Background
Surya Das was born on December 26, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. He is the son of Harold Joseph Miller, a certified public accountant, and Joyce (Rot-house) Miller, a teacher.
Buffalo, New York, United States
Surya Das attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating with honors in 1971, with a degree in Creative Education.
Woodstock, New York, United States
In 1977 Lama Surya Das was the founder and director of Karma Triyana Dharma Chakra and served until 1980.
Buffalo, New York, United States
Surya Das attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating with honors in 1971, with a degree in Creative Education.
Woodstock, New York, United States
In 1977 Lama Surya Das was the founder and director of Karma Triyana Dharma Chakra and served until 1980.
(This remarkable book brings together more than 150 authen...)
This remarkable book brings together more than 150 authentic Buddhist teaching tales from the Hidden Kingdom of Tibet — most never before translated into English. These captivating stories, legends and yarns — passed orally from teacher to student — capture the vibrant wisdom of an ancient and still-living oral tradition. Magical, whimsical, witty and ribald, The Snow Lion's Turquoise Mane unfolds a luminous vision of a universe where basic goodness, harmony, and hope prevails.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QAP3LE/?tag=2022091-20
1992
(Dzogchen is the consummate practice of Tibetan Buddhism. ...)
Dzogchen is the consummate practice of Tibetan Buddhism. A pure awareness practice applicable to any circumstance and readily integrated into modern life, Dzogchen directly introduces us to the inherent freedom, purity, and perfection of being that is our true nature. Natural Great Perfection is an inspiring collection of teachings providing the deepest possible insight into the practice of the Dzogchen path. The teachings are followed by a collection of spontaneous vajra songs composed in the tradition of Milarepa as the delightful play of wisdom consciousness.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559393122/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(In this book, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we...)
In this book, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life. It illuminates the guidelines and key principles embodied in the noble Eight-Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings common to all schools of Buddhism.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S1LSC0/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(In this elegant, inspiring book, Lama Surya Das integrate...)
In this elegant, inspiring book, Lama Surya Das integrates essential Buddhist practices with a variety of other spiritual philosophies and wisdom traditions, to show you how to create a personalized spiritual practice based on your own individual beliefs, aspirations, and needs. Through reflections on his own life quest, thoughtful essays, and entertaining stories, Surya Das examines the common themes at the heart of any spiritual path, including faith, doubt, love, compassion, creativity, self-inquiry, and transformation. He then explores prayer, yoga, chanting, guided meditations, breathing exercises, and myriad other rituals, providing practical examples of each that we can use day-to-day to nurture our inner spirit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767902750/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(Surya Das illustrates how to develop authentic presence, ...)
Surya Das illustrates how to develop authentic presence, how to connect to our own life experience, build deeper relationships, embrace life's lessons, as well as learn how to love what we don't like. Everyone needs to feel connected, to love and feel loved, to reach out to others and communicate in order to overcome alienation, loneliness, and a feeling of being disconnected. This book shows you how to reach inward and outward. By developing spiritual intelligence, a sense of compassion that helps us be more sensitive, more aware of our own feelings and the feelings of those around us, we become more intuitive; we relate better and love better. Cultivating spiritual intelligence and learning how to connect will improve our capacity for intimacy, making us better mates, friends, parents, and coworkers; it helps all of us to become more giving and brings us fulfillment, meaning, and love. With tremendous insight he explores specific ways in which we can more fruitfully relate to our own experiences as well as each other in today's fast-paced, complicated, and often confusing world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767902777/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(Full of personal stories, anecdotes, practical exercises,...)
Full of personal stories, anecdotes, practical exercises, guided meditations and reflections, and pithy original aphorisms, Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be addresses life's most universal difficulties in a way that is accessible to all. By using memorable concepts such as The Virtues of Adversity, The Pearl Principle ("No inner irritation, no pearl"), and Gaining through Loss, Surya reminds readers that hiding from change and loss is futile. Learning to consciously accept and embrace change leads to a better understanding of ourselves and our own innate divine light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC27UO/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(Lama Surya Das offers his first complete daily practice p...)
Lama Surya Das offers his first complete daily practice program for the personal experience of the "swift and direct path" of Dzogchen. Dzogchen affirms that we are all buddhas by nature-infinitely open, luminous, compassionate, wise, and free. This profound realization, say the teachings, cannot be understood intellectually or studied mentally, but it can be passed from teacher to student through the spoken word. With Natural Radiance, it is now possible to learn these time-honored practices as they have been shared for centuries-through direct transmission from an accomplished master of the tradition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591792835/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(The best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within ad...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EHEBL2/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(In this book, Surya brings that unique approach to a comp...)
