Lama Surya Das, longtime meditation teacher, chides self-centered use of mindfulness

Lama Surya Das is one of the handful of Westerners who have been teaching meditation for decades. And yet, he says we’re doing it wrong.

“So many people seem to be moving narcissistically—conditioned by our culture, doubtless—into self-centered happiness seeking,” he said. True meditation, he said, generates wisdom and compassion, which may be very disquieting, at least in the short term.

Born Jeffrey Miller, he was given the name “Surya Das” by the Indian guru Neem Karoli Baba more than 40 years ago. But Surya Das shifted gears in the early 1970s to Tibetan Buddhism, subsequently completing two three-year silent meditation retreats and becoming one of the first Westerners to be authorized as a Tibetan lama.