In this lecture, Professor Thurman explains the concept of non-duality, and that emptiness doesn’t mean we don’t have a mind. Emptiness means we have an uncreated mind—it has always been […]

Professor Thurman discusses the potential dangers of cultivating an empty mind without also developing proper understanding of what emptiness is. Just meditating with our default understanding of reality can temporarily […]

Robert A.F. Thurman gives advice to a group of students who have been learning the Mahamudra (great seal) meditation. This episode is an extract from a lecture given to students […]

In this episode Professor Thurman, Richard Freeman, and John Campbell compare and contrast the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp of the Five Stages. Bob and Richard […]

Robert A.F. Thurman leads a prayer for those who died in the Nepal earthquakes from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In the Tibetan view of the dying process, death […]

Professor Thurman introduces the Essence of True Eloquence (drang nges legs bshad snying po), discussing his own personal experience encountering and translating the Tsongkhapa’s great work, and also Tsongkhapa’s own […]

Professor Robert A,F, Thurman draws from his book, Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp of the Five Stages for a discussion on the distinctions between Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, delving into a […]

Introducing the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśha Sūtra, Gelek Rimpoche and Professor Thurman discuss mistaken relationships with Buddhist gurus and books, particularly in the West. They offer guidance for identifying a good guru […]

Buddhism’s Heart Sutra is recited at the start of teachings, events & as a blessing. In this podcast Robert AF Thurman leads a recitation of The Heart Sutra and gives […]

Professor Thurman speaks one on one to a student about meditation practices, quiescence (pali: samatha, sanskrit: śhamatha), insight (pali: vipassanā, sanskrit: vipaśhyanā) and meditative realization (bhāvanā). Includes a discussion of […]