Lama Surya Das – Ep. 32 – Practicing Dzogchen, Suffering, and the Middle Way
In this talk from a past retreat, Lama Surya Das discusses the Dzogchen principle of basic awareness. Through practice, we become open to the…
Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars, one of the main interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and a leading spokesperson for the emerging American Buddhism. The Dalai Lama affectionately calls him “The Western Lama.”
Surya has spent over forty five 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 and lineage holder in the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism, and a close personal disciple of the leading grand lamas of that tradition. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its branch centers around the country, including the retreat center Dzogchen Osel Ling outside Austin, Texas, where he conducts long training retreats and Advanced Dzogchen retreats. Over the years, Surya has brought many Tibetan lamas to this country to teach and start centers and retreats. As founder of the Western Buddhist Teachers Network with the Dalai Lama, he regularly helps organize its international Buddhist Teachers Conferences. He is also active in interfaith dialogue and charitable projects in the Third World. In recent years, Lama Surya has turned his efforts and focus towards youth and contemplative education initiatives, what he calls “True higher education and wisdom for life training.”
Lama Surya Das is a sought after speaker and lecturer, teaching and conducting meditation retreats and workshops around the world. He is a published author, translator, chant master (see Chants to Awaken the Buddhist Heart CD, with Stephen Halpern), and a regular blog contributor at The Huffington Post, as well as his own AskTheLama.comblog site where he shares his thoughts and answers questions from the public each week.
Surya Das has been featured in numerous publications and major media, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post, 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, Science of Mind, 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.
In this talk from a past retreat, Lama Surya Das discusses the Dzogchen principle of basic awareness. Through practice, we become open to the…
Lama Surya Das brings on Wayne Muller to talk about time and how we spend what precious little of it that we are given….
Author and educator, Susan Kaiser Greenland, chats with Lama Surya Das about her book “The Mindful Child” and teaching the younger generation. How do…
On this latest episode of Awakening Now, Lama Surya Das shares on the many aspects of Ram Dass that he has experienced as a…
“Our own body is like the Sangha, our energy the Dharma, and our heart-mind the Buddha” Surya Das reminds us that to rest in…
Surya Das and fellow spiritual and meditation teacher, Sally Kempton, discuss the merging of the paths of devotion (Bhakti) and wisdom (Jnana) and how…
With practice, we can move through life with effortless effort. Surya Das touches on the natural and relaxed qualities of Dzogchen meditation, and answers…
Surya Das is joined by fellow Be Here Now Network natives, Raghu Markus and Kelly Rego, for a lighthearted discussion about the growing relationship…
Uninhibited and inexhaustible, like the ocean’s waves, leave it as it is. There is no ‘self’ for your self-improvement project, but there is room…