I just got back from seeing the Dalai Lama, fellow Georgian, Alice Walker of The Color Purple fame, and Richard Gere, internationally renowned film actor, social activist, and philanthropist.

The conversation held at Emory University called, “The Creative Journey” asked the question: “How do the arts help us to express, or perhaps to uncover, our spiritual yearnings, questions, or certainties?”

A little over two hours there wasn’t a dull or boring moment during the conversation. Richard Gere often served as a catalyst that helped to make the conversation profoundly informative, down to earth, and lively. Alice Walker held the center who at times I saw as a Buddhist nun who had much wisdom to share. As usual, if you have never seen the Dalai Lama in person, he is a great comedian in addition to being sagacious—oh, and compassionate!

But what I want to comment on since Emory University will have the whole conversation on the Internet, is Richard Gere in contrast to Stephen Batchelor. (I know this sounds weird, but please bear with me.)

Like his mentor the Dalai Lama, Gere is not without humor and compassion. He is also quite intellectual. But Gere is also very respectful of Buddhism.

During the conversation at Emory, it suddenly dawned on me that Richard Gere ain’t no Stephen Batchelor. The two are worlds apart in my opinion. I have read two of Batchelor’s books, Buddhism Without Beliefs and Confession of a Buddhist Atheist. To be frank, Batchelor is trying to undermine Buddhism—Gere is not. Gere never became a Buddhist monk like Batchelor. Gere still practices Buddhism as a layman. Batchelor disrobed twice, once as a Tibetan monk the other as a Zen monk. Apparently, Batchelor found Buddhism to be inadequate. He wrote books insinuating that Buddhism needs to be modernized in such a way that it isn’t based on karma, rebirth and Mind (Batchelor scouts Mind in Confession of a Buddhist Atheist on pages 67–68). Gere never wrote any books critical of the leading principles of Buddhism.

If I had to pick between the two who might best protect Buddhism it would be Richard Gere not Stephen Batchelor. Also, I firmly believe Alice Walker would protect Buddhism, too, who being a good Georgian holds all religions in high esteem.

What irritates me about Stephen Batchelor is that he entered Buddhism with his so-called Western prejudices and left Buddhism with them still intact; who now feels it is his duty to save Buddhism by ridding it of old Hindu superstitions so that it will, supposedly, be like the original Buddhism of Gautama which is quite modern teaching, essentially, that when you’re dead, you’re dead.