Dharmapala College

SORRY, THIS RETREAT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Working with the module “Conditionality and the Middle Way” of the new FWBO Dharma Training Course for Mitras

Tuesday, 26 October (6pm) to Sunday, 31 October (after lunch)

With Sagaraghosa and Dhivan

For Order members only.

Conditionality, our preferred English equivalent for paticca-samuppada or ‘dependent-arising’, is the core philosophical principle of the Buddha’s teaching. This seminar will offer the opportunity to study the ‘Conditionality and the Middle Way’ module from the Dharma Training Course for Mitras, year 2, with its authors. What is conditionality? Is it like a philosophical theory, or something to be known and seen in experience? In this course we will examine presentations of paṭicca-samuppada in the Pali canon, and we will consider the scope of paṭicca-samuppada in terms of reactive and creative mental functioning. On this basis we will explore in more detail two applications of the principle conditionality: the twelve nidanas, explaining the arising of suffering and samsara, and the factors of the ‘spiral path’, tracing the way to liberation. Our emphasis will be practical, but based on recent scholarship and Dhivan’s translations from the Pali canon.

We will then turn to further applications of conditionality. The Buddha taught the ‘middle way’ as such an application; we will also explore conditionality in relation to ethics, exploring the nature and operation of karma. We will explore conditionality as implying the three ‘marks’ or lakshanas of conditioned existence, and this exploration will lead to a consideration of what is meant by ‘conditioned’ and ‘unconditioned’ in early Buddhism. Finally, we will explore some contemporary interpretations of paṭicca-samuppada as ‘mutual causality’ and as ‘interdependence’, asking to what extent they are ‘Buddhist’, and how they bring the Buddha’s teaching into dialogue with scientific and ecological thinking.

There will be presentations from the seminar leaders on topics of particular relevance, and seminar participants will also be expected to make presentations of aspects of conditionality which interest them. There will also be some element of ritual involved in the seminar; after all, the pratityasamutpada gatha and the imasmim sati gatha have been chanted since the Buddha’s day.

 

Suggested donation: £150. Accommodation: £15/10 per night.

 

Please book early. Our teachers put a lot of preparation into the seminars — sometimes several weeks of work. We would find it irresponsible to let them do all that and then cancel the even at short notice due to lack of participants.

If you consider attending, but aren’t as yet certain, please let us know. By booking early, you can help us prevent disappointment on all sides.

To ask for further information or to book for this event, please contact us here.

To go back to our 2010 schedule, please click here.