Surya has spent almost forty years studying Zen, vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with the great masters of Asia, including the Dalai Lama's own teachers, and has twice completed the traditional three year meditation cloistered retreat at his teacher's Tibetan monastery. He is an authorized lama (priest and spiritual master teacher) in the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its branch centers in New York City, New Jersey, California, Portland, Seattle, retreat center Dzogchen osel Ling outside Austin, Texas, where he conducts long training retreats and Advanced Dzogchen retreats. He was one of the founders of the Karmapa Lama's KTD Monastery atop Mount Guardian in Woodstock, NY. Founder of the Western Buddhist Teachers Network with the Dalai Lama, he is also active in interfaith dialogue and social activism and regularly organizes its international Buddhist Teachers Conferences. He has recently turned his efforts towards youth and contemplative education initiatives, what he calls "True higher education and wisdom for life training".

Surya Das is a sought after speaker, and teaches, lectures, and conducts retreats around the world. He is a published poet, translator, and chantmaster. (See Chants to Awaken the Buddhist Heart CD, with Stephen Halpern). Surya is the author of many books, including The Mind is Mightier than the Sword: Enlightening the Mind, Opening the Heart (August 2009); Buddha is as Buddha Does: The Ten Transformative Practices of Enlightened Living (April 2007); Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World; Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning and Connection into Every Part of Your Life; and Awakening to the Sacred (the three books that comprise his best selling Awakening Trilogy, the first trilogy of Buddhism for the West). His newest books are Words of Wisdom, The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries; Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss and Spiritual Transformation; Natural Radiance (including seven guided meditations on a cd); and Buddha Is as Buddha Does.

Surya Das is a Contributing Editor to Body and Soul magazine, writes regularly for Tricycle and other magazines, and is a founder and board member of many Buddhist monasteries, centers and charitable projects in refugee camps in Asia. He writes a regular Ask the Lama column online at Beliefnet.com and is in demand as a speaker at conferences and symposia.

Lama Surya Das presents the Buddha's original eight steps to enlightenment in Awakening the Buddha Within, and the ten core practices that we can all use to live a meaningful and fulfilling life in Buddha is as Buddha Does. These books offers a thorough, tried and true map to the richest treasure a human being can find. If we follow its guidelines, we will enter into a life of greater joy, clarity, peace, and wisdom than we ever thought possible. At the same time, we will be doing the best we can to change the world into a saner and more harmonious place to live. This claim can be said with authority because the vital teachings in this book belong to the Buddha himself. In the process of awakening, the Buddha realized that each of us, deep within, is inherently perfect, whole and complete, with the capacity to overcome suffering, transform ourselves into forces for the good, and, in so doing, revolutionize and liberate the world. "We are all Buddhas: we only have to awaken to who and what we truly are."

Surya Das has been featured in numerous publications and major media, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, New York Post, Long Island Newsday, Long Island Business Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, The Jewish Free Press, New Age Journal, Tricycle Magazine, Yoga Journal, The Oregonian, and has been the subject of a seven minute magazine story on CNN. One segment of the ABC-TV sitcom Dharma & Greg was based on his life ("Leonard's Return"). Surya has appeared on Politically Correct with Bill Maher, and twice on The Colbert Report.

The Lama lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Lama Surya Das
1770 Massachusetts Ave., #127
Cambridge, Mass. 02140

Certificate of Dharma Transmission and Authorization to Lama Surya Das from Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche:

• Translated into English

• Original Certificate in Tibetan