Alejandro Chaoul: Body, Breath, and Mind in Tibetan Yoga (#99)

Posted December 18, 2020

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with author, teacher, and researcher Dr. Alejandro Chaoul. Alejandro has been teaching meditation and Tibetan yoga (tsa lung and trul khor) workshops under the Ligmincha Institute since 1995 and recently released Tibetan Yoga, a Wisdom Academy online course. During this episode, which was recorded as part of our live Wisdom Dharma Chats program, Alejandro discusses the history of Tibetan yoga and its relationship to yoga in the Indian traditions; the foundational triad of body, breath, and mind within the practice; and what makes Tibetan yoga unique. He delves into the benefits of practicing Tibetan yoga, including how the postures are meant to support and enhance meditative states and aid with both dullness and excitation in meditation, and how holding one’s breath is a way of holding one’s mind. He shares how he is researching the ongoing effects and benefits of these techniques in cancer patients and how they can help everyone cultivate genuine well-being, as each movement offers you an opportunity to “wake up.”

About the Interviewee

Dr. Alejandro Chaoul has studied in the Tibetan tradition since 1989 and has spent over twenty years studying with Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. He completed the seven-year training at Ligmincha Institute in 2000 and holds a PhD in Tibetan religions from Rice University. Since 1995, he has been teaching meditation classes and Tibetan yoga (tsa lung and trul khor) workshops, and in 1999 he began teaching these techniques at the Integrative Medicine Program of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he conducts research on the effects of these practices in people with cancer. Alejandro is also the author of Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition (Snow Lion, 2009) and Tibetan Yoga for Health & Well-Being (Hay House, 2018), and is the founding director for the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston.

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Wisdom Dharma Chats | His Eminence the 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat with host Daniel Aitken and special guest His Eminence the 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche.

His Eminence the 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche was born a son of the Sikkimese royal court and was recognized by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa as the twelfth incarnation of the Gharwang tulkus. Rinpoche is the supreme lineage holder of the Whispered Lineage of the Zurmang Kagyu tradition. He teaches around the world.

As head of the Zurmang Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, Rinpoche is the spiritual head of thirteen monasteries and one nunnery in Tibet as well as monasteries and nunneries in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Rinpoche oversees the spiritual education of the four thousand monks and nuns and approximately fifty thousand followers in the Zurmang Kagyu tradition worldwide.

Rinpoche and host Daniel Aitken discuss the Mahamudra tradition; Rinpoche’s upcoming book, Mahamudra: A Practical Guide; new forthcoming translations on the Zurmang Mahamudra tradition to be published by Wisdom; and much more!

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Wisdom Dharma Chats | Karl Brunnhölzl (1)

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat with host Daniel Aitken and special guest Karl Brunnhölzl.

Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, PhD, was originally trained as a physician. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as the Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter of Tibetan and English. Karl Brunnhölzl is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as well as at Nitartha Institute. Living in Seattle, he is the author and translator of numerous texts, including most recently A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart (2018) and Luminous Melodies: Essential Dohās of Indian Mahāmudrā (2019). Currently, he is working on the Seventh Karmapa’s compilation of Indian Mahāmudrā works.

In this episode, he and host Daniel Aitken discuss his new book, Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā, the dohā tradition of the mahasiddhas, and much more.

Mentioned in this episode

Karl’s musical recordings of the dohās can be found online here.
His previously published book The Center of the Sunlit Sky can be found here.
Baul performer Parvathy Baul can be found here or you can watch her performance for the British Museum here.

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Sounds of Innate Freedom: The Indian Texts of Mahāmudrā are historic volumes containing many of the first English translations of classic mahāmudrā literature. The texts and songs in these volumes constitute the large compendium called The Indian Texts of the Mahāmudrā of Definitive Meaning, compiled by the Seventh Karmapa, Chötra Gyatso (1456–1539). The collection offers a brilliant window into the richness of the vast ocean of Indian Mahāmudrā texts cherished in all Tibetan lineages, particularly in the Kagyü tradition, giving us a clear view of the sources of one of the world’s great contemplative traditions.

This first volume in publication contains the majority of songs of realization, consisting of dohās (couplets), vajragītis (vajra songs), and caryāgītis (conduct songs), all lucidly expressing the inexpressible. These songs offer readers a feast of profound and powerful pith instructions uttered by numerous male and female mahasiddhas, yogīs, and ḍākinīs, often in the context of ritual gaṇacakras and initially kept in their secret treasury. Displaying a vast range of themes, styles, and metaphors, they all point to the single true nature of the mind—mahāmudrā—in inspiring ways and from different angles, using a dazzling array of skillful means to penetrate the sole vital point of buddhahood being found nowhere but within our own mind. Reading and singing these songs of mystical wonder, bliss, and ecstatic freedom, and contemplating their meaning in meditation, will open doors to spiritual experience for us today just as it has for countless practitioners in the past.

