Unlock Deeper Understanding with Your In-Depth Membership

Dive deeply and develop your understanding of Buddhism with a Wisdom Experience In-Depth membership.

Picture spending the next twelve months being introduced to different Buddhist traditions, exploring their philosophy and practices with beloved masters and teachers.

Imagine a world where these profound teachings are at your fingertips, supporting your spiritual journey as you study at your own pace.

Visualize having direct access to this timeless wisdom whenever you seek guidance.

Can you envision it? 

We could, which is why we created the Wisdom Experience. Designed to bring Buddhists practitioners, scholars, and the curious even closer to the heart of the Buddha’s teachings, a membership to the Wisdom Experience means stepping into a world where profound wisdom is accessible, where community thrives, and where your journey on the path is nurtured and celebrated.

Our Introduction to Buddhism: A Year In-Depth program within our In-Depth membership takes that even further and provides a year of study designed to help you develop a solid understanding of the core Buddhist teachings. And our non-profit mission means we’re committed to reinvesting every membership contribution into sharing the Dharma, supporting teachers, and expanding our library of exceptional Buddhist content. Becoming a member or upgrading your membership makes you a vital part of this process. Continue reading to explore everything our Introduction to Buddhism: A Year In-Depth entails, or simply click “Join” to embark on this transformative path now.

 

 

Discover a deeper learning experience and go even further on your path.

The Wisdom Experience is pleased to announce the launch of our new membership, In-Depth. Can you envision where you could be in your practice or studies after spending a year delving into various Buddhist thoughts and practices, exploring them across traditions while being lead by beloved teachers? Through your In-Depth membership, you can do just that. We’ve developed the Introduction to Buddhism program as a part of your membership that is specifically designed to help you develop a comprehensive, unified vision of the Buddha’s teachings and their framework.

Introduction to Buddhism

 

*By joining the Introduction to Buddhism program are NOT locked into these four courses. Should wish to change any, or all, of the courses and select a different course from the Wisdom Experience Course Catalog you may do so by emailing us at [email protected].

 

This program will provide you with a thorough understanding of Buddhism across time and traditions.

When you sign up for your In-Depth membership and the Introduction to Buddhism program, you’ll embark on an extraordinary journey with amazing teachers to support your exploration. Be guided through the rich philosophical fabric of Buddhist thought, practices, and beliefs as you explore how they developed and vary across traditions, cultures, epochs, and geographies. You’ll gain a deep, meaningful, and sophisticated understanding of what the Buddha taught, what mindfulness really means, how it intersects with compassion, wisdom, and concentration, before going on to learn about multiple forms of contemplative practices, their underlying theories, and how different traditions work with them. At the end of the year, you’ll have a clear, unified vision of the Buddha’s teachings and both a theoretical and experiential knowledge what makes up these expansive traditions.

 

Click the button below to join In-Depth and start learning at your own pace.

Wisdom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which means we’re committed to reinvesting every membership contribution into sharing the Dharma, supporting teachers, and expanding our library of exceptional Buddhist content. By becoming a member, you become a vital part of this process. Thank you for supporting our mission to share the Dharma!

While the Wisdom Experience Course Catalog has over 40 courses you can choose from, we’d recommend these four courses to build a strong foundation in Buddhism:

 

1) Varieties of Buddhist Meditation with John D. Dunne

Contemplative practice plays a central role in all Buddhist traditions. This course offers an accessible exploration of the varieties of Buddhist meditation, focusing on core practices and their underlying theories. Throughout it, you will develop your understanding of the underlying ideas and terminology that explain and inform Buddhist practices.

You’ll begin by exploring the styles of practice prominent in early Buddhism, and then examine the new versions of practice, including tantric approaches, that arose with the Mahāyāna, or “Great Vehicle,” in India. You’ll then turn to the contemplative styles that these Indian approaches inspire in the traditions of Tibet, such as the nondual practice of Mahāmudrā. You will also explore how meditation styles can be contradictory—effortful or free of effort, discerning or nonjudgmental. And along the way, you’ll see how contemporary scientific research on contemplation can help us to understand some aspects of Buddhist meditation.

With the aid of acclaimed scholar John Dunne you’ll come away with a clearer understanding and appreciation—both theoretically and experientially—of the variety of Buddhist practices.

 

2. The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma with Jay Garfield and Guy Newland

Discover the powerful teachings in this classic framework of Buddhist philosophy with two respected scholars and come away with a deeper foundation in the Buddhadharma.

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, this course takes another way of thinking about the three turnings of the wheel—as a comprehensive picture of the Buddhadharma. With the guidance of accomplished scholars Jay Garfield and Guy Newland, we abandon classifying some teachings as “provisional” and others “definitive” and instead understand them as a whole. We find in the first turning a general understanding of nature of samsara and nirvana; in the second an exposition of emptiness from the side of the object; and in the third, an exposition of emptiness from the side of the subject. Through these ten lessons, you’ll come away with a clear, unified vision of Buddhist doctrine and a greater understanding of the texts, scholars, and practices that make up this expansive tradition.

