Teaching, Translating and Publishing Buddhism for the 21st Century
MĀDHYAMIKA: THE MIDDLE WAY
New 8-week course on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
Thursday mornings, 8:30am - 10:00pm (Pacific)
June 4th - July 30th, 2026*
Tuition: Sliding scale ($400 to $300)
All Classes are held live on Zoom with recordings available for participants afterwards
This course is an overview of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (“Root Verses on the Middle Way”), a famously difficult poem by Nāgārjuna written around the 2nd Century CE that articulates the Mādhyamika understanding of emptiness based on the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination. At first the verses can feel like a series of locked doors, mainly because they are a rebuttal to the metaphysical assumptions of early Abhidharma schools, including the Sarvāstivādans and Sautrāntikas, and without that background Nāgārjuna’s sharp refutations seem to strike at nothing. The purpose of this course is to cut through the obscuring rhetoric and reveal the text's essential concepts with down-to-earth “real world” examples, turning locks into keys. We will read several chapters closely, comparing multiple English translations from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, and you will be encouraged to reimagine the verses using your own terms and examples.
*No class July 2nd
BUDDHISM IN TRANSLATION: practices for everyday life
Online Class @SFDC Sunday nights
7:00pm - 8:30pm San Francisco Dharma Collective
What is Buddhism, and why does it look so different in different places? How did the teachings of the Buddha travel across the world and evolve within various cultures? How are they evolving today, here and now? This class brings together wisdom from Buddhist texts, historical perspectives from across Buddhist traditions, and practical experiences of life to shed light on these and other relevant questions.
Every Sunday evening, we will examine key Buddhist ideas and practices and explore major Buddhist schools and their diverse expressions. Through dharma talks, open discussions and close readings, we will consider what it means to translate not only texts, but traditions, grappling with the challenge of making sense of the many different Buddhisms that exist today and what they mean in our modern lives.
This class is by donation and open to all! More information available HERE
Video recordings of past courses are now available for order
Course descriptions available here
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