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For You
Dharma Matters
Jan Willis was among the first Westerners to encounter exiled Tibetan teachers abroad in the late sixties, instantly finding her spiritual and academic home. TIME Magazine named her one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium,” both for her considerable academic accomplishments and for her cultural relevance. Her writing engages head-on with issues current to Buddhist practitioners in America, including dual-faith practitioners and those from marginalized groups.
This collection of eighteen scholarly and popular essays spans a lifetime of reflection and teaching by Willis. Grouped in four sections—Women and Buddhism, Buddhism and Race, Tantric Buddhism and Saints’ Lives, and Buddhist-Christian Reflections—the essays provide timeless wisdom for all who are interested in contemporary Buddhism and its interface with ancient tradition.
ARCHIVED: Studio Ticket – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Robert Thurman
Tickets for the In-Studio Audience are Sold Out
This is a ticket to be a live studio audience member during the filming of the Wisdom Dharma Chat episode with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Robert Thurman on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 132 Perry St., New York, NY 10014.
In this Wisdom Dharma Chat, hosted in collaboration with Tergar International and Tibet House US, Rinpoche and Thurman will come together for an exploration of wisdom, perception, and the nature of mind. Drawing from the vast philosophical traditions of Buddhist thought and the direct experience of meditative realization, this conversation will offer insights into how we can transform our habitual ways of seeing, recognize the mind’s innate clarity, and embrace a path of self-liberation.
Thurman, a leading scholar of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and a lifelong advocate for preserving its living traditions, will bring his deep understanding of Buddhist texts and teachings into dialogue with Rinpoche, a renowned meditation master trained in the highest Vajrayana practices, who has spent years in retreat and undertaken a solitary wandering retreat through the Himalayas, for a conversation you won’t want to miss. With Daniel as their host, this event provides a rare opportunity to engage with two remarkable teachers whose lives and work have been dedicated to making these profound teachings accessible to the modern world.
Buddhism and Science: Body, Breath, and Mind
The human mind and body remain mysterious to us in innumerable ways—and both spiritual seekers and scientists have been delving deep into their mysteries for millennia, trying to understand why our human experience is the way that it is, and how we can improve it, for the sake of both ourselves and others. Now more than ever before, spiritual thinkers and scientists around the world are becoming increasingly curious about the places where their two disciplines overlap in these investigations.
In Buddhism and Science: Body, Breath, and Mind (recorded live during the 2020 Serenity Ridge Dialogues online summit), you’ll be introduced to some of the most exciting, groundbreaking ideas in this interdisciplinary field as you witness dialogues between spiritual and scientific leaders from around the world, discovering pioneering research and ideas about how science and spirituality bridge our human experience and inform our practice.
Learn more about the teachers for this course.
Please note: the views and opinions expressed in this course belong solely to the speakers and do not represent the views and opinions of Wisdom Publications.
Veggiyana
2012 Nautilus Book Award — Silver Medal in Food/Cooking/Healthy Eating
The kitchen is the most vital place on Earth, because survival, even now in the age of iPads and large hadron colliders, still depends on wholesome, nutritious food. In keeping with this simple truth, Veggiyana provides 108 tasty, beloved, and simple recipes from around the world. And generously sprinkled throughout—like the perfect blend of herbs and spices—are morsels of time-tested wisdom on how to live a life that nourishes both body and spirit. Veggiyana brings the vitality of the world’s kitchens to your own with wisdom and recipes to delight and inspire.
Drinking the Mountain Stream
Jetsun Milarepa, Tibet’s renowned and beloved saint, is known for his penetrating insights, wry sense of humor, and ability to render any lesson into spontaneous song. His songs and poems exhibit the bold, inspirational leader as he guided followers along the Buddhist path.
More than any other collection of his stories and songs, Drinking the Mountain Stream reveals Milarepa’s humor and wisdom. Faithfully translated by Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Brian Cutillo, this rare collection—never before available in any Western language—cuts across the centuries to bring Milarepa’s most inspiring verses, in all their potency, to today’s reader.
