The Wisdom Academy

The Wisdom Academy is deeply honored to be offering this extraordinary course in partnership with our friends at Tergar International. These teachings will guide you through the heart of emptiness as you witness two masterful teachers, from two distinct traditions of Buddhism, discuss some of the most profound aspects of the Dharma.

In this course, Lama Alan Wallace presents and comments on pith instructions of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Providing guidance on retreat, this course is based on the text Extracting the Vital Essence of Accomplishment: Concise and Clear Advice for Practice in a Mountain Retreat by twentieth-century Nyingma master Düdjom Rinpoché, Jigdral Yeshé Dorjé.

In this course we investigate the nature of human identity and the possibility of freedom through the Buddha’s foundational instructions on the cultivation of vipashyana, or insight. B. Alan Wallace presents the four close applications of mindfulness — mindfulness on the body, feelings, the mind, and phenomena — through rich pith instruction on selections from the Pali canon, Mahayana sutras, and commentary from the Vajrayana and Dzogchen traditions.

In this popular Wisdom Academy online course, join renowned translator, Buddhist practitioner, and author B. Alan Wallace as he relays his immense knowledge of Dzogchen through memorable and engaging teachings.

In this course with B. Alan Wallace, we enter the visionary world of nineteenth-century Dzogchen master Düdjom Lingpa to explore the nature and origins of the mind, the ground of consciousness itself.

The achievement of shamatha is widely regarded in the Buddhist tradition as an indispensable foundation for the cultivation of contemplative insight (vipashyana), and this course with B. Alan Wallace is designed to provide students with a sufficient theoretical understanding and a basis in experience to enable them to proceed effectively toward this extraordinary state of mental and physical balance.

Deepen your practice as Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, world-renowned teacher and meditation master, guides you through this ten-lesson course on meditation and the pith instructions on Buddha nature.

In this extraordinary course, Professor Robert Thurman explains Tsong Khapa’s essential points for understanding the union of relativity and voidness and the crucial instructions for the creation and perfection stages of Unexcelled Yoga Tantra.

In this groundbreaking new Wisdom Academy course, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul illuminates the trul khor, or magical movements. Over the course of ten lessons, Dr. Chaoul guides you through a series of yogic postures and movements with exceptional detail and expertise, teaches you how to work with the anatomy of the subtle body, and shows you how to engage your breath to serve the practice of meditation and the cultivation of genuine well-being.

In Tsongkhapa’s Madhyamaka, Thupten Jinpa will take you on a ten-lesson journey through some of the most fascinating and important ideas in Buddhism. You’ll discover the mādhyamaka teachings of one of the most renowned minds in Tibet: influential monk and yogi Je Tsongkhapa Losang Dragpa (c. 1357–1419).

In this course, you’ll be guided by Lama Alan Wallace as he presents his translation and guides students through this newly uncovered Atiśa text, Pith Instructions on the Middle Way (Madhyamakopadesha), with commentary by Prajñāmoksha.

The Wisdom Academy is deeply honored to be offering this extraordinary course in partnership with our friends at Tergar International. These teachings will guide you through the heart of emptiness as you witness two masterful teachers, from two distinct traditions of Buddhism, discuss some of the most profound aspects of the Dharma.

The teachings on emptiness—a theme central to all Buddhist schools—point to a series of understandings and practices that lead to deep insight and a radical experience of liberation.

This eight-lesson, self-paced course with renowned insight meditation teacher Guy Armstrong explores the teachings on emptiness and their application in our lives in a way that makes them practical and accessible.

In this course led by respected insight meditation teachers Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters, you’ll be introduced to the Manual of Insight by the renowned teacher and meditation master Mahāsi Sayadaw. Includes teachings on this foundational text, clear guidance in navigating essential topics, guided meditations, and more.

Based on the bestselling book Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief.

Grief expert and Zen priest Dr. Joanne Cacciatore knows first hand that when a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable—especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, “NO!” with every fiber of our body. In this course, Dr. Jo reveals how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity.

Join renowned teacher David Loy to explore the path that joins current social and ecological concerns with the timeless wisdom of the Buddha. 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.

Drawing on insights and methods from both the Buddhist tradition and Western psychology and philosophy, Lama Alan Wallace invites you to investigate the causes of both genuine unhappiness and genuine well-being. You’ll start by looking into what genuine well-being is before delving into what it is not as Lama Alan explores the causes of suffering, mental afflictions, and unhappiness, along with the internal factors that often prevent us from being truly happy. He then turns to the causes of genuine happiness and offers skills, practices, and insights that will help you achieve genuine happiness.

The rich philosophical fabric of Buddhist thought has evolved over two and a half millennia, within a variety of cultures, epochs, and geographies. Professor Jay Garfield takes us on an exciting in-depth journey throughout these Buddhist worlds, their texts, and the essential thinkers that have shaped Buddhist philosophy from the time of the historical Buddha.

Join His Holiness the Dalai Lama in an exploration of the nature of mind with leading researchers, philosophers, and Buddhist scholars.

In this course with Ven. Thubten Chodron, strengthen your knowledge and practice of Buddhism by understanding its varied traditions—how they came to be, what makes them different from each other, and what they have in common.

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

Explore the frontier where Buddhism and science meet, guided by beloved teacher Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Discover some of the most exciting, groundbreaking ideas in this interdisciplinary field as you witness dialogues between spiritual and scientific leaders from around the world. You’ll discover pioneering research and ideas about how science and spirituality bridge our human experience and inform our practice.

Discover the theory and practice of the different styles of meditation as taught in India and Tibet with acclaimed scholar John Dunne. Contemplative practice plays a central role in all Buddhist traditions, and this course offers an accessible account of the varieties of core practices and their underlying theories. We 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. We then turn to the contemplative styles that these Indian approaches inspire in the traditions of Tibet, such as the nondual practice of Mahāmudrā.

Enter the world of Tibetan calligraphy with Tashi Mannox, Dharma artist and one of the world’s foremost contemporary Tibetan calligraphers. In this course, Tashi will guide you through setting up and constructing each of the Tibetan letters in the popular Uchen script, including how to make and use the foundational grid that serves as the basis for each letter.

The Four Immeasurables address our most fundamental human aspirations.

As the Dalai Lama teaches, our deepest drive as humans is tsewa: caring. And what do we care about? We care about not suffering, and experiencing happiness. This two-part course with Lama Alan Wallace will take you on a rich journey through your own quest for happiness, to where happiness actually lies.