The Dalai Lama announced, on the 52nd anniversary of the Tibetan people’s uprising against Chinese rule, that he will relinquish his political leadership role in the Tibetan exile government, setting the stage for a new generation. This has been a long time in the making and does not imply that His Holiness will relinquish his spiritual role as religious leader, teacher, and human rights activist.
Dalai Lama Gives Up Political Role In Tibet
Losar Tashideleks! Happy Tibetan New Year- The year of the Iron Rabbit. May it be an auspicious and beautiful, healthy, happy and harmonious one for you and yours.
The Rabbit in the Moon (Rabsel Dawa) is one of the principal names of my late root lama, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, so this is an especially harmonious conjunction of outer and inner, higher and lower energies and circumstances, which we can effectively utilize to create merits through compassionate loving actions, virtuous practices, and wisdom...
Lama Surya Das and Ram Dass Maui-February, 2011
Baba Ram Dass published the pioneering spiritual classic bestseller “BE HERE NOW” forty years ago. In 2000 he wrote “STILL HERE”, after being, as he puts it, ”stroked by his guru” and semi-confined to a wheelchair. This year he has brought us his new message and wish through his just released “BE LOVE NOW”.
I visited RD for 8 days this...
At a recent symposium, a grad student asked me, “How shall I live my life?” I retorted, perhaps too quickly, “Fully and authentically, from the heart.” She requested, for elaboration and clarification, “How shall I find my true work, purpose and meaning here in this world?”
I recommended she read a terrific new book I recently finished by Sarah Bakewell about the seminal essayist Montaigne and his efforts to answer that very question. It’s called HOW TO LIVE: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty...
”May the sun bring you energy by day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being.
May you walk gently through the world
and know its beauty all the days of your life.”
Apache Blessing
John W. asks: I’m wondering about the role and efficacy of prayer. Why and how do we pray in a non-theistic world-view? When one sees intercessory prayers (Please help me kill my enemies or don’t let it rain tomorrow for my picnic or please take away this disease you’ve give me) as silly and empty, what is left? I find myself asking every day that all beings might have happiness and the causes of happiness but I guess I have doubts and questions about the mechanism. Why am I doing...
Rick G asks: I’m new to Buddhism & often have questions. Can a romantic relationship coexist with Buddhism? I want to avoid attachment and desire.
Lama Surya Das: Relationships are an important part of life, if not the essence of it, and romance certainly plays its part. Buddhism is not against that. In fact, many Buddhists are romantically attached, married, have families and so forth. This includes Buddhist leaders, priests, meditation masters, gurus and so forth. (Monks and nuns are celibate, and lay Buddhists...
One of the questions most often posed to me is, ”How can we find time to meditate and do yoga amidst our busy lives?”
We have all the time we need; it’s a matter of how we choose to use it. I often feel like that broken record repeating… it’s not time we lack, but focus and prioritization! Once we realize how much time and energy we squander daily in habitual, mindless pursuits, or simply in looking for love and fulfillment in the wrong places, an entirely new intention and way of paying attention...
The first Asian woman (she’s Chinese) made it to the final match of the
Australian Open tennis tournament last week and lost, but gave a good showing; and the world’s female chess champ is now a highly touted and
seemingly amazing genius 13 yr. old Chinese prodigy who they say might be able to eventually beat the top male grand masters and become overall world
champ. This is symbolic of the rising Dragon (China) and Elephant (India) in
world affairs of everykind, and not just population and economics.
Meanwhile,...
25 Jan 2011 |
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The following question was posed to Lama Surya Das at his Dzogchen Winter Retreat in Garrison, N.Y.
Leo S. asked: Can meditation practice assist in ending suffering?
Lama Surya Das: Sure it can! That is the very purpose of Buddhism, according to the original teachings: to find ourselves and reduce the causes and origins of suffering and dissatisfaction, and bring about a more free, unconditioned, harmonious and delightful way of life. This is all embodied in Buddha’s first teaching at Deer Park outside Benares, known to history as The Four Noble Truths - or four liberating facts of life...
