THE WISDOM ACADEMY PRESENTS

The Four Immeasurables

Online Courses with Lama Alan Wallace

Discover the power of the Four Immeasurables.

For Tibetan Buddhists, especially students of Lama Alan Wallace, this two-part course is the optimal way to deepen understanding of the Four Immeasurables through a multimedia experience.

Enhance your shamatha meditation.

Enhance your shamatha meditation through the Four Immeasurables under the guidance of renowned teacher Lama Alan Wallace.

The Four Immeasurables address our most fundamental human aspirations. As the Dalai Lama teaches, our deepest drive as humans is tsewa: caring. And what do we care about? We care about not suffering, and experiencing happiness.

This two-part course will take you on a rich journey through your own quest for happiness, to where happiness actually lies.

What do we mean when we wish for our own happiness, and the happiness of others? The goal isn’t to have one pleasant experience after another, with our dopamine levels consistently high. That’s not what we mean when we say that we want to be happy, and we want to be free of suffering. We mean a greater kind of happiness, one that doesn’t depend on conditions. In these courses you’ll learn how the Four Immeasurables can help you experience deeper, truer, more trustworthy happiness.

Under the expert guidance of Lama Alan Wallace, you’ll explore the practice of cultivating the Four Immeasurables, the Four Greats, and bodhicitta, including from the perspective of vajrayana, and specifically from pure view and divine pride, as Avalokitesvara. In order to engage in this kind of practice authentically, there needs to be an understanding of emptiness, which is why it’s so important to include this more profound view. You’ll explore what it means to cultivate the Four Immeasurables, the Four Greats, and bodhicitta not from the perspective of your ordinary sense of identity.

We recommend you take Part 1 before Part 2.

Click below to enroll now and start invigorating your practice with the energy of the four immeasurables!

Tuition: $247 per part

Includes lifetime access for enrolled students!

When you enroll in any Wisdom Academy course, you agree to our terms of use. Enrolled students have lifetime access to course materials. Wisdom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your tuition supports the creation of more courses like this one. Thank you! For more about our terms, please see the Wisdom Academy FAQ.

Watch the Trailer

“One can view the cultivation of the Four Immeasurables—as they unfold into the four greats, into relative bodhicitta, into ultimate bodhicitta—as the complete path.”

—Lama Alan Wallace

Part 1 Lessons

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Introduction, Happiness, & Intro to Loving-Kindness

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Loving-Kindness

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Loving-Kindness, Worldview, & Ethics

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Introduction to Compassion

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Compassion, the Sources of Suffering, & Difficult People

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Introduction to Shamatha

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Shamatha Part 2

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Tonglen & Practicing with Positive, Neutral, & Difficult People

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Shamatha & Vipashyana

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Consciousness & the Nature of the Mind

Part 2 Lessons

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Empathetic Joy

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Dependent Origination, the Madhyamaka View, & Emptiness

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The Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

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Buddha-Nature & Great Compassion

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The Benefits of the 4 Greats

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Introduction to Bodhicitta

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Bodhicitta in Action

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Introduction to Vajrayana

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Introduction to Dzogchen

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Bodhicitta & Dzogchen

What You’ll Learn

By joining these courses, you’ll learn:

                          • The theory and application of the profound practices known as the Four Immeasurables, or the Divine Abidings (brahmaviharas): loving-kindness and compassion in part 1 of the course, and empathetic joy and impartiality in par 
                          • The four “greats”: Great Loving-Kindness and Great Compassion in part 1, and Great Empathetic Joy and Great Impartiality in part 2. In Lama Alan’s teaching, the “four greats” require a fundamental shift from aspiration to intention.

Additionally, both parts of the course will touch on:

                          • pith instructions on different methods of shamatha and vipashyana
                          • how understanding the Four Immeasurables can deepen your shamatha practice
                          • the cultivation of bodhicitta
                          • the practice of sadhana
                          • the practice of relative and ultimate bodhicitta in the context of Dzoghchen
                          • and much more!

Tuition: $247 per part

Includes lifetime access for enrolled students!

Your Courses Include

10+ hours of HD video teachings per course

Guided meditations from Lama Alan

Engaging readings to enrich your understanding

Forums for discussion and support

Lifetime access

Benefits

Discover True Happiness

We all long for happiness, but we don’t always know what will create deep, meaningful happiness. These courses will show you how.

Support Your Entire Practice

What you learn in these courses will enhance and support the rest of your practice, no matter what that practice is. The Four Immeasurables are universal and foundational.

Connect Deeply with Life

The Four Immeasurables have a powerful ability to bring us into greater intimacy with life itself.

Experience the Benefits of the “Four Greats”

  • Great loving-kindness: You are freed from hatred, achieve the sambhogakāya, and hatred shifts to mirror-like primordial consciousness.
  • Great compassion: You are freed from attachment, achieve the dharmakāya, and attachment shifts to discerning primordial consciousness.
  • Great empathetic joy: You are freed from envy, achieve the nirmāṇakāya, and envy shifts to accomplishing primordial consciousness.
  • Great impartiality: You are freed from pride and delusion, achieve the svabhāvikakāya, and pride and delusion shift to the primordial consciousness of equality and of the absolute space of phenomena.

Meet Your Teacher

Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, Lama Alan Wallace, PhD, continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind. Lama Alan, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, has taught Buddhist theory and meditation worldwide since 1976. Having devoted 14 years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford. He later studied Dzogchen with Gyatrul Rinpoche, a senior teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. With his unique background, Dr. Wallace brings deep experience and applied skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world.

He is the author and translator of several books, including Düdjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great PerfectionStilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings From Dudjom Linpa’s Vajra EssenceTibetan Buddhism from the Ground UpNatural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, and The Attention Revolution.

Buddhist studies online courses

About the Wisdom Academy

The Wisdom Academy is the leading provider of high-quality online courses about Buddhism and meditation.

The Wisdom Academy was founded in 2016. Since then, we’ve grown to be the leader in online Buddhist learning, with over 45 courses and thousands of students enrolled.

In the Academy, dedicated students come together with beloved teachers to learn authentic philosophy and practices for awakening.

Our courses offer teachings on Dzogchen, shamatha, mahamudra, vipassana, mindfulness, jhana, and much more. The clear, progressive structure of the courses will support you in learning about the profound philosophy and practices of the Dharma. You’ll discover the vivid and immediate ways that the teachings can create more ease, joy, and freedom in your daily life. Click here to learn more and explore our course catalog.


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