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The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life's Essential Mysteries
The best-selling author of Awakening the Buddha Within addresses life’s most provocative and tantalizing questions simply, directly, and powerfully.
Every life is a journey through the unknown. Along the way, however, we tend to encounter the same perplexing questions again and again. Some are cosmic enigmas that have always tested the human mind: What is my purpose in life? What happens after I die? Others are puzzles presented by daily life in modern society: What, if anything, justifies assisted suicide? What is my personal responsibility to the homeless? According to Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost Western Buddhist scholars and teachers, the more we seek to resolve these mysteries, the more fully we live.
Along with his own personal beliefs, the author presents a variety of thoughtful points of view representing different schools of Buddhism, other religions, spirituality in general, and pragmatism. The Big Questions challenges readers in the most stimulating and thoughtful way to formulate individual, authentic responses to life’s big questions.
Every life is a journey through the unknown. Along the way, however, we tend to encounter the same perplexing questions again and again. Some are cosmic enigmas that have always tested the human mind: What is my purpose in life? What happens after I die? Others are puzzles presented by daily life in modern society: What, if anything, justifies assisted suicide? What is my personal responsibility to the homeless? According to Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost Western Buddhist scholars and teachers, the more we seek to resolve these mysteries, the more fully we live.
Along with his own personal beliefs, the author presents a variety of thoughtful points of view representing different schools of Buddhism, other religions, spirituality in general, and pragmatism. The Big Questions challenges readers in the most stimulating and thoughtful way to formulate individual, authentic responses to life’s big questions.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2007
26 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
About the author
Surya Das
59 books288 followersLama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars, one of the main interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, and a leading spokesperson for the emerging American Buddhism. The Dalai Lama affectionately calls him “The Western Lama.”
His most recent book is Make Me One with Everything: Buddhist Meditations to Awaken from the Illusion of Separation. He is well known for his internationally bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World and the sequels in the “Awakening” trilogy, Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch and Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning and Connection into Every Part of Your Life. His other books include:
Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now
The Mind Is Mightier Than the Sword: Enlightening the Mind, Opening the Heart
Natural Radiance: Awakening to Your Great Perfection
Buddha Is as Buddha Does: The Ten Transformative Practices of Enlightened Living
The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life’s Essential Mysteries
Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be
Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning,
Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs, with Nyoshul Khenpo
The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane: Wisdom Tales from Tibet
Lama Surya Das has spent over forty years studying Zen, Vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with the great masters of Asia, including the Dalai Lama’s own teachers. He is an authorized lama and lineage holder in the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism, and a personal disciple of the leading grand lamas of that tradition. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and its branch centers around the United States. Surya has brought many Tibetan lamas to this country to teach and start centers and retreats over the years. As founder of the Western Buddhist Teachers Network with the Dalai Lama, he regularly helps organize its international Buddhist Teachers Conferences. He is also active in interfaith dialogue and charitable projects in the Third World, and has recently turned his efforts towards youth and contemplative education initiatives, what he calls “True higher education and wisdom for life training.”
As a sought after speaker, Lama Surya Das teaches and lectures around the world, conducting meditation retreats and workshops. He is also a published poet, translator, and chant master. His blog, “Ask the Lama,” can be found at www.askthelama.com and his lecture and retreat schedule are listed on his website www.surya.org. Follow him on Facebook--Lama Surya Das--and Twitter--@LamaSuryaDas.
