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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The Sputnik Observatory for the Study of Contemporary Culture operates on the philosophy is that ideas are NOT selfish, ideas are NOT viruses. Ideas survive because they fit in with the rest of life. Ideas are energy, and should interconnect and re-connect continuously because by linking ideas together we learn, and new ideas emerge.

Check out short videos of Bob talking about identity habit, embeddedness, inner heart resonance, transmitting intelligence, and spiritual genes, and explore how they are interconnected with other themes and ideas.

Can television or visual media capture the essence of compassion and mercy that are so central to the tenets of Buddhism?

Does the Dalai Lama manage his presence in the media or is he simply a “simple Buddhist monk and reincarnation of a bodhisattva?

See Robert A. F. Thurman, Professor, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, and President, Tibet House US, answer these questions in a discussion on Religion, Media and Culture: The Dalai Lama held May 5, 2009 at the Paley Center on Media with Laurie Goodstein, National Religion Correspondent, The New York Times and Steven Waldman, President and Editor-in-Chief, Beliefnet, moderated by Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey, Director of Human Rights Division, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. This program is presented in conjunction with the The Temple of Understanding, a New York–based organization dedicated to promoting cross cultural and inter-religious tolerance and understanding.

Here’s video of Robert Thurman talking with Waylon Lewis of Elephant Journal at the historic Boulder Theater on July 23, 2008.