Product Description

Four cassettes, 6 hrs.
performance by the author

In Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das explained the foundations of Buddhism and illuminated the Dharma path for Western readers. In his follow-up book, Awakening to the Sacred, he showed how to create a daily spiritual practice. While his first two books focused on developing an inner spiritual life, in AWAKENING THE BUDDHIST HEART shows listeners how to find a sacred dimension in our relationships with ourselves and others by actively taking our spiritual life out into the world. A more mainstream complement to his previous, AWAKENING THE BUDDHIST HEART shows how to develop a "spiritual intelligence" that reflects our relationships with each and every living thing around us.

By applying the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism into our Western lives, we can learn how to take our spiritual practice out into the world, and into our family and community life. As humans, no matter how devout, we need to feel loved, to feel connected to each other as well as connected to a spiritual practice, and the quality of our individual lives is vastly determined by the quality of our relationships. As Surya Das writes, everyone has room for improvement, whether it's in their relationships with coworkers, friends, family, pets, the natural world, the community, everything and everyone—each relationship is important and essential for spiritual growth and development.

Buddhism tells us that all of our bonds are sacred and sometimes our adversaries prove to be our greatest teachers. Surya Das teaches how to learn from those we love, as well as those we don't love, and how to let go of negative emotions while developing and expanding a spiritual intelligence. By providing specific exercises, meditations, and prayers to share spiritual energy with mates, children, friends, as well as strangers, and illustrated with contemporary Western situations that reflect Buddhist teachings, AWAKENING THE BUDDHIST HEART shows how by developing our spiritual intelligence we can find and nurture the sacred in all our relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67716 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-11
• Released on: 2001-12-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com
Surya Das's breezy delivery makes his teachings come off like colorful conversation. In the third installment of his bestselling "Awakening" series, America's most popular lama shows us how to integrate inner and outer practices. Our inner spirituality, he says, can never be separate from our relationships with others. With his trademark clarity, he integrates his teachings with light- hearted anecdotes and down-to-earth practices. Basic meditation, for instance, can help us create a gap between our knee-jerk judgments and our reactions, allowing for calm, wise relations. Likewise, one can try authentic listening ("opening the third ear") or exploiting the power of speech to build deeper connections. And beyond human relations lies our connection to the natural world, for which Surya Das also includes a few lovely meditations. Taking that extra step in our practice from the self to the world requires more than just individual persistence, it takes compassion and teaches more than you'd expect. --Brian Bruya

From Publishers Weekly
The "Buddhist heart" that Surya Das refers to in his third book turns out to be a good heart. Blending intimate anecdotes with wisdom gleaned from his decades of study with traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachers, the American-born author seeks to help readers to awaken this heart so that their everyday relationships may become a way to experience the meaningful interconnectedness and sacrednessness of life. Surya Das wishes to cut to the essence of Buddhist wisdom, while bolstering a general readership with a dawn-of-a-new-era pep talk: "As we enter a new century and a new millennium... it seems increasingly important to awaken our Buddha-like hearts through spiritual connections." Unlike in his first two booksAAwakening the Buddha, an explication of Tibetan Buddhism, and Awakening the Sacred, an attempt to describe spiritual values in nonsectarian termsAhere Surya Das initially seems to be trying to be all things to all people, and the advice he offers can feel flimsy or vague. He counsels readers to cultivate a more authentic presence, for example, by learning to be natural, simple and open. The disarming honesty of the many personal accounts he presents puts a friendly human face on an ancient tradition, yet the work as a whole lacks power and coherence. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Developing spiritual intelligence is the heart of Surya Das's program. By developing compassion and learning how to connect with each other, we will overcome alienation and loneliness. Surya Das uses modern stories and ancient Buddhist practices to show the listener how it can be done. Listening to Surya Das is like listening to your kindly Jewish uncle from Long Island. His voice is friendly and intimate, his stories filled with lessons and self-deprecating humor. His relaxed style is well suited to the message he shares. P.B.J. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Buddhism made easy
Lama Surya Das made Buddhism easy to grasp in this very readable book. I highly recommend it to both beginner and advance seekers.

Fine Heartfelt Book
This is a very fine book on Buddhism in general and Tibetan Vajrayana in specific. I did like his prior "Awakening the Buddha Within" a bit better (I gave it 5 stars). For me, 4 stars is pretty darn good! This sequel is well worth reading. I think that if you are a Myers-Briggs F-type (Feeler) you will especially enjoy it, but perhaps the T-types (Thinkers) might just get more balance from it. Surya Das has a very easy-going style but gets across lots of good instruction and some practical activities as well. He uses lots of personal anecdotes which make the book more accessible than many others that are available. If I were to recommend books to someone first exploring Buddhism or Vajrayana, his would be at the top of the list (followed by Pema Chodron's books). Of course, it's lots easier to attune with a Western Buddhist master who shares more cultural assumptions and conceptions with you. Many Vajrayana books are laced with Tibetan mythology, psychology, medicine, etc. that are, frankly, alien to the Westerner. Surya Das' books have far less of this. My favorite quote from this book is: "No appointments, no disappointments...Unedit yourself...Become a spiritual astronaut." (page 173). Pretty modern view, no?

Excellent-Uplifting!
I have been studying Buddihism for nearly 3 years now and Lama Surya Das is by far one of my favorite authors. This book provides beautiful examples of humanity and how we can bring more love and harmony to our lives and is presented with reality to a western thinker.
He takes the intimadating part out of buddhist practice and shows how accessable it can be in one's life.

I have read many other Buddhist authors who I found so self centered, so very "enlightened" apparently that they now came off a bit cold and condescending, so wordy and esoteric that their message is lost. Or what they were writing about couldn't possibly be applied in American or Western culture.
LSD talks with you, that what I loved. I came away feeling, Yeah I can do those things and be inspired. That is what one hopes to gain when reading a book on spirituality/self improvement. Lama Surya Das succeeds amply with this book.