Discover the Middle Way teachings of Atiśa, one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Indian Buddhism.
In this Wisdom Academy online course, you’ll be guided by Lama Alan Wallace as he presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered Atiśa text, Pith Instructions on the Middle Way (Madhyamakopadeśa), with commentary by Prajñāmokṣa.
In this text, Atiśa presents an interpretation of Madhyamaka philosophy. His approach harmonizes strongly with Dzogchen meditative practices and views of the nature of appearances and reality. By recognizing our own and others’ lack of inherent identity, we connect more and more with our own Buddha-nature. These teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings.
What You’ll Learn
- Atiśa’s practical techniques of meditating on the Mādhyamaka middle way philosophy;
- how to understand the Dzogchen tradition and Mādhyamaka meditation on the nature of the mind;
- how to use personal experience in the “laboratory” of analytic meditation;
- advice on properly establishing the correct middle way view;
- and much more!
If you want to look into the mind of Atiśa and benefit from his profound wisdom, this course is for you.
About this Course
Lama Alan Wallace presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered text, Pith Instructions on the Middle Way (Madhyamakopadesha) by Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna (982-1055 CE), with commentary by Prajñāmoksha.
Atiśa was one of the greatest paṇḍits and mahāsiddhas in the history of Indian Buddhism, and was pivotal in revitalizing Buddhism in Tibet after its decline in the ninth century. In his text Pith Instructions on the Middle Way, Atiśa presents an interpretation of Madhyamaka philosophy, and his Indian disciple Prajñāmokṣa provides commentary. They are both based on the writings of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti, but Atiśa takes a different view of the role of logic and epistemology in the realization of emptiness than later Tibetan masters of the New Translation School, such as Sakya Paṇḍita and Tsongkhapa. In this regard, Atiśa’s approach harmonizes strongly with Dzogchen meditative practices and views of the nature of appearances and reality.
These teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings. The “just-that-ness” of emptiness transcends karma, afflictions, and self-centered attachment. Resting in sheer luminosity, the distilled mind without additives provides the ultimate inner refuge. Using our own personal experience in the “laboratory” of analytic meditation, we have rare and privileged access to the nature of experience. Mere designations comprise the nature of conventional existence, without solid foundation. By recognizing our own and others’ lack of inherent identity, the result can be taken as the path and a powerful technique to shift identification to the basis of Buddha nature can be utilized.
Lessons
Lesson 1: Looking Into the Mind of Atiśa
Lama Alan Wallace presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered pith instruction on the middle way by Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna, with commentary by Prajñāmokṣa. Key practical advice on meditating on the Madhyamaka middle way philosophy is provided in this short but profoundly liberating text.
Lama Alan Wallace presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered pith instruction on the middle way by Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna, with commentary by Prajñāmokṣa. Key practical advice on meditating on the Madhyamaka middle way philosophy is provided in this short but profoundly liberating text.
Lesson 2: Light Rays of Dharma
These teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings. The ‘‘just-that-ness’’ of emptiness transcends karma, afflictions, and self-centered attachment. Resting in sheer luminosity, the distilled mind without additives provides the ultimate inner refuge.
These teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings. The ‘‘just-that-ness’’ of emptiness transcends karma, afflictions, and self-centered attachment. Resting in sheer luminosity, the distilled mind without additives provides the ultimate inner refuge.
Lesson 3: Analyzing Experience
Lama Alan explains how a phenomenological approach to analyzing reality can lead to an understanding of the modes of appearance of phenomena, without asserting how they might exist ontologically. By recognizing our own and others’ lack of inherent identity, the result can be taken as the path and a powerful technique to shift identification to the basis of Buddha nature can be utilized.
Lama Alan explains how a phenomenological approach to analyzing reality can lead to an understanding of the modes of appearance of phenomena, without asserting how they might exist ontologically. By recognizing our own and others’ lack of inherent identity, the result can be taken as the path and a powerful technique to shift identification to the basis of Buddha nature can be utilized.
Lesson 4: Great Wisdom, Great Compassion
The greatness of wisdom and compassion is asserted due to their ability to free all sentient beings from suffering and provide their perfect happiness, unendingly. The Mahāyāna foundation of these teachings is illustrated skillfully by Lama Alan Wallace, drawing out the far-reaching implications of emptiness and how this view is mutually dependent with a compassionate motivation.
The greatness of wisdom and compassion is asserted due to their ability to free all sentient beings from suffering and provide their perfect happiness, unendingly. The Mahāyāna foundation of these teachings is illustrated skillfully by Lama Alan Wallace, drawing out the far-reaching implications of emptiness and how this view is mutually dependent with a compassionate motivation.
Lesson 5: Eradicate Grasping
Lama Alan reiterates the motivation for understanding emptiness, relating the quest of the Buddha Śākyamuni to find freedom from suffering. All mental afflictions arise from reification; realizing emptiness cuts delusion at their root. Walking the narrow path of the middle way, appearances are viewed as causally effective but deceptive in terms of their true nature.
Lama Alan reiterates the motivation for understanding emptiness, relating the quest of the Buddha Śākyamuni to find freedom from suffering. All mental afflictions arise from reification; realizing emptiness cuts delusion at their root. Walking the narrow path of the middle way, appearances are viewed as causally effective but deceptive in terms of their true nature.
Lesson 6: Ultimate Genuine Wisdom
Wisdom of emptiness cuts off reification of phenomena, making space to investigate and recognize afflictions and their causes. Lama Alan presents the four modes of arising as potent weapons to dissolve entrenched ideas of inherent existence.
Wisdom of emptiness cuts off reification of phenomena, making space to investigate and recognize afflictions and their causes. Lama Alan presents the four modes of arising as potent weapons to dissolve entrenched ideas of inherent existence.
Lesson 7: View, Meditation, Conduct
The practice of emptiness calls for the de-subjectification of mind and the de-objectification of the outer world. Dwelling in the luminous knowing state of the dharmakāya, conduct unfolds naturally, free from identification with serene immediacy of the present moment.
The practice of emptiness calls for the de-subjectification of mind and the de-objectification of the outer world. Dwelling in the luminous knowing state of the dharmakāya, conduct unfolds naturally, free from identification with serene immediacy of the present moment.
Lesson 8: Deepening Emptiness
Lama Alan completes Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna’s text Pith Instructions on the Middle Way, reviewing the final section addressing potential qualms and objections with the philosophical import of the Middle Way. With experience, even the illusion-like character of reality cultivated in the post-meditative state is transcended and the dharmakāya realized.
Lama Alan completes Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna’s text Pith Instructions on the Middle Way, reviewing the final section addressing potential qualms and objections with the philosophical import of the Middle Way. With experience, even the illusion-like character of reality cultivated in the post-meditative state is transcended and the dharmakāya realized.
About the Teacher
Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, Lama Alan Wallace, PhD, continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind.
Lama Alan, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, has taught Buddhist theory and meditation worldwide since 1976. Having devoted 14 years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford. Lama Alan later studied Dzogchen with Gyatrul Rinpoche, a senior teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. With his unique background, Lama Alan brings deep experience and applied skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world.
Lama Alan is the author and translator of several books, including Düdjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection, Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings From Dudjom Linpa’s Vajra Essence, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up, Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, and The Attention Revolution.$247.00Enroll