Our debate club is back, welcoming veterans and newcomers alike to join us as we gain what Tibetans have called “the magical key that opens the door to all understanding”!

What Westerners often find most appealing about Buddhism is its insistence that nothing be taken on faith. And yet, few of us in the West are familiar with the sophisticated evidence presented in the Buddhist tradition for such claims as the existence of past and future lives, omniscience, emptiness, and the Four Noble Truths.

Likewise, few Westerners are conversant in the rigorous system of applied logic which in English has become commonly known as “Tibetan debate”—a system for methodically cultivating razor-sharp thinking, clarifying concepts with precision, internalizing logical connections, and uncompromisingly questioning our beliefs, to allow us to arrive at incontrovertible knowledge.

This system, while rigorous and nuanced, is also very practical and highly learnable, just like a new language. In this pilot program, we will be setting off together as we familiarize ourselves with this basics of this method, in keeping with the Buddha’s advice to “come and see” for ourselves.

Basing ourselves on Daniel Perdue’s Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate, our sessions will focus on discussions and practice exercises. Materials covered in previous sessions will be reviewed and introduced to those joining us before we continue to explore this system more deeply.

In preparation for the first meeting, participants are asked to purchase the below book, and to read (or review) the first five chapters in advance.

Daniel Perdue. (2014). The course in Buddhist reasoning and debate: An Asian approach to analytical thinking drawn from Indian and Tibetan sources. Boston: Snow Lion

This program is offered jointly by:

• Jamyang London Buddhist Centre