This Course is based upon the Commentary on Valid Perception (Pramanavarttika) by Master Dharmakirti (630 AD) with a commentary from The Key for Starting the Logic Machine (Rik- lam Trul- gyi Deamik) by Purbuchok Jampa Tsultrim Gyatso (1825- 1901). The Course presents the structure of Buddhist logic and the forms of Buddhist debate.
Topics include: the correct motivation for debate; debating tactics and the flow of a debate; the subject, quality, and reason of the debate; why logic is more valuable than faith; how studying logic leads to perceiving emptiness; what makes a reason correct; contradictions and relationships; relationships of identity, and relationships of cause and effect; proving the absence of something; material causes and contributing factors; valid perception; changing and unchanging things; an outline of all existing things; the concept of time according to each of the four schools of thought; and the reason why suffering has an end.
