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

A precious opportunity to receive dream yoga teachings from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, beloved teacher and meditation master in the Bön Buddhist tradition of Tibet.

Radically deepen your understanding and practice of Dzogchen as you explore ten of its most important and frequently misunderstood terms with Acharya Malcolm Smith, the translator of the Seventeen Tantras.

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.

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. Lama 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.

Learn how to develop a mind that’s reliable for both your practice and everyday life, based on a Geluk presentation from a renowned Geshe.

Explore Abhidharma psychology and Asanga’s list of 51 mental factors with the renowned scholar and translator Thupten Jinpa. Known for his work as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s English interpreter, along with his many remarkable translations and charitable projects, Thupten Jinpa possesses a singular ability to guide you through the landscape of your mind and help you to illuminate its workings for yourself.

A precious opportunity to receive teachings of striking clarity and depth from a masterful teacher, introducing profound teachings on bardo, nature of mind, ethics, and much more.

This course will build on the illusory body and mind teachings of H. E. Kalu Rinpoche’s first course while also moving into teachings and guided practices for dream yoga and more. This course presents another powerful opportunity to receive deeply authentic and inspiring teachings from a remarkable teacher.

Discover your own profound potential for awakening as you explore the place where Dzogchen and mind training meet.

Discover mind training (lojong) as a powerful practice of transformation, strength, and resilience. Your guide is Thupten Jinpa, renowned translator, scholar, and translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In this course with Lama 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 Lama 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.

For over a thousand years, Tibetan yoga has been used in Tibetan Buddhist spiritual training primarily to enhance meditation by clearing away mental and physical obstacles like anger or drowsiness.
Now, in this pair of remarkable online courses, you can discover the practice for yourself, allowing you to abide more in your central channel and dispel primordial ignorance.

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, Ven. Anālayo and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, from two distinct traditions of Buddhism, discuss some of the most profound aspects of the Dharma.

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 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.

Mindfulness is a buzzword and a trend—but it’s much more than that. It’s an ancient practice that has been proven to radically transform your mind, and in doing so, how you experience reality. When we see reality clearly and understand what causes our suffering and what lessens it, we can discover a radical happiness that we may never have experienced before, or even known was possible.

Mindfulness is the foundation of true happiness—and this course with renowned monk-scholar Ven. Anālayo provides the foundations of mindfulness.

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.

Journey into mindfulness with the master: Bhante Gunaratana (known affectionately as Bhante G), author of Mindfulness in Plain English, a bestseller and #1 on The New York Times’s list of recommended meditation books. 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.

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.

Gain profound insight and learn how to live with meaning in the midst of impermanence with a renowned philosopher as your guide.

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 through 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 part 1, Tashi guides 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. In part 2, you’ll learn the combination letters and start writing words, including the mani mantra.

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.