Dalai Lama's Latest Book Spawns Free Audiobook Edition Read By Martin Sheen (VIDEO)

The actor Martin Sheen (real name: Ramón Antonio Gerard Estévez) has played a President of the U.S., King Arthur and the father of a super hero. Yet he still felt inadequate when facing his latest role: being the voice of a real-life enlightened spiritual being.

He was selected to read the audio edition of the latest book by Dalai Lama, "Beyond Religion". According to Sheen, "my first inclination was, 'nobody can be that voice.'"

Yet eventually, he accepted the challenge from audible.com of reading the audio version of the book, which is available to download for free until December 20th via Audible's website.

The book is perhaps a surprising call for humanity to move beyond religion in order to improve our lives. "What we need today," the Lama writes, "is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics."

You can read an excerpt from the book here, and watch the short video above to learn just how Sheen reacted to being asked to perform the reading, what word he found the Lama kept using in his writing, and how the book is about much more than questions of religion and ethics.

Comments

[laurenco88]

09:50 PM on 01/07/2012

Lucky guy to get paid to read THIS content out loud. He certainly will have learned a lot. Good karma!

[rjhuntington]

05:21 AM on 12/12/2011

I love them both. Good men. The world is better off for their presence in it.

[Erdgeist]

10:37 AM on 12/11/2011

Martin Sheen has nothing to worry about. The Dalai Lama has never admitted to being a Buddha. The Dalai Lama is all-too-human. He was thrust into his position by karma and the fate of the Tibetan people. He knows the limits of his knowledge about Buddhism (I have seen him struggle over a lecture about something Dharmakirti said). The Buddha's teaching is hyper subtle - the Dalai Lama knows this which makes him very humble, as we all should be, if we have bothered to study the actual words of Gautama (try reading the Dhammapada and its commentary).

[quintus]

11:13 AM on 12/20/2011

(I have seen him struggle over a lecture about something Dharmakirt­i said).

This comment alone is laughable! Yes, he's a man of true humility, but he's also a Lharampa Geshe and is more than capable of understanding as well as conveying the subtlety of Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings. I wonder how you would fare in a debate with him?

[Bones Rhodes]

03:14 PM on 12/10/2011

Interesting photo on the cover page of Martin and Dalai: appears like they have been paintballing and Martin scored a direct hit.

[katenola]

08:12 PM on 12/09/2011

finding God in all things...

[Jared Keith Jones]

11:47 AM on 12/20/2011

Finding God in secular ethics is a non-starter.

[katenola]

08:27 PM on 12/21/2011

maybe...maybe not!

[Bill Duckworth]

06:08 PM on 12/08/2011

Compassion. Not sure I have heard that word since JFK and RFK

[ProCynic]

11:36 AM on 12/10/2011

Really? Perhaps you should google the Dalia Lama. He has been all throught the U.S. and the rest of the world teaching about compassion.

[Sajwert]

09:09 AM on 05/05/2012

I think that Bill Duckworth was speaking about not hearing the word "compassion" used in any political arena, not in the sense you have read his remark.

[Bill Duckworth]

04:47 PM on 12/08/2011

Sheen is rare promoting the Dalai Lama only supports his effort to reflect the best of mankind

I am envious of Acting they seem to be beyond the Employee / Empoyer fray. Judge by their action, ability and effort. The purpose of work itself.

Then there is the Dalai Lama, work enumberated in peace, joy and contentment

[Jared Keith Jones]

04:50 PM on 12/07/2011

Another interesting endeavor by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I hope this book leads to some positive change in the world.

[Rob y]

09:44 PM on 12/06/2011

Martin Sheen seems a bit confused. I saw him in a interview few days ago about his firm The Way. Sheen is not his real last name but got from the late Rev. Fulton Sheen. In interview Sheen was explaining his Catholic beliefs and trip to shrine. Yet in this report he supports a SECULAR ETHICS.
Respecting people is important but Sheen a Catholic seems to be endorsing the Dali Lama a buddist who believes in reincarnation, thats contrary to the Resurrection of Jesus, who is God.

[PiperSniper]

10:56 AM on 12/07/2011

Doesn't mean he can't respect someone else ... and earn a few bucks

[Jared Keith Jones]

04:41 PM on 12/07/2011

Ah, love the smell of fundamentalism in the morniggg.
(sips tea).

[kooldalai]

05:59 PM on 12/06/2011

I have always like Martin Sheen and would love to listen to him read the Dalai Lama's work.

[mose joseph workman]

08:10 PM on 12/06/2011

all in all, i would rather hear martin read the book "When Elvis Meets the Dalai Lama"...

[Noble9]

02:11 PM on 12/06/2011

Would listen to it if they had gotten Ahnold instead. Get to da choppa!

[kooldalai]

05:58 PM on 12/06/2011

lol...

[arabia]

11:41 AM on 12/06/2011

Martin Sheen is also great in the recent film, THE WAY, about a grieving pilgrim walking the Camino de Santiago (Spain).

[lostnacfgop]

09:58 AM on 12/06/2011

Martin Sheen has one of those voices that transforms a character. Inflections, the variances in pitch and tempo, all of the things that make a performer's lines worth listening to, and contemplating thereafter. The appeal of his voice is enhanced by his public persona, a practicing Catholic in the truest, immediately post-Vatican II sense of the word, driven by a hunger for social justice and tending to the needs of those lacking means and hope. Yes, his role as Jed Bartlett gave many of us an alternative country to live in during the reign of Bush/Cheney, even if only for one hour a week. Methinks this audio book just made my Christmas list.

[ZenSufi]

08:54 AM on 12/06/2011

Does Charlie Sheen have Buddha Nature?

[Cantinflas]

10:05 AM on 12/06/2011

Do you mean Charlie or his father, Martin? Martin's response to that would probably be to point out that he is a devout Roman Catholic.

[Wookiee1972]

10:19 AM on 12/06/2011

Which does not preclude Buddha Nature. Martin has always had a very broad view of spirituality; in one speech he quoted Rabindrath Tagore.

[ZenSufi]

10:56 AM on 12/06/2011

Even Catholics have Buddha Nature.

[Cantinflas]

10:06 AM on 12/06/2011

We all do. The real question is whether or not we are in touch with it.

[Cheyla]

08:15 AM on 12/06/2011

Religion does harm us all - all you have to do is look at how religions treat women. If men were treated as second class citizens, then it would all be over.

[GraphicMatt]

10:08 AM on 12/06/2011

And this has what to do with Martin Sheen reading this book?

[Jared Keith Jones]

04:44 PM on 12/07/2011

(sips tea)