Read Milarepa’s biography at the Treasury of Lives.
Tsongkhapa
Tsongkhapa’s seminal contributions to Buddhist thought and practice, and to the course of history, are illuminated and celebrated by some of his foremost modern interpreters.
Few figures have impacted the trajectory of Buddhism as much as the great philosopher and meditator, scholar and reformer, Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (1357–1419), the founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism and teacher of the First Dalai Lama. His Ganden tradition spread throughout Central Asia and Mongolia, and today, through figures such as the Dalai Lama, who calls Tsongkhapa a second Nagarjuna, his teachings are shaping intellectual conversations and ethical practice globally. To commemorate the 600th anniversary of Tsongkhapa’s passing, a special conference was held at Ganden Monastery in India in 2019, featuring some of the best translators and interpreters of his teachings today. Highlights of those incisive summations of Tsongkhapa’s special contributions are gathered in this volume. Here we discover Tsongkhapa the philosopher, Tsongkhapa the master of the Buddhist canon, Tsongkhapa the tantric adept, and Tsongkhapa as the visionary who united wisdom to compassion.
Each of the authors featured looks at a distinct facet of Tsongkhapa’s legacy. Donald Lopez provides a global context, Guy Newland distills Tsongkhapa’s Middle Way, Dechen Rochard uncovers the identity view, Jay Garfield examines the conceptualized ultimate, Thupten Jinpa highlights the seminal importance Tsongkhapa placed on ascertainment, David Gray looks at his approach to Cakrasamvara tantra, Gavin Kilty surveys his Guhyasamaja tantra commentary, Roger Jackson surmises his views on Zen and mahamudra, Geshé Ngawang Samten examines his provisional-definitive distinction, Gareth Sparham highlights his scholastic prowess, Mishig-Ish Bataa illuminates his impact in Mongolia, and Bhiksuni Thubten Chodron presents his instructions on how to cultivate compassion.
Whether you are well acquainted with Tsongkhapa’s life and thought or you are encountering him here for the first time, you will find The Legacy of Tsongkhapa an illuminating survey of his unique explorations of the highest aspirations of humanity.
Brave Parenting
How do we build resilient children who can handle life’s challenges?
As parents today, we often feel that our role is to protect our children from the world: to cushion them when they fall, to lift them over obstacles, and to remove sharp rocks from their path. But controlling a child’s entire environment and keeping all pain at bay isn’t feasible—we can’t prepare the world for our children, so instead we should focus on preparing our children for the world. “The solution is not removing impediments from our children’s lives,” writes Krissy Pozatek, “it is compassionately encouraging them to be brave.” We need to show our kids how to navigate their own terrain.
If our kids face small hurdles, small pains, at a young age and learn to overcome these obstacles, they will be much better equipped to face larger trouble later in life. Early lessons in problem solving teach self-confidence and self-reliance—and show us that our kids are tougher than we think. Krissy draws her lessons from her experience guiding children in wilderness therapy and from her Buddhist practice—showing us that all life is as unpredictable as mountain weather, that impermanence is the only constant, and that the most loving act a parent can do is fearlessly ready their child to face the wilderness.
For parents of children of all ages.
Calm Breath, Calm Mind
In Calm Breath, Calm Mind, Geshe YongDong Losar teaches you how to use the breath as a powerful tool to move from a dualistic to a nondualistic mind and discover profound well-being. Through healing breath practices, you’ll learn to release suffering in both body and mind, calming your nervous system while managing your energy levels. Delve into the energy channels, chakras, and subtle body to cultivate deep emotional and physical well-being. Discover the nine-breath purification, integrate mantra with breathwork, and practice techniques to overcome anger, jealousy, and attachment.
Detox Your Heart
Valerie Mason-John knows what it is like to be filled with toxic emotions—and how to release them. After years of abuse and struggles with addiction, she was mired in anger, resentment, and fear. But through meditation and willingness to forge a new path, she learned how to disarm such toxins and find peace.
