![]() ![]() No, they were nice, suburban Jews from Brooklyn and we lived on Long Island. Rachael Kohn: Did your parents know what Buddhism was? Surya Das: I always say I encountered Buddhism in college in the late '60s, but my late parents used to remind me that I first noticed it or asked about it when I was about 12 when the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc immolated himself on a street corner in Saigon, and that searing image is still in my mind of him burning himself up sitting cross-legged in a crossroads in Saigon to bring the attention of the world to the terrible Vietnam situation. Rachael Kohn: Lama Surya Das, you have been a Buddhist for 40 years. And may our body and soul, heart and mind, speech, spirit and energy evolve and grow in consciousness, in love and beauty, all awakening together for a better world to be possible, a better future now.' But it's something like: 'From the heart of spiritual unfolding, may the luminous Buddha arise like the lotus born from purity, with our feet in the mud but our heads in the shining sun of spirit. But the chant.to translate these things literally is a little challenging, and also because it's 2,000 years old, it is not always so easy to bridge the gap. Surya Das: Well, the prayer is something that I wrote based on Tibetan sources. But it was followed by an English prayer. Rachael Kohn: Lama Surya Das, I don't think I've ever opened a Spirit of Things with a Tibetan chant. And I bow to the Buddha, the Buddhaness in your seat, don't overlook her, and homage to one and all. And may we all together complete the spiritual journey. May there be peace and harmony in this world and throughout every possible realm of existence, and an end to war, injustice, violence, poverty and inequality. May all beings everywhere, with whom we are inseparably interconnected and who want and need the same as we do, may all be awakened, liberated, healed, fulfilled and free. Surya Das: Let's begin today with an ancient yet timeless Tibetan blessing, chant and invocation, inviting the blessings and inspiration, guidance, protection and energy of all the holy and enlightened ones, the invisible array, however you conceive of it, and have a few moments of mindfulness, a few moments of contemplative sweetness, a sort of instant American meditation, as we like to say in New York, short and sweet. Surya Das believes in a more eclectic, non-sectarian approach, incorporating the insights of neuro-Dharma research. Brooklyn-born, Lama Surya Das became a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition before returning to the US and setting up his Dzogchen centres. He's called 'The Western Lama' by the Dalai Lama. The monks are changing too, as you'll hear later in the program when I speak to the Venerable Anil Sakya, who's also a Cambridge-educated anthropologist.įew in the West would know Anil Sakya, while the popularity of Lama Surya Das has few equals in contemporary Buddhism. And yet in this very traditional society, Buddhism is adapting to modernity. The reverence shown to the royal family is only surpassed for the Buddha. No mention is made of their daughter the princess. It's customary to also celebrate the birthdays of the royal family, King Bhumibol Adulyadej at 85, Queen Sirikit at 80, and their son, the heir apparent, at 60. ![]() In May I was in Bangkok, Thailand, to attend a couple of conferences in honour of the Buddha's birthday. You're tuned to RN, on air, and on line, at /radionational. ![]() Hello, I'm Rachael Kohn, welcome to Buddhism East and West on The Spirit of Things. Rachael Kohn: Twenty six hundred years after the Buddha was born, the religion founded in his name is thriving in the modern world. ![]()
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