The Penguin Speakers Bureau

Biography

Speaking Topics

• Free Nirvana!
  What Is Buddhism? OR Might You Already Be a Bit Buddhist, and Just Not Realize It Yet?
  

  Buddhism is at the forefront of what’s been the Divine Open Secret of the past two decades: Millions of Westerners are making the sacred real for themselves. Did you know? One in eight Americans recently polled by Wuthnow & Cadge responded that teachings of the Buddha play a positive influence in their lives. The manifestations of this quiet revolution can be found in all walks of life: our diet, workplace, relationships, culture, science, and politics. You don’t have to “be Buddhist” nor convert to anything to enjoy mindfulness or emotional intelligence, or to appreciate the awareness of impermanence, interconnectedness, and how we create karma. This is the art of happiness. This talk sums up Buddhism in seven words, or less.

• Our Appointment with Life
  Showing Up – and Being Present When We Show Up
  

  Every day we miss various opportunities to express our highest nature. How can we more skillfully align ourselves with Presence, by being in the present moment? What is “mindfulness”? (What is it mindful of?) How is mindfulness related to “emotional intelligence”? Less stress is best, but meditation is more than medication. Tips on how to avoid the traps of “quietism” and “self-inflation.” [This talk includes a demonstration of mindfulness meditation.]

• Interfaith & Intrafaith
  A Crucial Course of Study
  

  The most popular poet in America for a decade recently was a Sufi mystic named Rumi. Today, “interfaith” means far more than intermarriage across sectarian lines, and it is proving crucial to our world today. What are the commonalities amongst the world’s great wisdom traditions (even atheism)? Where do they diverge?

  How has our legacy of Western philosophy come to a cul-de-sac, and how is spirituality thus inevitable? How does fundamentalism fit in? Since its inception, Buddhism provides the basis for a universal religion, enabling interfaith and multifaith. How are the different paths within Buddhism related? Seeing the One Dharma within Vipassana, Zen, Pure Land, and Tibetan Buddhism enables us to better see unity within all rituals and views.

  (Q: What did the Buddhist say to the hotdog vendor? [A: Make me one with everything.])

• Pain Is Inevitable, Suffering is Extra
  Good Motto for Uncertain Times
  

  There’s always increased interest in spirituality and religion in hard times. From a Buddhist perspective, it’s not that there’s any more suffering today than ever before, but that many are more aware of, and wish to alleviate, needless suffering. And from a Buddhist perspective, the tremendous uncertainties and challenges we face today all are interrelated.

  Have you noticed “Ecology” and “economy” both begin with “Eeeeeek!!”? The Buddha’s particular teachings about economics and the environment are apt for the state of our world, our daily lives, and how we can respond creatively. There is a Middle Path between the greatest goods and the greatest good. We can do more with less, and achieve true fulfillment. And even if you’re worried about seeing your property become a beachfront as polar bears hitch rides on melting ice floes, talk about the environment can be circular until we recognize that we are our environment.

  This is a gentle call for a re-evaluation of values. Crisis + danger = opportunity. We ourselves are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

• What Is Engaged Buddhism?
  Happiness Is Not an Individual Matter
  

  We dispel the image of the Buddhist as the isolated, remote monastic contemplating his or her navel. Engaged Buddhism enables us to see social and political constructs as no different than the fictive “self,” except on a larger scale. The inner tangle and the outer tangle are intertangled. Working in the world, we work on our selves, and vice-versa. “Selfish altruism” is thus a potent key to successful motivation.

  Around the planet, millions of people practice Buddhism through public service or social/political activism — be it by volunteering at a hospice, working for the environment, lobbying for social justice, or demonstrating against the death penalty and nuclear arms.

  There’s more here than just a built-in antidote for burn-out. Here’s a global “liberation theology,” if you will, capable of dissolving polarization and bringing together all concerned in common cause. In its unattachment to outcome, the path is the goal. And in this perspective, we can end violence by drinking a cup of tea.

• Buddha & The New Science
  Paradigms for Peace OR What’s Visible When the Telescope and the Microscope are One, and We Look Deeply Therein?
  

  Neither quite a religion nor a philosophy, Buddhism may most rightly be called a science. How has Buddhism been informing the latest findings in physics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive science, and what are the practical results that can transform our daily life?

  We can train our mind to change our brain. The contemplative arts are an “evolutionary sport,” in which mindfulness is the opposable thumb of consciousness. Might such a step forward really be our birthright, all along? What is Fuzzy Logic, Chaos Theory, and Complexity Theory, and the theory of “emergent behavior”? How does Western psychology antedate Buddhist psychology, and how do the two inform each other? How does long-distance healing prayer actually work?

• Food for Thought
  Buddhism in Our Daily Diet
  

  Slow food, organic, and localvore are part of a vocabulary that is transforming not just how we eat but, moreover, how we live. Some revolutions don’t come about by cannonballs but rather on little doves’ feet. Twenty-five years ago, The Tassajara Bread Book marked a turning point in how Americans regard their food. From the simple tea ceremony to maintaining an active kitchen, this talk explores ingredients and recipes for spiritual and physical nourishment: literally, how to cook your life.

• Dharma Art
  Your Mind Is Like a Movie Screen
  

  A litmus test for the acceptance of Buddhism in everyday life is its manifestation in our culture. Our awakening survey reveals the Buddhist presence in contemporary fine and popular arts: literature, music, photography, martial arts, culinary arts, and at the movies.

• Right Livelihood
  Buddha at the Workplace
  

  Do you live to work, or work to live? Buddhism makes no separation between the two: play, work, and life are all the same activity. Find out how to get more done with less, how to deal with difficult people, and how to fulfill yourself beyond a 401(k).

• Our Inter-Relationships
  The Buddhist View on Life Stages from Cradle to Grave
  

  Love, and other difficulties, are landmarks of any life. Find out the Buddhist view of romance, love, marriage, parenting, and dying. Are you in right relationship? You just might find something special here to clarify or give solidity to your own life.

• How to Haiku
  Celebrate the Seasons of Your Life
  

  Whether we call it God, Spirit, Mind, Soul, or Nature, we can we always tap into boundless wellsprings of universal creativity that are always immediately available. Find out why millions of Japanese from all walks of life enjoy haiku as part of their daily lives, and why millions of schoolkids around the planet now are, too.

  Celebrate any season with this special workshop for learning how to notice, experience, write, and share haiku. Not only one of the most well-known literary forms of the 21st century, and the world’s briefest, haiku are also pure Zen. The way of haiku encourages and supports a genuine life, intimate with the heart of creation, training us in clear seeing and deep listening, intuitive wisdom and a warm, open heart. We’ll map the basics, take a relaxed haiku walk (ginko), and share what we encounter, both written and unwritten. With haiku, we can learn how to make each word and moment count, sense our senses, train our attention and awareness, and harmonize perception and expression as one. Recommended for all ages (9-90), with no prior background; writers and nonwriters. [Three hours.]

• Mindfulness Meditation
  The Energy of Being Awake and Aware of the Present Moment
  

  Gary Gach is available to teach five-minute, 20-minute, or 50-minute mindfulness meditation, as well as 50-minute Five-Element Meditation. He teaches in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, and leads a mindfulness meditation group at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, in San Francisco (America’s first interracial, interfaith congregation). Mindfulness meditation can be offered as an optional prelude to a trade show, day-long panel, or symposium, as well as an excellent, refreshing activity in and of itself.

• The Art of Happiness
  The Buddhist View of Positive Psychology
  

  Have you heard? The Happiness Movement is the latest craze. (Talk about an idea whose time has come!) Ten years ago, Dr. Martin Seligman founded what’s now known as positive psychology. Instead of dwelling on neuroses, psychoses, and psychopathologies, it focuses on the positive emotions, strengths, and virtues that make individuals and institutions thrive. Today, it’s become the cornerstone of a broader, multidisciplinary movement exploring our human potential for great happiness. How can we get out of our own way, and fulfill our natural inclination to be happy? Can we be as happy at work as at play (and why do we make a separation between the two)? Within our difficult emotions like fear, anger, and obsession, might there really be positive bedrock, waiting to see daylight?

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Media

• Video of Gary Gach's Free Nirvana talk—FORA.tv's Book Passage
• "Riches of a different market"—Tricycle
• "Lost (and found) in translation"—Paste Magazine