BUD 502
Clear Thinking
Faculty: Israel Lifshitz
This course will deepen your understanding of knowable objects as expounded by the Abhidhama tradition, based on the Collected Topics root text. Students will learn methods for thinking clearly by formulating definitions, examples, equivalents and classifications, and by exploring the four types of logical relationships between two phenomena. This course also prepares students for debate, which is a highly effective method for clarifying one's understanding of the topics that are covered in Nitartha's study curriculum.
PREREQUISITE:
- None
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Root text: Collected Topics (Düdra), by Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen, Nitartha Institute Publications
- Clear Thinking Workbook, Nitartha Institute Publications (A PDF of the provisional draft of the updated edition will be sent to registered students)
Visit Nitartha Publications to order your texts.
DATES & TIMES:
Tuesdays, September 10 - December 10, 6:00 - 7:30 pm US Pacific Time
COST:
$200
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 BE INTRODUCED TO:
(This is a small sampling of the topics covered in this course.)
- Explore the thought process of mind.
- Discover how to gently guide your ego into egolessness.
- Practice the basic techniques that are used in the subsequent debate courses.
- Learn the vocabulary that is used by all of Nitartha’s shedra studies, including explanations, equivalents and classifications of:
- objects
- things and non-things
- matter
- consciousness
- results
- conditions
The Clear Thinking course will provide you with the skills and knowledge that are needed to use debate, which is an excellent way to use logic to deepen our understanding of the course topics. Not only that, debate also has a very practical result. Watch this 2-minute video by our faculty member Jirka Hladis to find out more.
LEARN WITH OUR RENOWNED FACULTY
Israel Lifshitz
TEACHER
Israel Lifshitz holds degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the National University of Mexico. He has been involved with Tibetan Buddhism since 1992 and has studied under Kagyu, Gelug and Nyingma teachers. His teaching activities include courses and retreats in more than 35 cities throughout North, Central and South America and has served as translator into Spanish to more than 25 Tibetan and Western teachers. After meeting DPR, he joined Nitartha Institute in 2005, started teaching there in 2008, was authorized as a full faculty member in 2010, and translated all the root texts of the foundational and intermediate curriculum into Spanish.
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