je's commentary] Regarding the subject, the flame of a lamp, it is the substantial cause of the rays of the flame of the lamp, (a) because without the transformation of [the flame’s] nature, the substantial result, the nature of the rays of [the flame] would be unable to change [and] (b) because [the flame] is the unique and direct placing agent of the mark, the mere nature [of the rays]. This is like, for example, without a transformation of the clay, and there would be no transformation of a clay vase, and so forth.
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