We are delighted to announce this new course, taught by Dr. David Mellins, which will continue throughout the Fall and Winter. The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the Indian schools of philosophy referenced in Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche’s recent Summer Retreat teachings on Madhyamaka.

We will investigate the diversity of philosophical systems that emerged from the foundations of ritual practices, yogic contemplations, and renunciative strategies in ancient India. Readings and discussions will review the chief controversies that articulate diverging views regarding knowledge and consciousness, self and phenomena, causation and fruition, samsara, and spiritual emancipation. The course is designed so that students will be able to identify the key philosophical positions that become targets of refutation in Madhyamaka treatises and thus more precisely appreciate Candrakīrti’s explication of Nagarjuna’s dialectical methodology.

The Principle textbook for this course will be Richard King’s Introduction to Indian Philosophy (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1999), available new and used through Amazon.

About the instructor: David received his Ph.D. in Sanskrit literature from Columbia University and has been a student of Gelek Rinpoche since 2004. He has studied Buddhist and Hindu philosophies for over two decades and has taught language, religion and literature at Columbia, Yale and Rutgers Universities. He is currently working on a translation of Candrakīrti’s Tantric exegisis at Columbia University under the supervision of Dr. Robert Thurman.