With Wall Street in an apparent free-fall and a foreign war being fought in Iraq that has drained American taxpayers of over $1 trillion dollars so far, talk show hosts like David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres, Bonnie Hunt, Regis Philburn, Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Craig Ferguson, Oprah, Julie Chen and Matt Lauer are looking for guests who can bring some meaning and comfort to a country that has suddenly become a bit more frightened about its future.

Which means that spiritual experts such as Lama Surya Das -- a past guest on shows such as The Colbert Report, Politically Incorrect and a profile in CNN News, among others -- are suddenly in great demand not just for upcoming Thanksgiving shows but for advice on eliminating stress in your life and for being thankful for what you have.

A renowned spiritual guide, meditation master, and author of the best-selling classic “Awakening the Buddha Within,” Surya is one of those heeding the media call. His newest book, “Words of Wisdom,” just released this summer, is a witty and inspired collection of original sayings expressing a depth of understanding and highly nuanced humor.

The rich tapestry of insightful gems and belly laughs in “Words of Wisdom” will leave you scratching your head, searching your soul, and asking for more. (Koa $9.95)

Surya has been called “the Western Lama” by The Dalai Lama of Tibet. He is one of the nation’s foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars and a leading spokesperson for the emerging American Buddhism – and he’s a major sports fan and former three-sport high school jock from Long Island to boot.

The Boston Herald profile reproduced below outlines numerous topics that Surya is happy to speak on. Surya can be reached at surya@surya.org by newspaper, radio and television interviewers.

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Boston Herald (MA)

Section: Arts & Lifestyle

A thoroughly modern monk - Jeep-driving, cell phone-packing Concord holy man urges us to enlighten up - and lighten up

Christopher Cox

Lama Surya Das isn't meditating under a tree, or even chanting in an incense-filled room. Instead, the Brooklyn-born holy man appears at the door of his Concord house wearing a cordless telephone headset.

The most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is on the horn with his California-based retreat manager. Try as Surya Das might, the secular world keeps tugging at the hem of his blood-red robes. Interviews. The DHL guy. E-mail.

Maybe that's why amid the dozens of religious images that decorate his parlor stands a karmic joke - a squeeze toy of the Buddha clutching a wireless phone and a mug of coffee.

"Man cannot live by spirit alone, let me tell you," says the 48-year-old lama. "I tried."

So now he opts for the middle path. Surya Das owns a practical Jeep Cherokee; his rustic farmhouse is a rental. He teaches at his Dzogchen Foundation and conducts "cyber dharma outreach" - an "Ask the Lama" column on his Web site (www.surya.org). He is also in the world of publishing and promotion - his latest book, "Awakening to the Sacred" (Broadway Books, $26), appeared last month - but not of it. That's what PR guys are for.

A genial man who resembles a neurosis-free version of Albert Brooks, Surya Das has settled in the crucible of the 19th century transcendentalist movement, all the better to tout his snappy message: Enlighten up, and lighten up.

"My old girlfriend used to call me Serious Das," relates the lama. "I'm a lot lighter now."

To that end, the heaviosity of "Awakening to the Sacred," his game plan for creating a customized spiritual life, is leavened by conversational prose and nuggets of wisdom from unusual suspects. Who figured on Frank Sinatra as an avatar?

"Frank Sinatra is just part of our Zeitgeist," he replies. "I'm always looking for some kind of material, otherwise it's just 'Buddha said this, Buddha said that.' Really boring."

The same intellectual restlessness drove him from a comfortable middle-class existence to a mud-floored hut in the Himalayas. Surya Das grew up on Long Island, a nice Jewish boy named Jeffrey Miller who lettered in three sports at Valley Stream Central High and bar mitzvahed at Temple Gates of Zion.

In college, he connected with existential philosophers; questioning was the way, not dogma or ritual. A seminal moment came when a close friend, Allison Krause, was shot to death by Ohio National Guardsmen during a 1970 anti-war protest at Kent State University. Also killed that day was another young man from Long Island named Jeffrey Miller. That'll prompt you to contemplate the transient nature of life.

After graduation, Miller wandered through Europe and the Middle East, finally landing in India.

"In 1971, I went there and I really never came back," he relates. "I found what I was looking for.

"Buddhism is not so much a religion as an ethical, psychological philosophy of awakening. There's no dogma, no theology, no God, no fixed rules. It's much more a way of life."

He studied for a decade in Indian monasteries, where a monk gave him his Sanskrit name (Surya Das means "servant of the sun"). His lama training culminated in a cloistered, three-year, three-month and three-day meditation retreat in Darjeeling, a feat he would repeat at a French lamasery.

Surya Das returned to the States in the early '90s to advocate an eclectic, American-style Buddhism. He also maintains regular guy interests: a girlfriend, a dog, a softball league.

"My message is that anybody can do this," he says. "I don't want to set myself apart."

In his latest book, he offers practical tips - sample chapters include "The Yoga of Bowing," "How To Pray" and "Chanting Practice" - for kindred, do-it-yourself seekers.

"We have a melting-pot karma, so I think we need a melting-pot dharma," says Surya Das, who estimates there are "some dozens" of Western-born lamas in the States.

While flexibility is a hallmark of Buddhism, the lama acknowledges the dangers of cafeteria-style spiritual dilettantism. However, he says, "the upside is we can find out what works for us and have a tailor-made spiritual life . . . not just a one-size-fits-all curriculum that we inherit."

And to a culture weaned on immediate gratification, the lama preaches the possibility of achieving nirvana in a matter of years, not lifetimes, and in Boston, not through a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya.

"It's always been taught by Tibetan Buddhism that you can achieve (enlightenment) in this lifetime," he explains. "It's not something I made up. I'm just emphasizing it, because Westerners today, we don't have time and we don't believe in other lives. You know, it has to relate to us now."

As for his own nirvana score card . . .

"I'm working on it. It's an infinite journey. But I'm not working that hard; I'm enjoying it also. You have to enjoy every step of the way - not just look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. There's gold every step of the way. Heaven is right here."

Boston Herald (MA)

Section: Arts & Lifestyle

Now playing at Loew's Lhasa Multiplex ..

Christopher Cox

A friend of actors - and practicing Buddhists - Richard Gere and Steven Seagal, Lama Surya Das has enjoyed Hollywood's recent infatuation with things mystical and Tibetan. His reviews:

"Seven Years in Tibet": "Nobody would say it was one of the great movies of all time, but it was amusing."

"Little Buddha": "Not one of (Bernardo) Bertolucci's greatest, but it was a cool movie. Kids are the stars. It's fun."

"Kundun": "I just bought the 'Kundun' video. I thought it was a really good movie with great music. The whole thing is a meditation on compassion. It's about the Dalai Lama's development as a young boy."

As for the film's box office failure?

"No sex," Surya Das theorizes. "No violence. No movie theaters."