Update: via the Shambhala Sun, who I’ve belatedly realized broke this photo and story two weeks ago…here’s the much-asked-for back story.

Via my Dharma Brat childhood buddy Edward McKeever:

Buddhism is simple. It’s not about dogma, or gods, or faith, particularly. It’s about meditation, and compassion, and dignity, and kindness. But, perhaps, most of all, it’s about the practice of meditation, where we practice joining our minds and hearts with reality, with this present moment.

But Buddhism isn’t about meditation. Meditation is called a “practice” for a reason—it’s a practice for real life. Real life is where we can put into practice what we’ve studied: compassion, patience, listening, joyful exertion, discriminating wisdom or prajna.

And so the coming together of perhaps the world’s greatest American Buddhist teacher and a President of the United States of America is…a sweet picture, indeed. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed.

For more on Pema, click here. For a recent one on Obama, here.

1970-2012 Shambhala Buddhism is planted in the USA. 2012 Pema meets President Obama. Trungpa would have been so proud. A huge heart felt thanks to Pamela Krasney for engineering such a miracle