 

3. Beyond Distraction with Shaila Catherine

Learn how to overcome distraction in meditation practice and develop clarity in your relationships, work, and other activities in this course with highly-respected teacher, author, and jhana expert Shaila Catherine.

The mind can be a potent tool to spark extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and advance toward spiritual realization. However, it can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives.

Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, in this course Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind, offering an accessible approach to training the mind.

Discover for yourself how these five steps lead 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.

 

4. Abiding in Emptiness with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo

Receive profound teachings that will guide you through the heart of emptiness and as you witness a rare and remarkable meeting between two loved Buddhist teachers and meditation masters. two masterful teachers, from two distinct traditions of Buddhism, discuss some of the most profound aspects of the Dharma.

How might the Buddha have meditated?

Starting with this fascinating question, this online course will take you on a journey through the diverse world of the Dharma as you explore selflessness, signlessness, and emptiness. You’ll get to learn about how Rinpoche and Venerable understand key Buddhist teachings through their different traditions, and listen as they discover fascinating differences and commonalities.

In the end, you’ll come away with your practice and your understanding significantly enriched and supported by the guidance of these two wise and compassionate guides.

 

If you’re ready to dive deeper into your exploration of Buddhism, our In-Depth Membership offers you the best value and the opportunity to take these courses and more.

 

 

*These four courses are just a recommended outline of four courses you could enroll in through an In-Depth membership for those who are looking for a well-rounded introduction to Buddhism, its core beliefs, and practices. Should you wish to change any, or all, of the courses and select different courses from the Wisdom Experience Course Catalog you may do so by emailing us at [email protected].

Meet Your Teachers

 

John D. Dunne serves on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at the Center for Healthy Minds. He is also chair of the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures. His work focuses on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice, especially in dialog with Cognitive Science and Psychology. His more than fifty publications appear in venues ranging across both the Humanities and the Sciences, including Foundations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy (2004) and Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics: The Mind (2020). John Dunne speaks in both academic and public contexts, and he occasionally teaches for Buddhist communities. His broader engagements include being a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where he was previously a member of the board of directors, and serving as an academic advisor to the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal.

 

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  co-teachers the Wisdom Academy Course The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. He 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).

 

Shaila Catherine has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1996, emphasizing deep concentration, jhana, and the path of liberating insight. Shaila is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley in California. She has practiced meditation since 1980, studied with founders of Western insight meditation centers, and accumulated more than nine years of silent retreat experience. Shaila spent most of the 1990s practicing with eminent masters in India, Thailand, and Nepal. From 2006 to 2014, she practiced under the guidance of Pa-Auk Sayadaw and twice completed his rigorous training in jhana and vipassana. Shaila loves deep meditation, and appreciates a variety of approaches to exploring, developing, and liberating the mind. Shaila is the author of The Jhanas, Wisdom Wide and Deep, and Beyond Distraction.

 

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is the author of bestselling books (including The Joy of Living and In Love with the World) and oversees the Tergar Meditation Community, an international network of Buddhist meditation centers. He is the son of the renowned meditation master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and was formally enthroned as the seventh incarnation of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche by Tai Situ Rinpoche when he was twelve years old. When he was twenty years old, Rinpoche was appointed as the functioning abbot of Sherab Ling Monastery. In addition to his extensive background in meditation and Buddhist philosophy, Mingyur Rinpoche has held a lifelong interest in psychology, physics, and neurology. He teaches regularly throughout Europe, North and South America, and Asia.

 

Bhikkhu Anālayo is a scholar-monk who was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. He completed a PhD thesis on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta at the University of Peradeniya in 2000, which was later published as Satipaṭṭhāna: the Direct Path to Realization. During the course of that study, he had come to notice the interesting differences between the Pāli and Chinese Buddhist canon versions of this early Buddhist discourse. This led to his undertaking a habilitation research at the University of Marburg, completed in 2007, in which he compared the Majjhima Nikāya discourses with their Chinese, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist canon counterparts.

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¹ In-depth members have access to exclusive video content such as multiple 8-week retreats with Lama Alan Wallace, one-day retreats, concerts, etc. They also have access to our entire catalog of movies and documentaries, lecture series, Thupten Jinpa’s Masterclass: The art of Translating Tibetan, and more.
² Wisdom Academy Courses are created by the Wisdom Academy, on branch of Wisdom, and are their own unique products. Newly released courses from Wisdom Academy are not included in the offering for In-depth members.
³ The Wisdom Experience Course Catalog is made up of a selection of Wisdom Academy Courses. To learn more about which courses are included and to see the selection of courses that In-Depth members can select from please click here. In-Depth members can enroll in two courses at a time, and will retain access to all completed courses as long as they are an In-Depth member.

For full terms and conditions including cancellation time periods, click here.