His most recent book is Make Me One with Everything: Buddhist Meditations to Awaken from the Illusion of Separation. He is well known for his internationally bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World and the sequels in the “Awakening” trilogy, Awakening to the Sacred: Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch and Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning and Connection into Every Part of Your Life. His other books include:
Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now
The Mind Is Mightier Than the Sword: Enlightening the Mind, Opening the Heart
Natural Radiance: Awakening to Your Great Perfection
Buddha Is as Buddha Does: The Ten Transformative Practices of Enlightened Living
The Big Questions: How to Find Your Own Answers to Life’s Essential Mysteries
Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be
Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love, Meaning,
Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs, with Nyoshul Khenpo
The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane: Wisdom Tales from Tibet
Lama Surya Das has spent over forty years studying Zen, Vipassana, yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with the great masters of Asia, including the Dalai Lama’s own teachers. He is an authorized lama and lineage holder in the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism, and a personal disciple of the leading grand lamas of that tradition. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and its branch centers around the United States. Surya has brought many Tibetan lamas to this country to teach and start centers and retreats over the years. As founder of the Western Buddhist Teachers Network with the Dalai Lama, he regularly helps organize its international Buddhist Teachers Conferences. He is also active in interfaith dialogue and charitable projects in the Third World, and has recently turned his efforts towards youth and contemplative education initiatives, what he calls “True higher education and wisdom for life training.”
As a sought after speaker, Lama Surya Das teaches and lectures around the world, conducting meditation retreats and workshops. He is also a published poet, translator, and chant master. His blog, “Ask the Lama,” can be found at www.askthelama.com and his lecture and retreat schedule are listed on his website www.surya.org. Follow him on Facebook--Lama Surya Das--and Twitter--@LamaSuryaDas.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 18, 2024
The perfect book of wisdom for a yoga retreat. So many good nuggets to think on. Plus, I was able to pass it along to a friend.
Want to read
February 24, 2008I just could not get into this book. I am putting it back on the to-read shelf for another day.
February 13, 2022
Not as good as I thought it’d be… answers were is lot of what I already knew. I was looking for a different insight.
January 4, 2022
Interesting read. The author provides an abundance of insight on some of the most important questions in life: What is happiness? Does god exist? What is love? What happens after death? Do I need a spiritual teacher? Etc
Insightful and thought provoking read regardless if you agree with the authors conclusions.
Insightful and thought provoking read regardless if you agree with the authors conclusions.
January 30, 2023
He's not my guru, but even so, wise answers to important questions that many people would have. From a Buddhist approach, valid, interesting, great for reflection. I could see this being good for a book club.
August 23, 2008
Really excellent find. It just jumped out at me when I went to Barnes & Noble in San Diego on vacation earlier this year.
The author, an American lama or Buddhist teacher, has a very thorough knowledge of comparative religion, and approaches various metaphysical and moral issues from an open minded, quest perspective. Addresses fundamental human questions by attempting to find a personal balance between asceticism and materialism; the Buddhist middle way. However, he is not necessarily advocating Buddhism per se, which is part of the reason this book is so great.
I dogeared a whole bunch of pages that contained ideas I want to go back to and reread. I probably should give it five stars, but I suppose I'll reserve that for my all time favorite books. This would certainly be up there though. The writing style is very straightforward and easy to read, but I found it informal to the point of colloquialism in a few places.
The author, an American lama or Buddhist teacher, has a very thorough knowledge of comparative religion, and approaches various metaphysical and moral issues from an open minded, quest perspective. Addresses fundamental human questions by attempting to find a personal balance between asceticism and materialism; the Buddhist middle way. However, he is not necessarily advocating Buddhism per se, which is part of the reason this book is so great.
I dogeared a whole bunch of pages that contained ideas I want to go back to and reread. I probably should give it five stars, but I suppose I'll reserve that for my all time favorite books. This would certainly be up there though. The writing style is very straightforward and easy to read, but I found it informal to the point of colloquialism in a few places.
April 15, 2012
A good book for people who are exploring a number of the "big questions". I found some chapters much more intriguing to me, and I would expect that that would be true for others. We are not all drawn to the same questions. I particularly liked his discussions of "the sacred art of questioning", the meaning of life, karma and managing it in your life, and what happens after death. He also has an excellent chapter on integrating spirituality into daily life.
January 7, 2011
With the strong curiosity of learning about Buddhism lately - this book seemed interesting and something I could relate to. I absolutely loved a couple of the chapters and found them to be really useful, but others were really quite the opposite. I might just buy the book for the specific chapters that I read.
Currently reading
July 17, 2008I just started this book but I like where it's going so far.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews