Messages From Bob

Buddha’s Jewel Community: The Freedom of Asceticism

April 9, 2015

The monastic social movement that emerged from the Axial Age in India swept throughout Asia, transforming the landscapes, the cultures, and the politics of all its nations, as well as countless individuals. It is quite likely that it influenced even West Asia, North Africa, and Europe by lending its institutional style to Aramaic and Egyptian […]

Lucid Dying with the Tibetan Book of the Dead

March 31, 2015

Years ago my original teacher, the Venerable Geshe Ngawang Wangyal of the Labsum Shedrub Monastery, gave me a copy of a Tibetan volume printed in India, entitled The Tibetan Book of the Dead. He had a way of saying certain things so that you remembered them long afterward, giving them a special impact, as if […]

The Truth of Bliss: Bob Thurman Podcast

March 28, 2015

No sane person fears nothingness. It might be boring. It might not be delightful. But at least it should be restful, peaceful, and painless. And relative to all the troubles of wakefulness, it is pleasant and much sought after by every one of us. The Sleep of Death: New Situations for Consciousness What we do […]

Why The Dalai Lama Matters As The Leader of the Tibetans

March 27, 2015

The Dalai Lama continues to inspire restraint and nonviolence among the Tibetan youth in exile and all the Tibetans in Tibet, in spite of their mounting frustration at the lack of progress made in achieving economic self-sufficiency, religious freedom, and human and other rights due to the Chinese government’s oppressive and destructive policies. Dalai Lama […]

What Tibet’s Dalai Lama Means for Today

March 24, 2015

When I have attended His Holiness the Dalai Lama giving Buddhist teachings to large assemblies, I have had an odd sensation lately: it feels as if I have entered a time warp, and am actually witnessing Shakyamuni Buddha himself in all his glory as a teacher. As the Noble Vimalakirti Sutra puts it, “Dominating all […]

Nagarjuna & Evolutionary Skill: Bob Thurman Podcast

March 18, 2015

One of the main leaders of the enlightenment movement in India was a great monk-teacher called Nagarjuna, who lived sometime between the first century B.C.E. and the second century C.E. By this time, India had developed enormously, with large numbers of enlightened individuals working to transform the whole society gradually. Nagarjuna became a monk as […]