The Wisdom Podcast

In this Wisdom Podcast episode, join Melvin McLeod and host Daniel Aitken as they journey the path of mindfulness and celebrate the release of Melvin’s new book, With a Single Breath: The Complete Path of Mindfulness. Listen as Melvin shares his experiences, which challenged his fixed notions of reality and shaped his commitment to mainstream mindfulness as a universal, science-based movement. He recounts his travels to India and meetings with the Karmapa and Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche while searching for a guru, which eventually led to a year-long shamatha-vipashyana retreat. Together, Melvin and Daniel explore mindfulness as a complete path integrating focus, insight, compassion, ethics, and community, and examine the essential elements of happiness. 

In this episode, Melvin and Daniel also discuss: 

Defining mindfulness practice;

Walter Evans-Wentz’s translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead;

the framework of the universal truths;

what mindfulness is and is not, while questioning “is mindfulness Buddhism?”; and

so much more!



Mentioned in this episode:

The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger, M.D. and Marc Schulz, Ph.D

Learn more about the Harvard study on happiness here



The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent.



The post Melvin McLeod: With a Single Breath (#245) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

This Wisdom Podcast episode, recorded live as a Dharma Chat, features special guest Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé Rinpoche. During this episode, host Daniel Aitken and Rinpoche discuss adapting the Dharma for a modern mindset. Rinpoche shares some methods for teaching the Dharma, including how he uses a meditation-first approach for Western students as well as using examples, stories, logic, and personal application. Rinpoche also shares his experience coming to the West for the first time and training with masters such as His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche and others during his decades of teaching in the West. Daniel and Rinpoche then dive into the nature of reality and explore lojong lines on seeing phenomena like dreams, the causes and conditions of genuine experience, warning against “pony practice” and shortcuts to “highest” teachings without first building the necessary foundations. 

In this episode, Rinpoche and Daniel also discuss: 

bridging cultures and differences in teaching Dharma in the West;

unborn awareness;

post-meditation illusion view;

moving your practice from study to experience; and 

so much more! 



Links from this episode:

Stay up to date with Rinpoche’s activities at: katog.org



The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent.

The post Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé Rinpoche: Navigating Dharma in the Modern World (#244) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

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.

They also discuss: 

Impermanence;

using debate to explore deeper reflection and study;

various styles of teaching and learning, including but not limited to monastic style, scholar style;

the value of community in improving your practice; and

so much more!



Links from this episode:

Dive into your own experiential learning at Tergarinstitue.org

Milarepa, Milarepa, Who Are You? by Sandra Fernandez, Illustrated by Maura OConnor



The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent.

The post Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: The Nalanda Approach (#243) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

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. 

They also discuss: 

How the meaning of Bodhisattva evolved;

identity without rigidity;

living with multiple Buddha views;

bodhisattva vows in Theravada; and

So much more!



Wisdom Podcast listeners are invited to save 30% on The Perfection Of Wisdom In First Bloom with code WPODBLOOM through October 30.



The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent.

The post Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo: The Perfection of Wisdom (#242) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.

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. 

Jinpa and Daniel also discuss: 

how mind interprets experience through “I, me, and mine”;

the value of studying the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism; 

why studying the lower schools strengthens Madhyamaka understanding, provides contrast, and supplies tools like Abhidharma mental factors and Yogācāra accounts of imprints;

Tsongkhapa’s take on conventional validity; and 

so much more!



Mentioned in the episode:

Mark Siderits Video Podcast

The Bodhisattva Ideal translated by Thupten Jinpa and Julia Stenzel

The Library of Tibetan Classics

Buddha’s Words for Tough Times by Peter Skilling

Apramāda seals from  Buddha’s Words for Tough Times pg 270

Check out the new Wisdom App and take your Dharma library with you wherever you go

Explore further with Jinpa’s latest release, Bodhisattva Awakening, translated by Julia Stenzel, edited and introduced by Thupten Jinpa.



Wisdom Podcast listeners are invited to save 20% on Jinpa’s course The Nature of Reality with code WPODNOR through October 10.



The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Wisdom Publications or any entities they represent.

The post Thupten Jinpa: The Nature of Reality (#241) appeared first on The Wisdom Experience.