In this book, Surya brings that unique approach to a comprehensive guide to the most essential Buddhist teachings. For beginners and experienced practitioners alike, Lama Surya Das outlines his Six Building Blocks of Spiritual Practice and offers insight and advice not only on how to find and develop a spiritual center, but how to integrate it into your daily life. From daily meditation and yoga to creative work, journaling, volunteering in your community, and finding teachers in unexpected places, Buddhist practice can and should be part of everything you do. The Mind Is Mightier Than the Sword is a practical guide to using the teachings of Buddhism to live a happier, healthier, more enlightened life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002M41TX4/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(nternationally renowned meditation scholar Lama Surya Das...)
nternationally renowned meditation scholar Lama Surya Das delivers a penetrating and practical guide to discovering the power of living fully in the now. In the tradition of the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Noah Levine’s Heart of the Revolution, Buddha Standard Time is a road map to discovering your own inner kingdom of awareness, patience, and love.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FEF6JW/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(What did the Dalai Lama say to the pizza guy from Brookly...)
What did the Dalai Lama say to the pizza guy from Brooklyn? Make me one with everything! It's a familiar joke, muses Lama Surya Das, but it holds a profound truth: that in addition to inner peace, meditation is a path for all-inclusive connection. With Make Me One with Everything, he invites us to experience this expansive dimension of the dharma through the art of intermeditation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VMWPMXU/?tag=2022091-20
2015
teacher author Spiritual activist poet
Surya Das was born on December 26, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. He is the son of Harold Joseph Miller, a certified public accountant, and Joyce (Rot-house) Miller, a teacher.
Surya Das attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating with honors in 1971, with a degree in Creative Education. In the beginning of 1970s, he attended a Vipassana meditation courses. Das studied with spiritual teachers in India and Nepal from 1971 to 1977. From 1973 to 1974, he studied Zen and haiku in Kyoto, Japan. From 1980 to 1988 Surya Das completed two traditional Lama training retreats at Nyingmapa Retreat Center in Dordogne, France.
From 1973 to 1974 Surya Das was an English teacher in Kyoto, Japan. In 1977 he was the founder and director of Karma Triyana Dharma Chakra monastery in Woodstock, New York and served until 1980. Das was a Lama in Non-Sectarian Practice Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Das worked at meditation workshop and was retreat teacher in Dzogchen, Vajrayana, and Mahayana Buddhism. Surya was a worker with Cambodian and Vietnamese boat people. He was a founder of Western Buddhist Teachers Network and its teachers’ conferences in Dharamsala, India.
Lama Surya Das is a founding board member of the Seva Foundation and a founder of the Dzogchen Foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1991. Talks by Lama Surya Das have been recorded on audio cassettes and released by the Dzogchen Foundation.
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."
He 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, which was called "Leonard’s Return".
Lama Surya Das resides in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost American Buddhist teachers and scholars. He is the founder and spiritual director of the Dzogchen Foundation in Massachusetts and California. Surya Das is the author of several books, including the bestsellers "Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Modern World".
(In this elegant, inspiring book, Lama Surya Das integrate...)
1999(What did the Dalai Lama say to the pizza guy from Brookly...)
2015(Full of personal stories, anecdotes, practical exercises,...)
2003(Surya Das illustrates how to develop authentic presence, ...)
2000(This remarkable book brings together more than 150 authen...)
1992(nternationally renowned meditation scholar Lama Surya Das...)
2011(The best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within ad...)
2007(In this book, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we...)
1997(Lama Surya Das offers his first complete daily practice p...)
2005(In this book, Surya brings that unique approach to a comp...)
2009(Dzogchen is the consummate practice of Tibetan Buddhism. ...)
1995Surya Das is a Tibetan Buddhist.
"We each need to make peace with our own memories. We have all done things that make us flinch."
"Learning how to love is the goal and the purpose of spiritual life - not learning how to develop psychic powers, not learning how to bow, chant, do yoga, or even meditate, but learning to love. Love is the truth. Love is the light."
"Breath by breath, let go of fear, expectation, anger, regret, cravings, frustration, fatigue. Let go of the need for approval. Let go of old judgments and opinions. Die to all that, and fly free. Soar in the freedom of desirelessness. Let go. Let Be. See through everything and be free, complete, luminous, at home at ease."
Surya Das is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa.
On May 12, 2001 Surya Das married Kathleen Peterson.
