Sometimes i think that the new tenets of buddhism as interpreted in the west have more to do with fashion than with compassion. More to do with being part of the "in crowd". I have made a few observations and decided that all you really need to be buddhist is a few prayer flags hanging from your mast or eaves trough (preferably a bit tattered like an old pair of jeans) and that the compassion part you pull it out and put it on at gatherings with other pseudo-buddhist posers. Perhaps you like Zen as a visual aesthetic. Perhaps you enjoy the ritual aspect of it also, the lighting of incense, you delight in your golden buddha statue, placed with perfect feng shui in one corner of the room, a brass bowl of rose petal water and a little electric fountain perhaps, the buddhist equivalent of a neon jesus, your own personal shrine to enlightenment and high ideals.
I'm not one who subscribes to any pre-set system of beliefs, rather I take what works for me and seems reasonable from each of many systems of belief and modify as needed to work within the context of my own life, environment, and culture. A Fusionist in that sense. Maybe a bit buddhish (note the lower case b) as many of the tenets and teachings of Buddism appeal to me.
I remember hearing the dalai lama at one of his earlier speeches in Central Park. Maybe it was 1998 but i'm not sure. To paraphrase one important thing he said, "Some people are big, others small, some black, some white, some brown, some yellow, some pink (here i'm embellishing a bit i'm sure just because i remember the message more than the exact words), some people are rich, some are poor, some strong, others not so strong, some smart, others less so (here he gave a little laugh of humility, apparently conceding himself to be perhaps not the most intelligent person in the room) but everyone is deserving of compassion". So the central tenet of Buddhism is compassion, that's one message that we hear again and again from all buddhists. An important part of the message however is this; that simply because one person is more intelligent than the next, it does not necessarily make them a better or more valuable person, and if a person is less intellectually inclined, it does not make them any less of a person, or less deserving of compassion. One does not choose ones IQ or intellectual capacity any more than one chooses where on earth one is born, or the colour of ones skin, nor do we choose the prevailing cultural belief system of the society we are born into, and therefore our level of access to education is also not of our choosing most of the time.
Hearing the Dalai Lama say this was an important lesson for me at the time because I had been raised in a very liberal family, taught not to be racist or sexist and I had the arrogant belief at that time that i was without prejudice. It was listening to the Dalai Lama that made me realize that my prejudice was of the intellectualist variety. This is a form of elitism. He really helped me see that and in so few words. A very important lesson i think and one that I very much want to pass along. When we were younger, and had seen and experienced a bit less, we thought that it was important to be "cool", to be "hip" to be astute, in other words, when it came to interactions with others, a kind of social intelligence that takes a lot of people far, to be perceived as a leader, a thinker, a humorist, or someone who knew just what music was right on time or ahead of it's time perhaps. As i got older i started to realize that the most un-cool thing there is really is thinking that you're so cool and realized that being warm, having empathy for the other, and viewing others not as lesser if they were apparently less intelligent or did not come off as being well educated was more important than being perceived as cool.
Living in the downtown core of a big city for quite a while (far too long) as i did, I have known many "geniuses" and of many different sorts, some mathematical/scientific, left brain geniuses, many highly creative right brain geniuses and a few with good hemispherical integration that had both varieties working together, literary, musical, all kinds of geniuses; they are not as uncommon as one might think. The thing is that i've known a few who were arrogant, obnoxious, sometimes verbally abusive, mean, elitist, and were not really too pleasant to be around due to their massive egos. Often, intelligence is used as a weapon, to hurt others, to make them feel lesser, to put them down, make them feel dumb. So just because a person is a genius or has a high IQ, it does not make them better than the other; it can make them worse sometimes if you consider than it's much nicer to hang out or converse with someone who may not be a genius but is honest, warm, quick to smile and laugh, loving, nurturing, humble, sincere..those qualities are far more valuable than intelligence, which really in the human race is not all that uncommon.
Also remember that we are here to share with one another and to care for one another, the strong in one area must help the others who are not as strong in that area and try to do so without ego, though that may be hardest thing for many, myself included. Although i admire humility when i see it in others i don't claim to have mastered it to any great extent but i'm trying.
So if you are an intelligent buddhist out there remember compassion; treat those who you may have considered your lessors as equals as they may well be your superiors or at the very least your equal in ways that are more rare and valuable than intelligence.
