{"id":71,"date":"2010-08-03T08:47:23","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T08:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/bob-thurman-on-happiness-and-becoming-buddha-on-tedcom.html"},"modified":"2010-08-03T08:47:23","modified_gmt":"2010-08-03T08:47:23","slug":"bob-thurman-on-happiness-and-becoming-buddha-on-tedcom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/bob-thurman-on-happiness-and-becoming-buddha-on-tedcom.html","title":{"rendered":"Bob Thurman on happiness and becoming Buddha — on TED.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I heard of Bob Thurman it was 1984. I was in the small audience of the Amherst College Chapel for the first Inner Science Meeting. The Inner Science Meeting was the predecessor to the Mind and Life Meetings<\/a> that have taken place since 1987 where His Holiness the Dalai Lama confers with Western scientists, philosophers, and practitioners. At the first Inner Science Meeting, the Dalai Lama lectured on Buddhist Psychology and his talks were interspersed by commentary from Western thinkers that included Robert Thurman, Richard Davidson, Frances Vaughan, Roger
\nWalsh, David Bohm, Daniel Brown, Jack Engler, Seymour Boorstein, Kenneth
\nPelletier, Charles Tart, Bonnie Strickland, Renee Weber, Joshop Loizzo, Seymour
\nEpstein, and G. Perry. In 1984, His Holiness did not have the command of English that he has now and even now translating the intricacies and subtleties of Tibetan Buddhist Psychology of Mind are challenging. His regular interpreter had taken ill and Bob Thurman stepped into this gap. At this time, he was relatively new to Tibetan Buddhism and not yet ordained as a monk. There were many moments in the translation process where Thurman could not quite get what the Dalai Lama was getting at. His Holiness’s reaction? Anger? Frustration? Not at all. It was laughter, pure laughter. In a way this encapsulates Buddhism. While there is a rich and complex intellectual tradition and highly conceptual aspects (the Abhidharma, the Mind Only School, etc.) when it comes right down to the heart, concepts give way to laughter. Everyone was laughing and this laughter was a transmission of dharma. As a wide-eyed junior at Tufts University, this was an important transmission for me and my formal introduction to Buddhism. The fondness that burgeoned in me those two days planted to seeds that would later take root and flower in my finding the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya India and culminate in my taking the bodhisattva<\/i> vows, but that is a story for another day. In the meantime, enjoy this brief talk by Robert Thurman. He picks up on the theme of interconnectedness that I discussed in the entry, “Her belly may be fully, but her spirit will be empty”<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I heard of Bob Thurman it was 1984. I was in the small audience of the Amherst College Chapel for the first Inner Science Meeting. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}