BeliefNet

A reincarnated Buddhist master on 'thought-wiping' meditators, choosing a guru, and unconditional happiness. In the early 1970s, Lama Surya Das tutored a 10-year-old boy, His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, in English at a monastery in Darjeeling, India. The boy was known to be the reincarnation of the 11th Gyalwang Drukpa, part of a lineage that goes back to the early 1000s C.E. His Holiness the 12th now heads India's Drukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism. He also has monasteries and nunneries in Darjeeling, Nepal, and Ladakh, as well as centers in Europe and Mexico. Reprinted with permission...

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Even the Dalai Lama gets angry. The trick is what you do with it. Q: What did the Buddha teach about anger, specifically righteous anger? Is any anger acceptable in Buddhism? A: The Dalai Lama recently answered the question, "Is there a positive form of anger?" by saying that righteous anger is a "defilement" or "afflictive emotion"--a Buddhist term translated from the Sanskrit word klesha--that must be eliminated if one seeks to achieve nirvana. He added that although anger might have some positive effects in terms of survival or moral outrage, he did not accept anger of any kind as a virtuous...

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February, 2005   In these days of bitter partisan politics and a war on terror, which is itself a bit terrifying; I feel greatly inspired by spiritual activists such as Aung San Su Kyii of Burma, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner  Wangari Maathai  of Kenya, whom I had the privilege of joining on a September 11 panel at a church in Harvard Square a few years back.  These are individuals we could do well to learn more about and hear more from. Like Nelson Mandela said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, I think...

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February, 2005   One day The Dalai Lama was invited to Yale University. That evening, the formal hosts’ pedagogues all went to get him. After knocking on the Nobel Laureates door, they were greeted by a man in maroon lama robes wearing a Groucho Marx mask: eyeglasses, nose and moustache. It was His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet himself, having a bit of fun. A jolly lama, indeed. This is a true story. I think we often take religion, and ourselves, far too seriously. Life ain’t much fun if we take ourselves too seriously, is it? The sacred realm is not meant to be a grim affair...

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February, 2005   I was very moved by the recent new film "Hotel Rwanda", about the genocide of the Tutsi people ten years ago while the world stood aside. I recommend this new film to you.  It follows along with other Downtown Lama pics including "Dead Man Walking" and "Schindler’s List", fine examples of art that raises social conscience and consciousness and can move us to beneficial action.   However, I am tired of seeing these things a decade after the fact. When can we see something like this while it is happening, given our modern media? Then...

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Six Steps to Anger Management Instead of reacting with rage, Buddhist teacher Lama Surya Das says to take a sacred pause and transform your life. By Lama Surya Das   Top of Form Bottom of Form Excerpted from "Buddha Is As Buddha Does; The Ten Original Practices for Enlightened Living," (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007). Reprinted with permission. Patience means not retaliating with anger for anger, or harm for harm, and voluntarily bearing up under difficulties in order to progress on the path of spiritual awakening. How do we actually do this? How do we slow down our conditioned,...

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February, 2005   A Little Song of Self-Inquiry What is the most important question for our time? (Einstein said it was, in his: Is this a friendly universe or not?) My childhood Jeff Lowe, whom we called Coconut due to the feeling of hollowness inside his skull, in fifth grade transmitted to me my first Zen koan (existential conundrum), which I have never really satisfactorily answered: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Mine: What is authenticity, really, and what is true and real? What do I really want and need? Am I lacking anything? Why...

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February, 2005   TRUE LIES Numbers don’t lie, people do. Pictures don’t lie, those using them do. The problem is that our perceptions and interpretations Aren’t veridical. Who knows the truth? It is the mind that lies Due to its internal distortions; Being bent out of shape Is the main problem. Knowledge as we know it Gets in the way. Of clear vision. Who can see things just As they are, Rather than as we’d like Them to be? The masters say that not seeing Is true seeing, not knowing Is authentic knowledge; Not finding Is finding. I Recommend it. There...

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February, 2005   I have been transported, even if only temporarily; and seen that another world, another way of life is possible. There is another, better world and another life, and it is here-we are living in it. We may feel far from it, but rest assured: it is never far from us. You may sometimes feel out of the flow, but the flow goes right through you: thus speak Surya. Around that time, I wrote: "This is the pure land. Why wait? Everything is already perfectly one and at peace, Just as it is. Yes. Fantastic!" I have had  transformational experiences, growthful experiences,...

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February, 2005   The politics this century leaves me cold. It fails to touch my heart. I was mad and saddened about the outcome of the Florida elections three years ago, but I got over it. Like so many, I have been alarmed by our current regime's weapons of mass distraction and its unconscious, uncompassionate conservatism; however, I am trying to take a more long term view. The truth is I feel I can’t trust these people, can’t seem to find much truth-telling amidst all the spin and media, and that our leaders fail to touch my heart. Decades ago, RFK said that politics is a noble...

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