BUD 500 Analytical Meditation I (SPOC) This course is a systematic training in the meditation of special insight in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Having first established a ground of calm abiding, students engage in analytical vipashyana or insight meditation into how our use of conceptuality contributes to the creation of karma and kleśa, and how to reverse that process by contemplating identitylessness, emptiness. The course will cover Part I on the Common Samadhis, from Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā. Faculty: Jirka Hladiš   PREREQUISITES: It is strongly recommended that students have taken some courses in the Foundational Curriculum, particularly BUD 501 as a minimum.

BUD 630 Buddha Nature: Luminous Heart of the Tathagata (SPOC) This course is an exposition of the Tathāgatagarbha philosophical tradition, based on The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra: Fourth Vajra Point root text. Students cultivate certainty in the view of Buddha nature—the essence of awakening present in all beings. The Fourth Vajra Point of the Uttaratantra establishes Buddha nature through three reasonings, its ten aspects, nine analogies and five reasons why it is necessary to teach it. PREREQUISITES: BUD 501 is required, and it is recommended that all four Mind and Its World courses be taken before taking level 3. REQUIRED TEXTS: Root

BUD 620 Paths and Bhumis: The Path to Enlightenment (SPOC) This course is an exposition of the Buddhist path based on The Presentation of Bhumis, Paths & Results in the Treasury of Knowledge root text. Students learn what is necessary for entering and progressing on the path and what the goal of spiritual journey is, through exploring the five paths, the ten bodhisattva bhumis, as well as the result: nirvana, kayas, wisdoms and enlightened activity. PREREQUISITES: BUD 501, BUD 510, BUD 520, BUD 530, BUD 601, BUD 610, BUD 630 REQUIRED TEXTS: Root Text: The Presentation of Bhumis, Paths & Results

BUD 610 Madhyamaka Philosophical Tradition: Not Even a Middle (SPOC) This course is an overview of the Madhyamaka tradition of the Mahayana, which propounds the view of shunyata, the emptiness of all phenomena, which is the transcendence of all views, the ultimate freedom from all reference points and discursiveness. We will study the presentation of the two realities (ultimate and seeming), the differences and commonalities between the subschools of Prasangika and Svatantrika, the rangtong-shentong distinction, the array of reasonings that Madhyamikas use to deconstruct the notions of a personal self and really existing phenomena, the Madhyamaka-style four foundations of mindfulness (based on the ninth chapter