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In this course from the Wisdom Academy, you’ll be guided by a master translator through some of the most important and often-misunderstood terms in Dzogchen.

As a student in Dzogchen: Ten Key Terms, you’ll have the chance to delve deep into ten terms and hone a more advanced understanding that will illuminate your practice and inspire your path.

Ācārya Malcolm Smith explores the deep meaning in the dzogchen context of terms such as vidya, kadag, lhudrub, yeshe, and much more.

You’ll enjoy video lectures from Malcolm Smith, curated readings, short quizzes to test your understanding, and a forum for discussion with your fellow students.

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This course provides a precious opportunity to explore Buddhist psychology in depth with one of the world’s leading experts on Buddhism. Jinpa designed the course to help Buddhist practitioners go deeper into the psychology underlying practices like lamrim, mahamudra, dzogchen, and Vajrayana. You’ll explore the nuances of and interconnections between facets of your mental experiences, and you’ll learn practical methods for managing afflictive states of the mind and strong emotions. If you’ve ever wished for teachings on Buddhist psychology that are accessible and yet capture the richness, depth, and insights applicable to everyday life, this course is for you. The insights from Buddhist psychology have tremendous potential to shed light on the workings of our own minds—and understanding our mind is the key to transforming our life.

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In Pristine Awareness Realizing Reality, Lama Alan explores the wisdom of the second turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the deeper causes of mental distress and mental well-being. The Middle Way teachings of the Buddha’s second turning of the wheel of Dharma look at the nature of identification and the way phenomena exist. Understanding how the self is perceived, we can reveal the process by which we form attitudes and behaviors in our relations to other sentient beings. With this deflating of self-centered delusion, we are brought into accord with reality and able to inspire well-being for all, including ourselves.

While not necessary, we recommend completing The Dharma of Well-Being, Part 1 before engaging with Parts 2 and 3.

In this second program, you will learn about:

the nature of identification and the way phenomena exist;
dependent arising;
the nuanced view of Mādhyamaka Prāsaṅgika philosophy;
holistic well-being;
the transformation from renunciation to bodhicitta;
turning within for satisfaction and cultivating selflessness;
and more!

Lama Alan Wallace, internationally renowned for the clarity and profundity of his teachings, invites you to explore the inner causes of suffering alongside the causes of genuine well-being, and learn practices and techniques that will help you on your journey to develop genuine and lasting well-being.

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Join Wisdom

This film is available to Free, Plus, and All-Access members of the Wisdom Experience. Please log in or sign up to watch.

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Join Wisdom

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Join Wisdom

This film is available to Free, Plus, and All-Access members of the Wisdom Experience for the month of October. Please log in or sign up to watch.

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Lama Alan Wallace presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered text, Pith Instructions on the Middle Way (Madhyamakopadesha) by Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna (982-1055 CE), with commentary by Prajñāmoksha.

Atiśa was one of the greatest paṇḍits and mahāsiddhas in the history of Indian Buddhism, and was pivotal in revitalizing Buddhism in Tibet after its decline in the ninth century. In his text Pith Instructions on the Middle Way, Atiśa presents an interpretation of Madhyamaka philosophy, and his Indian disciple Prajñāmokṣa provides commentary. They are both based on the writings of Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti, but Atiśa takes a different view of the role of logic and epistemology in the realization of emptiness than later Tibetan masters of the New Translation School, such as Sakya Paṇḍita and Tsongkhapa. In this regard, Atiśa’s approach harmonizes strongly with Dzogchen meditative practices and views of the nature of appearances and reality.

These teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings. The “just-that-ness” of emptiness transcends karma, afflictions, and self-centered attachment. Resting in sheer luminosity, the distilled mind without additives provides the ultimate inner refuge. Using our own personal experience in the “laboratory” of analytic meditation, we have rare and privileged access to the nature of experience. Mere designations comprise the nature of conventional existence, without solid foundation. By recognizing our own and others’ lack of inherent identity, the result can be taken as the path and a powerful technique to shift identification to the basis of Buddha nature can be utilized.

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Lama Alan Wallace presents and comments on pith instructions of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Providing guidance on retreat, this course is based on the text Extracting the Vital Essence of Accomplishment: Concise and Clear Advice for Practice in a Mountain Retreat by twentieth-century Nyingma master, Düdjom Rinpoché, Jigdral Yeshé Dorjé. Considered by many to be amongst the greatest tertöns of our time, Düdjom Rinpoché was holder of all the teachings and the first supreme head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Alan translates and explores the short, powerful text on retreat in terms of the preliminaries, main practices, and post-meditative practices of the Great Perfection path. Dzogchen, also known as the Great Perfection, Great Completion, and Utmost Yoga (Atiyoga), traditionally focuses on awakening and maintaining pristine awareness of the ultimate, primordial ground of existence.

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In A Scientific Investigation of the Mind, you’ll start by looking into what genuine well-being is before delving into what it is not as Lama Alan explores the causes of suffering, mental afflictions, and unhappiness, along with the internal factors that often prevent us from being truly happy. He then turns to the causes of genuine happiness and offers skills, practices, and insights that will help you achieve genuine happiness and well-being in your own life. This foundation in experiential psychological insight prepares students for exploration of deeper insights in later modules.

Drawing on insights and methods from both the Buddhist tradition and Western psychology and philosophy, we think you’ll find this course a fascinating and deeply helpful resource.

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Wisdom Dharma Chats | Lama Migmar Tseten

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat book launch with host Daniel Aitken and special guest Lama Migmar Tseten.

In this episode, we celebrated the launch of Lama’s first major book, The Play of Mahamudra. In this collection, Lama provides essential commentary on the mystical songs of the Indian Buddhist rebel-saint Virupa. One of the most celebrated tantric masters of Buddhist India, Virupa’s songs describe his realization of mahamudra, the ultimate nature of reality. Intimate and highly engaging, The Play of Mahamudra unpacks these songs with meticulous clarity, making Virupa’s insights accessible to modern readers.

Topics discussed include

the life of Virupa,
Virupa’s connection to different deities and practices,
Virupa’s dohas,
mystical experiences of mahamudra,
the difference between flow states and mystical experiences,
the connection between the completion stage and mahamudra practice,
and much more.

Lama Migmar Tseten has served as Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University since 1997. He received both a traditional and a contemporary education in India, graduating from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sanskrit University in Varanasi. He served as the head of the Sakya Center in Rajpur, India, and the Sakya Monastery in Puruwalla. Lama Migmar has supervised the editing and publication of more than fifty rare volumes of Sakya literature and is the author of many books, including Awakening to the Noble Truth and The Tibetan Book of Awakening. As the founder of the Sakya Institute for Buddhist Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lama Migmar leads retreats throughout North America and Europe.