We’re happy to share with you all the exciting offerings coming up in the Wisdom Experience this November! As a member you have access to a rich world of Dharma inspiration for your study and practice, with new content being added each month. Enjoy!
This month, Malcolm Smith joins us for a five-part lecture series that will take you through the history, theory, and important points on the practice of Dzogchen. Malcolm is the translator of numerous texts from Tibetan including Buddhahood in This Life and the recent two-volume set in the Seventeen Dzogchen Tantras series, the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra and the Self-Liberated Vidyā Tantra. This series is available to All Access members indefinitely and to Plus members for a limited time; Free-level members can watch lecture 1.
In this course, you’ll be guided by one of the foremost scholars and translators in the Theravada tradition, Bhikkhu Bodhi, through the study of meditation as it is taught in the Abhidhamma. You’ll come away with a clear understanding of the entire terrain of Buddhist meditation, from beginning to end. Lesson 1 is available for preview now; ten lessons will be released weekly. This course is available for free to all Free, Plus, and All Access members of the Wisdom Experience.
Films Available to You
November’s All Access film is Saltwater Buddha. Fed up with teenage life in the suburbs, Jaimal Yogis ran off to Hawaii with little more than a copy of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and enough cash for a surfboard. Now an author and father, Jaimal recounts his journey from jungle communes to Zen monasteries, from the warm Pacific to the icy New York shore. Based on Jaimal’s internationally acclaimed memoir published by Wisdom, this is a chronicle of finding focus in the barrel of a wave and truth in the great salty blue. Watch the film now or view the trailer here.
November New Releases for All Access and Plus Members
Presented here for the first time in English is a collection of dohās, or songs of realization, carefully and thoughtfully selected and translated from the large compendium the Indian Texts of the Mahāmudrā of Definitive Meaning, which was compiled by the Seventh Karmapa and drawn primarily from the Tengyur.
Essence of the Vast and Profound will soon find its place as one of the greatest lamrim commentaries ever given; drawn from teachings by Pabongkha Rinpoche given over the course of thirty-six days in 1934 in Tibet’s capital city of Lhasa.
More New Books in Your Reading Room
The Lotus Sutra is regarded as one of the world’s great religious scriptures and most influential texts. It’s a seminal work in the development of Buddhism throughout East Asia and, by extension, in the development of Mahayana Buddhism throughout the world. Taking place in a vast and fantastical cosmic setting, the Lotus Sutra places emphasis on skillfully doing whatever is needed to serve and compassionately care for others, on breaking down distinctions between the fully enlightened buddha and the bodhisattva who vows to postpone salvation until all beings may share it, and especially on each and every being’s innate capacity to become a buddha.
Here are just a few of the books Plus and All Access members can currently read in the Reading Room:
- Following in the Buddha’s Footsteps by the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron
- The Bliss of Inner Fire by Lama Yeshe
- The Faults of Meat edited by Geoffrey Barstow
- Buddhist Suttas for Recitation by Bhante Gunaratana
- Mind Seeing Mind by Roger Jackson
- Bearing the Unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore
- The Four Foundations of Mindfulness by Venerable U Silananda
- Brilliantly Illuminating Lamp of the Five Stages by Tsong Khapa, translated by Robert Thurman
- and many more!
Now available to listen: the new episode of the Wisdom Podcast featuring acclaimed scholar Robert Thurman. Professor Thurman explains the unique function of creation stage practice in Tibetan Buddhism, describing it as a high-tech form of “genetic engineering” in which one is transformed into the embodiment of a buddha. Professor Thurman fleshes out the broader context of this practice and also sheds light on the potential benefit of engaging in such an elaborate visualization of the mind. Click to listen now, and remember to subscribe via your favorite podcast app!
As an All Access or Plus member of the Wisdom Experience you have access to a guided meditation by Lama Alan Wallace on mindfulness of breathing, where he guides us into relaxation with sustained attention and clarity. Click here to start practicing now.