The Ground of Being: Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa,

6-week, course

Thursdays, 7:00pm - 8:30pm (Pacific)

January 25th – February 29, 2024

Tuition: $270

The concept of the Trisvabhāva (‘Three Natures’) is considered the conclusion of, what might be called, Buddhist ontology, the study of ‘being.’ In the earliest forms of Buddhism, all phenomena are momentary and, therefore, quite impermanent. In the more developed forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of Emptiness negates there being any thing to be. In light of Emptiness, how is the perceived world to be understood? That is the essence of the ‘Ground of Being’ and the Yogacara teaching on the Three Natures, wherein all phenomena are understood to be fabricated, dependently originated, and yet completely perfect. This six-week course is based on Vasubandhu’s brief 4th Century treatise on the Three Natures, the Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa, and is part of the LUSB Dharma series on the ‘Mind-Only’ teachings of Yogacara Buddhism.

The Space of Time: Buddhist Chronology and Kairology from kṣaṇas to kalpas

9:00am – 12:00pm (Pacific)

Saturday, February 10th, 2024

Tuition: $90

‘How long is a minute?’ Why do we use spatial terms like ‘long’ and ‘short’ to speak of Time? Long before Einstein and Hawkings, Buddhist thinkers such as Dōgen and Nāgārjuna had already noted the inextricable relationships between Space and Time. This presentation is an overview of these Buddhist conceptions of Time; from kṣaṇas, the ‘nano-seconds’ used to measure the arising and passing away of mental states, to kalpas, the longest measurement of time, which is immeasurable. In this way, Time will be explored in terms of chronology, the elapsing or passage of Time, and in terms kairology, specific instances or moments of Time.