Word: buddhas
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...sense, it seems fitting that Harvard was the site of enlightenment, serving as Bodhi Tree for this modern-day Buddha. Harvard is probably one of the most left-brained places in the world. Nirvana and self-cessation do not blend well with the hypercompetitive, ego-driven culture that is cultivated at this bastion of the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism. Before her stroke, Taylor was very much a part of the Harvard ethos, a neuroscientist who, according to her colleagues, displayed none of the mysticism that would characterize her future. But the tiniest of biological accidents changed...
Harvard students, more than anyone else, could probably use the reminder that our minds and our selves are not quite as essential as we might like to imagine. Whether Taylor is a Buddha or just a debilitated stroke victim, during this week of honoring personal achievement, perhaps we should all consider, at least for a moment, the extent to which the forces that push us ever-onward with seemingly infinite force are no more immutable than so many neurons, waiting for a blood vessel to burst...
...This all has deep and wide implications for a world that seems as religiously polarized now as it has ever been. Always stressing that the Buddha's own words should be thrown out if they are shown by scientific inquiry to be flawed, the Dalai Lama is the rare religious figure who tells people not to get needlessly confused or distracted by religion ("Even without a religion, we can become a good human being"). No believer in absolute truth-he eagerly seeks out Catholics, neuroscientists, even regular travelers to Tibet who can instruct him-he is also the rare Tibetan...
...This makes for a novel way of practicing the art of politics-one inspired, you could say, by the prince called the Buddha more than by the one described by Machiavelli. The central principle of Buddhism is the idea of interdependence-the notion that all sentient beings are linked together in a network that was classically known as Indra's Net. Thus, calling Chinese individuals your enemy and Tibetans your friend, the Dalai Lama might suggest, is as crazy as calling your right eye your ally and your left your adversary; you usually need both to function well...
...deeper issue, as the Dalai Lama always stresses, is that names and forms are unimportant so long as something more fundamental is sustained. The Buddha's job-and therefore that of his most prominent contemporary student-was not just to be clear-sighted and compassionate but also to show how compassionate and clear-sighted any one of us can be. In that regard, it hardly matters whether the terms Dalai Lama or Buddhism or even Tibet continue to exist. As it is, thanks to the exodus of Tibetans in the past half-century, Tibetan culture and Buddhism have become part...