Explore the burning questions that have intrigued humanity since the dawn of time. Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Do I need a teacher or guide? Karen Armstrong & Bob Thurman share their insights on Global Spirit, the first “internal travel” series.

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According to esteemed Tibetan scholar and Woodstock resident, Robert Thurman, “Our town should be in the lead in turning America away from a self-defeating war economy to a green sustainable economy, and so the conversion of the Woodstock plant of Rotron from war component making to purely peace-product manufacturing is of vital concern to all Woodstock taxpaying citizens, including myself.” 

From Woodstock Peace Economy introducing the Woodstock Forum: Building a Peaceful, Just and Sustainable Economy, August 15-19, 2009.

Related: Two Opportunities to Learn Peacemaking

Josh Glenn, noted Boston Globe Columnist and editor of the Hermenaut, writes in HiloBrow “ROBERT THURMAN, who was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1964 by Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama (an avatar of Lowbrow, in the most praiseworthy sense of that term), is one of the world’s most respected scholars and translators of Tibetan and Sanskrit for a Western audience — i.e., he is a Highbrow. Even more confusing: during the Nineties Thurman was best known as a mentor of middlebrow “celebrity Buddhists,” and as the father of a middlebrow celebrity. So what to make of him? I interviewed Thurman for the magazine Utne Reader in 1996.” [Read more]

Tibet House US was honored to host H.H. the Dalai Lama for a one-day dharma teaching at the Beacon Theatre and then for an impromptu luncheon in May, 2009. Below is an excerpt of His Holiness’ brief address at the luncheon.

H.H. the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman in New York, May 2009

. . . I always am telling our supporters, and also those people who have a genuine interest about Tibetan culture; since you are supporting or you are showing interest, or you are showing solidarity with a certain culture, which I mentioned, [a] culture of compassion, culture of nonviolence-so since you yourself are showing a keen interest about that, so in your own home, in your own daily life, pay a little more attention about the concept of nonviolence. When you have some disagreement with your wife, or with your husband, think nonviolence. And little, little problems here and there, or with your neighbor, think more of compassion and respect others as just another human being. So build the Tibetan cultural heritage in which you have keen interest, and that cultural heritage, build in your own area, in your own family. That, I think, I feel, is the way to contribute, make a contribution to a better society, happier family.   — H.H. the Dalai Lama