BUD 501
Mind and Its World I: Valid Cognition
with consecutive Chinese translation
Faculty: Jirka Hladiš
This course explores the question: How do you obtain accurate and valid knowledge about the world? That's the subject of pramana, or Buddhist epistemology. We typically assume that what we know about the world is valid. But is it? Our mind processes information so quickly, it responds so fast to what's happening around us that we usually don't realize when we are having a conceptual experience that is not actually in agreement with the object that we are experiencing.
Course Description: This course is an introductory exposition of topics drawn from the Pramāna tradition, based on the Classifications of Mind root text. Students explore the criteria for the validity of cognition, the fourfold classification of direct valid cognition, seeming direct cognition and non-valid cognition.
PREREQUISITE:
- None
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Root text: Classifications of Mind (Lorik), by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Nitartha Institute Publications
- Mind & Its World 1 Sourcebook, Nitartha Institute Publications
DATES & TIMES:
Fridays/京港台时间 每週六上午 January 9 - May 15, 2026/2026年1月10日至5月16日, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm US Pacific Time/京港台时间 每週六上午9:00-10:30am
COST:
$250
Nitartha’s Payment Plan and Financial Assistance (PPFA) program is funded by fellow students to support those who would not be able to attend the Institute’s courses without this assistance. To request aid, please fill out the PPFA application before you register for the course.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- Non-Valid Cognition: Learn to distinguish how our mind's projections create experiences that are not real.
- Valid Cognition: Understand how awareness is arising in every moment and perceiving things in accordance with how things abide is a valid cognition.
- Explore five types of valid cognition:
- Direct Valid Cognition
- Sense Direct Valid Cognition
- Mental Direct Valid Cognition
- Self-aware Direct Valid Cognition
- Inferential Valid Cognition
- Yogic Direct Valid Cognition: Discover the qualities that one acquires at this highest level of meditation as an ordinary being in samsara.
LEARN WITH OUR RENOWNED FACULTY
Jirka Hladiš
Jirka Hladiš has studied under the guidance of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 1997. He joined Nitartha Institute in 2002 and was authorized as a faculty member in 2007. Jirka’s interest is in approaching study, analytical meditation and debate as a unified tool for spiritual transformation. Jirka holds graduate degrees both in engineering from Prague Technical University and in Buddhist studies from Naropa University.