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Comprehensive Program Courses
These courses provide students with a systematic, in-depth foundation in the view of the Hinayana and Mahayana. A certificate of completion is granted upon completion of the 8 session sequence.
Hinayana
- 311 Mind & Its World I
- 321 Clear Thinking I
These two courses are paired during the first session of a student’s beginning year at Nitartha and are attended by all Core and Comprehensive Program students. An important theme for the courses is to understand the crucial role these foundational studies play in one’s understanding of “higher” views, such as Madhyamaka or Mahamudra. The four traditional disciplines of foundational Buddhism, which are taught in all Tibetan shedras, systematically relate to one another. These four are:
- Collected Topics (Düdra)
- Classifications of Mind (Lorik)
- Philosophical Systems (Truptha)
- Classifications of Reasons (Tarik)
Topics studied in these two courses include:
- A detailed analysis of the objective side of experience, or phenomena. This analysis is based on Collected Topics (Dudra), which presents the divisions and definitions of objects as presented in the Abhidharma tradition of Vasubandhu.
- A detailed analysis of the subjective side of experience. This analysis of mind and how it perceives its world in valid and invalid ways is based on Classifications of Mind (Lorik), which provides the divisions and definitions of the types of mind identified in the epistemological tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti.
- An introduction to the Vaibhashika (Particularists) and Sautrantika (Followers of Sutra) schools that focuses on their descriptions of reality, their presentations of relative and absolute truth, and their explanations of how we perceive the external world, all of which is based on the Philosophical Systems literature.
- An introduction to the basic forms of working with definitions, classifications, equivalents and their relationships. These form the groundwork for formal debate training in Session 2.
- As a basis for both courses, students work with the material presented on objective phenomena from Collected Topics (described above), as is traditional in the Tibetan curriculum. Root texts and commentaries of the Tibetan tradition, including the Vajrayana tradition, often use the logical forms of expression built on material found in the Collected Topics to articulate their view. Thus, this short course directly enhances the student’s capacity to study a wide variety of textual materials.
- 312 Mind & Its World II
- 322 Debate II
Mind & Its World II is shared with the Core Program but Debate II is not. Topics explored include:
- An introduction to the investigation of causes and conditions from Collected Topics, which applies to both mind and the objects that it perceives.
- A detailed discussion of the workings of karma, inluding a section on the twelve links of interdependent origination
- The distinction between primary minds and mental factors, with a detailed presentation of the mental factors from Classifications of Mind.
- Building on the definitions, classifications, equivalents and relationships of Session 1, Debate II works with an initial format of two part reasoning. The material is taught in the context of the Mind & Its World II content.
- 411 Mind & Its World III
- 421 Debate III
Course III continues the integrated study of the phenomenal world and how mind perceives it. It then looks more deeply into the basis of inferential valid cognition as presented in the Tarik, or Classifications of Reasons. Studies include:
- The “Modes of Engagement” from Classifications of Mind and the “Methods that Lead to Cognition” from Collected Topics, both of which deal with the ways in which the mind cognizes phenomena, particularly the ways in which conceptuality functions.
- A detailed presentation of Classifications of Reasons, which considers the different types of syllogisms and the conditions for correct and faulty reasonings. The different types of reasons of nature, result and non-observation are also presented.
- 412 Mind & Its World IV
- 422 Debate IV
Course IV brings the study of Hinayana to a conclusion in the foundation curriculum. This course is a detailed study of the Hinayana Tenets text, The Gateway that Reveals the Philosophical Systems to Fresh Minds. This text was composed by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen and examines the assertions of the Vaibashika and Sautranitika Hinayana schools. Some of the topics include:
- General assertions
- Relative and Ultimate truth
- The nature of perception
- The five bases and three times of the Vaibashika
- The way of asserting objects
- The path and result
At the conclusion of this course, a student will have read in their entirety the Collected Topics, Classifications of Mind and Philosophical Systems root texts, along with the pertinent commentarial literature. This brings the initial study of all four major disciplines of foundational Buddhism to a conclusion. More in-depth study of these disciplines takes place in the advanced curriculum.
Mahayana
- 611 Mind Only Tradition
- 612 Debate V
This courses offers a systematic presentation of the philosophical tenets of the Chittamatra or Yogachara tradition of the Mahayana. Based on a "Philosophical Systems" text written by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche for Nitartha Institute, this course will examine in detail the Chittamatra understanding of perception, the eight consciousnesses, and the fundamental notion of "mind only."
- 621 Buddha Nature Tradition
- 622 Debate VI
A systematic presentation of the teachings of the Buddha Nature tradition based on the fourth vajra point of Maitreya's Uttaratantra and its commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye, The Lion's Roar of Irreversibility. Key topics include the three reasonings demonstrating the universality of buddha nature; its ten aspects, such as its nature, effect, and phases; and its evocation through nine descriptive analogies.
- 631 Introduction to Madhyamaka I
- 632 Introduction to Madhyamaka II
- 633 Debate VII
- 634 Debate VIII
This two-session sequence comprises a systematic presentation of the philosophical tenets of the Madhyamaka tradition of the Mahayana. Based on sections compiled from Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye's Treasury of Knowledge by Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen for Nitartha Institute, this text focuses on the Madhyamaka presentation of the two truths, the views of the subschools of the tradition, and the fundamental notion of emptiness.
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