Top 5 Buddhists on Twitter (That You Don’t Follow)


Before somebody cries foul, let me be clear: you won’t find the Buddhist big-twitters on this list. Everybody knows the Dalai Lama is worth following (or at least, as of this moment, 560,521 tweeps think so). Instead, this list is meant to highlight five Buddhists on Twitter that you might not already know about. The people on this list are individuals who tweet primarily about Buddhism and have under 1,500 followers (sorry/congrats @MindDeep, you just missed the cutoff). Also, it should be noted that we consulted William Harryman’s list “Top 10 Buddhist Twitter peeps you should Follow” and purposely left those people off this list, because, well, you can just go look at that list. And, finally, the focus here is on those whose tweets stand alone—that is, they aren’t heavy on links, they just bring you some form of insight 140 characters at a time.

Top 5 Buddhists on Twitter (That You Don’t Follow)

Dzigar Kongtrul (@dzigarkongtrul)
bio: Tibetan Buddhist teacher, photographer and abstract expressionist painter.
style: Direct and clear words of wisdom.
sample tweet: Don’t be hidebound by a sense of duty to your shenpa. Dont be so “yes sir,yes ma’am” to your ego!

Chade-Meng Tan (@chademeng)
bio: Former Google engineer, now current Head of Google University’s School of Personal Growth. Practicing Buddhist.
style: Funny, honest, insightful.
sample tweet: Mingyur: Do you have thoughts? Meng: I think so.

Gary Gach (@nobodhi)
bio: Author, poet, and translator with a lifelong interest in Buddhism.
style: Quirky, quote-y, illuminating.
sample tweet: noticing in #meditation that, being just that much larger, his right lung takes just that much longer to exhale … in hale … AH!

Allan Lokos (@rev1al)
bio: Author and founder/guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center in NYC.
style: Pithy and practical advice for those on the path to peace.
sample tweet: Listen carefully to the master’s words, but also watch how he peels his orange & puts on his sandals.

Lama Willa Miller (@lamawilla)
bio: Tibetan Buddhist teacher and writer.
style: Joyful, thoughtful, encouraging.
sample tweet: Every thought, while not always productive by content, is always productive by nature.

Obviously, this is not even close to comprehensive, and you are encouraged to add others who we have missed and deserve attention in the comments section of this post. With the cyber sangha (#twangha) growing everyday these kinds of lists should be revisited and refreshed endlessly.

NOTES: If you don’t already, you should follow @tricyclemag for all sorts of Buddhist news and teachings. Also, I recently started @tricyclesam in an effort to engage more personally with readers of this blog and because it felt wrong to tweet things like “Hope nobody could read my mind during office meditation today” from the organization’s account.