Be Nobody

by Lama Marut

Overview

This follow-up to A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life calls for the biggest revolution of all: the overthrow of our obsessive quest to be somebody.

Like boardwalk tourists poking their faces through two-dimensional cutouts of the muscle man and bathing beauty, we are all desperately trying to be somebody, to be “special.” No one wants to be a loser, a small fry, a big zero.

But maybe we’ve got it all wrong.

With an edgy tone and radical perspective, Lama Marut shows that the quest to distinguish ourselves is the true cause of our dissatisfaction, and it continually leaves us feeling isolated and alone. Drawing from the spiritual truism that only by losing the self can we discover our real potential, Be Nobody provides guidance, actions, and simple meditations to help you lay down the heavy burden of trying to be somebody—without requiring you to live in a monastery or retire to a cave in the Himalayas. When we vacate ourselves, we will finally have the freedom to find true fulfillment.

So stop narrating your life and start living it. Be nobody.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582704548
Publisher:	Atria Books/Beyond Words
Publication date:	06/03/2014
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	785,519
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Lama Marut (a.k.a. Brian K. Smith) is extensively trained in the spiritual traditions of India and Tibetan Buddhism. He holds a PhD in comparative religion and taught for over two decades in the academic world, first at Columbia University and later at the University of California, where he retired as professor emeritus in 2004. He has served for the past fifteen years as a spiritual teacher to students around the world, and is currently the spiritual director for eight "Middle Way Centers" located in North America, Australia, and Singapore.

In addition to several scholarly studies and translations based on Sanskrit materials, he is the author of the popular and award-winning book A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life. With his unique mixture of erudition and earthiness, intensity and humor, conviction and openness, Lama Marut’s message is easily accessible and life-changing.

Table of Contents

Preface: Don't Give Me That Old-Time Religion! xv

Introduction: Living in the iEra xxv

Part I Desperately Seeking Somebody

1 Sticking Our Faces into Carnival Cutouts 3

2 What Goes Up Must Come Down 29

Part II Making a Better Somebody Out of Nobody

3 Clutching at Straws and Chasing Shadows 57

4 Nobody Makes a Better Somebody Possible 83

Part III Losing the "Somebody Self"

5 Being Nobody for Others 119

6 Going with the Flow 151

Part IV Everybody Is Nobody

7 Living as an Ordinary Joe 187

Acknowledgments 221

Appendix: Dropping into Your True Nature 223

Endnotes 231

Selected Bibliography 243

Editorial Reviews

05/12/2014
The quest to “be somebody” is an obsessive one fraught with negative emotions that can make life difficult. In his follow-up to A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life, Lama Marut exposes this obsession and suggests a different way of life based on intentional ethics, selflessness, and compassion. He shows how individuals cause suffering for themselves and others by unknowingly prioritizing the quest to be somebody special. Instead, Marut offers an alternative: be nobody. To “be nobody” is not nihilistic; emptiness of identity acknowledges tangled relationships with people, creates space for consideration of others, and enables compassion. Marut focuses heavily on a nonreligious understanding of karma. To be a good person, one must acknowledge past actions, perceive current situations, and begin sowing the seeds for future change. He emphasizes the importance of bringing intention to thought and action. In a conversational tone, Marut offers a nondenominational, effective, and accessible challenge to “being somebody” and a method for engaging with the “nobody” found in the everyday and every one. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"This is an amazingly powerful piece of work from a truly unique and dynamic nobody."

Mary McDonnell

"Lama Marut's Be Nobody fiercely examines our preoccupation with the 'I', revealing how living on the 'Me Plan' can never satisfy the hungry ego. The antidote he offers is truly liberating, not only for oneself but for all sentient beings."

Michael Bernard Beckwith

"This book, sincerely used, can become a catalyst to move the reader toward a happier, more open, and selfless life, toward loving and serving others with sturdy, reality-based compassion."

Rev. Anne Deneen

"In his trademark emphatic and no-nonsense style, Lama Marut provides a much needed critique of modernity that cuts to the root of every problem we currently face on the planet."

Dr. Miles Neale

"Reading this book is easy, and understanding is liberating. I invite you to do both."

Rabbi Rami Shapiro

"Writing with great sensitivity to stress we all feel, Lama Marut helps us see that we strive to be valued by trying endlessly to be more and more special...Laying out a clear spiritual alternative, he dares us to become Nobody: a state of complete authenticity, where we are present to our lives and joyfully connected to all."

Lindsay Crouse

"Here's some help in kicking your ego's butt, so that you can create a genuine spiritual life. Instead of endless self-improvement, you're invited to let go of your self. This really is the only way to be happy. Akin to Woodie Guthrie's acoustic folk guitar, Be Nobody should be inscribed, 'This book destroys egos.' Lama Marut is brilliant, a Chogyam Trungpa for new generations, mixed with a little Louis C.K. style humor."

Lisa Selow

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