Robert Thurman: Living Buddhist Ideals in a Western World.
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2017
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Guest: Robert Thurman is one of the world's foremost Buddhist scholars, a long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, the father of actress Uma Thurman, and a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism and related cultures.
He is an eloquent advocate of the relevance of Eastern ideas to our daily lives. In doing so, he has become a leading voice of the value of reason, peace, and compassion. Thurman was named one of TIME magazine’s 25 most influential Americans and has been profiled by The New York Times Magazine and People magazine. He is the author of many books, and played a central role in the new graphic biography, Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Story: After losing an eye in an accident at a young age, Thurman was suddenly confronted with impermanence and death. Shortly after, he embarked on a life-changing journey and exploration of Tibetan Buddhism and culture, building a close relationship with the Dalai Lama, and becoming a prominent Buddhist teacher and scholar.
Big idea(s): A lot of spirituality is skewed into an idea of escaping from relationship and transcending into some vastness. What if that vastness existed already in the life you were already living, but you just didn't see it?
Every relative thing is empty of any non-relative element.
By knowing reality, you transcend the idea that you’re more special than others, and their heartbeat becomes as important to you as your own.
You’d never guess:
Why Bob abandoned his education in the spring of his senior year of high school.
Current passion project:
A graphic novel biography of Dalai Lama – story of one man taking on an empire, calling for truth, peace, and justice for his Tibetan people.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As the Dalai Malaiks to say, he says, if you're going to be successfully selfish, meaning |
| 0:08.4 | fulfill your self-interest, be a wise selfish and be compassionate and altruistic, because |
| 0:15.0 | the first person who gets happy when you want the happiness of other beings is you. |
| 0:20.8 | So, if you've ever wondered what Buddhism has in common with the movie The Matrix, you |
| 0:32.3 | may get your answer in this week's conversation, where I sit down with one of the leading Tibetan |
| 0:38.6 | Buddhist scholars in the world, Robert Thurman, who has been teaching for decades, written |
| 0:45.3 | tremendous number of books, has been a very close confidante of the Dalai Lama for some 50 |
| 0:51.4 | plus years founder of Tibet House in New York. And we talk about his incredible wide-ranging |
| 0:58.8 | journey from being a kid growing up in the Northeast, going through Harvard and studying |
| 1:04.7 | with a Buddhist Lama in New Jersey and then finally ending up on the other side of the |
| 1:09.2 | world diving deep into Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism and the culture and befriending the Dalai Lama |
| 1:16.2 | at a much earlier point in his life. And we also explore towards the end a wonderful book, The Man |
| 1:23.6 | of Peace, which is out now, which is this tremendous graphic biography of the life of the Dalai Lama. |
| 1:31.2 | We cover so many different topics from justice, to compassion, to love, to the reality of today, |
| 1:38.0 | to goodness, to bravery and really what it means to be in the world today. A lot of reframes, |
| 1:45.9 | a lot of really big, deep questions, excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan |
| 1:51.8 | Fields. This is Good Life Project. |
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