Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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!

This book was such a pleasure to read. I commend surya das for attaining such a lofty goal of writing a book that takes on all of the big questions. He accomplishes this with a potent combination of wisdom, an open mind and humility. Of course there are no definitive answers in life, but this book supplements one's own journey towards the answers.

If you are interested in your spiritual growth this is a must read. Everyone has a "Big" question and it is probably addressed in this book. The chapters are short but full of possibilities for both "religious" and non-religious readers. I have returned to this book many times and have given copies to a dozen friends and acquaintances.

I am a fan of Lama Suyra Das books and find his explanation of Buddhism and happiness easy with transformation of the mind possible, but the reader must apply him/herself.

I would strongly recommend this book if you want to make significant changes.

This is a wonderfully deep and profound book, written in a straightforward and easily understandable fashion. Rich in wisdom and quotable phrases. It is a small hardback, beautifully well bound with old fashioned type thick paper (rough edged) like an antique volume. This is a treasure.

In The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries Lama Surya Das inspires and encourages the reader to engage in the 'sacred art of questioning'. When we confront questions about the meaning of our existence in this world, when we keep asking and explore spiritual, personal and universal issues, when we engage into deep enquiry about life and death, then we learn to live more deeply and meaningfully.

Lama Surya Das examines 14 'big questions' (ranging from "What is happiness and where can it be found" (Ch 1) to "How can I integrate spirituality into my daily life" (Ch 9) to "How can I balance taking care of myself with helping others" (Ch 14) and responds to these through drawing from his own life experience and from a Buddhist perspective. He does so with an exceptionally clear and powerful voice.

Christine Maingard, Author of 'Think Less Be More:Mental Detox for Everyone'

Whether or not you agree with the theology/philosophy of Buddhism, this book is thought-provoking. I enjoyed it immensely and made many notes in the margins!

Lama Surya Das is a modern day sage that has within him some of the most profound and enlightning words. With all the questions we have today in our modern world the one thing that we all have in common is that we still ask them. This wondeful book can cut through some of the worldly chatter and opens up your mind to the answers we all seek. I would recommend this book to Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike. Wonderful read and worth every penny..........