In Detox Your Heart Mason-John helps us recognize our emotions, good and bad, and to develop the self-care to heal ourselves. Chapters that explore and clearly define negative emotions are paired with chapters on how to transform them. Meditation exercises based on the Buddhist principles of mindfulness, loving-kindness, and compassion provide tools to help us heal our own hurts and to close the gap that toxic emotions create between heart and mind.
This revised and expanded edition includes forewords from angel Kyodo williams and Christopher Titmuss.
Geoffrey Barstow: Was the Buddha Vegetarian? (#177)
This episode of the Wisdom Podcast features Geoffrey Barstow. Geoff is an assistant professor of Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University. He has been a student of Choky Nyima Rinpoche for more than 20 years and he spent over six years conducting research in Nepal, China, and Tibet. His studies focused on animal ethics, the relationship between humans and animals, and what that can teach us about Tibetan Buddhism. In this episode, Daniel and Geoff discuss vegetarianism in Tibetan Buddhism, as well as, a common topic of debate in Buddhist circles, should all Buddhists be vegetarian?
Additionally, they also discuss:
- Geoff’s book The Faults of Meat;
- the origins of Geoff’s interest in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism;
- vegetarianism and its relation to the threefold purity; 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 helps other people find the podcast. Thank you!
The Two Truths in Indian Buddhism
In this clear and exemplary approach to one of the core philosophical subjects of the Buddhist tradition, Sonam Thakchoe guides readers through the range of Indian Buddhist philosophical schools and how each approaches the two truths: ultimate truth and conventional truth. In this presentation of philosophical systems, the detailed argumentations and analyses of each school’s approach to the two truths are presented to weave together the unique contributions each school brings to supporting and strengthening a Buddhist practitioner’s understanding of reality. The insights of the great scholars of Indian Buddhist history—such as Vasubandhu, Bhāvaviveka, Kamalaśīla, Dharmakīrti, Nāgārjuna, and Candrakīrti—are illuminated in this volume, with profound implications to the practice and views of modern practitioners and scholars.
The Vaibhāṣika, Saūtrāntika, Yogācāra, and Madhyamaka schools provide a framework for a continuum of philosophical debate that is far more interrelated, and internally complex, than one may presume. Yet we see how the schools build upon the findings of one another, leading from a belief in the realism of external phenomena to the relinquishment of any commitment to realism of either external or internal realities. This fascinating movement through philosophical approaches leads us to see how the conventional and ultimate—dependent arising and emptiness—are twin aspects of a single reality.
Freeing the Heart and Mind, Volumes 1 and 2
In Part One: Introduction to the Buddhist Path, His Holiness the Sakya Trichen—the head of the glorious Sakya lineage, one of the four primary schools of Tibetan Buddhism—presents the essential Buddhist teachings of the four noble truths, universal compassion, and the proper motivation for practice. This book opens by sharing a private teaching His Holiness gave to a young newcomer seeking to understand this great master’s spiritual heritage. His Holiness’ advice inspires us to integrate the living power of these teachings into our daily lives.
Part Two: Chogyal Phagpa on the Buddhist Path unpacks two texts by the legendary thirteenth-century Drogön Chögyal Phagpa. A founding father of the Sakya school, Chögyal Phagpa became the first imperial preceptor under Kublai Khan and thus converted the Mongols to Tibetan Buddhism. His two texts presented here, A Gift of Dharma to Kublai Khan and A Garland of Jewels, which was written as advice for Prince Gibek Timur, are marvels of insight.
Freeing the Heart and Mind, Part Two begins with a biography of Chögyal Phagpa by Ngawang Kunga Sönam, himself an important Sakya throneholder. The two texts are then presented in sparkling translation, each accompanied by penetrating commentary from His Holiness, who takes these texts, written initially for royalty, and shows how their timeless lessons—how to meditate, the personal characteristics we should cultivate, and the states on the path to buddhahood—can be incorporated into our lives today.
