Core Buddhist Pathways

• 406Loving-Kindness

  Analyze the nature of metta/loving-kindness; improvise a guided meditation that generates this quality; and initiate kind actions based on understanding all beings’ desire for happiness.
• 405Methods of Using the Breath

  Implement mindfulness and breathing awareness to develop a calm, focused, and balanced mind. Create and guide a basic breath meditation for others.
• 409Right Effort

  Implement the principles of right effort in daily life; analyze opportunities to cultivate wholesome thoughts and actions; and evaluate how this practice transforms well-being and relationships.
• 404Right Mindfulness

  Analyze an experience of mindful pausing, evaluating immediate thoughts and feelings without judgment, and critiquing your chosen response.
• 325Abhidharma

  Define abhidharma precisely; analyze how its practice reduces aversion, craving, and suffering; and evaluate examples from personal experience.
• 326The Three Trainings

  Analyze the interconnected relationship between ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom within the three trainings’ framework; then evaluate how each training supports the others in personal transformation. Evaluate how your personal practice of the three trainings fits into daily life in a balanced way that will reduce harm and increase clarity, compassion, and discernment.
• 333Favorable Conditions of Human Existence

  Analyze the Buddhist teaching on the rarity and preciousness of human birth using the traditional analogy of the blind turtle; evaluate how understanding life’s rarity influences ethical decision-making and spiritual priorities; and implement daily practices that demonstrate appreciation for human existence while actively working to preserve and benefit the lives of others.
• 400The Five Hindrances

  Identify and categorize the five hindrances to meditation practice with their corresponding antidotes; analyze how these obstacles manifest in contemporary life beyond formal meditation; and implement systematic approaches for recognizing and addressing hindrances while evaluating the effectiveness of traditional Buddhist remedies in modern contexts.
• 402Vipassana Meditation

  Analyze the distinction between awareness and its objects during vipassana practice, evaluate how investigating the three marks of existence (impermanence, suffering, non-self) through direct observation leads to insight, and synthesize understanding by creating guided practices that help others develop insight.
• 403Shamatha Meditation

  Explore shamatha meditation as a way to calm the mind and support both insight (vipassana) practice and everyday mental habits; evaluate personal experience with meditation; and demonstrate the practice by leading shamatha sessions that guide breath-based concentration while recognizing common challenges, obstacles, and their antidotes.