How do we learn to move beyond the commodification of education, of wisdom teachers like the Dalai Lama, of compassion itself? Does the Dalai Lama as mega-brand, as rock star, as spiritual presence, reinforce such commercial constructions or invite their dismantling?
There are other senses in which the Muslim world, by and large, has not ‘excelled,’ and for that perhaps we should be grateful, not caustic. For you cannot claim the planet and eat it too. Nothing the Muslim world has accomplished can possibly compare to the harm done by Western technologies and modes of consumption.
Despite the fact that, like Buddhism, Islam prohibits murder, the two are treated quite differently when it comes to its adherents committing acts of violence.
Daniel Goleman is best known as the author of Emotional Intelligence, the title of which has now become part of our everyday vocabulary. Since that book, Goleman has applied the basic idea—that we…
The neurophilosopher, whose latest book argues that the brain is all we are, discusses yoga, her awkward talk with the Dalai Lama, the soul and what makes her want to tell someone to just “bugger off!”
