BUD 600
Analytical Meditation II
Faculty: Jirka Hladiš
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 spring 2026 semester course is arranged as a presentation of the four-fold progressive stages of meditation on emptiness. The course will offer guided meditations for each of the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness. They will be recorded for students to use as a daily practice.
Drawing on teaching materials from Nitartha’s foundational and intermediate curricula, this course guides students through the stages of Śrāvakayāna, Cittamātra, Madhyamaka, and Buddha Nature. We explore the essential insights preserved within each of these philosophical systems as a pathway to gaining unshakable certainty in the view of selflessness, emptiness, and Buddha Nature. You can think of this class as an applied preparatory course for the full range of Nitartha offerings.
Traditionally, in India and early Tibet, the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness served as a preliminary training for the practice of Mahamudra meditation. Susanne Schefczyk, in preface to her translation of KTGR's Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness book, wrote:
Rinpoche [i.e. KTGR] has mentioned repeatedly that, before the dharma spread in Tibet, the traditional approach to mahamudra meditation
in India was to meditate on emptiness. Only those who succeeded in their meditation on emptiness were admitted to mahamudra teachings. Thus, the Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness served as the preliminaries to mahamudra practice. The preliminaries of the Four Times Hundred Thousand as we know them today developed later in Tibet and has served as the traditional preparation for the mahamudra practice among Tibetans since then.
PREREQUISITE:
- None
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- None
DATES & TIMES:
Mondays January 12 - May 11, 2026, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm US Pacific Time/ 7:30 am - 9:00 am CST
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.
LEARN WITH OUR RENOWNED FACULTY
Jirka Hladiš
TEACHER
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.