016 Gelong Thubten: Meditating with the UN
Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author of A Monk’s Guide to Happiness. Thubten is not your normal monk. Super-sharp, super-smart, super-capable, he went to Oxford University and then to New York to become an actor. He was living the dream, and yet he describes it as hell. “It was really hard, because I was so unhappy. And so everything I was doing was just to escape the unhappiness - and it wasn't working.” Facing burnout and breakdown, he retreated to his parent’s house, before deciding to join a Buddhist monastery, which he thought would help soothe his troubled soul. But it did more than that. It turned out to be his life’s purpose. Now, after 26 years of being a monk, his perspective is different, but the way he communicates with the world remains deeply real. As you’ll hear, he’s very grounded, spreading his message of meditation and the truth about happiness anywhere that he can serve. He has worked in prisons, businesses, hospitals and schools, and is now working with the UN trying to get global business leaders to include meditation in their meetings, in the hope of driving real change. Change which is internal and long-lasting. And that internal change relates to us too. Thubten’s message is that happiness is within reach for all of us - and you can take steps to find it now. You already have everything you need. It’s very empowering and a message I really needed to hear. So I hope you enjoy it too!