Lama Surya Das proclaims himself to be "the most highly trained American Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition," so it is not surprising that his new book Awakening the Buddhist Heart delves into such quintessentially Buddhist topics as considerations on "reality" and "self." What is surprising, in a book explaining how to awaken Buddhist heart, is the promise of the discovery of "Our best Self," replete with the eternalist capitol "S," on its very first page. Equally surprising is that while the process of "awakening the Buddhist heart" seems to require getting in touch with our inner child it does not seem, according to Lama Surya Das, to require taking refuge - the very heart of the Buddha's way. The philosopher George Santayana once said that American life was a powerful solvent which neutralizes every intellectual element and fuses it to native goodwill, complacency and thoughtlessness. That would be a rather apt description of the content of Lama Surya Das' Awakening the Buddhist Heart. Lama Surya Das' body of work, his attempts at contriving a "Western Buddhism" or "American Buddhism," really amount to no more than a dumbing down of the Buddhadharma for the West. Like the new breed of Christian mega churches, which design and market everything from their buildings to their sermons based on commercial market analysis, Lama Surya Das recreates Buddhism with an eye to fashion and trendiness. Scraping together bits of Buddhist technique, pop psychology and the inner child view, Lama Surya Das has not only thrown the Buddha out with the bathwater but sells the bath water back to us as the Buddhist heart - "the little Buddha within."
Awakening the Buddhist Heart serves up inner child Buddhism in the self consciously inclusive banter of a talk show self help pundit. It often seems that the entire book is merely filler for stringing together one pop psychology slogan after the next - "stay grounded," "get real," "be more heart centered," recognize that you are "God's visible body of love" and "just be yourself." Perfecting the commercial art of the sound bite, Lama Surya Das transforms the liberating act of awakening the Buddhist heart into something reminiscent of a TV infomercial. He attempts to package sublime wisdom into bite size nuggets. As a result his "Buddhist Heart" has about as much to do with what the Buddha taught as chicken nuggets do with the living animal from which they originate. While reading Lama Surya Das' book, one might wonder, time and again, whether his real intent was to obtain a guest spot on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It is an attempt to meld two culturally fashionable topics: sensitive relationship TV therapy and Buddhism.
Sadly, the book falls short of Oprah's standards, as it is poorly written and riddled with confusion which is inevitable in the attempt to make the Buddha's radical teaching of liberation palatable to the shallowness of self help commercialism. The writing is vague and lacks cohesiveness so that the reader is often left wondering just what point Lama Surya Das is trying to make. The philosophical vision is vague and lacks the cohesiveness which is traditionally the hallmark of Buddhist thought. The self help methodology is a vague and scattered grab bag of trendy tidbits, never quite deciding whether it is Buddhism or New Age feel good fodder.
In his determination to level all beings in vapid equality, Lama Surya Das regales us with quips about a Buddha engaged in neurotic self obsession over body image and mentions the Dalai Lama's proclivity for channel surfing. With a simple twist of inverted logic, he transforms the humility of the great masters statements that they are just like us into the reverse and perverse view that therefore we are just like them. This ludicrous act of egotism allows Lama Surya Das to equate the goals of the Buddhist path with breaking free of our parents and societies conditioning or being able to tell, for yourself (despite your family's pressuring) whether or not your shoes are too tight. Lama Surya Das' version of Buddhism reaches the pinnacle of shallow absurdity in his chapter on awakening our inner holy fool. He encourages us to experience crazy wisdom and share in the rarity and beauty of the Tibetan wisdom tradition through such radical acts as handing out lollipops to strangers on elevators or meowing for no reason. (Lama Surya Das assures us that he understands we would never do anything so radical but that just imagining it will help spark freedom from inhibitions.)
There are some useful mindfulness techniques in Lama Surya Das' book. Somewhere in the chicken nugget there is some meat. Perhaps someone who buys this book and wades through the contrived writing and tedious personal stories will find some benefit. In the end, however, Lama Surya Das' new "Dumbed Down Buddhadharma for the West" is a shallow affair of little substance. This is perhaps best summed up in Lama Surya Das' own words describing a personal moment of great realization - "Am I crazy or what? I thought to myself. Is there no difference between my relationship with a holy Tibetan Lama and my dog?" That is indeed the question. Is he crazy or what?