John D. Dunne presents the Madhyamaka argument that phenomena are neither truly one nor many. This analysis demonstrates the absence of intrinsic existence while preserving the functioning of conventional reality.
Session 9 — Analyzing Reality: The Logic of “Neither One Nor Many” Read More »
The teaching explains that all phenomena lack fixed, inherent identity and only exist relationally within contexts, which is what emptiness means. Properly understood, emptiness is not nothingness but the basis that allows change, understanding, and compassionate engagement with others.
Session 10 — No Fixed Essence: Understanding Emptiness in Context Read More »
John D. Dunne deepens the Madhyamaka analysis by showing that neither wholes nor their parts can be established as inherently existent. Through both reductive and relational reasoning, the session reveals that all phenomena exist only interdependently and lack intrinsic essence.
Session 11 — Neither One Nor Many Read More »
John D. Dunne presents Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way as a progressive teaching that frees the mind from all extremes without replacing them with another fixed view. The session also begins to open the transition from emptiness alone toward later discussions of Buddha-nature and luminosity.
Session 13 — Beyond Extremes: Nāgārjuna’s Progressive Teaching Read More »
John D. Dunne explains that true knowledge of emptiness is non-dual and cannot be grasped through subject-object cognition. By examining the role of prapañca, the session shows how both conceptual and pre-conceptual distortions sustain the illusion of reality.
Session 12 — From Conceptuality to Non-Dual Knowing Read More »
John D. Dunne explains emptiness and interdependence as two perspectives on the same reality, depending on whether one is seeing conventionally or through ultimate analysis. The session also points toward non-dual knowing by showing that emptiness cannot ultimately be grasped as an object of thought.
Session 14 — Emptiness, Interdependence, and Non-Dual Knowing Read More »
John D. Dunne relates the course’s philosophical analysis to Mahāmudrā practice by explaining reflexive awareness, meta-awareness, and the difference between objects of attention and the background quality of awareness itself. The session shows how meditation can reveal the luminous and non-dual nature of mind that is already present within ordinary experience.
Session 17 — Reflexive Awareness and the Background of Practice Read More »
John D. Dunne presents Yogācāra as a crucial step in a deeper Madhyamaka analysis, where both external objects and the sense of an inner subject are gradually undermined. The session also introduces reflexive awareness as a key idea for understanding how non-dual knowing is already present within experience.
Session 16 — From Mind-Only to Yogācāra Madhyamaka Read More »
John D. Dunne presents Yogācāra as a response to the question of what experience is when subject-object duality is seen as false. The session introduces luminous, non-dual experience as what remains in emptiness, while warning against reifying consciousness into a new ultimate reality.
Session 15 — Yogācāra, Duality, and the Nature of Experience Read More »
John D. Dunne uses the double-slit experiment and other examples of perceptual error to distinguish conceptual confusion from the deeper, non-conceptual distortion of subject-object duality. He then explains why non-dual awareness must be recognized through direct methods such as inquiry, meditation, tantra, or devotion rather than through concepts alone.
Session 18 — Quantum Physics, Error, and Methods of Non-Dual Practice Read More »
