Brian Kelley Smith (check out his film Incite Happiness!) has one of the most fascinating life stories of anyone I have encountered.  Brian went from layman, to ordained Buddhist Monk (Lama Marut), and now is simply one of the wisest human beings one might encounter.  Though an expert on many ancient teachings, his words are grounded in the modern moment and accessible to us as we move through this maze of living.  He rarely grants interviews, so this is a real treasure and treat.

Inspiration and Lineage

I believe that the question of spiritual lineage has become exceedingly complicated in the postmodern world. Things are no longer like they once were in closed societies like traditional Tibet and India where people were much more parochial, provincial, and unaware of the whole range of religious and cultural alternatives. Our world is a much bigger and diverse place.

In any case, it seems questionable that there ever were such things as “pure and unbroken lineages” in such traditional societies. Any such claim seems to have functioned as a convenient fiction and polemical stratagem designed to assert authority, and was rarely if ever a factual account of the historical and genealogical record.

We live in a global community of instantaneous communication; we reside in nation-states that are increasingly multicultural and religiously diverse. My own religious sensibility has been shaped by a variety of influences, and I suspect that is the case for most of us living in such cosmopolitan settings. It seems far more honest to just admit this and lay aside the conceit of any sort of “unbroken” or “pure” lineage.

I was brought up a Christian and to this day have an abiding interest in that tradition. My parents, who provided a Christian context to our home life; the minister who baptized me; Sunday school teachers who educated me about the tradition; great preachers (like William Sloane Coffin) whom I had the privilege of hearing many times; and current spiritual friends and advisors like the Reverends Brian Baker in Sacramento and Anne Deneen in Cape Ann, Massachusetts – surely all of these religiously foundational and influential figures have to be included in my own lineage.

For over thirty years of my life I was employed in the academic study of comparative religion with an emphasis on Hinduism. My understanding of religion was shaped by my advisor and other professors from graduate school (Mircea Eliade, Wendy Doniger, Jonathan Z. Smith, and others) as well as by my colleagues once I entered the professoriate. My personal religious sensibilities have been profoundly enhanced by my deep study of Sanskrit (and “Hindu”) classics like the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutra, the Ashtavakra Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra – texts I have also had the opportunity to teach to students around the world over the past decade or so. In addition, I have had a very rewarding personal connection to the Satyananda Yoga community in Australia and especially to my friend and spiritual sister Swami Atmamuktananda, who runs the Rocklyn, Victoria, center where I’ve led several retreats.

In 1998, I began an intensive study of Buddhism under the guidance of Geshe Michael Roach and eventually completed a 36 course curriculum in the open and esoteric texts of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Christie McNally taught the esoteric portion of this curriculum side-by-side with Geshe Michael, and I am very grateful to both of them for what I regard as a very thorough training in this form of Buddhism. I also have had many teachings and initiations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other high lamas of the Gelugpa tradition: Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Kyabje Lati Rinpoche,