Click here to explore other volumes available in The Sounds of Innate Freedom series.

Toni Bernhard: Self-Compassion and the First Noble Truth (#98)

Posted December 4, 2020

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with acclaimed Wisdom author Toni Bernard. In this powerful conversation, which was recorded as part of our live Wisdom Dharma Chats program, Toni discusses her most recent book, How to Be Sick: Your Pocket Companion, and shares her personal story detailing how her practice has helped and continues to help her come to terms with living with a chronic illness. You’ll hear Toni revisit some of her earliest quandaries: Who am I if I’m not a law professor? How can I flourish with so many restrictions on my life? How can I overcome judgment and have compassion for myself and for others in the midst of such difficulty? She also explains how a deeper understanding of the four noble truths has reshaped her experience of suffering and shares practices from her new book that helped her come to terms with living a restricted life. As an expert at living with a chronic illness that often requires her to stay at home, Toni offers an unparalleled view on how to live well and practice compassion in a pandemic.

Toni was a law professor for twenty-two years at the University of California before illness forced her into an early retirement. Since then, Toni has written many popular books on her experiences, which have changed many lives. Some of her titles include How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers, as well as How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness, and How to Wake Up.

About the Interviewee

Toni Bernhard is the author of the award-winning How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers and How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow. Until forced to retire due to illness, Toni was a law professor at the University of California–Davis, serving six years as the dean of students. She has been a practicing Buddhist for over twenty years. Her blog, “Turning Straw Into Gold,” is hosted on the website of Psychology Today. She can be found online at ToniBernhard.com.

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Evan Thompson: The Conversation Between Buddhism and Science (#97)

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This volume is a translation of the first twelve chapters of The Glorious Esoteric Community Great King of Tantras (Śrī Guhyasamāja Mahā-tantra-rāja), along with the commentary called The Illuminating Lamp (Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā), a commentary in Sanskrit on this tantra by the seventh-century Buddhist intellectual and tantric scholar-adept Chandrakīrti. Regarded by Indo-Tibetan tradition as the esoteric scripture wherein the Buddha revealed in greatest detail the actual psycho-physical process of his enlightenment, The Esoteric Community Tantra is a preeminent text of the class of scriptures known to Indian Buddhist scholar-adepts as great yoga tantra, and later to their Tibetan successors as unexcelled yoga tantra. The Illuminating Lamp presents a system of interpretive guidelines according to which the cryptic meanings of all tantras might be extracted in order to engage the ritual and yogic practices taught therein. Applying its interpretive strategies to the text of The Esoteric Community Tantra, The Illuminating Lamp articulates a synthetic, “vajra vehicle” (vajrayāna) discourse that locates tantric practices and ideals squarely within the cosmological and institutional frameworks of exoteric Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Wisdom Dharma Chats | Marc Wennberg

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat with host Daniel Aitken and special guest Marc Wennberg.

This was a special “film premiere” episode of Wisdom Dharma Chats, where we watched and discussed some clips from Marc’s film Precious Guru.

Marc shares stories about what it was like to film in Mongolia, Tibet, and Bhutan, and discusses the mythology and the history of Guru Rinpoche, the power of being connected to the land, why he chose bluegrass for the film’s soundtrack, and much more.

Mentioned in this episode

All-Access members of the Wisdom Experience can watch Precious Guru here.
From Marc: “I followed up on the question from the audience about the Tibetan name for Creation Mountain . . . there are several Tibetan names, one of which is Shambo Ri. Also, we just posted a short video with excerpts from our kora around Creation Mountain, which can be found here.”

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Wisdom Dharma Chats | Thupten Jinpa

Please enjoy this unedited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat with Thupten Jinpa.

In this Dharma Chat, Jinpa gave wonderful advice on how to read Dharma texts and integrate them with your practice. He also discussed the art of memorization, which texts most need to be translated, the importance of chanting, and some advice to translators.

As discussed in this episode:

You can take Thupten Jinpa’s free Wisdom Masterclass here.
Start reading the fourth chapter of Ornament of Abhidharma here.

Also mentioned in this video:

Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosa
Illuminating the Intent, Jinpa’s forthcoming book from Wisdom
Chapter 6 on the Perfection of Patience from Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryāvatāra)
The Bodhicaryavatara (Oxford World’s Classics)
Learn more about Thupten Jinpa’s compassion course

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A key text for one of the most important Buddhist tantric traditions, the Chakrasamvara Root Tantra has been passed down to us from the ancient mahasiddhas and yogis of India. This foundational ritual text is one of the earliest of the yogini tantras—tantric scriptures that emphasize female deities. This melodic translation by David Gonsalez maintains the poetic structure of the original, making it ideal for practitioners and harmonious to recite. It is at once an object of devotion, a profound instruction, and a beautiful poem meant to inspire spiritual seekers.

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.

The material in this book is strictly intended for those who have received the proper empowerments.

