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.”
For over 45 years, Lama Surya Das has studied Zen, vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with the great masters of Asia, including the Dalai Lama’s own teachers. He 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. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Lama Surya Das founded the Western Buddhist Teachers Network with the Dalai Lama, and is also active in interfaith dialogue and charitable projects in low-income countries. He been featured in numerous publications and major media, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Washington Post, theLos Angeles Times, and many many others. He is a regular contributor at the Be Here Now Network with his Awakening Now Podcast.
Surya Das is the author of 14 books, including the national best seller "Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World". Previously, he was on Pathways to talk about his wonderful and beautifully illustrated children’s book, “The Yeti and the Jolly Lama: A Tale of Friendship.”
Host Donald Altman
Donald Altman, M.A., LPC, is a psychotherapist, international mindfulness expert and award-winning author of over 20 books translated worldwide. Featured as an expert in The Mindfulness Movie and profiled in the Living Spiritual Teachers Project, he currently writes Psychology Today’s Practical Mindfulness Blog. His best-selling The Mindfulness Toolboxwon two national publishing Ben Franklin IPBA awards as best book in both the Psychology and Mind-Body-Spirit categories. His books, Clearing Emotional Clutter and The Mindfulness Code, were both chosen as “One of the Best Spiritual Books of the Year” by Spirituality & Practice.
Past Vice-President of The Center for Mindful Eating, he has taught mindfulness to over 15,000 health care and business professionals. His new novel Travelers is a mystical and spiritual journey about a grieving psychiatrist who finds hope, healing and renewal when a mysterious traveling pet therapist, a sentient canine, and suicidal young patient come to the psych ward.
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