Cloudless Mind: Conversations on Buddhahood, Volume 2

by Daniel P. Brown

Every Wednesday Night, for over six years, Dan Brown answered questions by students and colleagues about positive and negative experiences in life and mind, integrating the perspectives of both Western psychology and Eastern traditions of spiritual practice -- most notably Vajrayana Buddhism, Dzogchen, and then the Bon tradition. While Dan had no idea what questions might be asked on any given night, he answered them often with rather astonishing detail, while also making his answer relevant and helpful to the person asking the question. The basis of Dan’s knowledge and communication was not from scholarship. His history of treating people psychologically for over 40 years, with a long-time focus on trauma, as well as teaching Buddhist meditation with a high Lama appointed to teach with him by H.H. the Dalai Lama for 15 years, and then on his own using the style of “pointing out” while teaching, and with oversight by living lineage masters, for another 30 or more, gave him a basis of understanding founded in direct experience, in relationship to others, both as a healer and a teacher.

357 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2025

About the author

Daniel P. Brown was the director of the Center for Integrative Psychotherapy in Newton, Massachusetts, and an associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. Trained in Buddhist philosophy and languages at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he did his dissertation on mahamudra meditation texts, he maintained close relations with Tibetan teachers of the Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma lineages for more than thirty-five years as well as exploring the Theravada mindfulness traditions in Burma and Thailand. Dan was the author of fourteen books, including Transformations of Consciousness and he lived in San Francisco, California with his wife, Grethen Nelson.

source: publisher's site

Reviews

[Susan Pottish · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perspective in this volume actually expands greatly, detailing mistakes commonly made in emptiness practice (i.e., nihilism) but also grief, the 8th deadly sin (i.e., self-importance) noted by the desert fathers! and the differences between stages (like nonduality) and full realization of buddha nature. Remarkable scope. I highly recommend getting these books from the publisher, sentientpublications.com, because amazon takes a huge chunk and this publisher, imho, made a huge contribution to the dharma coming to the West by publishing it.