Robert Thurman currently teaches at Columbia University and holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in America. He received Upasika ordination in 1964 and Vajracharya ordination in 1971, both from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is a cofounder of Tibet House in New York City, a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the endangered civilization of Tibet. Robert Thurman is the author of "Essential Tibetan Buddhism" and "Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness" among other original books and translations of sacred Tibetan texts.