Bob Thurman Podcast:

In this podcast professor Thurman introduces great Buddhist masters Vasubandhu and Dignaga. Vasubandhu was a brother of the famous Asangha, who met with the future Buddha Maitreya. Vasubandhu wrote a […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman teaches how each of us creates causes and conditions throughout our life, and how the consequences of those causes will go with us as our […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman reads a description of Buddha’s Enlightenment from his translations found in “The Jewel Tree of Tibet” providing historical & meditative context. Professor Thurman goes on […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman teaches the meaning of the cornerstone Buddhist concept of “emptiness.” Many people confuse it with the idea of nothingness; Professor Thurman points out, and continues: experientially, […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman talks about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Tibetan name of this book — The Bardo Thodol — literally means The Book of Natural […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman explains three steps to re-create the world of suffering as the world of bliss. The first step is seeing true selflessness or emptiness — the […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman explains why, according to the Buddha, the human life is precious. Being able to change oneself by opening to a new insight; having intelligence, which […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman teaches that enlightenment is not defined as awareness of space of light, which is somewhere else, not here, in some imagined opposition to this place […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman explores different stages of Buddhist meditation. When the ‘space-like equipoise samadhi’ disappears, what is there [left]? – Professor Thurman asks the audience and proceeds to […]

In this podcast Robert A.F. Thurman talks about anger, patience and compassion. Explaining that the fuel for anger and intolerance is frustration and mental discomfort, Professor Thurman advises us not […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman reads and comments on an excerpt from The Avataṃsaka Sutra, which describes a cosmos of realms enfolding realms, infinite world systems mutually containing one another. Professor Thurman teaches that […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman talks about causes and conditions which brought about Buddha’s teaching in Tibet, and how Buddhism transformed society. This episode was recorded on November 11, 2015 […]

In this episode Professor Thurman explains the cornerstone teachings of the Buddha: the teaching about the Four Noble Truths, and the teaching about the Eightfold Path. This episode is an […]

Should we abandon traditional Buddhist views unproven by scientific materialism, labeling them antiquated and irrelevant? What would be the implications of doing so for our study and practice? This episode is an […]

In this episode Professor Thurman explains the concept of “intrinsic reality” and how it is different from the concept of “relational reality.” He continues by explaining “emptiness,” how it has […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman explains what are Buddhalands and talks about different Buddhalands, based on the Vimalakirti Sutra, which he translated and has been teaching for nearly forty years. […]

According to Tibetan Buddhism, when we lose consciousness and faint, or fall asleep, we go through the same eight stages, but we don’t normally notice this process. In this podcast […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman gives a brilliant compelling account of Buddha’s birth and path to Enlightenment. The account is enriched by his wide-ranging scholarship and familiarity with so many […]

Tibetan Buddhism teaches that there are three kinds of giving: the giving of material objects, the giving of security and protection, and the giving of teaching. The giving of teaching […]

The Indian word “guru” means “heavy” in Sanskrit, reflecting an understanding from the Indian society of Buddha’s time, in which the guru figure was an authority or a father figure. […]

In Professor Thurman’s view, men in our society are socialized to express their anger more readily than women and are expected to be generally more dominating. Women are socialized to […]

In this episode Professor Thurman shares some secrets of a long marriage, talks about the relationship between sacred feminine and sacred masculine, and about the balance of the feminine and […]

The reason why we sometimes think that the goal of Buddhism is just to become nobody is because we don’t understand the concept of selflessness. Selflessness does not mean that […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman discusses how the ideas of Darwin, Marx and Freud, although brilliant, are based on a rather despondent bottom line assessment: that we as humans are a […]

In this episode Professor Thurman talks about a coarse, subtle and super subtle body-mind. He then explains the Tibetan Buddhist concept of “three luminosities”: the states of consciousness, which can be experienced […]

In this episode Robert A.F. Thurman discusses the meditation practices of the mindful revolution from a Buddhist perspective. He discusses its influence on the mind and some different ways it […]

“We must make miraculous change, and the planet will be better than ever,” – Professor Thurman greets us with this positive message in this special podcast, recorded for the occasion […]

According to Professor Thurman, the only effective institutional opposition to militarism in the history of humanity has been monasticism. He argues that monastic institutions enable the inversion of warriors. The […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman talks about the history and meaning of the Pureland Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. Sutras are canonical scriptures, regarded as records of the oral teachings […]

In this podcast Professor Robert A.F. Thurman shares his knowledge of the history of non-violence & Buddhism and their influence on the social and ethical development in the countries where […]

In this episode Professor Thurman explains the concept of emptiness. Sometimes people think if they have an experience where things seem to melt into empty space, that it is a […]

In this episode Professor Thurman discusses how to deepen our mental realism about what we are, what our inner world & processes are by applying the famous Buddhist Eightfold Path. […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman shares the stories of great sinners transforming into great saints, of work-ability of the human mind and preciousness of human life. The miracle stories will […]

Celebrate tonight the welcoming of the Infinite Divine in the form of an innocent child, reaching out not only to humans, but also to non-humans by being born in a manger, […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman explains the meaning of the cornerstone Buddhist concept of Bodhichitta, which is of two kinds: love & compassion and wisdom of emptiness. Enlightenment is a […]

Prince Siddhartha was asserting his human right to seek his own flourishing and fulfillment as a human individual rather than serve the community as a king at the wish of […]

In this episode Professor Thurman talks about the Seventeen Great Scholars of Nalanda. They taught at Nalanda, which was a renowned Buddhist University, which traditionally is said to have grown […]

What does it mean to become a Buddha? Does it mean to disappear into space separate from everything? To feel superior? To become a servant of others? In this episode […]

We all know what anger is. When a situation is going wrong for us — when something we wanted to see happening doesn’t, or when something we don’t want to […]

“Since I and other beings, both, in wanting happiness are equal and alike, what difference is there to distinguish us, that I should strive to have my happiness alone?” In […]

When we look at mother-beings and see how they really are—quite unhappy, having a lot of problems, growing old—we naturally wish to relieve their unbearable feelings, and this wish takes […]

In this podcast Professor Thurman shares insights on the concepts of virtue, beauty and skillfulness in Tibetan Buddhism. We think of virtue as beautiful and associate the good with light […]

This episode is a continuation of last week’s episode on the fifth chapter of the famous Vimalakirti Sutra. An object of love and inspiration for many lay practitioners, as well […]

In this episode Professor Thurman expounds the profound teaching, contained in the fifth chapter of the famous Vimalakirti Sutra, which he translated and has been teaching for nearly forty years. […]

Death is just like going to sleep.. And then we are going to wake up. The way, in which we wake up, has to do with how we have lived […]

In this episode Professor Thurman explains, why we may call Buddhism Realism. He presents Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths (or Four Noble Realities) and the Eightfold Path (or […]

What do we experience when we look inside? Where do we place our confidence? Do we believe that we have mind? In this episode Professor Thurman discusses the power of […]

Tantric Buddhism is known as the fast path, meaning that it is possible to become enlightened in one or a few lives, instead of millions. In this podcast, Professor Thurman […]

In this episode, Professor Thurman discusses visualization practice and meditation. He explains how the context which you assume will determine how much progress you can make. When you create an […]

This episode is a continuation of last week’s episode on The Heart Sutra. In this episode, Professor Thurman discusses the questions: How does free will work? What does it mean […]