What does President George Washington have in common with the Buddha, Sakyamuni?
Author and teacher, Robert Sachs, brings together the lessons and teachings of these two great men; one an exemplary political figure, the other, the founder of one of the world’s great wisdom traditions. The result is a guidebook to study, carry with you, and apply to cultivate healthy, intelligent, and communication and action inspired by and rooted in civility.
Meet Robert Sachs
Robert Sachs has dedicated his life and works to creating and facilitating a world that is socially, environmentally and politically sustainable, inclusive, and kind.
With a educational background and training that is as conventional as it is ‘alternative,’ Robert holds a Masters in Social Work, is a Licensed Massage Therapist, a Certified LifeLine Practitioner, and a trained mediator. He is also a student of some of today’s great Tibetan Buddhist Masters and Indian and Tibetan healers for the last forty years. He continues to work as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a certified LifeLine Practitioner, author, and educator in holistic healing, meditation, programs that focus on dying, death, and bereavement for hospices, and civility and dynamic conflict resolution with and within families, organizations, and the world at large. Robert is sought after as a lecturer at holistic health care conferences, for leadership and civic conferences, been featured on local and national radio and television shows, and has an extensive social media platform. He has written and continues to write articles for national and international health magazines. His published books focus on a wide range of health, spiritual growth, and social consciousness issues. His book, Tibetan Ayurveda: Health Secrets from The Roof of The World is considered by Dr. Deepak Chopra and other physicians of both eastern and western traditions as one of the clearest and most usable texts on the daily health practices of Tibetan Ayurveda available.
Born in America’s heartland, just outside Cleveland, Ohio in 1952 as the son of a Jewish veterinarian in the rural regions of that state, Robert’s family experienced the full brunt of the challenges of civil rights era when his father’s veterinary hospital was firebombed twice and both he and his sisters were subject to anti-semitic slurs and attacks. This prompted Robert’s father to move the family to a Jewish enclave closer to Cleveland. There, Robert saw how people of his own birth faith also had their own form of bigotries towards non-Jews. By the age of 11, Robert understood that the problem was not inherent in any race, creed, or culture, but was a problem of how we as humans develop prejudices against those who we define as others. Later, he would see these early experiences through the lens of his study in Buddhism and its Three Poisons of Ignorance, Attachment, and Aggression.
Having had several strong experiences of what he could only define as divine presence in both synagogues and churches alike, Robert decided early on that much of his life would be involved with some form of spiritual calling.
This calling became clearer while at university in the English Lake District. Having heard about Tibetan Buddhist meditation centre in Eskdalemuir, Scotland, he decided to visit it on winter break. Sitting in on his first Tibetan Buddhist chanted meditation, he describes how he felt as if he was immersed in a cool shower of blessing and light. And, it is along that path that Robert has continued since 1972. This does not mean that Robert has ever forsaken his heritage. From a long ancestral lineage of rabbis, a good friend of Robert once described him as fulfilling his rabbinic calling – just to the tune of a different drummer. Thus his spiritual practice and development has included his original Jewish roots, Tibetan Buddhism, and Scottish Rite Freemasonry.
With his wife, Melanie, Robert is co-director of Diamond Way Ayurveda, an educational company and healing center that offers and teaches the body-mind therapies of the Indian and Tibetan Ayurvedic traditions for spas and individual therapists worldwide. They have published together, Ayurvedic Spa, which is encyclopedic in scope and teachers therapists and individuals how to practice Ayurvedic bodywork methods for self and clients. Robert’s eleven published works include Nine Star Ki: Feng Shui Astrology for Deepening Self-Knowledge and Enhancing Relationships, Health, and Prosperity,Tibetan Ayurveda: Health Secrets from the Roof of The World, Rebirth Into Pure Land: a True Story of Birth, Death, and Transformation & How We Can Prepare for the Most Amazing Journey of Our Lives, The Passionate Buddha: Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love, Perfect Endings: A Conscious Approach to Dying and Death, Becoming Buddha: Awakening the Wisdom and Compassion to Change Your World, Wisdom of the Buddhist Master: Common and Uncommon Sense, Start Your Day with A Good Night’s Sleep, Psychic Whackos Save America, and his most recent, The Path of Civility: Perfecting the Lessons of a President by Applying the Wisdom of Buddha. Many of these titles are already and available in foreign languages.