I'm Jewish on my parent's side, as I like to say. I was in college in New York at the University of Buffalo. And then you have to do a three year, three month, three day meditation retreat. I've had ten or 15 years of monastic training and study and meditation practice. I'm sort of the one with the biggest profile right now because I'm writing the big books and giving the keynotes, and it's kind of my personality to be out there. Lama Surya Das: I wouldn't really say that. Linda Richards: Are you the only North American Lama? I'm just a regular guy." Though this particular regular guy continues to travel the world with his message and - every so often - he cranks out another bestselling book to help us all on the road to the shiny forever. "I'm not really trying to be a regular guy. He professes a continuing passion for sports as well as peace. Fit and peaceful, there is every trace of his New York state boyhood in his voice, though not his mien. Now 48, Lama Surya Das seems almost like a poster boy for spiritual enlightenment. Had he known that the path would span three decades, maybe he would have reconsidered, even then. Wearing the requisite beard and ponytail, he started on what he felt was a path towards real peace and enlightenment. When a dear friend was killed during the Kent State riots, young Jeffrey began to question everything in his world.Īfter graduation, the questioning found him in India. But it was the time of the youth revolution and the world was in confusion. Maybe the 2.5 kids, the house in the suburbs and all of the laurels that go with American jockdom. If it had been any other time, this story might have gone quite differently. In high school, he earned letters in basketball, baseball and soccer and then trundled off to the University of Buffalo to work towards the degree that his background demanded of him. Born in 1950, the lama-to-be was "Jewish on my parent's side," as well as a good student and sterling athlete. In the competitive market of higher consciousness, Lama Surya Das seems made to order for the western world, though on meeting with him and hearing his story and the journey he's taken to the bestseller lists, no one would accuse him of anything so crass.īorn Jeffrey Miller, he was raised in Valley Stream on Long Island in New York. At the very least, it sells a lot of books. In an age filled with confusion and uncertainty, spirituality has gotten to be big business. We have to recognize that we're all interconnected, we're all a part of this shrinking world." Just humanity and human rights, ecological values. So what I connect with is what I think of as the essential sacredness of spirituality in life. I still recommend it for the content."Now is a time that people are reassessing things and looking for something that really connects. I am really enjoying the content, but would like it much better if he had narrated it. He's sincere, funny and his personal stories are great. He's never lost his thick Long Island accent, which is part of the appeal. He does a great job of speaking to the lay person. Even though I heard them over and over, I always heard something I needed to hear. I've had several of his books on cassette and literally broke them listening to them so much. It's always better to hear the author narrate because it seems more real. The narrator was OK but mispronounced a few words. I would have preferred the author to have narrated it. What do you think the narrator could have done better? What was one of the most memorable moments of Buddha Standard Time? Where does Buddha Standard Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far? Far from being at the mercy of time's demands, we will finally realize that we have, in fact, all the time in the world. Living in Buddha Standard Time is in no way antithetical to modern life. The Buddha knew we're always free to live fully and completely in the present moment, and that doing so frees us from the burden of the past and the anxiety about the future. As an alternative to our ceaseless hustle and bustle, Surya Das offers listeners the possibility of living in Buddha Standard Time.īuddhists and non-Buddhists alike will discover reasons and inspirations, tools and techniques that not only significantly reduce the amount of stress in our lives, but help us find more focus, fulfillment, creativity, and even wisdom. Only by accessing that timeless dimension, the Buddha believed, can we learn to fully inhabit the now. Rather, each moment is intersected by a fourth dimension, a dimension of timelessness. Buddhist wisdom teaches that the minutes and hours of our days do not simply march from future to present to past - looming, engulfing us, passing us by forever. Buddha Standard Time shares one of the great realizations of Buddhism, one that anyone can learn to apply.
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