Buddhism can look like a collection of unrelated ideas until you see the structure underneath them. Understanding how they fit together is itself a form of insight. This course traces the internal logic of the Buddhist path from its starting point to its destination. The aim is not comprehensive coverage but the beginning of real comprehension: participants come away with a working understanding of how the key ideas relate to one another and why they matter.

Topics covered across the four weeks include the nature of suffering and its causes; karma and its role in shaping experience; the possibility of liberation and what stands between us and it; the nature of mind and its continuity; the three jewels and what taking refuge actually means; an overview of the the graduated stages of the path as a practical framework for the spiritual life; and a brief orientation to the Mahayana aspiration of bodhichitta as the course’s broadening horizon.
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The course is designed for people with little or no background in Buddhism, as well as those who have encountered Buddhist ideas in scattered ways and want a coherent picture.