Bob Thurman Podcast:

The Heart Sutra is one of the most profound and widely studied texts in the Buddhist canon. In this episode, Professor Thurman reads the Heart Sutra, and explains the meaning […]

In this episode, Professor Thurman explains how to use analysis to realize non-duality. Deconstructing our habitual understanding of body, mind- everything you think of as solid and real dissolves under […]

In this episode, Professor Thurman reads the first chapter of Vimalakirti, which he translated and has been teaching for nearly forty years. Thurman illuminates the meaning of the text, the […]

In this podcast Robert A.F. Thurman discussed the Buddhist perspective on the health and happiness of all beings. One of the unique aspects of Tibetan culture is that for hundreds […]

In this episode, Professor Thurman points out the unspoken rule in our culture that it isn’t OK to be happy for no apparent reason. He explains that in fact, reality […]

All of us have knots in our energetic system from our conditioning and emotional trauma that need to be uncoiled through spiritual practice. However, if we try to pierce them […]

Yuthok Nyingthig is the most important practice for Tibetan medicine healing practitioners. The practice of Yuthok Nyingthig helps reveal the rainbow body that is each person’s natural state. Professor Thurman […]

In this episode, Professor Thurman discusses Buddhist ethics, which he translates as the ten-fold path of skillful and unskillful action. Instead of right and wrong, Professor Thurman urges us to […]

One of the Dalai Lama’s slogans is: “If you want to be happy, be compassionate.” In this lecture, Professor Thurman discusses how to do this by opening our hearts to […]

The Buddha’s Wheel of Dependent Origination describes the cycle of existence—the endless wheel of samsara and suffering. The first link on this wheel is ignorance, or mis-knowing. Specifically, the idea […]

In this episode, Professor Robert A.F. Thurman responds to the question: “Does Buddhism believe in a soul?” Buddhism teaches that we have no inherent self, so how can there be […]

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 […]

Introduction to the asceticism as created by the historical Buddha in the original mendicant community of male & female followers of his teachings. Robert A.F. Thurman discusses the difference between […]

Professor Thurman discusses the experiential and physical parallels between the process of sleep and the process of dying. He explains also the similarity between this experience and enlightenment, and how […]

In this podcast Robert Thurman discusses the motivational and inspirational value of examining rebirth stories first hand on the spiritual path no matter what one’s background is.  Providing examples from […]

In this podcast Robert A.F. Thurman discusses the significance of March 10th in Tibetan history & in the context of the English translation of Sofia Stril-Rever’s book, “My Appeal to […]