The Art
of Reasoning
ACI 13
with
TIMOTHY LOWENHAUPT
Online Course
Jan 2 - Feb 4, 2025
Have you been avoiding learning logic? If you agree to study it, you will help keep Buddhism safe in the world. Can you guess why this is? Come find out.
ACI 13
The Art of
Reasoning
ACI 13, The Art of Reasoning, uses The Key to the Logic Machine, a 19th century work on Buddhist logic, as well as Dharmakirti's famous Commentary on Valid Perception, to help us better understand this important Buddhist tool and learn to use it. Get the key to the logic machine, as Tim Lowenhaupt takes us through ten classes that help us keep Buddhism safe in the world. Why is this? Because people who see the logic are likely to accept the ideas of Buddhism more deeply. Learn not to judge others, using logic. Buddha said, "Only I, or someone like me, is able to judge another person. No other person should ever judge another, for they will surely fall."
Did you know the definition of a reason is "Anything put forward as a reason"? Find out what valid perceptions are, the difference among changing, unchanging, and working things, and why impermanent is not the best word to use in describing changing things. (Hint: it's because everything is constantly blinking in and out of existence, many times each instant.) Find out why a person is neither mental nor physical. If you've ever wondered about what distinguishes one Buddhist school from another, ACI 13 will help you find out. And explore more deeply what the concepts chi and jedrak mean, concepts that Geshe Michael Roach tells us will get us much closer to a direct perception of emptiness. Explore why there is no real difference between causes and results. Find out how syllogisms work on the debate ground.
Geshe Michael often tells us that the way we bring objects into focus is by looking at what is appearing to us, and eliminating from our extensive mental databases everything that appearance is not. That's how we identify what we're looking at. Or, put another way, what is appearing to our eye consciousness. Along with chi jedrak, using the negative--focusing on what things are not--is a crucial, if counter-intuitive, way to approach the direct perception of emptiness. You’ll learn more about negatives and cessations in ACI 13.
Join Timothy Lowenhaupt as they give us the key to the logic machine. ACI 13, The Art of Reasoning, is the second level of Buddhist logic and perception. It's rarely taught. Here is your opportunity to add this to the collection of tools in your Buddhist toolkit. ACI 13 is free and open to everyone. Sign up today.
One traditional school--the logic part of the second school, the Sautrantika--says the past and future do not even exist. ACI 13 will contrast this with the position of the highest school, the Prasangika, who say the past does exist, and help us explore why they each hold these positions.
If you've taken ACI 4, Proof of Future Lives, or even if you haven't, ACI 13, The Art of Reasoning, will take you higher up the path of using logic to prove, to yourself and others, the truth of Buddhist ideas. It's one of the main courses that explores some of the important differences between lower and higher schools. It's known as one of the most challenging of the ACI courses because of the depth and breadth of the knowledge it explains. Take the challenge! Learn how to work the logic machine. Join us for ACI 13, January 2- February 4, taught by Timothy Lowenhaupt, free online to everyone.
TIMOTHY
LOWENHAUPT
Timothy Lowenhaupt has been the Executive Director of the Asian Classics Institute since 2017, a translator for the Diamond Cutter Classics since 2022, and teaches extensively around the world. He previously was the Managing Director of Red Capital Education & Travel, which owns a portfolio of hotels and commercial properties in Sedona, AZ, from 2019-2024.
In 2023, one of its properties, the Adobe Grand Villas, was rated the #1 small hotel in the United States by TripAdvisor, and another lodging property was rated the #1 Bed & Breakfast in Sedona, AZ.
He has also worked in translation and interpreting, both as a translator and in project management, as well as in pharmaceutical marketing and patient technology development.
He received a master’s degree (MA) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and graduated with honors and distinction from Penn State with a Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) in 2001. Tim also is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Class 1 - January 2
Class 2 - January 6
Class 3 - January 9
Class 4 - January 13
Class 5 - January 16
Class 6 - January 20
Class 7 - January 23
Class 8 - January 27
Class 9 - January 30
Class 10 - February 3
Review - February 4