Conclusion
There’s this joke. Maybe you’ve heard it? The Dalai Lama is in New York
City, getting ready to give a big talk in Central Park. He’s off walking by
himself when he finds that he’s feeling powerfully hungry. So he saunters
up
to
a
hot
dog
vendor,
who
asks,
“What
can
I
get
ya,
pal?”
Without
missing
a
beat,
but
with
a
twinkle
in
his
eye,
the
Dalai
Lama
says,
“Make
me
one
with
everything.”
On YouTube, you can watch an Australian television show host
try to tell a version of this joke to the current (14
th
) Dalai Lama.
disaster. The Dalai Lama has no idea what the guy is talking about. Like a
scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm, it’s joyously painful to watch. The Dalai
Lama never does manage to understand the joke—even when the reporter
tries
to
explain
it
to
him
two
years
later
at
their
televised
reunion.
Why doesn’t the Dalai Lama get the joke? One reason is obvious:
humor often doesn’t translate well. But that’s not the problem here. The
problem is that this just isn’t a Buddhist joke at all. It’s a joke whose humor
requires that we misunderstand Buddhism to appreciate it. If we
think Buddhists strive to become “one with everything,” then we’ll think
the joke is kind of funny. (Maybe.) But of course, that’s not the goal of
Buddhism. It’s not even a Buddhist doctrine. To me, it sounds more like
an Advaita Vedāntin or maybe even a Neo-Platonic joke. Replace the Dalai
Lama
with
Śānkara
or
Plotinus
and
the
joke
sort
of
works.
It does make some sense, however, that the television host would
think Buddhists strive to become one with everything. After all, the early
10
It’s a