Lama Alan Wallace

LAMA ALAN WALLACE

JOINS HOST DANIEL AITKEN FOR A SPECIAL EPISODE OF
WISDOM DHARMA CHATS
ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2025, AT 7:00 PM EDT

We’re honored to welcome back renowned teacher and scholar Lama Alan Wallace for a special episode of Wisdom Dharma Chats, where he’ll speak with host Daniel Aitken about his latest book—Śamatha and Vipaśanā—an extraordinary collection of meditation instructions that span centuries, all aimed at enabling you to reach a pivotal stage within the Mahāyāna path of accumulation.

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Lama Alan Wallace

B. Alan Wallace is president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and Switzerland. He has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and America since 1976 and has served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan scholars and contemplatives, including H. H. the Dalai Lama. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he earned his MA and PhD in religious studies at Stanford University. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and religion.

Alan is also the founder of the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR), which now has retreat center locations in Crestone, Colorado, and in Castellina Marittima, Italy. A new center is also being established in New Zealand. The CCR is dedicated to researching the role and methods of the ancient contemplative practices of Shamatha and Vipashyana, and their involvement in mental health and wellbeing, as well as their role in fathoming the nature and origins of human consciousness.

The CCR vision builds on the results of the Shamatha Project. It is guided by a Scientific Advisory Board that includes the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and biologist Steven Chu (Stanford University), neuroscientist and clinical psychologist David Presti (UC Berkeley), theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser (Director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth College), and philosopher Michel Bitbol (Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Cognitive scientists at the University of Pisa, the University of Trent, and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa are committed to conducting research in collaboration with the CCR.

For an introduction, listen to The Nature of Reality: A Dialogue Between a Buddhist Scholar and a Theoretical Physicist. In this public dialogue, Alan Wallace and Sean Carroll, a world-renowned theoretical physicist and best-selling author, discussed the nature of reality from spiritual and scientific viewpoints.

Daniel Aitken

Daniel is the CEO and Publisher of Wisdom Publications, as well as the host of the popular Wisdom Podcast and Wisdom Dharma Chats. In addition to publishing some of the most important books and online courses on Buddhism, he has interviewed over 200 Buddhist masters from a variety of Buddhist traditions. Daniel has a PhD in Buddhist Philosophy. His lifelong interest in Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language, and its literature has taken him across Australia, America, India, Nepal, and Tibet to pursue a deeper understanding of Buddhist theory and practice with some of the greatest masters from the living tradition.