Author Interview with Bruce Berlin, Author of 'FROM CAMDEN TO KATHMANDU' #authorinterview
Bruce Berlin has been a Buddhist meditator for over fifty years, beginning in the spring of 1973 when he spent a month training with Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe at Kopan Monastery outside Kathmandu. He began his legal career at the Legal Aid Society in Trenton, New Jersey, later practicing poverty law at Western Massachusetts Legal Services. A former US Institute of Peace Fellow, he cofounded and directed New Mexicans for a Bilateral Nuclear Freeze and created The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He later founded New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics and spent eight years as a senior attorney with the New Mexico Public Education Department. He is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America and resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Connect with him on social media at:
➢Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bruce.berlin.5
➢Substack: https://openroadopenheart.substack.com/
I have always enjoyed writing. I've kept a journal since 1972, when I left my budding law career behind and traveled overland from Europe to Afghanistan, India, and Nepal in my twenties — a journey that changed the course of my life. For fifty years, those journals and memories stayed with me. After I retired from practicing law in 2012, I wrote my first book, Breaking Big Money's Grip on America, which grew out of my years as a political activist. But there was a more compelling, personal story I still needed to tell: how my unrest and dissatisfaction as a young attorney from Camden, New Jersey, propelled me halfway around the world to a Tibetan monastery outside Kathmandu where I learned and practiced Buddhist meditation. And how letting go of the narrow legal path I was on led me to a much broader highway where I discovered what I needed to know to get where I wanted to be. That story became my memoir, From Camden to Kathmandu.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you during the course of your career?
While I was writing my first book, Breaking Big Money's Grip on America, I began dating a woman who also happened to be writing a book of poetry. I sent her drafts of chapters from my manuscript to get her feedback. This went on for several months as we got to know each other better and became closer. We soon became lovers and have now been living together for over ten years.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey writing your book?What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey writing your book?
The biggest challenge was maintaining a writing routine. I started out writing three or four hours, three days a week. But other responsibilities and events got in the way. So, some weeks I didn’t write at all. When my mother died, I didn’t write for four months. I still find it difficult to keep to a writing schedule, given my political activities, service work, family responsibilities, travel and more.
What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?
The main empowering lesson I want my readers to grasp is the more they let go and open themselves up to the energy of the universe and allow that energy to guide them, the richer and more fulfilling their lives will be. I didn't know where we were going when I threw in with four vagabonds I had just met in the basement of a third-rate Athens hotel and bought a vintage VW bus, but trusting the universe led me to the amazing journey that followed.
What is one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer?
I’ve kept a journal for over fifty years. Recording my thoughts, observations and feelings on a regular basis has given me a wealth of material to work with. Even though what I write about may have occurred many years ago, the events in my journal were recorded when they actually happened, making them feel fresh and alive.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
The Oneness Movement would focus on people connecting to the oneness of the universe. That is, people in the movement would be instilled with the concept that we are all part of one universal energy or system. Such a movement would encourage people to understand that we are all interconnected and our similarities are much greater than our differences. Therefore, coming together and working together would be most beneficial for the greater good and the future of the planet. I first glimpsed this oneness at a monastery outside Kathmandu in 1973.
Where to purchase the book?
In India, something shifted. Visits to the sacred Buddhist sites of Bodh Gaya and Sarnath planted a seed. Then, in Kathmandu, a chance encounter with former law school classmates led Berlin to a month-long Tibetan Buddhist retreat at Kopan Monastery — an experience he would later describe as perhaps the most important month of his life. Guided by Lama Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Berlin began a practice that would sustain him for the next fifty years.
From Camden to Kathmandu is a memoir about following the open road before you know where it’s going — and discovering that the destination finds you. Written with the documentary authenticity of real letters sent home, it is the story of a restless young man’s transformation into a meditator, activist, and lifelong seeker.
From Camden to Kathmandu is available at Amazon.
╰┈➤ Book Details:
➺ Title: From Camden to Kathmandu: You Don’t Have to Know Where You’re Going to Get Where You Want to Be
➺ Author: Bruce Berlin
➺ Genre: Memoir
➺ Sub-genre: Motivational Self-Help
➺ Language:English
➺ Pages: 190
➺ Publisher: Our Time Books
➺ Publication Date: October 2, 2025
➺ Formats: Paperback, Kindle
➺ Paperback ISBN: 978-0996623223
➺ Price: Paperback $18.00, Kindle $2.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited
