Sam Van Schaik

Approaching the Great Perfection

Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa’s texts are presented here, along with extensive analysis by van Schaik of a core tension within Buddhism: Does enlightenment develop gradually, or does it come all at once? Though these two positions are often portrayed by modern scholars as entrenched polemical views, van Schaik explains that both tendencies are present within each of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. He demonstrates how Jigme Lingpa is a great illustration of this balancing act, using the rhetoric of both sides to propel his students along the path of the Great Perfection.

Learn more about the Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism series.

Read Jigme Lingpa’s biography at the Treasury of Lives.

• Read Now
• Buy

The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism

Since its 1976 publication in Tibetan, Dhongthog Rinpoche’s history of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism has been a key reference for specialists in Tibetan studies. Now English readers can consult it as well through Sam van Schaik’s authoritative, fully annotated and accessible translation.

The book begins by examining the development of Buddhism in India and Tibet, setting the scene for the Khon family’s establishment of the Sakya school in the eleventh century. Rinpoche subsequently provides accounts of the transmission of the Lamdre (the heart of Sakya contemplative practice and other major streams of esoteric instruction) and the Ngor and Tshar branches of the Sakya tradition. Highlights also include surveys of great Sakya and nonsectarian masters such as Rongtongpa, Gorampa, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. This traditional history, compiled both from earlier histories and from the author’s direct connection to masters of the tradition, is an enormously valuable resource for the study of Tibetan Buddhism.

• Read Now
• Buy

Realizing the Profound View

The eighth volume in the Dalai Lama’s definitive and bestselling Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, and the second of three focusing on emptiness.

In Realizing the Profound View the Dalai Lama presents the analysis and meditations necessary to realize the ultimate nature of reality. With attention to Nāgārjuna’s five-point analysis, Candrakīrti’s seven-point examination, and Pāli suttas, the His Holiness leads us to investigate who or what is the person. Are we our body? Our mind? If we are not inherently either of them, how do we exist, and what carries the karma from one life to the next? As we explore these and other fascinating questions, he skillfully guides us along the path avoiding the chasms of absolutism and nihilism and introduces us to dependent arising. We find that although all persons and phenomena lack an inherent essence, they do exist dependently. This nominally imputed mere I carries the karmic seeds. We discover that all phenomena exist by being merely designated by term and concept—they appear as like illusions, unfindable under ultimate analysis but functioning on the conventional level. Furthermore, we come to understand that emptiness dawns as the meaning of dependent arising, and dependent arising dawns as the meaning of emptiness. The ability to posit subtle dependent arisings in the face of realizing emptiness and to establish ultimate and conventional truths as noncontradictory brings us to the culmination of the correct view.

• Read Now
• Buy

Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 3

Deepen your understanding of meaning and truth with the third volume of the Dalai Lama’s esteemed series Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics.

In this third volume the focus turns to exploring the philosophical schools of India. The practice of presenting the views of various schools of philosophy dates back to the first millennium in India, when proponents of competing traditions would arrange the diverse sets of philosophical positions in a hierarchy culminating in their own school’s superior tenets. Centuries later, relying on the Indian Buddhist treatises, Tibet developed its own tradition of works on tenets (grub mtha’), often centered on the four schools of Buddhist philosophy, using them to demonstrate the philosophical evolution within their own tradition, and within individual practitioners, as they progressed through increasingly more subtle expressions of the true reality.  

The present work follows in this venerable tradition, but with a modern twist. Like its predecessors, it presents the views of seven non-Buddhist schools, those of the Samkhya, Vaisesika, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Jaina, and Lokayata, followed by the Buddhist Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Cittamatra, and Madhyamaka schools, arranging them like steps on a ladder to the profound. But rather than following in the sharply polemical approach of its ancient predecessors, it strives to survey each tradition authentically, relying on and citing the texts sacred to each, allowing the different traditions to speak for themselves. What, it asks, are the basic components of the world we experience? What is the nature of their ultimate reality? And how can we come to experience that for ourselves? See how the rich spiritual traditions of India approached these key questions, where they agreed, and how they evolved through dialogue and debate. 

This presentation of philosophical schools is introduced by His Holiness and is accompanied by an extensive introduction and survey by Professor Donald Lopez Jr. of the University of Michigan, who is uniquely qualified to communicate the scope and significance of this literary and spiritual heritage to modern readers.

• Read Now
• Buy

Shila, Samadhi, and Prajna

• Enroll

Daughters of the Buddha

A testimony to the invaluable contributions made by the women who were direct disciples of the Buddha—and a source of inspiration to Buddhist women today.

It’s a common perception that the earliest textual records don’t contain many, if any, teachings by the Buddha’s female disciples; yet, this is not the case. In fact, the earliest discourses record a range of teachings from Buddhist women, lay and monastic. Unfortunately their important contributions have so far not received the attention they deserve.

In Daughters of the Buddha, esteemed scholar-monk Bhikkhu Anālayo examines the accounts of the first female disciples in the canonical scripture, taking the reader back to the earliest period in the history of Buddhism that can still be accessed today. He dedicates each of the twenty-one chapters in the volume to an individual and remarkable woman, sharing her particular insights and teachings with the reader. Both nuns and laywomen are featured in these pages, and their diversity of voices and richness of thought will serve as instruction and encouragement for modern scholars and practitioners alike.

• Read Now
• Buy

Malcolm Smith: Dzogchen, Sakya, and Translation (#148)

This episode of the Wisdom Podcast, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features host Daniel Aitken joined by Malcolm Smith—translator in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and long-time practitioner of Dzogchen. Malcolm Smith has been a student of the Great Perfection teachings since 1992, his main Dzogchen teachers being Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and the late Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. He is a veteran of a traditional three-year solitary Tibetan Buddhist retreat, a published translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts, and was awarded the Ācārya degree by the Sakya Institute in 2004. He graduated in 2009 from Shang Shung Institute’s School of Tibetan Medicine, and has worked on translations for renowned lamas since 1992, including H.H. the Sakya Trichen Rinpoche, Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, Khenpo Migmar Tseten, Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, Khenchen Könchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche, and more.

In this lively discussion, Malcolm and Daniel talk about:

• Malcolm’s new translation on Sakya Lamdre, Sakya: The Path with Its Result;
• yantra yoga (trul-khor) and Dzogchen in the Sakya yogic tradition;
• translating the commentary on the Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection;
• Candrakīrti and the Prāsaṅgika Mādhyamaka view in Dzogchen;
• systems of medicine and elemental compatibility in the tantras;  
• trekchö, tögal, and two types of dharmatā in Dzogchen teachings;
• 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!

• Listen

The Source of Supreme Bliss

The Source of Supreme Bliss contains the first English translations of important commentaries on the Highest Yoga Tantra system of the Heruka Chakrasamvara five deity practice. 

Included is a lucid, practical, and deeply profound explanation of the generation stage by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra. This is followed by an extremely rare and profound commentary by the First Panchen Lama Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen on the completion stage, along with a commentary on how to perform a proper Chakrasamvara retreat. The second half of the book comprises translations of the ritual texts associated with the commentaries. 

Indispensable for anyone who undertakes this practice, The Source of Supreme Bliss will also provide rich and profound insights for those interested in Highest Yoga Tantra.

The Dechen Ling Practice Series from Wisdom Publications is committed to furthering the vision of David Gonsalez (Venerable Losang Tsering) and the Dechen Ling Press of bringing the sacred literature of Tibet to the West by making available many never-before-translated texts.

• Buy

Open Mind

• Enroll

Digital Dharma

This is the epic story of an international rescue effort to preserve a culture’s literary history.

Originally a Mormon from Utah, E. Gene Smith, founder of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, became the unlikely mastermind behind an international effort to rescue, preserve, digitize, and provide free access to the vast Tibetan Buddhist canon, many volumes of which had been lost or destroyed during China’s Cultural Revolution.  

Digital Dharma is a stunning visual experience offering a behind-the-scenes look into this unprecedented mission. Through hundreds of photographs taken during Smith’s trip to deliver drives containing the digitized volumes to remote monasteries in South Asia, you’ll gain extraordinary and intimate access to life inside Buddhist monasteries, to the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism, and to the insights of some of the world’s leading lamas and lineage holders. Throughout the journey, you’ll meet monks, local publishers, scholars, and dignitaries involved in the preservation movement to which Smith dedicated his life. With the accompanying historical and cultural background, you’ll develop a deeper and more personal understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and of the achievement of preserving and disseminating its sacred canon.

Gene Smith’s legacy lives on in the organization he founded in 1999, the Buddhist Digital Resource Center. BDRC’s founding mission was to digitally preserve the entirety of Tibetan Buddhist literature in order to secure it from destruction. In 2015, it expanded its mission to include all Buddhist traditions. More than twenty years later, BDRC has digitized and archived millions of pages of Tibetan, Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Khmer and Newari literature. BDRC is dedicated to seeking out, preserving, documenting, and disseminating Buddhist literature. With its text preservation programs, free online library, digital tools for researchers, and hard drive distribution programs, BDRC provides lamas, scholars, translators, Buddhist practitioners, and the general public with access to an unparalleled collection of Buddhist texts.

• Buy

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!

• Listen

Mind Sky

“In Zen meditation, anything that comes in your mind will eventually leave, because nothing is permanent. A thought is like a cloud moving across the blue sky. Nothing can disturb that all-encompassing vastness. This is the Dharma.” 

In a collection of talks and anecdotes, Jakusho Kwong-roshi, a Dharma successor of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, presents his approach to Buddhist teaching. Containing photos of Kwong-roshi with his teachers, as well as a selection of his vibrant calligraphy, Mind Sky explores the profound beauty of Zen history and practice, nature, and the philosophy of the ancient Zen master Eihei Dōgen.

With an elegant simplicity, Kwong-roshi shows how Zen is experiential rather than intellectual. And with persistent practice, realization is already yours.

• Buy

Beyond Distraction

The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind. Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.

Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind:

1. Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts.
2. Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts.
3. Avoid it, ignore it, forget it.
4. Investigate the causes of distraction.
5. Apply determination and resolve.
   

Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities. And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key realization: In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.

• Read Now
• Buy

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!

• Listen

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!

• Listen

The Vajra Essence, Part 3

• Buy

Liberation Tibetan Calendar 2022

The Liberation Tibetan Calendar has been produced since 1999 and supports the work of Liberation Prison Project, which helps people in prison around the world to study and practice Buddhism. Each year we give away calendars to inmates worldwide studying with the project.

Liberation Prison Project currently coordinates programs for prisoners through FPMT Dharma centers in Australia, the US, the UK, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Mongolia.

“Whenever we get a chance to go outside where there is grass, and it corresponds to a Tsog offering day on my calendar, I pick fresh flowers and dedicate them to all the Buddhas of the three times and all sangha members,” says Chris Helstowski of Pelican Bay State Prison in California.

A small, elegant calendar with Buddhist images, for desk or altar, Liberation calendar includes Tibetan lunar dates and information about more than thirty kinds of practice days and auspicious and inauspicious days for each month. Each month also features a particular buddha image, mantra, and quote from our lamas.

The calendar is prepared by astrologer Paksam Nawang Thartho based on Men Tsee Khang Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute’s calendar, with additional advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of FPMT, and Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, astrologer lama of FPMT center Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco.

• Buy

Tibetan Calligraphy

• Enroll

Ratnakīrti’s Proof of Momentariness by Positive Correlation (Kṣaṇabhaṇgasiddhi Anvayātmikā)

The Kṣaṇabhaṇgasiddhi is a masterpiece of skillful reasoning by the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Ratnakīrti. This renowned scholar taught at the great Buddhist University of Vikramaśīla and was a master of almost every classical philosophical school that preceded him.

The present work is informed by centuries of debate between Buddhist advocates of momentariness and archrival Nyāya philosophers who believed that both selves and things endure.

This book is the first published translation of Ratnakīrti’s proof based on positive correlations, and includes a commentary explaining each step of his reasoning.

• Buy

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!

• Listen