About Luke Carlos

I am not an academic. I'm not a monk. I never lived in a monastery, and I never intended to.

I was a personal student of Roshi Philip Kapleau — author of The Three Pillars of Zen and one of the first Western teachers to bring authentic Zen practice to the United States. I made a deliberate choice early in my practice: I would be a layman practitioner. Not a monk. A working person on the path and under his guidance I was able to establish a practice that has served me for over 30 years.

That choice was intentional. I had a life to live — first as a soldier, then later in the many roles a person takes on when they're building a family and earning a living in the real world. I practiced through all of it. The stress, the noise, the impossible days. The cushion and the chaos.

So many of the so-called "leaders and teachers" of Buddhism are selling happy-sounding phrases that impact no one's long-term behavior and trajectory of life — not even a little. It seems to me there is a perspective, a path, a way different than pop culture, yoga pants, and meet-your-next-guru meditation retreats. There is the seed of a way that has made it 2000 years or more that is still highly relevant to our everyday human condition.

I have been following the Buddha's path as a working man in the United States for over 40 years.

What I can offer is not the perspective of someone who retreated from life to find peace. It is the perspective of someone who found it — slowly, imperfectly, and without leaving. That's what this project is.

Most of what gets called "Buddhism" in the West is intellectual. Read this, memorize that, study this scholar's interpretation of what that monk thought about the original teacher. BeingBuddha is a return to the original structure — the one Gautama Buddha actually lived and taught, adapted for people who have jobs, families, bills, and no interest in shaving their heads.

I feel like my perspective has merit. So I offer it to everyone who can find value in it. I appreciate any help supporting this project — which is, in many ways, a lifetime in the making.