Kamalaśīla's Bhāvanakrama (1 month)
This text, by Śāntarakṣita's famed disciple Kamalaśīla, forms his last work, completed before his untimely death after winning the famous debate between him and a Chinese opponent on the necessity of a gradual path to enlightenment.

In his Bhāvanakrama, Kamalaśīla argues for the need of a balanced approach, cultivating the accumulation of both merit and wisdom side by side on the path. Those two are likened to the two wings of a bird flying to the city of buddhahood. He also stresses a systematic method incorporating the threefold sequence of learning, reflection, and meditation. According to Kamalaśīla, it was only by following this particular sequence thoroughly that one could hope to approach the final goal, i.e. the realization of śūnyatā (emptiness). Thus, in contrast to the "sudden path", which places no value on practicing the "ten perfections", the Bhāvanakrama recommends a step-by-step gradual pathway, as the correct approach to the realization of ultimate reality.

Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra (2 months)
One of the principal texts used in the study of Madhyamaka philosophy is Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra, a commentary on Nāgārjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way. In this work Candrakīrti presents what will later be known as the Prasaṅgika-Madhyamika view of emptiness,  a view considered by the most masters of all Tibetan Buddhist Schools to be the definitive presentation of the Buddha's teaching on ultimate truth.

The main body of the commentary is divided into ten chapters, each chapter dealing with one of the ten Bodhisattva stages. Each of these stages is associated with a particular pāramitā, beginning with the Perfection of Generosity. The first chapter deals with the actions and concerns of a Bodhisattva from the time he begins to practice, through his actual entry into the path of the Great Vehicle, up to and including his attainment of the first Bodhisattva ground.

The sixth chapter, describing the Perfection of Wisdom, is the main focus of the whole Commentary. It deals extensively with the "selflessness of person" and the "selflessness of phenomena" to establish the authentic Madhyamaka view of ultimate truth free from conceptual elaboration.