Awakening the Buddha Within will be definitive--the first real audiobook of Western Buddhism, explaining American and Western Buddhism not only from the heart, but also from the ground up. Awakening the Buddha Within will cover the traditional Three Trainings for Enlightenment: Ethics, Meditation, and Wisdom, and includes all the major concepts of Tibetan Buddhism from the Eight Steps to Enlightenment to the Six Principles of Enlightened Living, and sets them in the context of our Western lives and experiences. As few people today are able to spend countless hours in meditation and in direct instruction from master to disciple, Lama Surya Das takes what he knows of these traditional teachings, and shows how this wisdom can be integrated into life here and now, in homes and marriages, relationships, with family, and on the job. For new and experienced seekers, Awakening the Buddha Within will help them lead more inner-directed, spiritual lives, and it will teach listeners how to integrate this spirituality into everything they do, day to day.
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 nearly forty years studying Zen, vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with the great masters of Asia. He is an authorized lama (priest and spiritual master teacher) in the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its affiliated branches. He is the founder of the Western Buddhist Teachers Network annual conferences with the Dalai Lama.
As a best selling author, sought after speaker, teacher, and lecturer, he conducts retreats and workshops around the world. Surya is also a published poet, translator, and chant master. He has been featured in numerous publications and major media, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, 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, and The Oregonian.
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 on The Colbert Report.
