In the Media

FINDING INNER BUDDHA GREAT WAY TO START YEAR
by: PAUL LOMARTIRE, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The Palm Beach Post December 31, 2000 Sunday
Copyright 2000 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
The Palm Beach Post
December 31, 2000 Sunday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, Pg. 5J

AWAKENING THE BUDDHIST HEART, by Lama Surya Das. Read by the author. Abridged, six hours, BDD Audio, $25.95.

So many New Year's resolutions fall like dead winter leaves that we need something, anything, to keep any alive past Jan. 1.

Every self-help bestseller list includes books about Buddhism. People with lives cluttered by problems are curious and willing to consider new options. Hollywood has noticed, too. The basic Buddhist principle of less is more is the theme of the new Tom Hanks film Cast Away and the new Nicolas Cage movie, The Family Man.

Westerners tend to accept Buddhism - mainly Zen and Tibetan - as a psychology, not a religion. Zen is the most popular because it has deeper roots in the United States, thanks to '60s authors such as Alan Watts.

What Watts did was to distill Zen to an essence easily understood in the West. By shedding cultural confusion, he was able to present the philosophy and psychology behind the religion.

Tibetan Buddhism is playing catch-up. The Dalai Lama, with co-author Howard Cutler, had a bestseller, The Art of Happiness . Cutler, a San Francisco psychiatrist, presented the teachings of the Dalai Lama with commentary that adapted the lessons to Western life.

Lama Surya Das, who grew up a middle-class kid on Long Island, previously wrote another bestseller, Awakening the Buddha Within. By using anecdotes typical to all of us at home and work, he is able to show how effective Tibetan Buddist values can be to reduce suffering.

Reducing suffering - yours and those that surround you - is at the heart of all Buddhist teaching.

Any book that can rationally explain how we cause our own stress, from road rage to divorce, would seem to be a valuable bestseller. Das, as reader and author, delivers the perfect work for a new year, no matter what your resolutions are.

paul_lomartire@pbpost.com

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