Bob Thurman Podcast: Buddhas Have More Fun!

In this extended holiday episode Professor Thurman gives an introduction to the history and mission of the Dalai Lama's cultural arts center Tibet House US in New York City and its retreat center Menla in Phoenicia, New York.

Opening with a personal invitation to the Annual Carnegie Hall Benefit Concert Robert A.F. Thurman gives a detailed history of the event organized by Philip Glass and explains it's connections to Tibetan New Year and the precious culture of Tibet.

Podcast includes a discussion of the benefits of becoming a Tibet House US Member, a short introduction to Tibetan Culture for beginners and an in-depth exploration of the landmark graphic novel "Man of Peace : The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet" by Robert A.F. Thurman.

Preserving Culture with Tibet House US Podcast Bonus of the Bob Thurman Podcast Photo via www.dalailama.com.

Tibet House US is dedicated to preserving Tibet’s unique culture at a time when it is confronted with extinction on its own soil. By presenting Tibetan civilization and its profound wisdom, beauty, and special art of freedom to the people of the world, we hope to inspire others to join the effort to protect and save it.

Tibet House US is part of a worldwide network of Tibetan institutions committed to ensuring that the light of the Tibetan spirit never disappears from the face of this earth.

Tibet House US was founded at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who at the inauguration in 1987 stated his wish for a long-term cultural institution to ensure the survival of Tibetan civilization and culture, whatever the political destiny of the six million people of Tibet itself.

“I feel that Tibetan culture with its unique heritage - born of the efforts of many human beings of good spirit, of its contacts with Mongolian, Chinese, Indian, Nepalese and Persian culture, and of its natural environment – has developed a kind of energy which is very helpful for cultivating peace of mind and a joyful life. I feel that there is a potential for Tibet to help humanity, and particularly our Eastern neighbor, where millions of young Chinese have lost their spiritual values. In this way, I feel very strongly that Tibetan culture will have a role to play in the future of humanity.”

This week’s episode’s of the Bob Thurman Podcast was brought to you in part through the monthly support of the Tibet House US Membership Community and Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York.

Listen to more archive recordings from from past Robert A.F. Thurman teachings + public events please consider becoming a Tibet House US member. To learn about the benefits of Tibet House US Membership please visit: www.tibethouse.us.

The songs “Trance Tibet” & ‘Dancing Ling’ by

In this two part podcast Professor Thurman discusses the Galenic, Chinese, and Ayurvedic methodologies found in Traditional Himalayan Medicine or Sowa Rigpa’s “Science of Healing” detailing the powerful diagnostic tools of urine analysis, pulse reading and dialog between doctor and patient which have proven to prevent illness, cure illness, extend life, and cultivate happiness.

Using the visual medical thankgas depicting the “Four Medical Tantras” (Tib. རྒྱུད་བཞི་ “gyüd zhi”): the Root Tantra, the Explanatory Tantra, the Oral Transmission Tantra, and the Final Tantra) Robert A.F. Thurman begins this week’s podcast with stories from his early days studying with Yeshe Dhondon, the Dalai Lama‘s personal physician and founder of the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute (Men–Tsee–Khang) in Dharamshala, India, giving an explanation of the Tibetan phrase “Raising the Banner of Victory on the Mountain Peak” used by Sowa Rigpa practitioners before elaborating the framework and concepts found in the analytic Buddhist sciences preserved in Tibet. This Tibetan Medicine 101 podcast on Traditional Himalayan Medicine’s Subtle Anatomy system includes in-depth explanations of: the Five Internal Elements (Space, Wind, Fire, Water and Earth), The Five External Elements (Wood, Fire, Metal, Water and Earth), The Three Humors (Wind/Loong, Bile/ Tripa and Phlegm/ Beken), The Five Chakras,The Three Channels and overall cosmology used in Sowa Rigpa and in Buddhist Philosophy.

To view images of the Blue Beryl Medical paintings please visit: www.himalayanart.org.

“Tibetan Medicine 101 : Medicine Buddha : Raising The Banner of Victory on The Mountain Peak – Ep. 170′′ of the Bob Thurman Podcast is an excerpt from the Force For Good Class “Medicine Buddha: Buddhist Inner Sciences” held at Tibet House US in New York City on November 29, 2017.

