Nitartha Institute

“If objects do not exist out there—as you true aspectarians already say—what are you left with? You say that you are left with a mental aspect called ‘blue.’ But the false aspectarian prajñā asks: What does ‘mental aspect called blue’ mean? Does it mean your mind is blue? Does your mind have color or assume a shape? Is your mind square or round? Mind has none of those qualities.”
- Jirka Hladiš | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: BUD601 Mind Only

“If the process of perception ends right after the first moment of the arising of an image as mere cognizance, then that appearance is liberated on the spot. On the other hand, if the mental consciousness becomes involved through the latent tendencies of expression and concepts are generated, then this is saṃsāra—the duality of object and subject. Whenever you conceptualize, you create a distance and a duality.”

- Susan Stewart | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Yogacara

On how genuine change may be happening before we can see it

“My favorite metaphor is a small stream in deep winter. It may still look frozen in the spring, but underneath, water has already started to flow. We can feel like the crust of our patterns is solid and that we’re not changing much, but that’s not true. Change is happening underneath. Then sometimes the whole frozen stream crashes in and reveals that it has actually been changing all along. We may suddenly realize, ‘Oh, I’ve changed a lot,’ but in fact we were changing slowly the whole time.”
- Dr. Phil Stanley | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: BUD610 Madhyamaka

On how little we actually know

“We know a lot less than we think we know, and there are a lot fewer knowable objects than we thought before taking this class. When you actually list what is knowable, it’s not that many. Everything else we just make up. We spend most of our time in the realm of conceptual non-valid cognition — opinions, applying labels, thinking about the future, thinking about the past. And those things are not knowable. The past and the future are not knowable. Our opinions cannot be attached to knowable objects."

- Alison McKee | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Mind & Its World II

“The word being translated as connate is the exact same Tibetan word that’s being rendered as co-emergent, and it literally means ‘born together.’ When it’s used in a positive way, especially in Vajrayāna Buddhism, it’s saying there’s a wisdom that’s there in every moment of your mind, that it’s intrinsic to each moment. It emerges with your mind; it arises with your mind. It’s right there. If you think ‘innate’ when you hear ‘connate,’ you won’t be far off.”

-Scott Wellenbach | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Mind & Its World II

“Sense direct valid cognition is happening. It does not require a self to make these things happen. These causal relationships are happening, and they do not require the imputation that there is a self making them happen. This continual paring down—looking at experience in very succinct ways—is intended to help bring about the realization, in our own experience, that there is no self making these things happen.”
- Dr. Sandra Roscoe | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Mind & Its World I

“Phenomena have the nature of appearing, but they do not have any identifiable nature of their own. They are like rainbows, reflections in a mirror, hallucinations, or dreams. They can be very vivid when they arise, but you can’t pin them down. That is the unity of the two truths in terms of the ground: they appear, but you can’t find them.”
- Mark Seibold | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Madhyamaka

“When we begin the path, it is not that ultimate truth or reality is absent. The capacity and presence of ultimate reality are already there. It is simply not what we experience; it is not what we are accustomed to. The path is basically the process of becoming fully, fluently, and inseparably never parted from that reality.”
-Stephanie Johnston | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Paths & Bhumis

“The alaya consciousness should not be mistaken for a self.
“The alaya consciousness was not taught in order to perpetuate that or fortify it. That’s why it says it is like a river: it flows continuously, which means it is impermanent."

Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Mind-Only and Yogacara

“Not every teaching is equally useful for each of us at a particular stage of the path. If a particular practice doesn’t make sense to us, or it isn’t helping us clarify our mind, diminish our confusion, or
diminish our suffering, then maybe that teaching is simply not the best one for us right now.”
-Israel Lifsh*tz | Nitartha Institute Faculty
Nitartha Course: Paths & Bhumis