Like climbing Mount Everest, this book requires courage and a willingness to explore new perspectives. But the view from the summit—connecting listeners who seek profound insights—is worth the effort!

About 2500 years ago, Gautama Buddha lived and walked this earth for 45 years after his awakening. Many people took notes through great aural traditions, and in three baskets or huge gatherings, the teaching was codified in a few Sacred Sutras. One of the oldest was a fragmented work containing the secrets of Yogachara. Eventually, it led to Chan and Zen. But not supporting doctrine, inequality or discrimination, the Lankavatara Sutra sat on the shelf, secrets intact, until translated by D.T. Suzuki. My little book contains the Buddha's words transliterated so I could understand them. Removing the esoteric, modernizing the language, and highlighting its effect with prose or poetry, maybe you can, too.

These concepts are different from a message you will have heard before. The Buddha instructs on a non-separate reality, sudden awakening, duality, and the stages of consciousness. It alludes to the physics, psychology, and biology of oneness. Not as a metaphoric or philosophical aspect of reality, it focuses on total interdependence and the natural enlightenment of a quiet, discerning mind.

This book is the short form of my previous book, Effortless Belonging, where all the science, references, and explanations are available. But there's not enough room to give sufficient credit to all the teachers, gurus, and enlightened masters for whom I am and always will be, only a student. To honor them all, I use my ceremonial Tibetan name, given by Kalu Rinpoche in 1986.