Taken together, these two books form an essential course developed by His Holiness the Sakya Trichen, showcasing his trademark clarity and deep wisdom.
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
This book offers a complete translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, or Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pali Canon, the authorized scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism. This collection—among the oldest records of the historical Buddha’s original teachings—consists of 152 suttas or discourses of middle length, distinguished as such from the longer and shorter suttas of the other collections. The Majjhima Nikāya might be concisely described as the Buddhist scripture that combines the richest variety of contextual settings with the deepest and most comprehensive assortment of teachings. These teachings, which range from basic ethics to instructions in meditation and liberating insight, unfold in a fascinating procession of scenarios that show the Buddha in living dialogue with people from many different strata of ancient Indian society: with kings and princes, priests and ascetics, simple villagers and erudite philosophers. Replete with drama, reasoned argument, and illuminating parable and simile, these discourses exhibit the Buddha in the full glory of his resplendent wisdom, majestic sublimity, and compassionate humanity.
The translation is based on an original draft translation left by the English scholar-monk Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, which has been edited and revised by the American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, who provides a long introduction and helpful explanatory notes. Combining lucidity of expression with accuracy, this translation enables the Buddha to speak across twenty-five centuries in language that addresses the most pressing concerns of the contemporary reader seeking clarification of the timeless issues of truth, value, and the proper conduct of life.
Winner of the 1995 Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book Award, and the Tricycle Prize for Excellence in Buddhist Publishing for Dharma Discourse.
- Learn more about the Teachings of the Buddha series.
Only a Great Rain
Very little has been published to date on China’s rich traditions of Buddhist meditation. Inspired by the need to increase meaningful interaction between China and the West on spiritual issues, modern meditation master Hsing Yun here brings this vast legacy to life in straightforward and engaging language. Professor McRae’s introduction to the world of Chinese Buddhism helps place these instructions in their wider context.
Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path
In his Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path, Takamaro Shigaraki examines Shin Buddhism anew as a practical path of spiritual growth and self-transformation, challenging assessments of the tradition as a passive religion of mere faith. Shigaraki presents the core themes of the Shin Buddhist path in fresh, engaging, down-to-earth language, considering each frankly from both secular and religious perspectives. Shigaraki discloses a nondual Pure Land that finds philosophical kinship with Zen but has been little discussed in the West. With its unassuming language and insights drawn from a life of practice, Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path dispels the fog of misconception that has shrouded Western appreciation of Shin traditions to reveal the limitless light of Amida Buddha that reaches all.
Mindfulness in Plain English
This course provides a comprehensive exploration of mindfulness, including topics such as how we can motivate ourselves to meditate, how to understand suffering, how to see impermanence, how mindfulness leads to true happiness, and much more.
Abhidhamma Studies
The Abhidhamma, the third great division of early Buddhist teaching, expounds a revolutionary system of philosophical psychology rooted in the twin Buddhist insights of selflessness and dependent origination. In keeping with the liberative thrust of early Buddhism, this system organizes the entire spectrum of human consciousness around the two poles of Buddhist doctrine—bondage and liberation, Samsara and Nirvana—the starting point and the final goal. It thereby maps out, with remarkable rigour and precision, the inner landscape of the mind to be crossed through the practical work of Buddhist meditation.
In this book of groundbreaking essays, Venerable Nyanaponika Thera, one of our age’s foremost exponents of Theravada Buddhism, attempts to penetrate beneath the formidable face of the Abhidhamma and to make its principles intelligible to the thoughtful reader of today. His point of focus is the Consciousness Chapter of the Dhammasangani, the first treatise of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Basing his interpretation on the detailed list of mental factors that the Abhidhamma uses as a guide to psychological analysis, he launches into bold explorations in the multiple dimensions of conditionality, the nature of consciousness, the temporality of experience, and the psychological springs of spiritual transformation. Innovative and rich in insights, this book does not merely open up new avenues in the academic study of early Buddhism. By treating the Abhidhamma as a fountainhead of inspiration for philosophical and psychological inquiry, it demonstrates the continuing relevance of Buddhist thought to our most astute contemporary efforts to understand the elusive yet so intimate nature of the mind.
