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

#Pramana

We study valid cognition, or pramana, because it provides an effective path to achieving a deep valid inferential cognition of the nature of reality (as empty), which then has the strength to lead to a direct valid cognition of that same nature, which is what brings about liberation. This course will serve as foundation for studying Mipham Rinpoche’s famously difficult and controversial commentary to the ninth chapter of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara, The Norbu Ketaka, in our next course.

The main text for this current course will be Mipham’s Sword of Wisdom, a translation of Khenchen Palden Sherap Rinpoche’s commentary to Mipham’s verse text, The Sword of Wisdom. Together they provide a comprehensive and in-depth presentation of the system of pramana as it is understood in the Nyingma tradition. This is the culmination of an evolution of the system of pramana over some 1,500 years spanning both India and Tibet. 

Core Materials:

  1. Syllabus

  2. “Introduction to Pramana” from Pramana, Tantra & The Middle Way

  3. “Reasoning Within the Buddhist Context” from The Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate

  4. “Introduction” from Tibetan Logic

Class Recordings:

  1. February 26, 2019

  2. March 5, 2019

  3. March 12, 2019

  4. March 19, 2019

  5. March 26, 2019

  6. April 2, 2019

  7. April 9, 2019

  8. April 16, 2019

  9. April 30, 2019

  10. May 7, 2019