Faculty: Jirka Hladiš

Analytical meditation: a form of debate without a partner.
The function of analytical meditation is to bring the view being studied into one’s own experience. It lifts the words out of the book and places them into our heart. The words go from being out there to being part of our innermost being, integrated. That is the essential function of analytical meditation. Through this effort to analyze we become curious about how our mind works.

Though this process, the view being contemplated is examined.

• Does it make sense to me?
• Is it something I fully comprehend?
• Why is this taught here and now at this point on the path?
• Do fully agree with this or not?

This is an examination of the validity of the view that is being studied. That is why the buddhist tradition is wisdom tradition.. It emphasizes  strengthening one’s own prajña. As Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche has said, the Buddhist path does not begin with an answer but with a question. Questioning and seeking answer is the heart of analytical meditation. That is precisely what it is. It involves training in the skill of formulating the question about the view, about reality, and then seeking the answer. Curiosity is the mindset of an analytical meditator. That’s why Manjushri is portrayed as a youthful, curious 17-year-old.

BUD 600 Course Description:

This course is a systematic training in the meditation of special insight in the tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. The students learn the skills to gain certainty in the view of emptiness through the practice of the Four Mahāyāna Yogas, cultivating inferential wisdom and bringing it to personal experience.

Additional Course Description:

The instruction for the spring 2025 course on the practice of the Four Mahāyāna Yogas will be based on the Buddha Nature tradition, as it is preserved in Uttaratanta of Maitreya.

• BUD630 or similar prior studies of the Buddha Nature tradition

• None

Mondays January 27 - May 5, 2025, 3:30 - 5:00 pm US Pacific Time Pacific Time