Translating Tibetan texts on Indian Buddhist Tenets
with Craig Preston
Spring 2024:
15 weeks
Monday and Friday
30 1 ½ hour classes = 45 hours x $30 = $1,350 tuition
Course Description
This is an introductory course on translating Tibetan works on the tenets of Indian Buddhist schools.
Our primary text is Presentation of Tenets by Jay-dzün Chö-gyi-gyel-tsen (1469-1542). In this very short work, you will be introduced to the technical vocabulary and topics of Buddhist tenets in barest outline.
This is an overview of the Indian Buddhist philosophic tradition as a whole, its main ideas, its essential philosophical vocabulary, and its most important distinctions.
The first part presents the Hearer Schools: Great Exposition School (Vaibhāṣhika) and Sutra School (Sautrāntika). The second part presents the Great Vehicle Schools: Mind-Only (Cittamātrin), and the Middle Way Autonomy Schools (Svātantrika), and the Middle Way Consequence School (Prāsaṅgika).
Reading the Tibetan text is supplemented with How to Read Classical Tibetan, Vol. II, Buddhist Tenets, which contains all the vocabulary and sentence diagrams explaining the grammar of Tibetan constructions. You will also find extensive notes for translators.