Showing results by narrator "Robert Thurman" in All Categories

Tibetans call their cherished tradition of Buddhism a wish-fulfilling jewel tree for its power to generate bliss and enlightenment within all who absorb its teachings. This path to enlightenment, it is taught, requires more than a sitting meditation practice alone. With The Jewel Tree of Tibet...

Robert Thurman, the preeminent scholar and interpreter of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy for the modern world, leads us on a joyful exploration into the nature of reality through Buddha's threefold curriculum of "super-education.""Buddha had to be an educator, rather than a prophet or religion...

For centuries, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has been read aloud to the dying—who Buddhist masters say are capable of hearing up to three days after clinical death—as a guide through the tumultuous and often terrifying process of dissolution. Now, in Liberation Upon Hearing in the Between...

The most accessible and informative version of the Buddhist classic available in English, with instruction in meditation, illuminating commentary, and guidance in the practical use of the prayers The so-called “Tibetan Book of the Dead” has been renowned for centuries as a cornerstone of...

Spiritual disciplines often seem remote from the realities of our daily lives. Yet there is a Mahayana Scripture which presents a model of enlightened practice in the midst of urban living, the Vimalakirti Sutra. This teaches a non-dualistic wisdom and reconciliation of dichotomies. It challenges ordinariness and reveals systematic and effective ways of tapping higher potentials while upholding one's usual responsibilities and enriching long-term relationships.

Coping with anger and pain is more challenging than ever in these times—and more necessary. Two acclaimed Buddhist teachers offer strategies and wisdom in a book that’s been called “possibly the most inspiring and liberating meditation on love ever written.” When people and circumstances...

Robert Thurman's Basic Buddhism is a collective series of five lectures he has given on Buddhism. In these lectures, Thurman patiently takes apart each jewel of Buddhism: The Buddha as the teacher of enlightenment, the Dharma as the teaching, or enlightenment itself, and the Sangha as the historical and current community of learners seeking to become Buddhas.

In this fascinating dialogue between Robert Thurman, Ph.D., and Deepak Chopra, M.D., many concepts relating to compassion, enlightenment, and Buddhism are examined in depth. Some of the conclusions that Thurman and Chopra make include the following:-The heart of the teaching of the Buddha is...

This Classic Course explores the unfolding of the genius and wisdom in each of us in the quest for the liberating insight into selflessness. In the context of our modern quest for a new vision of reality, Robert Thurman discusses the deepest issues of reality and non-reality, transcendent and the relative. Dr. Thurman's brilliant dissertation on the masterful works by the illuminated Lama, Tsong Khapa (1357-1419), on The Buddhist Theory of Relativity makes this an astounding must-have set of recordings.

This classic course was recorded in the mid 1980's as we neared the end of the second Christian Millennium; many prophetic voices were being raised to speak of revelation and other apocalyptic visions. Some western mystics even mentioned the future Buddha, Maitreya, in connection with a returning Christ or Christ impulse. What do the Buddhists, themselves, say about the end of the world as we know it? What is Buddhist apocalyptic? This workshop examines these questions with full rigor.

Robert Thurman discusses modernity as part of a series on different aspects of Tibet and Tibetan history.

Columbia University professor Robert Thurman stands alone among scholars of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. He was the first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and he is the renowned translator of many seminal Buddhist texts, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead. On Making the...

First in a series of three classic courses delivered by Thurman years ago in NYC, he begins this segment with the subject of the profound.

Robert Thurman discusses compassion. The Buddha taught that to realize enlightenment, a person must have both wisdom and loving kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others, and experience deep intimacy and empathy with other beings. It is the foundation of human life in Buddha's view.

Robert Thurman examines one of the most sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism, The Vimalakirti-nirdesha Sutra. To any Buddhist practitioner, particularly those of Vajrayana Buddhism and Zen, this sutra is of the utmost importance. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha, but an ordinary man, who, in his mastery of the doctrine and religious practice, personifies the ideal lay believer, assuring commoners that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment comparable to those accessible to monks.