Surya Das 

Surya Das (born Jeffrey Miller in 1950) is an American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.^[1] He is a poet, chantmaster, spiritual activist, author of many popular works on Buddhism, meditation teacher and spokesperson for Buddhism in the West.^[1] He has long been involved in charitable relief projects in the Third World and in interfaith dialogue. Surya Das is a Dharma heir of Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche,^[2][3] a Nyingma master of the non-sectarian Rime movement, with whom he founded the Dzogchen Center and Dzogchen retreats in 1991. His name, which means "Servant of the Sun" in a combination of Sanskrit (sūrya) and Hindi (das, from the Sanskrit dāsa), was given to him in 1972 by the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba.^[4]

Surya Das travels, teaches and leads meditation retreats throughout the world. He is often called upon as a Buddhist spokesman by the media and has appeared frequently on TV and radio. One episode of the popular ABC TV sitcom Dharma and Greg, "Leonard's Return," was loosely based on his life and return to America.^[1] In 1977 he helped establish Gyalwa Karmapa's KTD Monastery on a mountaintop overlooking Woodstock, New York.^[17] He has appeared as a special guest on Bill Maher's TV program Politically Incorrect^[18] and on the Comedy Central television show The Colbert Report.^[18][19]

Surya Das is based in Cambridge, MA.^[20]

Dzogchen Foundation

In 1991 Surya Das returned from his two decades at Tibetan monasteries and retreats to establish the Dzogchen Foundation and Centers to help further the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.^[21] According to the foundation, Dzogchen introduces and unveils the "innate spiritual intelligence or intrinsic awakefulness" in practitioners. Surya Das has said, "It is the perfect nature of all things."^[22]

He has brought many Tibetan lamas to teach and reside in the United States and continues to do so. At the request of the late Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, Surya Das founded Dzogchen Osel Ling Retreat Center as a nature sanctuary, group hermitage and lineage seat on the Pedernales River west of Austin, Texas, where he annually conducts an intensive, cloistered 100-day autumn retreat for experienced students as well as other shorter retreats during the year.^[20]