So this is a weird one. PTTOW, an innovative invite-only marketing conference a la TED TALKS invited the Dalai Lama to speak in 2011 and thought it would be “cool” to have Will.I.Am get up and ask a question. Eventually it didn’t work out and I couldn’t be happier. The idea of a clown like him having any audience with His Holiness blows me away. The fact that he was invited to speak at a marketing conference when buddhism preaches detachment from personal possessions is even stranger, but I do believe that marketing, at it’s core, is driven by a want to improve our lives, which does resonate with the four precepts. Quiksilver sonsored pro surfer Kelly Slater’s question and it’s subsequent answer is genuinely cute, although struggles to find relevancy with the wise one.
