B. Alan Wallace with Steven Wilhelm, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up, 148–151, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016.

The Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron, Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature, 291–317, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018.

Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen, The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary (with the Sublime Continuum Supercommentary), 232–239, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2023.

B. Alan Wallace with Steven Wilhelm, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up, 139–148, 175–184, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016.

Lama Alan Wallace describes how references to selflessness and the luminous mind in the Pali canon and Perfection of Wisdom sūtras prepare the student for the teachings on manifesting their own Buddha nature in the context of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma. You’ll recognize how to identify what engenders happiness and suffering and how to remove the veils obscuring your pure, primordial awareness.

Far from a sectarian statement, the greatness of wisdom and compassion is asserted due to their ability to free all sentient beings from suffering and provide their perfect happiness, unendingly. The Mahāyāna foundation of these teachings is illustrated skillfully by Lama Alan Wallace, drawing out the far-reaching implications of emptiness and how this view is mutually dependent with a compassionate motivation.

Grasping and reifying experience serves as the basis for suffering, unrealistically misapprehending the nature of reality. All composite phenomena are found to be impermanent and changing; deep understanding of this truth can realign expectations and behavior into harmony with reality and alleviate suffering.

In this introductory lesson, Lama Alan Wallace presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered text, Pith Instructions on the Middle Way (Madhyamakopadeśa) by Atiśa Dīpamkara Śrījñāna, with commentary by Prajñāmokśa. Key practical advice on meditating on the Madhyamaka middle way philosophy is provided in this short but profoundly liberating text.

Lama Alan explains the crucial role of establishing samādhi in order to progress in Madhyamaka meditation. Without expectations of results or progress, meditation resting in the luminous knowing of the mind cuts through the root of delusions. Lama Alan guides meditation using a new suggestion on practice directly from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.