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I have been on book tour in Texas and the Midwest, speaking about my new book on how to be a Bodhisattva (a Buddha-to-be, wisdom warrior) at churches, synagogues and book stores. On the road I've been hearing a lot about "The Secret", which is a bestseller and a movie too, which is basically about the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction, rehashing the ancient wisdom that Intention and Spirit are the most powerful forces in the world and that we can have whatever we set our minds towards. This is fine as far as it goes, I suppose, but I do think we have to actually work more skillfully...

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I'm getting tired of hearing from Christopher Hitchens in the media, and his fervid and all-too-familiar religion-bashing. I happen to like the guy, and also very much appreciate such diverse opinions--he is brilliant, after all, and has some valid points, which is why I bother to read him–-but overall he goes way too far and keeps grinding the same ax ad nauseum. God Is Not Great is a fine book title but a weak thesis. Rest assured that I myself have plenty of similar criticism about religions, including my own; but doesn't he know that there are hundreds of millions (and have been billions)...

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The great spiritual activist and liberator of India Mahatma Gandhi said: "How do you know if the next act you are about to do is the right one or the wrong one? Consider the face of the poorest and most vulnerable human being that you have ever chanced upon, and ask yourself if the act that you contemplate will be of benefit to that person; and if it will be, it's the right thing to do, and if not, rethink it.” I saw a touching and inspiring movie last night. Amazing Grace is about the British abolitionist activist Wilber Wilberforce (1759-1833) and the beginnings of the end of slavery, including...

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When visa troubles in Nepal drove me out of Kopan Monastery in early summer of 1972, I made a pilgrimage to meet the Dalai Lama at his Tibetan capital in exile in Dharamsala, India; and after spending two weeks there, including some inspiring private time with His Holiness, I went on to Almora. Lama Govinda and Li Gotami were gone at the time, but I met their house-sitting holy-man named Guru-lama on the ridge beyond Almora, where the Govinda's house had become like a sort of informal ashram. Night after night, Guru-lama regaled me with stories around the old fashioned hearth. I slept in my sleeping...

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I first heard Lama Govindaв' name in 1969 when I was in college in the late Sixties, from either Baba Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, or Gary Snyder, all of whom had already met him in India. I immediately went out and bought his autobiographical The Way of the White Clouds a spiritual book chronicling his 1930s and 40s Tibetan pilgrimage journeys, which helped set me on a journey similar to what Govinda lovingly called "The Land of the Thousand Buddhas." I was amazed to find out that the learned and accomplished Lama Anagarika Govinda -- whom was the first Occidental Lama and I mentally put in a class...

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Nearly all spiritual teachers in the Western world today promise transformation through their teaching methods. Perhaps we should instead encourage more inquiry, awareness cultivation and self-observation. Transformation will certainly occur naturally as a natural by-product. In a narcissistic and driven culture obsessed with self-improvement, meditation and yoga are widely seen as a vehicle of change. Change is in any case part of the universal law; we ought to be intentionally involved in it. However, we ourselves might be better served by cultivating contentment and self-acceptance, loving...

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Everyone is familiar with the adage that the optimist sees the glass half-full, and the pessimist sees it half-empty. Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic, altho hopes springs eternal in the human breast-- as Buddha (or someone) said. The Buddhist view is to see the glass as full enough, just as it is, not comparing it to anything else. While noticing the unfolding events in our country and around the planet with active concern if not dismay, we could also be aware of how much of that feeling comes from a sense of comparing to how we think it ought to be, or could be, if only people...

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Today is Earth Day. Earth Day occurs each year on the vernal equinox. It is held annually in the (northern) spring, it's intended both to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. Not only that, the spring equinox is also the New Year in Iran and other Islam countries, which makes possible collective attention for a common purpose -- the sustainable care of Earth, with justice and peace for all. Obviously, we must take care of our home. One can learn a lot by reading the book of nature, which is open right now quite close at hand, wherever you may be. Or watch our former...

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I am in Washington, DC, on tour speaking about about my new book, Buddha Is As Buddha Does The Ten Original Practices for Enlightened Living. Last night I spoke to three hundred people at the National Cathedral about Educating for Peace and Wisdom Living. How can we deal with the horrific news about the multiple shooting deaths in Virginia? How can we feel safe and without anxiety as we send our children to school? Our schools are dangerous, our streets and airports are dangerous, our world is dangerous; only our armpits are well protected! What is happening to our children and our society? What...

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I am excited about my new book on how to be a bodhisattva: wisdom warrior, awakener, edifier, enlightened leader and spiritual altruist. It's called Buddha Is As Buddha Does: The Ten Original Practices for Enlightened Living. It is all about spiritual activism and the Bodhisattva Code, explained on the outer, inner and secret or innermost ultimate level, according to the Vajrayana (diamond path) teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. I have dedicated it to the young people just now awakening to the great possibility that they can become part of the solution rather than part of the problem in our troubled...

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