Wisdom Dharma Chat | Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Péter-Dániel Szántó - May 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of Wisdom Dharma Chats with special guests, Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Péter-Dániel Szántó. During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host Daniel Aitken and our guests discuss the latest volume in the Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism series, Saraha’s Spontaneous Songs and much more.

Klaus-Dieter Mathes earned his doctorate at Marburg University, and is a Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He previously worked as a research fellow and lecturer at the Asia Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and as a Professor of Tibetology and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. His research in progress deals with the Indian origins of Tibetan Mahāmudrā traditions. He is also a regular contributor to the Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies.

Péter-Dániel Szántó started his studies at ELTE Budapest (Tibetology, Indology). He read for a DPhil in Oxford, where he also held two junior research fellowships (Merton College, All Souls College). He also worked as a postdoc in Hamburg and Leiden and was visiting professor at Leiden and Vienna. He is currently associate professor at ELTE Budapest, where he is also head of the Department of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies. His main research areas include esoteric Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Sanskrit belles-lettres, and medieval South Asian history.

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche - April 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of Wisdom Dharma Chats episode with special guest, H. E. Kalu Rinpoche. Rinpoche is the lineage holder of Shangpa Kagyu. He was born in 1990 and recognized by H. H. the Dalai Lama and H. H. the 12th Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa. Kalu Rinpoche completed the traditional three-year retreat between January 2004 and September 2008. During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host Daniel Aitken and Rinpoche discuss his Wisdom Academy course Illusory Body and Mind, along with his new and upcoming Wisdom Academy course on Niguma’s dream yoga, and much more.

The Illusory Body and Mind is open for enrollment. In this Wisdom Academy course, Rinpoche masterfully brings together his deep knowledge of Dharma and his clear, compassionate understanding of the challenges many of us face on the path to liberation.

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche - March 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of Wisdom Dharma Chats episode of the year with special guest, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Born in the Himalayan border regions between Tibet and Nepal, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a rising star among the new generation of Tibetan Buddhist teachers. His candid, often humorous accounts of his personal difficulties have endeared him to audiences around the world. During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host, Daniel Aitken, and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche discuss Dorje Drolö, a Buddhist practice meant specifically for use during difficult times in human history, as well as Rinpoche’s upcoming teachings in Nepal this June, and much more.

Join Wisdom

Gompa Wisdom Teachings are available to Plus, All-Access, and In-Depth members of the Wisdom Experience. Click here to join as a Plus or In-Depth member and get to access these teachings and more. If you already have an account, click log in in the top right corner of this page.

This is the first session of a four-day course of teachings by Choepa Karma Wangchuk Lhamo on ‘The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to the Dharma’.

The four thoughts or four considerations are regarded as key subjects of contemplation in a practitioner’s quest to overcome attachment to the attractions of worldly life. When successfully undertaken the four thoughts lay a firm foundation for spiritual growth. These four are: 1) cultivation of an appreciation for the potentials and the opportunities of human existence; 2) reflection on death and the impermanence of all things; 3) reflection on karma and the law of cause and effect; and 4) reflection on the unsatisfactory nature of life in the cycle of existence and the nature and causes of suffering. The teaching is given in Tibetan with translation in English.

Choepa Karma Wangchuk Lhamo was ordained at Thrangu Tara Abbey at the age of sixteen. In 1999 she entered solitary retreat for three years in Manang, Nepal. Between 2005 and 2014 she completed the nine-year shedra studies course at Namdroling monastery in South India. Since 2014 she has been a senior teacher at Thrangu Tara Abbey.

Join Wisdom

This is the third session of a four-day course of teachings by Choepa Karma Wangchuk Lhamo on ‘The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to the Dharma’.

Join Wisdom

This is the second session of a four-day course of teachings by Choepa Karma Wangchuk Lhamo on ‘The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to the Dharma’.

Join Wisdom

This is the fourth session of a four-day course of teachings by Choepa Karma Wangchuk Lhamo on ‘The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to the Dharma’.

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Peter Skilling - February 2024

Please enjoy this unedited recording of Wisdom Dharma Chats episode of the year with special guest, Peter Skilling. Peter is a special lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and an honorary associate, Department of Indian Sub-Continental Studies, University of Sydney, Australia. Until his retirement in 2017, he was a professor of the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) based in Bangkok. He is an honorary member of the Siam Society, Bangkok, and in 2017 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai. He has published widely on the Buddhist literature, history, and epigraphy of South and Southeast Asia. During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host Daniel Aitken and Peter discuss Peter’s new anthology, Buddha’s Words for Tough Times, and more.

Wisdom Dharma Chat | Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi - December 2023

Please enjoy this lightly edited recording of our Wisdom Dharma Chat with special guest Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi. During this Wisdom Dharma Chat host, Daniel Aitken and Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi discuss his most recent anthology from the Pali canon, Noble Truths, Noble Path, available now in hardcover and paperback come January, the Teaching of the Buddha series, and much more!

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City, born in 1944. After completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk, Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya (1896-1998). From 1984 to 2002 he was the editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years with the senior German monk, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (1901-1994), at the Forest Hermitage. He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently lives and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor. These include The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikāya, 1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Saṃyutta Nikāya, 2000), The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Aṅguttara Nikāya, 2012), and Noble Truths, Noble Path (Saṃyutta Nikāya 2023). In 2008, together with several of his students, Ven. Bodhi founded Buddhist Global Relief, a nonprofit supporting hunger relief, sustainable agriculture, and education in countries suffering from chronic poverty and malnutrition.