Wisdom Dharma Chat | His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche (April 2025)

In this episode of Wisdom Dharma Chats, His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche returns for an enriching conversation with host Daniel Aitken. They begin with a brief reflection on Rinpoche’s recent book, A Monk’s Guide to Finding Joy, before expanding on themes explored in a prior Wisdom Dharma Chat with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Professor Robert Thurman. Drawing from this earlier dialogue, Daniel and Rinpoche explore detailed nuances in how the sutra and tantra approaches to mental afflictions differ. They continue to explore the challenges of distraction in the digital age and the enduring resilience of the Dharma across generations before returning to Rinpoche’s book with a deeper look at the role of joy and devotion on the Buddhist path and how one can balance rigorous tantric practice with the cultivation of joy.

Rinpoche, vice abbot of Gyuto Tantric Monastery, shares personal stories of his upbringing, monastic discipline, and the profound influence of his teachers. His grounded presence and accessible teaching style offer viewers the opportunity to witness the timeless depth and modern relevance of Buddhist practice. Rinpoche concludes the episode with reflections on the importance of consistent practice and a gentle reminder that—even amidst chaos—joy remains both a compass and a companion on the path.

Meet Our Guest

His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche

His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, in May 1975. At five years of age, a search party positively identified him as the reincarnation of the seventh Khangser Rinpoche. He is one of three high lamas responsible for recognizing the rebirth of the spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Khangser Rinpoche completed his preliminary study of Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamshala, India. He later went on to advanced Buddhist studies in sutra and tantra at Sera Jey Monastery and Gyuto Tantric Monastic University. It was there he earned the geshe lharampa degree and a doctorate degree in tantra, both with the highest honors in the top division. Khangser Rinpoche presently serves as vice abbot of Gyuto Monastery and as the founder and administrative head of Thangkar Dechen Choling Monastic Institute. This institute is both a monastery and a school, and generously provides food, housing, and education in both Dharma and contemporary Western curricula to over eighty young monks in Nepal. The entire student population comes from impoverished conditions, many of whom are orphans.

Khangser Rinpoche has established many Dipkar centers around the globe, spearheading philanthropic efforts such as providing free food to those in need. He also established the Dipkar Vajrayana Institute to offer free Dharma education to all who wish to learn. Khangser Rinpoche is considered one of the great Buddhist teachers of the modern age. He has dedicated his entire life to providing spiritual medicine for what ails a broken spirit. He believes his mission is to help as many suffering beings as possible.

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Professor Robert Thurman

In this special Wisdom Dharma Chats episode, presented in collaboration with Tergar International and Tibet House US, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Professor Robert Thurman come together for a rich and wide-ranging conversation on the practical application of Buddhist teachings in everyday life. With clarity, warmth, and humor, they explore tantric practice, the nature of Buddha’s potential, and the central role of meditation in transforming the mind.

Rinpoche, a renowned meditation master trained in the highest Vajrayana practices and known for his extended retreats and wandering pilgrimage through the Himalayas, brings firsthand insight into the lived experience of the Dharma. Thurman, a preeminent scholar of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and a tireless advocate for its preservation, shares his deep textual knowledge and contemporary reflections on the relevance of the Buddhist worldview today.

Together, they discuss overcoming distraction, the role of compassion in both personal and societal contexts, and even reflect on the meeting point between artificial intelligence and consciousness. The session concludes with a short guided meditation from Rinpoche, offering participants a direct experience of present-moment awareness. With host Daniel Aitken guiding the conversation, this Wisdom Dharma Chat offers a rare and inspiring encounter with two remarkable teachers who bridge ancient wisdom and the modern world.

Meet Our Guests

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Mingyur Rinpoche is a world-renowned meditation teacher with personal experience of anxiety and panic attacks, which he suffered from throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, when he learned to transform his panic through meditation.

Born in Nepal in 1975, Mingyur Rinpoche began to study meditation as a young boy with his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, himself a well-respected Buddhist teacher.

As a child he became interested in contemporary science through conversations with scientists who were visiting his father, and as he grew older he began to collaborate with neuroscientists and psychologists, including Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz at the University of Wisconsin, on research projects that study the effects of meditation on the brain and the mind.

Mingyur Rinpoche’s first book, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages. His second book, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom, explores how difficult emotions and challenging life situations can be used as stepping stones to discover joy and freedom. In his most recent book, In Love with the World, Mingyur Rinpoche shares how his meditation practice sustained him when he left his monastery to wander through India and the powerfully transformative insights he gained from the near-death experience he had at the beginning of his journey. Mingyur Rinpoche recently appeared in the Netflix series The Mind, Explained, in an episode about the benefits of mindfulness.

As the head of the Tergar Meditation Community, Mingyur Rinpoche supports groups of students in more than thirty countries, leading workshops around the world for new and returning students every year.

Robert Thurman

Bob Thurman, known in the academic circles as Professor Robert A.F. Thurman, is a talented popularizer of the Buddha’s teachings and the first Westerner Tibetan Buddhist monk ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

A charismatic speaker and author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, Bob was named by The New York Times the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism, and was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri Award in 2020, for his help in recovering India’s ancient Buddhist heritage. Time Magazine chose him as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997, describing him as a “larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the Dharma, the precious teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, from Asia to America.”

Bob served as the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University for 30 years, until 2020. A very popular professor, students always felt his classes were “life-changing”. Bob is the founder and active president of Tibet House US, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan culture, and of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important artistic and scientific Tibetan treatises.

His own search for enlightenment began while he was a university student at Harvard. After an accident in which he lost the use of an eye, Bob left school on a spiritual quest throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He found his way to India, where he first saw His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1962. After learning Tibetan and studying Buddhism, Bob became a Tibetan Buddhist monk and the first Westerner to be ordained by the Dalai Lama. Some years later, however, he offered up his robes when he realized he could be more effective in the American equivalent of a monastery: the university, returning to Harvard to finish his PhD.

