Summary of 2023 Programs.
OVERVIEW OF FALL DEBATE SCHOOL 2023
1 - Debate Winter School
Debate Winter School 2023 was offered as an online-only intensive course where we tried out a new format, holding classes on two consecutive weekends instead of five days in a row. The course gave basic debating skills to about 50 students from around the world on February 25-26 and March 4-5 hosted in the virtual Sera Jey Monastery in the highly interactive Gather platform.
2 - Debate Summer School
Debate Summer School from August 11-15, 2023 featured for the first time a hybrid online/in-person format. 15 students (from India and one from Singapore) lived in residency at the Yiga Choling Guesthouse at Sera Jey Monastery and attended all sessions in person, while about 50 students attended all sessions online. There were opportunities for interaction between the in-person and online students during the debate practice sessions.
3 - Fall Debate School
The annual Fall Debate School was held from November 16 to December 16, 2023. This was a one-month intensive course where the students started the first week by practicing drills of the Nalanda Debate format in order to get familiar enough to start debating topics of philosophy.
We then used the skill of Nalanda Debate to delve into some topics that the Nalanda Buddhist philosophers have emphasized over the centuries, including the nature of speech and language, matter and the objects of the five domains of sensory consciousness, and then how conceptual thought (mental consciousness) functions, i.e., by using a labelling process and an ability to isolate an object away from its qualities or instances as it forms cognitions.
25 students from 10 countries joined together for the month, including two Tibetans who had wanted to learn more about their own philosophical and spiritual heritage. It was a powerful retreat-like environment, where students had two debate sessions and two classes per day. They joined the Sera community as they debated at the main Sera Jey debate courtyard right beside the monks (of which there were several thousand because of the concurrent Jang Guncho Winter Debates where all Gelukpa monasteries in India send their monks to one place to debate together). Several English-speaking monks also took turns debating with the students each day, helping to guide them in learning the format.
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They also had the chance to meet with amazing and inspiring teachers, including the Ganden Tripa (head of the Gelukpa lineage), the abbot of Sera Jey Monastery Khen Rinpoche Tashi Tsetar; the abbot of Sera Mey Monastery Venerable Geshe Tashi Tsering; Geshe Thabkhe; and the Dutch Geshe who leads Jamyang Center, London and the Science and Wisdom Live organization, Geshe Tenzin Namdak. They also had a private screening of the film Tukdam: Between Worlds with the director and scientific researchers who are collaborating on the Tukdam (post-death meditation) research. And students enjoyed lots of delicious coffees and ice cream at the Sera Mey Cafe and rounds of badminton during the down times!
Special thanks to Stefan Riegl of Germany, who volunteered his time to help run the course and keep everyone laughing with his constant dedication, level-headedness, humor, and kindness.
