Great Videos – Saint of 9/11 and Buddha as Businessman

Thanks to Chaplain Danny for these two wonderful online movies. The first is a documentary about Fr. Mychal Judge, the “Saint of 9/11.” It’s a beautiful, heart-warming story of a man who truly lived the life of service to humanity to which we all should aspire.

The second is a recent lecture by Dr. Gregory Schopen, an amazing scholar of Buddhism who hasn’t been afraid of stirring up some controversy in his views. Read here for some of the back and forth in the blogosphere.

I look forward to hearing others’ thoughts on this lecture on “The Buddha as a Businessman.” One thing that I would stress is that this need not tarnish our image of the Buddha as an awakened teacher of benevolence and moral self-transformation. Watch this video and then the “Saint of 9/11” film and you’ll chuckle as I did, no doubt, over the part where Fr. Judge is described in his purchasing of coats for the homeless of New York. He is truly a saint, and truly a very shrewd businessman.

Buddhism is, foremost (in my reading) a teaching of individual spiritual transformation and liberation. Yet this MUST always take into account community, business relationships, education, political stability, and all of the rest of the world that allows for and supports the transformation that each of us must undergo. That early Buddhists had money, borrowed money (sometimes failed to pay it back) and so on, should, as Schopen suggests, help burst any idealistic bubbles we have tried to place Buddhism in. In this matter he is much in the same league as Donald Lopez’s “Prisoners of Shangri-La.”

But, hopefully, having our idealistic bubbles burst from time to time does not mean that we will fall into hopeless cynicism, indolence or negativity. Rather, it should spur us on to find the Truth and the path that leads us from greed, hatred, and delusion toward generosity, loving-kindness, and clarity.