Boulder's a fantastic place to live if you're a Tibetan Buddhist. I'm not, but as a Zen Buddhist practictioner I can find enough things that interest me to overrule the yuppies, expensive real estate, and trustafundians. One of these things are the many, many stores along Pearl street selling everything from wooden Buddhas to Zafu cushions. Another is the ample amount of green tea (Celestial Seasonings is just down the road). And another is Naropa University.

Naropa is a private university specializing in Buddhist studies (which is the religion that they're originally based off of). It was founded in 1974 by Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, who was a Tibetan who escaped the Chinese Regime to join his government-in-exile in India. They present a lot of opportunities even for people who aren't students of their University, such as weekend workshops or their Friday Night Lecture Series, taught by a series of interesting visiting teachers. It's cheap and a great opportunity to hear interesting people on a diverse number of topics.

	Long Island to Boulder, via Dharamsala

The lecture I saw on Friday the 24th was by Lama Surya Das, one of the Western Buddhists most trained by the old teachers of Asia. He's studied many different kinds of Buddhism including Zen, but his concentration as I understand it has been in Tibetan Buddhism. He's also the author of something like five million books, yoga videos, etcetera etcetera etcetera. So he's pretty well known, to say the least, and quite accomplished, also.

But beside that, he seems to be a generally charismatic and nice guy. His speech certainly reflected that. He dresses in Western clothes...of course, he does have the rosary around his wrist that Tibetan Buddhists seem to be never without. He said that he wore the western clothes to make a point: Buddhism isn't just for those who practice in Lhasa...well, Dharamsala now, but point made. It's an accessible religion. Originally Jewish, ("I'm Jewish on my parents' side"), Surya Das comes off as a normal type of guy. I've seen time and time again, not only from teachers I've only heard speak but also from the Sensei of my own temple, the respect Buddhists have for other religions. Surya Das said, "No one's got a corner on the Truth market." And his Long Island accent (that's where Surya Das is from originally) isn't very esoteric, either. Which leads me into a discussion he introduced on "spiritual materialism."

	Would you like to see my Mandala collection?

Spiritual materialism is the ego manifesting itself through the pursuit of enlightenment. As I understand it, someone (perhaps Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche? Anyone know?) wrote a book on the subject. An example of spiritual enlightenment is buying a million Buddha statues to display throughout your house, or perhaps telling everyone how many teachers you've studied under, or how many koans you've passed, in order to inflate your importance in their eyes.

Here in the West, we've got sort of a leg up in the area of dogma...it's easier to get away from it since we've not really had the time for traditions to set in, like they have in some Asian countries. As Surya Das said, "This is sort of the Spiritual Wild West. Every Bodhisattva for himself."

	Twenty Questions

The question and answer period given during Lama Surya Das' speech was great, informative and hilarious at times. One young man was very nervous about asking a question, and apologized for not being able to put his point clearly. "That's okay, we're communicating," Surya Das reassured him. The boy was confused in his practice. "That's when you sing the "You're in the Dharma Now" song 100,000 times," the priest said. "You're in the Dharma Now, you're not behind a plow..."

Another woman said there seems to be no point to it all, to working toward enlightenment. "I'm not saying there is," he said. "There's nowhere to go, nothing to do, see you at the bar. Bring a syringe."