As part of his long-term commitment to the Tibetan cause, at the request of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Bob co-founded Tibet House US in 1987 with Tenzin Tethong, Richard Gere, and Philip Glass, a non profit organization based in New York City and dedicated to the preservation and renaissance of Tibetan culture.

Inspired by his longtime good friend the Dalai Lama, Bob takes us along with him into an expanded vision of the world through the prisma of Tibetan Buddhism. He shares with us the sense of refuge in the Dharma, which unfailingly helps us clear away the shrouds of fear and confusion, sustains us with the cheerfulness of an enriched present, and opens a door to a path of realistic hope for a peaceful, kind, and wise future.

Lesson 1: Introduction to the Rubric of the Three Turnings

from The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma

The three turnings of the wheel of Dharma are a classic system for framing the philosophy of the Buddhist sūtras. However, we often hear that one turning of the wheel is true and that the others require interpretation and are in some sense inferior. Following the suggestion of H. H. the Dalai Lama, in this course accomplished scholars Jay Garfield and Guy Newland take another way of thinking about the three turnings of the wheel—as a comprehensive picture of the Buddhadharma.

In this first lesson, we are introduced to the idea of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma and learn about their foundations in the early discourses of the Buddha. We also call into question the common belief that some teachings are provisional while others are definitive.

About Your Instructors

Jay Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Logic Program and of the Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program at Smith College; Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School; Professor in the graduate faculty of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts; Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University; and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. He teaches and pursues research in the philosophy of mind, foundations of cognitive science, logic, philosophy of language, Buddhist philosophy, cross-cultural hermeneutics, theoretical and applied ethics, and epistemology. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books on these subjects, most recently The Essential Jewel of Holy Practice, a co-translation of verses written by Patrul Rinpoche (Wisdom 2017).

Guy Newland is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University, where he has taught since 1988. He has authored, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism, including the three-volume translation of The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and Introduction to Emptiness. In recent years he has expanded his teachings at Dharma centers to include the topics of death, dying, and grief; he is the author of A Buddhist Grief Observed (Wisdom 2016).

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Malcolm Smith – December 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chats episode with special guest Ācārya Malcolm Smith. Join host Daniel Aitken and Malcolm as they discuss Malcolm’s recent translation projects, his upcoming volume, Yoga of the Natural State: The Dzogchen Aural Lineage, scheduled to be released in 2025 and available for pre-order now, understanding key terms for liberation, and much more!

We’re also pleased to be able to offer our Friends of Wisdom Dharma Chats 30% off on all of Malcolm’s works with us. Use the code WDC24SMITH to save 30% on the following books and courses through the end of Thursday, December 12, 2024.

– Yoga of the Natural State (Available Dec. 2025)
– Buddhahood In This Life
– The Self-Arisen Vidya Tantra and the Self-Liberated Vidya Tantra
– The Tantra Without Syllables and The Blazing Lamp Tantra
– Dzogchen: Ten Key Terms – a Wisdom Academy Online Course

ĀCĀRYA MALCOLM SMITH has been a student of the Great Perfection teachings since 1992 and graduated in 2009 from Shang Shung Institute’s School of Tibetan Medicine. He is a veteran of the traditional three-year solitary Tibetan Buddhist retreat, a beloved and published translator, and was awarded the Acharya degree from the Sakya Institute in 2004

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Cortland Dahl – December 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chats episode with special guest Cortland Dahl. Join host Daniel Aitken and Cortland as they discuss Cortland’s new book, A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism, focusing on its relevance for practitioners. They also discuss the science and research behind meditation, integrating Buddhism into modern life, emphasizing authentic dharma and practical application, and the challenges of daily practice. They explore awareness, emotional experiences, and the balance between doing and being in meditation, and aiming for a deeper understanding of wisdom and compassion.

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Wisdom Dharma Chat | Yoga for Meditators

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chats episode with special guests Alejandro Chaoul, Mary Taylor, and Richard Freeman. In this episode, our guests, with host Daniel Aitken discuss the upcoming Wisdom Academy online course, Yoga for Meditators. They provide insights into their yoga traditions, emphasizing historical dialogue between the traditions and shared practices. They also discuss practical meditation tips, integrating the body into mindfulness, and much more!

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Wisdom Dharma Chat | Venerable Thubten Chodron - November 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chats episode with special guest Venerable Thubten Chodron. Ven. Chodron is an author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western nuns and monks in the US. Ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun in 1977, she has studied extensively with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhap Serkong Rinpoche, and Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche. Ven. Chodron teaches worldwide and is known for her practical and often humorous explanations of how to apply Buddhist teachings in daily life.

In this episode, Venerable and host Daniel Aitken celebrate the release of the 10th volume in the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, Vajrayāna And The Culmination Of The Path. They discuss the evolution of the series with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the importance of making Buddhist teachings accessible, and the interconnectedness of traditions. Venerable Chodron shares her insights on empowerment, the significance of compassion and wisdom in spiritual practice, and much more!

Wisdom Dharma Chat | The Daily Buddhist (June 2025)

Meet Our Guest

Pema Sherpa & Brendan Barca

Wisdom Dharma Chat | His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche (April 2025)

Meet Our Guest

His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Professor Robert Thurman

Meet Our Guests

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Robert Thurman

Lesson 1: Introduction to the Rubric of the Three Turnings

About Your Instructors

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Malcolm Smith – December 2024

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Cortland Dahl – December 2024

Join Wisdom

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Yoga for Meditators

Join Wisdom

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Venerable Thubten Chodron - November 2024