I DO realize however, that I’m far away from being enlightenment being so judgmental about the retreats that are so terribly expensive. I am SO grateful for the Vipassana/Goenka retreats. 750 EURO.Īwakening and spiritituality? Just Big Biznizz.
Just today I got a newsletter for a 7 day Jeff Foster – Retreat – Awakening from the dream in Holland. NO one is left out, and cannot attend because you can’t afford those scandalous prices I see asked everywhere for retreats. Those who have a lot, give a lot, who have less, give less. But of course we ALL give proportionally. Soon, I will go to my yearly 10 day Vipassana silence retreat (as taught by Goenka). Well… that’s about the price that was also asked for a gig by 3 of my favorite musicians (Nick Lowe, Flaco Jiminez and Ry Cooder in Carre, also a big theater in Amsterdam last week… All tickets were sold old by the way, for Rockstar His Holiness as well as for the other rockstars. To me it seems His Holiness is like a famous rockstar. The ticketprice for each session of about 3 hours was about 150 EURO. He gave 3sessions a day, in a congress center, just a 2 mins walk from where I live. His Holiness was in my backyard (Amsterdam/Netherlands) beginning of June 2009. This is the joy of authentic inner spiritual being. I think the moral of this story is that finding inner peace and the wealth of contentment makes one wise and happy, far beyond external conditions and circumstances. In NYC when asked what makes him happiest, the Dalai Lama replied: “Oh I don’t know (laughs), yes, I know, talking to you people, talking and talking bla bla bla bla bla!” People there just fell out laughing with him. This simple sense of humor was present throughout his entire speech, with several light- hearted remarks and playful gestures punctuating the two-hour-long session. During a short question and answer session after one of his talks at University of Wisconsin in Madison, when asked what the source of his strength was in the face of trouble his honest and straight-forward answer of “Good food, good sleep,” was met with many laughs and applause. War is an outmoded form of conflict resolution.”Īlthough he is learned philosopher and a doctor of divinity, as well as a disciplined lifelong monk and meditation master, His Holiness is sharing personally his own feelings and pleasures. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1989) often counsels us that, “This century must be an era of dialogue rather than of bloodshed. His hearty message is always one of peace and harmony, tolerance and reconciliation coupled with a constant call for and commitment for human rights and universal responsibility for our human family as well as the environment and all species. Now I really like today’s three words: listen, learn, love.” “Education opens that potential, so it’s extremely important. “Human intelligence is something of great potential,” he told a rapt audience of several thousand at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. For more information on Surya, as well as his lecture and retreat schedule, go to Lama Surya Das resides in Lexington, Massachusetts.The Dalai Lama of Tibet is in the USA these days, speaking at universities and teaching publicly at venues including Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Lama Surya can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram his own podcast Awakening Now can be found on the Be Here Now Network. At least one hundred of his essays and white papers, keynote speeches, poems and cartoons have been published. He is a regular contributor at The Huffington Post and Elephant Journal, as well as writing his own blog Ask The Lama. Today, Lama Surya Das teaches and lectures around the world, conducting dozens of meditation retreats and workshops each year. In 1991 he established the Dzogchen Centers and Dzogchen Retreats and in 1993, with the Dalai Lama, he founded the Western Buddhist Teachers Network and regularly organizes its International Buddhist Teachers’ Conferences. Lama Surya Das is the author of the international bestselling Awakening trilogy: Awakening the Buddha Within, Awakening to the Sacred and Awakening the Buddhist Heart, as well as his latest release, and first children’s book, The Yeti & The Jolly Lama: A Tale of Friendship, and eleven other books. He is an authorized lama in the Tibetan Buddhist order, a leading spokesperson for Buddhism and contemporary spirituality, a translator, poet, meditation master, chant master, and social-spiritual activist. Lama Surya has spent over forty five years studying Zen, Vipassana, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with many of the great old masters of Asia, including some the Dalai Lama’s own teachers. The Dalai Lama affectionately calls him “the American Lama”.
Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars.
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