Jet Li: Beyond Life and Death (#229)

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Wisdom Dharma Chat, features special guests Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Justin Kelley, and Sandra Fernandez. They share how Tergar Institute is bringing traditional Buddhist teaching into daily modern life. Rinpoche shares his examples from his wandering retreat, including a near-death experience and how it impacted his view of the world. They also explore the Nalanda framework of view, meditation, and application, and how Tergar Institute condenses traditional scholarship and practice into an intensive cohort model while also pointing to at-home practice options through Tergar programs.

This Wisdom Podcast episode features special guest Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo. Venerable Anālayo is a scholar of early Buddhism and a meditation teacher. He completed his PhD research on the Satipaṭṭhānasutta at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 2000 and his habilitation research with a comparative study of the Majjhimanikāya in light of its Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan parallels at the University of Marburg, Germany, in 2007. His over five hundred publications are for the most part based on comparative studies. In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and Venerable discuss Venerable’s book The Perfection Of Wisdom In First Bloom. They also explore the Bodhisattva path, Venerable shares his mindfulness detour in the USA, and together they touch upon the debate of the origins of Mahayana Buddhism.

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Dharma Chat, features special guest Thupten Jinpa. Join Jinpa and host Daniel Aitken as they discuss Jinpa’s newest Wisdom Academy online course, The Nature of Reality. Journey into the nature of reality and emptiness with the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Jinpa contrasts the “mundane,” unexamined view with the yogi’s disciplined inquiry into appearance and reality, explaining how grasping and belief in a true self arise through mental interpretation. They also address debates about Madhyamaka “relinquishing views,” emptiness of emptiness, how realizations of emptiness can make appearances feel illusion-like, and so much more.

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Dharma Chat, features special guest, His Eminence Gyalwa Dokhampa. His Eminence oversees 32 Drukpa lineage centers worldwide and authored The Resting Mind. In this episode, host Daniel Aitken and His Eminence discuss the path of courage, impermanence, equanimity, and Vajrayana practice in everyday life. They also explore the themes and lessons His Eminence learned from the King Gesar epics and how to bring these teachings into our daily rituals. Discover how your practice and shifting your perspective train awareness and can help bring about the restful mind.

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Dharma Chat, features the newly enthroned abbot of Gyuto Tantric Monastery H. E. Khangser Rinpoche. Take a look inside as Rinpoche and host Daniel Aitken discuss monastic life inside Gyuto Monastery. Explore the role Gyuto Monastery plays in the Gelugpa tradition. Learn about the duties of an abbot and discover the path from abbot to Ganden Tripa. Rinpoche and Daniel then transition to discussing Tsongkhapa’s yogic life, the values of analytical meditation, and so much more!