Lama Surya Das and BUDDHA STANDARD TIME

Please join us Thursday, June 2nd at 7 pm as we welcome Lama Surya Das, discussing his latest book, "Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibility of Now".

Life in the 21^st century moves at break-neck speed. Yet despite our slavish dependency on instant coffee, express buses, ATMs, and 140 character tweets, we’re all strapped for time and desperately wish for more hours in the day. What if someone had a solution for how busy and stressed out we’ve all become?

Now in BUDDHA STANDARD TIME: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now (HarperOne; June 2011; hardcover; $25.99), Lama Surya Das, national bestselling author and one of the foremost Western Buddhist teachers, offers an alternative to the ceaseless hustle and bustle of modern American life.

The problem begins, Das says, with our relationship to time—we experience it linearly by moving forward doing and accomplishing things. But we are human beings not human doings, and the thinner we spread ourselves the more disconnected we become. That leaves us vulnerable to high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke, insomnia, digestive ailments, and depression. We must eschew the notion that stress will melt away if only we could adapt to the frenetic pace of life. Instead the aim is to experience the Eternal Now, or what Das calls “Buddha Standard Time” – the realm of timelessness where every choice, every action, and every breath can be one of renewal and infinite possibilities. 

With “Mindful Moments” exercises and “Time Out” meditations, Das equips readers with tools to cure the “disease to please,” kick addictions, reconnect with nature, and gracefully embrace loss, sickness, and death. When we incorporate Buddha Standard Time, stress melts away, and we find greater focus, fulfillment, creativity and even wisdom. Finally Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike will find inner peace and live more sanely and joyously by realizing we have all the time in the world.

Lama Surya Das is the national bestselling author of Awakening the Buddha Within and Buddha Is As Buddha Does. A renowned Western Buddhist meditation teacher and scholar, he teaches and lectures around the world, conducting dozens of meditation retreats and workshops each year. Based on his relationship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Surya Das founded the Western Buddhist Teachers Network and has organized three week-long conferences of Western Buddhist Meditation Teachers with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. He also teaches regularly at Esalen, Open Center, Omega Institute, Interface, at universities in the United States and abroad.