Lama Marut / Brian Kelley Smith · 1953–2019
Brian Kelley Smith · 1953–2019
Lama Marut (Brian Kelley Smith) was a spiritual teacher, author and scholar. For many years he taught internationally, to dedicated students and the general public alike, on the practice of compassion and wisdom.
He was born in Seattle in 1953 and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a family of Baptist ministers. He earned a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago, specialising in Hindu and Sanskrit texts. He then taught for more than two decades at Barnard College, Columbia University, and at the University of California, Riverside, where he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2004.
In 1998 he began an intensive study of Tibetan Buddhism in the Gelugpa tradition. He studied with Geshe Michael Roach and Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, and took further teachings and empowerments from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and other masters. He took monastic vows under the ordination name Sumati Marut, and his students came to call him Lama Marut.
He wrote the award-winning books A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life and Be Nobody. He led teachings and retreats around the world, trained a new generation of teachers, and founded centres in North America, Australia and Singapore. Throughout his life he drew on many traditions, including Buddhism, yoga and his own Christian roots. He later made his home in rural Australia, where he married Cindy Lee. They taught together for more than a decade.
Teaching with humour, conviction and openness, and drawing on his life as a husband, father, seeker, former monk and “ordinary Joe”, his intention was always to offer practical tools for transformation.
Brian passed away peacefully at his beloved country home in East Gippsland, Australia, on October 19, 2019, at the age of 66.
Historical resources are also available on Lama Marut’s official website, with thanks to Blair and Jenna O’Neil.
“If there is authenticity to my practice and teachings, it derives not from any one source but rather, because it resonates with the truth. If the teaching, practice or belief leads one to be kinder, more compassionate, wiser and happier, it is authentic…. Let us concentrate on the things that unite us rather than obsessing about identifications and designations that prop up our egos and divide us from each other. The purpose of a spiritual life is not to become better THAN others, but to learn how to be better FOR others.”
— Lama Marut
A practical and achievable (if not radical and revolutionary) blueprint for creating and sustaining happiness in an age of consumerism, self-absorption, and stress.
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"You don't have to believe in anything, no super natural nothings. A spiritual life is about living happily in the present, and the only person preventing you from doing that is you." ~ Lama Marut
Watch the filmInner Way LA, the community Lama Marut founded in Los Angeles, still gathers online.
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