“Materialist science is imprisoned by a philosophical mix-up. Scientists need to set themselves free by learning from the great scientists of India and Tibet how to own up to the fact that they are beings who have minds, spirits, and even souls- not as some sort of mystical entities, but as rationally explorable and experimentally understandable processes. These processes are extremely subtle, and to learn about them, understand them, and so master them requires a new kind of advanced educational and training of one’s own emotional, intellectual, and mental abilities.”

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.

There is a great difference between Buddhist psychology and Western psychology (not a religious difference, but a scientific one). Buddhist psychology does not accept that you have to be unconscious, and that you are going to be driven forever by unconsciousness drives and energies. Although the ordinary, habitual, instinctual driven person is driven by a huge unconscious, and Freud made a great discovery about it, yet we can become conscious of our unconscious. That's what mindfulness is about. In this way, the Eightfold Path offers us instruments in how to gain freedom in our inner processes, rather than being driven by the unconscious — in other words, how to be a master of all energies that we are enfolded with.

This episode was recorded on January 3, 2015 at the "New Year's Yoga & Meditation Retreat" at Menla Mountain Retreat, taught by Sharon Salzberg, Robert Thurman, Carolyn Christie, & Brooke Myers.

To learn about this annual event, please visit: www.menla.us.

Becoming Conscious of the Unconscious - Ep. 49 of the Bob Thurman Podcast Photo by m wrona on Unsplash

The “Force for Good” Course, which Professor Thurman discussed in the end of the podcast, is available as a Livestream Talk Series with Q & A. ‘A Force For Good’ is a Tibet House US course to further the Dalai Lama’s contemporary world initiatives.

This on-going series was inspired by Daniel Goleman’s ‘A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World‘.

To learn more about this year’s Force For Good Series please click the image above or visit: www.tibethouse.us.

Listen to more archive recordings from from past Robert A.F. Thurman teachings + public events please consider becoming a Tibet House US member. To learn about the benefits of Tibet House US Membership please visit: www.tibethouse.us.

The song ‘Dancing Ling’ by Tenzin Choegyal from the album ‘Heart Sutra‘ (2004) by Ethno Super Lounge is used on the Bob Thurman Podcast with artist’s permission, all rights reserved.

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 complete manifestation of it . . .

This episode was recorded on December 5, 2015 at the "Shamans and Siddhas: Meeting at the Crossroads of Shamanism & Tantrism" retreat at Menla Mountain Retreat, taught by Isa Gucciardi & Robert Thurman.

Two Kinds of Bodhichitta : Shantideva - Episode 47 of the Bob Thurman Podcast Image via www.himalayanart.org.

Joined by Foundation for the Sacred Stream's Isa Gucciardi Ph.D. Robert AF Thurman in this podcast discusses the power of creative and humorous rudeness as taught by Shantideva, Tibet's Dalai Lama and by his beloved teacher: wife of fifty years Nena von Schlebrügge.

This two part podcast begins with Professor Thurman recounting personal stories from the Fourteenth Dalai Lama discussing the illusion of American Democracy, Mammon-ocracy (The Worship of Money), identity slippage and the origins of Shantideva’s name Bhusuku.

Guiding a thought experiment on the Royal Reason of Relativity, Robert Thurman examines the self identifying habit which without the development of empathy and direct experiential understanding of the interconnected nature of reality can lead to selfish absolutism and much of our every day suffering.

Second half of podcast begins with Isa Gucciardi Ph.D. inquiring about reincarnation as taught in the different schools of Buddhism and by the Dalai Lama

Podcast includes an overview of the Buddhist Biological point of view on evolution, how to develop empathy, the model of compassion found in the films of Bill Murray Films and Lutheran perspective on changing the world as heard on public radio's A Prairie Home Companion.

This episode include a special teaching of Professor Thurman's "trademark" Sleep Yoga which is given to over-night visitors to the Tibet House US Retreat Center and to Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York.

“Creative + Humorous Rudeness” is an excerpt from the panel discussion Foundation for The Sacred Stream's "Learning from Dying: Buddhist Understandings of Consciousness and Death with Isa Gucciardi Ph.D., Eve Ekman and David Bullard held at UCSF September 11th, 2017.

To learn more about Foundation for the Sacred Stream please visit: www.sacredstream.org.

To listen to more archive recordings from from past Robert A.F. Thurman teachings + public events please consider becoming a Tibet House US member. To Learn about the benefits of Tibet House US Membership please visit: www.tibethouse.us.

The song ‘Dancing Ling’ by Tenzin Choegyal from the album ‘