Core Buddhist Pathways

• 309The Five Remembrances

  Articulate the five remembrances and analyze how each contemplation addresses fundamental human experiences of aging, illness, death, separation, and ethical responsibility. Evaluate how regular reflection on impermanence transforms daily decision-making and creates greater presence and mindfulness in immediate experience.
• 310Karma Overview

  Analyze the concept of karma, differentiating between intentional actions and their outcomes, and evaluate how personal choices, including intentions, words, and actions, create effects for oneself and others.
• 311Bodhicaryavatara

  Analyze the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life text, its structure, author, and importance. Differentiate between aspirational and ultimate bodhicitta, and evaluate how impermanence is a basis for generating compassion.
• 313Madhyamaka

  Analyze Nagarjuna’s concept of dependent arising by examining how phenomena exist only in relationship to other things, then evaluate how attachment to fixed ideas creates suffering in personal situations. Apply the Middle Way perspective to challenging life circumstances, comparing responses based on rigid thinking versus flexible understanding, and synthesize how recognizing the interdependent nature of problems and successes can lead to greater compassion and skillful action.
• 315Parting from the Four Attachments

  Identify the four types of attachment described in this teaching. Examine how each manifests in contemporary life, then evaluate personal motivations and priorities to identify which attachments most strongly influence decision-making.
• 316Three Marks: Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta

  Analyze the three marks of existence by investigating specific examples of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness in personal experience, then evaluate how recognizing these characteristics transforms understanding of attachment and craving.
• 317The Two Truths

  Analyze the distinction between relative truth (conventional reality) and ultimate truth (emptiness) in Mahayana Buddhism, evaluate how these two approaches towards understanding our experience apply to specific life situations, and synthesize examples demonstrating how both truths can be simultaneously valid without contradiction.
• 319Dukkha

  Differentiate between the three types of dukkha by analyzing specific examples from personal experience; evaluate how recognizing unsatisfactoriness in all experience cultivates compassion for oneself and others; and demonstrate understanding of how awareness of suffering motivates the pursuit of liberation through dharma practice.
• 320Twelve Nidanas

  Identify and sequence the twelve links of dependent origination; analyze how specific links (particularly craving and clinging) perpetuate suffering in personal experience; and design practical strategies for interrupting the cycle at key intervention points.
• 322Dharma

  Differentiate between dharma as teaching methodology and dharma as ultimate truth; evaluate how core Buddhist principles function as practical tools for understanding suffering and its cessation; and implement systematic application of dharma teachings while documenting their effectiveness in developing wisdom and reducing harmful mental habits.