Our resident teacher, Geshe Tsewang Nyima gives various teachings every week:

1) Weekly Community Teaching: Geshe La gives a general teaching every Thursday morning for Thosamling nuns and students as well as the local community. It is translated into English. (Please call ahead if you would like to stay for lunch).

2) Foundations of Buddhist philosophy : This course will start on 12th March 2012. This program is lasting for two years and gives a great overview on Buddhist traditional philosophy, briefly following the first texts studied in the great monasteries.

The first year is based on learning fundamentals of debate and traditional philosophy. It starts with ‘Dudra’ (collected topics). This is a collection of topics needed to follow the actual philosophical program as well as to train in classical debate procedure.

Then, as the students skill in debate increases, they will study ‘Lorig’ (mind and cognition) as the topic of debate.‘Lorig’ is an observation of the subjective mind, showing the different ways in which consciousness relates to its object, from our usual confused way of apprehending reality through to a ‘direct realization of emptiness.’

Next topic will be ‘Tarig’, the analysis of correct reasons which are to be applied in our analytical meditation on reality.

If time allows we might start to study ‘Drubta’, translated as ‘Tenets’. This is an essential part of Buddhist traditional philosophy. ‘Tenets’ refers to the presentation of some non- buddhists and mainly the four Buddhist schools of thought in relation to reality, both conventional and ultimate, including all phenomena categorized in three classes: basis, path and result.

The second year might be spend completing the study of ‘Drubta’ and include a brief presentation of ‘Parchin’, using a concise text such as ‘the seventy topics’. ‘Parchin’, or ‘prajnaparamita sutras’ gives a very extensive map of all the practices and paths up the the attainment of the four bodies of a Buddha! Everything except the Madhyamika Prasangika view on reality is included in ‘Parchin’!

This program offers a rare and precious opportunity to make a connection with Geshela, a great scholar and practitioner who is dedicated to giving westerners a pure and comprehensive understanding of the Buddhist teachings.

Furthermore this class will give students a whole new perspective on Dharma teachings. It also serves as the basis to engage in further studies in traditional Tibetan institutions such as Shedras or monasteries or to become a qualified translator.

The weekly program includes three formal explanatory classes given by Geshela (known as ‘petri’ classes) and three sessions of actual debate. The ‘petri’ is translated into English and the debate class is only in Tibetan, guided by Geshela. Please be aware that you need to be confortable with Tibetan language . Also, quite a few hours of personal study are required to be able to process the new information and refresh the old!

This course has been specifically designed to compliment our second year Tibetan Language Program.