The Wisdom Podcast

In this episode of the Wisdom podcast, host Daniel Aitken travels to Berkeley, California, to speak with Venerable Ajahn Brahm, a meditation teacher in the Thai Forest tradition and author of many popular books including Falling Is Flying; The Art of Disappearing; and Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond . In this conversation, you’ll hear Ajahn Brahm talk about his early interests in theoretical physic...

For this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken travels to Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington State to speak with Cyrus Stearns, independent scholar and translator in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Cyrus is the author of several books, including Taking the Result As the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdré Tradition . Cyrus has had the rare opportunity of working in an inti...

For this very special episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, the 42nd throne holder of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. In this fascinating conversation, you’ll hear His Holiness talk about his childhood growing up in the prestigious Khön family of Tibet. It was the Khön family who originally founded the Sakya order in the 11th and 12th ce...

For this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Dr. Barry Magid , psychoanalyst, meditation teacher, and author of Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans . Since the 1970s, Barry has dedicated his life’s work to the integration of Western psychoanalytic psychology and Zen Buddhism. In this fascinating conversation, Barry describes his initial encounters with Buddhist...

For this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with John Dunne, Distinguished Professor of Contemplative Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Foundations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy , published by Wisdom. John’s research focuses on Buddhist philosophy in relationship to contemplative practice, religious studies, and cognitive science. In this rich conv...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Charles Hallisey, scholar and beloved professor at Harvard Divinity School. Professor Hallisey’s research centers on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Pali language and literature, Buddhist ethics, and literature in Buddhist culture. His most recent book is Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women (H...

Since this is our official 75th episode of the Wisdom Podcast, we thought we would rebroadcast our very first episode in commemoration of this meaningful milestone here at Wisdom. For this special conversation, host Daniel Aitken traveled to Dharamsala, India, to meet with His Holiness the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, leader of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. His Holiness talks about...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Graham Coleman, editor and critically acclaimed filmmaker in the Tibetan Buddhist world. In this lively conversation, Graham shares fascinating stories from the making of his feature-length documentary, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy . An invaluable exploration of the sacred in Tibetan Buddhist culture, this extraordinary film includ...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Narayan Helen Liebenson, revered meditation teacher and author of The Magnanimous Heart , published by Wisdom. Narayan is a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, as well as at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center where she has taught since its inception in 1985. Her training over the past...

On this special Losar episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken travels to Kathmandu to speak with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, world-renowned teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and founder of the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal. In this special teaching, Rinpoche shares his past life memories and talks about his own experiences with the continuity of consciousness. He then speaks about...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Alejandro Chaoul, scholar and practitioner in the Bön tradition of Tibet and teacher of tsa lung trul khor , the art of Tibetan yantra yoga. In Tibetan, tsa lung means “channels and winds” while trul khor translates as “magical movements.” Alejandro is a professor at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he research...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Mark Van Buren, author of A Fool’s Guide to Actual Happiness , published by Wisdom. Mark is a specialist in mindful living, yoga, and meditation, and has been promoting health and wellness for over a decade. Beginning with a meditation class in high school, Mark has found himself encountering Buddhist teachings and practices wit...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Sharon Salzberg, world-renowned meditation teacher and practitioner, and New York Times bestselling author. Sharon is also cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre Massachusetts, the first ever western meditation center established in the United States. In this episode, you’ll hear Sharon discuss one of her all...

In this episode, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Malcolm Smith, translator in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and long-time practitioner of Dzogchen. In this rich conversation, Malcolm discusses one of the most influential texts in all of Tibetan Buddhism, the Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection. Malcolm shares the fascinating history of these eleventh-century teachings, and reads from his rec...

In this special episode of the Wisdom Podcast, we are joined by Wisdom Publications’ cofounder and spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who for 30 years has overseen the spiritual activities of the extensive worldwide network of centers, projects and services that form the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), whic...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Christopher Ives , scholar and practitioner in the Zen Buddhist tradition, and author of Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage , recently published by Wisdom. Chris specializes in modern Zen ethics, as well as Buddhist considerations of nature.  In this conversation, you’ll hear Chris talk about his first exposure to American Z...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Janet Gyatso , renowned scholar and professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard University . Janet is the author of several publications on the cultural and intellectual history of Tibetan Buddhism, including her award-winning book on the history of Tibetan medicine in early modern Tibet, Being Human in a Buddhist World . In this r...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with David Nichtern, celebrated musician and senior teacher in the lineage of renowned Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. David is also author of  Awakening from the Daydream , published by Wisdom. In this fascinating conversation, you’ll hear Daniel and David discuss the idea of mantra and the spiritu...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, meditation teacher and practitioner in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and author of The   Logic of Faith: the Buddhist Path of Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt.  In this rich conversation, you’ll hear Elizabeth speak about her spiritual curiosity as a child and young adult, and her early...

On this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken travels to Montreal to speak with Thupten Jinpa, scholar and former monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and primary English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 1985. In this rich conversation, Jinpa describes his intellectual training at Shartse College of Ganden Monastic University in South India, and reveals fascinating in...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Lama Tsultrim Allione, teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and author of Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Mandala of the Empowered Feminine. Lama Tsultrim is also founder and spiritual director of Tara Mandala Retreat Center in southern Colorado. In this rich conversation, you’ll hear Lama Tsultrim tell stories from...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Geshe Tashi Tsering, a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who was recently appointed abbot of Sera Mey Monastery by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In this episode, you’ll hear Geshe Tashi share stories from his scholastic journey—from his early years at Sera Mey that would eventually lead to a geshe lharampa degree, to his...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, host Daniel Aitken speaks with Bhikkhu Anālayo, prolific writer and scholar of early Buddhist thought, and author of  Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research, recently published by Wisdom. As part of a special live event, Daniel is joined by Professor Charles Hallisey of Harvard Divinity School as they speak with Venerable Anālayo on the topic of rebir...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, Daniel Aitken speaks with H. E. Dza Kilung Rinpoche, revered teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, and head of Kilung Monastery in East Tibet. Kilung Rinpoche was discovered as a reincarnation of H. H. Jigme Ngotsar Gyatso, a yogi who built Kilung Monastery in the eighteenth century. Jigme Ngotsar was also one of four main disciples of Jigme Ling...

In this episode of the Wisdom Podcast, Daniel Aitken speaks with Dr. Sonam Thakchoe, professor of Buddhist philosophy at the University of Tasmania and former monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Sonam was a child during the Cultural Revolution in Tibet. At just ten years old, Sonam fled to India with his father, where he began his formal education at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsal...