RimeShedra.NYC

Ignorance is the cause of suffering

The goal of the Rime Shedra is to make accessible the vast treasures of Buddhist wisdom to those who wish to progress further in their understanding of the profound principles presented in these advanced Buddhist texts. The understanding of the ultimate nature of reality is the key to liberation. For practitioners this program provides an opportunity to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of reality.  For scholars it provides an opportunity to expand their understanding of Buddhism by cultivating an experiential understanding. The program is based upon the traditional Shedra, or monastic college, curriculum which is the cornerstone of Buddhist education in all of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Sword of Wisdom That Ascertains Reality

In this short text Mipham discusses the uniquely Buddhist system for what he calls opening the eyes of wisdom. By this he means the process of going from an intellectual understanding of the dharma to a direct non-conceptual experience of it. Mipham succinctly outlines the elements of the path of study relevant to the practitioner that will create the causes and conditions for dispelling illusion. He explains how one develops the correct view, not what the correct view is, but how one goes about cultivating it, cultivating our intelligence and innate qualities of understanding and refining them to then be used to understand the nature of the mind and our world.  Mipham primarily focuses upon the preliminary work that should be done before one cultivates the view, the acquisition of the intellectual tools that make it possible to correctly develop the view, which can then be put into practice in meditation and gradually lead to results, the fruition.

Supplemental Materials

  1. "Right Discrimination of Ready Speech" from Gateway to Knowledge

  2. The Classification of Reasons

  3. Chart of Collected Topics

  4. Pramana Guidesheet

  5. Syllogism in Buddhism

  6. The Structure of a Syllogism

Class Recordings