"Wisdom is Bliss" - by Uma Thurman's dad

Dr. Robert Thurman (Amazon); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Daughter Uma Thurman greets the 14th Dalai Lama, the family's spiritual advisor for decades.

A buddha is a "supremely enlightened teacher," different from just a realizer or disciple.

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"Robert Thurman [bobthurman.com] is a living treasure, one of today's most provocative spiritual thinkers."

- Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

Uma's dad, Professor Robert A.F. Thurman, is a preeminent scholar.

He is an interpreter of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy at Columbia University for the modern world, who leads readers on a joyful exploration into the nature of reality through the Buddha's threefold curriculum of "super-education."

The "Buddha had to be an educator, rather than a prophet or religion founder, since he had achieved his goal of exact and complete understanding of reality by using reason, experiments to open his own mind, and vision to do so," Prof. Thurman writes.

"From his own experience, he could help [others] as a teacher by streamlining the process. He could not just transplant his realization into their minds.

Tibetan Buddhism is steeped in tantric Hinduism

"They could not get their own realizations just by believing whatever he said. He could only provide them with a prospect of full realization along a path of learning and experiencing they could follow -- they would have to travel on their own."

This book is an invitation to travel that same path. Deeply felt and bracingly direct, it doesn't teach about the Teaching. It is the Teaching.

Get ready to get real and to have fun along the way, as we chart a path to reliable, lasting happiness, reading Wisdom is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life. More

• An evening with Robert Thurman 2017 — The Path
• American Buddhism with Robert Thurman (SCPR)
• Why celebrities like Uma Thurman turn to Buddhism
• "Uma Thurman got off lightly. Her brothers are called Ganden, Dechen, and Mipam" (The Independent)
• American Buddhist Scholar Robert Thurman receives India’s Padma Shri Award

Who knew that Uma Thurman's father was the first Westerner ever to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk? He popularized the tradition (Vajrayana Buddhism) in the U.S. long before Richard Gere leapt aboard the saffron bandwagon.