{"id":381,"date":"2009-05-01T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html"},"modified":"2009-05-01T15:54:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-01T15:54:00","slug":"dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html","title":{"rendered":"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dalailama.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>What happens when one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world visits two of the most revered educational institutions in the world?  Wisdom, that’s what.<\/p>\n

This week, the Dalai Lama visited Harvard University and MIT with the message that being smart is not at all the same as being happy.  I commend to you Michael Paulson and Jim Smith’s fine Boston Globe article<\/a> about the visit. From their article:<\/p>\n

[The Dalai Lama] joked about Harvard’s reputation, saying: “Some of my friends in the East once told me Harvard is so famous,
\neven just to walk in that place is something sacred. That is too much,
\nI think. Foolish people, or silly people, can walk [through] easily.”<\/p>\n

At another point, he observed: “There are very smart scholars,
\nprofessors . . . full of feelings of competition, full of jealousy,
\nfull of anger. . . . I don’t mean disrespect.”<\/p>\n

He said, as he often does, that compassionate feelings appear to be
\na biological component of human beings – he cited the early connection
\nbetween children and their mothers – and said those feelings need to be
\ncultivated, not only by families, but also by schools.<\/p>\n

He noted that Buddhist monks have weathered imprisonment in Chinese
\nprisons with less apparent psychological damage than that experienced
\nby veterans of the Iraq war, and said, “More compassionate persons, in
\nspite of traumatic experiences, their mental state is still calm.” And
\nhe attributed some youth violence to a lack of “compassion, or
\naffection, in family, or society.”<\/p>\n

But he suggested that “Warm-heartedness” is difficult to teach.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For more on the Dalai Lama, explore this gallery of his quotes on peace<\/a>, or this one of artistic renderings<\/a> inspired by the spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

What do you think of his idea about the difference between intelligence and happiness?  How does it resonate with you?<\/b><\/p>\n

(image via: http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Faiths\/Buddhism\/2008\/09\/Walking-with-the-Dalai-Lama.aspx?p=5<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world visits two of the most revered educational institutions in the world?  Wisdom, that’s what. This week, the Dalai Lama visited Harvard University and MIT with the message that being smart is not at all the same as being happy.  I commend to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,29],"tags":[459],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-inspiration","tag-dalai-lama"],"yoast_head":"\nDalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happens when one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world visits two of the most revered educational institutions in the world?  Wisdom, that’s what. This week, the Dalai Lama visited Harvard University and MIT with the message that being smart is not at all the same as being happy.  I commend to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-01T15:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/dalailama-thumb-220x165-4712.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy - Fresh Living","og_description":"What happens when one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world visits two of the most revered educational institutions in the world?  Wisdom, that’s what. This week, the Dalai Lama visited Harvard University and MIT with the message that being smart is not at all the same as being happy.  I commend to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2009-05-01T15:54:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/dalailama-thumb-220x165-4712.jpg"}],"author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html","name":"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/dalailama-thumb-220x165-4712.jpg","datePublished":"2009-05-01T15:54:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-05-01T15:54:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/dalailama-thumb-220x165-4712.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/dalailama-thumb-220x165-4712.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/05\/dalai-lama-smart-does-not-mean-happy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dalai Lama: Smart Does Not Mean Happy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}