Be Nobody

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.

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.