Janet Gyatso
Janet Gyatso is a specialist in Buddhist studies with concentration on Tibetan and South Asian cultural history and the Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard University. Gyatso was president of the International Association of Tibetan Studies from 2000 to 2006, and co-chair of the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion from 2004 to 2010. She teaches lecture courses and advanced seminars on Buddhist history, ritual, and ideas, and on Tibetan literary practices and religious history. In both teaching and writing she draws on cultural and literary theory, and endeavors to widen the spectrum of intellectual resources for the understanding of Buddhist and Tibetan history. She is the faculty director of the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum. She is also a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Committee on the Study of Religion, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies. She will chair the Committee on Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Religion at the Divinity School in 2012 and is involved in the development of a new track for the training of Buddhist lay ministers and leaders in the master of divinity program. Gyatso taught at Amherst College before coming to Harvard as the Divinity School’s first Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies.
Books, Courses & Podcasts
The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava
This lucid translation of a rare Tibetan text makes available for the first time to Western readers the remarkable life story of Princess Madarava. As the principal consort of the eighth century Indian master Padmasambhava before he introduced tantric Buddhism to Tibet, Mandarava is the Indian counterpart of the Tibetan consort Yeshe Tsogyal. Lives and Liberation recounts her struggles and triumphs as a Buddhist adept throughout her many lives and is an authentic deliverance story of a female Buddhist master. Those who read this book will gain inspiration and encouragement on the path to liberation.
Learn more about Princess Mandarava at the Treasury of Lives.
Related Content
Daniel A. Hirshberg: Nyingma Lore and Lineage (#136)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Daniel A. Hirshberg, who earned a PhD from Harvard University in 2012 and was associate professor in the Department of Classics, Philosophy, & Religion at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Since recording this podcast, Dan left his tenured professorship to found SŌTERIC.
In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and Dan discuss
- Dan’s path to the academic Dharma world through studying with Professor Jan Willis, Naropa University, and study and practice in Asia;
- studies with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche’s Nalandabodhi Community and the Nitartha Shedra curriculum;
- Dan’s engagement in historical studies of the influential Nyingma teacher Nyangrel (Nyangrel Nyima Özer, c.1124–1192), King Trisong Detsen, and the Padmasambhava lineage and lore;
- the foundation and culture of the terma/tertön tradition and the sacred world throughout Tibetan history and into today;
- practical perspectives on the future of Buddhist literary traditions in the modern age, and the nature of validation in authentic teachings;
- modern contemplative research and application through secular pedagogical techniques;
- Dan’s recent book, Remembering the Lotus-Born: Padmasambhava in the History of Tibet’s Golden Age;
- and much more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
Alejandro Chaoul on Body Buddhism (#135)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features an interview with Dr. Alejandro Chaoul, who has studied Tibetan yoga for thirty years with the tradition’s greatest masters, including Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Dr. Chaoul and host Daniel Aitken explore
- Tsa Lung Trul Khor (“channel/wind obstacle-clearing techniques”) yoga practice and its place in Dzogchen meditation;
- the practice of “Body Buddhism,” integrating the body with the mind and breath;
- the benefits of purification practices like Tsa Lung Trul Khor and the subtle body;
- practices to help restore “dimmed awareness” to clarity;
- quick techniques that can be applied immediately in practice and daily life for balancing;
- his book with Wisdom, Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind;
- and more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
H. H. the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, & B. Alan Wallace in Conversation (#134)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live at the 2021 Serenity Ridge Dialogues features a conversation between H. H. the 42nd Sakya Trizin, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, & B. Alan Wallace, moderated by Daniel Aitken. Topics discussed include
- body, breath, mind, and the nature of consciousness in scientific and spiritual paradigms;
- views on the source of mind and the influence of the brain;
- integration of science and spirituality in the understanding of the nature of the mind;
- introspective techniques such as vipassana and samatha, and the cultivation of attention, insight, and compassion;
- Alaya consciousness, primordial mind, Rigpa, and the differing Mahayana interpretations of Buddha nature;
- awe, devotion, and faith in the experience of dream-like reality;
- and more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
Ven. Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Early Buddhism and Dzogchen (#133)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features a discussion with special guests Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
Ven. Anālayo, Rinpoche, and host Daniel Aitken discuss many Buddhist ideas and practices, comparing what different Buddhist traditions have to say about them, including
- how the Buddha practiced;
- understanding mindfulness across different Buddhist traditions;
- the difference between mindfulness and awareness and how we translate the original terms for these practices;
- defining terms like space and emptiness and how we think about emptiness;
- emptiness and compassion;
- and much more.
Remember to subscribe to the Wisdom Podcast for more great conversations on Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness. And please give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts if you enjoy our show—it’s a great support to us and it helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!