Tibetan Art Calendar 2010
This calendar is currently out of stock.
Poster-sized reproductions of classical paintings produced to the highest standards. Wisdom’s Tibetan Art Calendar is an annual favorite.
The antique scroll-art masterpieces seen in Wisdom’s Tibetan Art Calendar 2010 are called thangkas. While the thangka is common to Tibetan Buddhists, its finest examples are highly sought-after in the international art community and have become hot properties in the same vein as Oriental rugs and ceramics. As a result, the best of these works are seldom, if ever, available for public viewing.
This is why Wisdom’s Tibetan Art Calendar is so special. It’s an affordable way to enjoy incredibly rare and meaningful works of sacred art, year-round. These thirteen sacred paintings by Tibet’s master painters represent a variety of classical images, mandalas, deities, and icons. Each poster-sized picture is produced to the highest German printing standards, and is suitable for framing. Complete with in-depth explanations of their cultural and philosophical significance, these exquisite fine art reproductions will be treasured for years to come.
Images in the 2010 calendar are:
- The Wheel of Existence
- Drikung Lineage field of accumulation
- Tsongkhapa
- Buddha Amitabha in Sukhavati
- Yamini, Amor goddess
- Mandala of Vajravarahi
- Padmasambhava as Loden Chogse
- King Gesar, Drala of Zhang Zhung
- Vajradhara
- Thirty Five Confession Buddhas
- Rudra Cakrin: Last King Shambhala
- 62 Deity Mandala of Cakrasamvara
- Manjughosa, Lion of Debaters
Mission to Tibet
Mission to Tibet recounts the fascinating eighteenth-century journey of the Jesuit priest ippolito Desideri (1684–1733) to the Tibetan plateau. The italian missionary was most notably the first european to learn about Buddhism directly with Tibetan scholars and monks—and from a profound study of its primary texts. while there, Desideri was an eyewitness to some of the most tumultuous events in Tibet’s history, of which he left us a vivid and dramatic account.
Desideri explores key Buddhist concepts including emptiness and rebirth, together with their philosophical and ethical implications, with startling detail and sophistication. This book also includes an introduction situating the work in the context of Desideri’s life and the intellectual and religious milieu of eighteenth-century Catholicism.
The Mind of Mahāmudrā
Mahāmudrā is a simple, direct method for looking beyond our thoughts to the very nature of conscious experience. It is said mahāmudrā is not attained not because it is too difficult but because it is too easy, not because it is too far but because it is too close, and not because it is hidden but because it is too evident.
The Mind of Mahāmudrā highlights this central meditation practice of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism through six texts ranging from the twelfth-century to the seventeenth and including such celebrated authors as Lama Shang and the Third Karmapa. Eminent scholar Peter Alan Roberts draws on his thirty-plus years of experience of translating for Tibetan lamas to illuminate these benchmark translations.
Read the biographies of Lama Shang and the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje at the Treasury of Lives.
The Dharma of Social and Ecological Engagement
In this course we discover the path of socially and ecologically engaged Dharma practice. Delving into core Buddhist teachings on non-self, suffering, and karma, we address issues such as consumerism, the commodification of our attention, war, and climate change. We learn to integrate our individual Buddhist practice with the engagement our world desperately needs—a modern bodhisattva path.
What would Buddhist social justice look like? What is the connection between personal and social transformation? Do the ancient teachings of Buddhism still ring true in a world that has drastically changed since the Buddha’s time—and does the wisdom of the Buddha have the power to transform our twenty-first-century society?
Explore these important questions, and much more, in this exciting and timely course.
