The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries [Hardcover]

Lama Surya Das (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2007

The best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within addresses life’s most provocative and tantalizing questions simply, directly, and powerfully.

Every life is a journey through the unknown. Along the way, however, we tend to encounter the same perplexing questions again and again. Some are cosmic enigmas that have always tested the human mind: What is my purpose in life? What happens after I die? Others are puzzles presented by daily life in modern society: What, if anything, justifies assisted suicide? What is my personal responsibility to the homeless? According to Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost Western Buddhist scholars and teachers, the more we seek to resolve these mysteries, the more fully we live.

Along with his own personal beliefs, the author presents a variety of thoughtful points of view representing different schools of Buddhism, other religions, spirituality in general, and pragmatism. The Big Questions challenges readers in the most stimulating and thoughtful way to formulate individual, authentic responses to life’s big questions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LAMA SURYA DAS, born Jeffrey Miller and raised on Long Island, New York, is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars. For more than 30 years he has studied and practiced with the great spiritual masters of Tibet and India. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Meditation Centers and author of the best-selling trilogy: Awakening the Buddha Within, Awakening to the Sacred, and Awakening the Buddhist Heart.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594862087
• ISBN-13: 978-1594862083
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, November 22, 2007

By 

Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries (Hardcover)

There are few better ways to let someone find his own wisdom than by asking questions. Das just does that and in each answer helps you---through analogy, literature, and further questions---find the answers. The chapter on karma is excellent and helps us grasp its nuanced nature(nothing happens by accident but by all prior actions; great insight into the difference bewteen karma and fate) and on handling anger(as the Buddha said, if someone offers you the "gift" of anger do not accept, and it stays will the giver) and by taking a "sacred pause". A book to be loved, hightlighted and underlined, and read again.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lama Surya Das again provides clear guidance for living our own lives., October 30, 2007

By 

Barb F (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries (Hardcover)

Posing major life questions is done fairly frequently these days on many TV talk shows. The difference here is a book with teachings based on deep personal experience and understanding of the Tibetan Buddhist wisdom traditions in the search for answers. Lama Surya Das continues to point out that the spiritual journey is a path of personal growth and depends in large part on our own choices. Once we become seekers, this book and each of his others from AWAKENING THE BUDDHA WITHIN to BUDDHA IS AS BUDDHA DOES provide the guidance to jump start our search.. I find his examples and his humility to be a great encouragement in an age so filled with examples of arrogance, pride, greed and anger. He is a great teacher with all of the credentials that provide the base for confidence in his words.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike!, November 29, 2007

By 

Dr. David N. Michie "David Michie" (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries (Hardcover)

This book is Lama Surya Das at his best: very stimulating, humorous, drawing on the widest range of philosophy and literature, and offering us the benefit of his extraordinary insights, attained after many years of meditation and study. Although this book has a picture of the Buddha on the front, Lama Surya Das frequently refers to common themes in the teachings of all the major traditions. I'd highly recommend it to any intelligent, open-hearted individual, irrespective of their religion. A must-read book!