“You cannot have outer revolution without inner revolution,” explains Kyoto-based Buddhist teacher Doug Duncan. As someone who has taught internationally for the last 30 years, he finds that this dynamic between inner and outer transformation is something people often fail to examine closely.

“We are skilled at manipulating our material world, devising technologies and policies,” he says while conducting a month-long meditation retreat at Clear Sky Meditation & Study Center in the mountains near Cranbrook, B.C. “All good things. But look at the government systems we collectively choose for ourselves: they reflect the mind state.

“And so we have capitalism as the preferred formation as it reflects our inner state: greed, hatred, delusion. We can’t handle enlightened theocracies like old Tibet, nor can we manage anarchy, arguably the highest form [of government] because everyone has to be utterly and totally responsible. We need the average person to realize awareness.”

A Canadian born in Regina, Duncan began his journey to acariya (Pali for “accomplished teacher”) at the age of 24 as a student of Namgyal Rinpoche, Canada’s first incarnate lama as recognized by the 16th Karmapa of Tibet’s Kagyu lineage. Duncan’s teaching bridges worlds, integrating the three major branches of Buddhism— Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajryana—as well as the teachings of western contemplative traditions, psychology, art, and modern science.

Known to many of his students simply as “Sensei Doug,” he describes his approach to teaching as asking questions, not prescribing outcomes. While his ethic is transformation, not politics or public relations, he observes a major imbalance between our inner and outer worlds. “The biggest problem with us these days is that we are materialists; our science is concerned largely with objects, not consciousness,” he says. “Yet objects exist only in relationship, subject to change.

“Ultimately, the rebellion is not against external authority, which may need to happen occasionally. It is rebellion against being subject to our inner states.” In other words, if you want to change things, look closer. Cultivate awareness and interest, observe new patterns, practice generosity. Look closer again. “The spiritual path is in essence not an escape from life but an immersion into life,” Duncan explains. “The fruition of life is to explore, discover, and share. The spiritual search, built on a foundation of bliss, is to investigate.”

Gordon Laird, the Alberta investigative journalist and a former This Magazine one-man-band — at one time in the early ’90s he was simultaneously the magazine’s advertising sales rep, circulator, business manager, and a member of the editorial collective — has written a new book, and it’s a doozy. He’s in the midst of launching The Price of a Bargain: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization, and in the next few days you have the opportunity to meet him at launches in Ottawa, Toronto, Burlington, and Calgary.

On Friday, October 23, he’s talking at the Ottawa International Writers’ Festival at noon [pdf], at Saint Bridgid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities, 314 St. Patrick Street. $15/$10

On Sunday, October 25, he’s holding an impromptu launch in Toronto at 2 p.m. at the Concord Café, 937 Bloor St. West (with top-secret one-day-only 50% off the hardcover price!). Free.

On Monday, October 26, he’ll read at the Burlington Public Library Time TBA, looks like. Call the Burlington Public Library at 905-639-3611 for further details. $10.

Finally, the following Sunday, November 1, he’ll be speaking as part of the first Pages at the Plaza event at 11 a.m., at The Plaza Theatre, 1133 Kensington Rd. $5 admission, or $15 including lunch!

I haven’t finished reading the book yet (about halfway through) but what I’ve read I can fully recommend. It’s a sometimes dizzying but very readable plunge into the kaleidoscopic krazy kwilt of the modern consumer economy, highlighting the strange forces that link super-discount retailers in Las Vegas, rig-jumpers in Alberta’s Athabasca tar sands region, Shenzhen wage-slaves, and undocumented Mexican fruit-pickers. And for progressives who have always railed against the forces of Globalization, he shows that the process of “Deglobalization” is likely to be just as painful. I’ll be at the Toronto launch on Sunday, hope to see you there.