Harold Talbott: Remembering Thomas Merton’s Encounters with the Dalai Lama
Hear about one man’s powerful encounters with Dzogchen masters and his memories of facilitating the famous meeting of Thomas Merton with the Dalai Lama and other notable Tibetan lamas. In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast we meet Harold Talbott, long-time Dharma practitioner and editor for esteemed teacher Tulku Thondup. Harold tells us his fascinating journey in the Dharma, including how he initially met the Dalai Lama in India in the mid 1960s and became his student. He also shares with us many of his extraordinary encounters with Tibetan Buddhist teachers over the decades like Chatral Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, and Tulku Thondup Rinpoche. Harold then tells us how he came to facilitate the meeting of famed Catholic theologian and writer Thomas Merton with the Dalai Lama in 1968, and then accompanied Merton throughout his trip to India meeting several accomplished Tibetan lamas during the final weeks of his life.
The Long Discourses of the Buddha
This book offers a complete translation of the Dīgha Nikāya, the long discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pali Canon, the authorized scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This collection—among the oldest records of the historical Buddha’s original teachings, given in India two and a half thousand years ago—consists of thirty-four longer-length suttas, or discourses, distinguished as such from the middle-length and shorter suttas of the other collections.
These suttas reveal the gentleness, compassion, power, and penetrating wisdom of the Buddha. Included are teachings on mindfulness (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta); on morality, concentration, and wisdom (Subha Sutta); on dependent origination (Mahānidrāna Sutta); on the roots and causes of wrong views (Brahmajāla Sutta); and a long description of the Buddha’s last days and passing away (Mahāparinibbāna Sutta); along with a wealth of practical advice and insight for all those travelling along the spiritual path.
Venerable Sumedho Thera writes in his foreword: “[These suttas] are not meant to be ‘sacred scriptures’ that tell us what to believe. One should read them, listen to them, think about them, contemplate them, and investigate the present reality, the present experience, with them. Then, and only then, can one insightfully know the truth beyond words.”
Introduced with a vivid account of the Buddha’s life and times and a short survey of his teachings, The Long Discourses of the Buddha brings us closer in every way to the wise and compassionate presence of Gotama Buddha and his path of truth.
- Learn more about the Teachings of the Buddha series.
Where the World Does Not Follow
Gorgeous and unique, Where the World Does Not Follow captures an almost-hidden China. Acclaimed translator Mike O’Connor and photographer Steven Johnson uncover a world rarely seen by outsiders—even as they capture it in its everyday beauty. O’Connor’s translations of poems from China’s Tang Dynasty sing in the present day, while Johnson’s photographs reveal a modern-day China that seems almost unchanged by the passing of centuries.
Chinese authorities are only now allowing access to ancient Buddhist sites and many writings and devotional objects are being made available for the first time in decades. These poems written by Zen and Taoist hermit-sages, together with the crisp yet almost dreamlike images capture the aesthetic, literary, and spiritual roots of Buddhist China. Where the World Does Not Follow provides insight into a world that very few have been able to visit—and a time difficult even to imagine. O’Connor and Johnson’s book is a hymn to nature, to the art of photography, and to the common beauty of humanity that extends to us like a silk thread from another time and place.
Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 1
Under the visionary supervision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics brings together classical Buddhist explorations of the nature of our material world and the human mind and puts them into context for the modern reader. It is the Dalai Lama’s view that the explorations by the great masters of northern India in the first millennium CE still have much that is of interest today, whether we are Buddhist or not.
Volume 1, The Physical World, explores the nature of our material world—from the macroscopic to the microscopic. It begins with an overview of the many frameworks, such as the so-called five aggregates, that Buddhist thinkers have used to examine the nature and scope of reality. Topics include sources of knowledge, the scope of reason, the nature and constituents of the material world, theories of the atom, the nature of time, the formation of the universe, and the evolution of life, including a detailed explanation of the early Buddhist theories on fetal development. The volume even contains a brief presentation on early theories about the structure and function of the brain and the role of microorganisms inside the human body. The book weaves together passages from the works of great Buddhist thinkers such as Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Nāgārjuna, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti. Each of the major topics is introduced by Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s principal English-language translator and founder of the Institute of Tibetan Classics.
Explore the entire series here.