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MASTERS PROGRAM 2008:
CURRICULUM
"The main purpose
of studying the Buddhist scriptures is to develop good qualities,
such as love and compassion, and to eliminate negative emotions,
such as the mental poisons - attachment, hatred and ignorance
-
through understanding and applying the appropriate antidotes."
Geshe Jampa Gyatso
The core curriculum of the Masters Program 2008
consists of five texts that represent the essential teachings in
the Mahayana tradition of both sutra and tantra and are the foundation
of the program.
Sutra
• Mid-January 2008 to
end June 2009
Ornament for Clear Realization (Abhisamayalamkara) - the clear
realizations gained on the various spiritual grounds and paths of
hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas that lead to the attainment
of omniscience
• Beginning to end September
2009
One-month lam-rim retreat
• Beginning October 2009
to mid-December 2010
Supplement
to the 'Middle Way' (Madhyamakavatara) - the
ten perfections with specific emphasis on the perfection of wisdom
and the presentations of emptiness by both non-Buddhist and Buddhist
schools of thought
• Mid-January to mid-February
2011
One-month lam-rim retreat
• Mid-February 2011 to
mid-February 2012
Treasury
of Manifest Knowledge (Abhidharmakosha) - a
vast description of the outer and inner world – the various
types of migrating beings and realms as well as their causes, actions
and afflictions, and the minds and mental factors of ordinary beings,
as well as the various spiritual paths and the persons who traverse
them
• Mid-February to mid-March
2012
One-month lam-rim retreat
Tantra
• Mid-March 2012 to mid-December
2013
Grounds and Paths
of Secret Mantra and
Guhyasamaja Tantra - an overview of the four classes of tantra
with particular emphasis on the spiritual grounds and paths of highest
yoga tantra, including the techniques for training the channels,
winds, and drops, and an in-depth analysis of the generation and
completion stages of highest yoga tantra based on the Guhyasamaja
Tantra
Meditation Practice
In order to provide opportunities for integrating the teachings
into one's practice the Masters Program includes
three one-month lam-rim retreats:
• from beginning to end September
2009
• from mid-January to mid-February
2011
• from mid-February to mid-March
2012
Since a
total of twelve months of retreat is a requirement for full-time
students who wish to receive the final Masters Certificate, those
students who have participated in the three one-month retreats are
required to do only nine months of retreat at the end of the program,
whereas those students who have not participated in the three one-month
retreats are required to do twelve months of retreat.
On-line students are required to do a one-month lam-rim retreat
in order to receive the final Masters Certificate in Home Studies.
In fact on-line students are welcome to participate in any of the
one-month lam-rim retreats organized at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa
as part of the residential Masters Program.
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