This personal diary that the renowned Dzogchen master Khenpo Sodargye kept for one year gives serious Dharma practitioners a lifetime of inspiring, wise guidance for practicing right conduct on the path. The backdrop is the Tibetan plateau, from which Khenpo invites us to see the world—from native people to a spider, from vast galaxies to a water droplet—as he does, with candor and humor, and with a Dzogchen master’s sharp analysis. He shares with us his perceptions of this world, describing his ups and downs in a way that we can relate to and be inspired by, even if we do not have the fortitude to stand up to the oppression of crustaceans or to ransom yaks from the slaughterhouse. Spontaneous and lively, the entries play out the vicissitudes of his life throughout a challenging year, tracking the passage of his thoughts and actions, leaving footprints for whoever is able to follow.

Other books by Khenpo Sodargye include What Makes You So Busy?, Tales for Transforming Adversity, and The Diamond Cutter Sutra.

Before the growth of the Mahāyānā and the Perfection of Wisdom, the Buddha gave his own teachings, to his attendant Ānanda, on the importance of emptiness (Pāli suññatā, Sanskrit śūnyatā) in formal meditation and everyday practice. In this volume, renowned scholar-monk Bhikkhu Anālayo explores these teachings and shows us how to integrate them into our lives.

Bhikkhu Anālayo draws from instructions found in the Greater and the Smaller Discourses on Emptiness (the Mahāsuññatasutta and the Cūḷasuññatasutta). In each chapter, he provides a translation of a pertinent excerpt from the discourses, follows this with clear and precise explanations of the text, and concludes by offering instructions for practice.

Step by step, beginning with daily life and concluding with Nirvana, Bhikkhu Anālayo unpacks the Buddha’s teachings on the foundational teaching of emptiness.

This elegant and precise rendering of Nāgārjuna’s work is certain to become the touchstone translation of this celebrated Buddhist text.

In this profound work of five hundred verses, we encounter a presentation of Buddhism that integrates both the worldly and the transcendent. The clear and sagacious advice laid out on every page serves as a road map to one’s highest goal—whether that goal is a better life, here called the Dharma of ascendance, or the ultimate one of spiritual freedom, the Dharma of the highest good. The verses, written for an unnamed ruler, touch on questions of statecraft, but their broader themes speak to us today because they tackle the difficulty of integrating one’s spiritual journey with the social and political demands of daily life.

Nāgārjuna was an Indian Buddhist teacher, probably of the second century CE, who was renowned for his astute articulation of the philosophy of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka). His thoroughgoing critique of all forms of essentialism became a touchstone for Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia, and his importance for the development of the Mahāyāna tradition can scarcely be exaggerated.

The translators here first rendered Nāgārjuna’s letter for the Dalai Lama’s teachings on the work in Los Angeles in 1997. While that commemorative edition was translated from the Tibetan, the present volume prioritizes the surviving Sanskrit verses along with the only known Indian commentary, by the eleventh-century scholar Ajitamitra. This is the first complete translation in English of the Precious Garland that takes the Indian text and commentary as its primary authorities. In addition, they provide rigorous working editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan verses they translate.

Learn more about the Classics of Indian Buddhism series.

Listen to author Josh Bartok read I See You, Buddha

An instant classic, this book will help children (and their parents) learn patience and to see the good in everyone—including themselves! It will also help children meet difficult circumstances, such as being sick, doing chores, and not getting everything they want—and help them overcome low self-esteem and negative self-talk.

I See You, Buddha is based on a chapter in the Lotus Sutra, one of the most influential Buddhist texts worldwide—a classical scripture that has inspired a whole genre of works, especially in Japan, known as Lotus Literature. The Lotus Sutra teaches the way of the bodhisattva—a being engaged in compassionate, enlightened activity in the service of all—by offering examples of what this activity might look like in the world. One such model in the text is Bodhisattva Never Disrespectful (or Never Disparaging), who, despite troubling encounters with and even harsh treatment from others, bows down respectfully to everyone, recognizing their Buddha nature and honoring their own journeys along the bodhisattva path to enlightenment—whether they know they’re future buddhas or not!

The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists

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Alejandro Chaoul: Body, Breath, and Mind in Tibetan Yoga (#99)

About the Interviewee

Wisdom Dharma Chats | His Eminence the 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche

Wisdom Dharma Chats | Karl Brunnhölzl (1)

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Sounds of Innate Freedom, Vol. 5

Ornament of Abhidharma – Chapter 4

Toni Bernhard: Self-Compassion and the First Noble Truth (#98)

About the Interviewee

The Esoteric Community Tantra with The Illuminating Lamp

Wisdom Dharma Chats | Marc Wennberg

The Mind and Consciousness

Wisdom Dharma Chats | Thupten Jinpa

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The Chakrasamvara Root Tantra

Footprints on the Journey

Abiding in Emptiness

Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland

Listen to author Josh Bartok read I See You, Buddha