RE: If You Meet the Buddha, Kill the Buddha

Hiya,

I was curious to read this post based on this quote I like from Buddhism. I still like it but I struggled to get very far in your post when I ran into the stuff about Huberman. I noticed my immediate desire to protect and defend his character.

I've spent a lot of time listening to and reading human behaviour. I've learned who can be trusted and who can't. After spending a lot of time learning very valuable and useful things from Andrew, and watching how humble he is when interviewing other masters in their respective fields, it has become obvious that I not only deeply respect him but also trust him so much I would be willing to hand him our grand daughter to play with. (And I can't say that about many men I met, on or offline).

To your point about pedestals, I think they are dangerous. I also think that when too many people look up to someone (as millions do with Huberman) that the world's nature balance comes along and tries somehow to tear them off that pedestal.

I think that's why this nymag.com tried to create a story in the first place - to tear him off the pedestal he'd been put on (and perhaps get some of the huge amount of attention he's been getting for years by teaching so much helpful stuff - albeit, in heavy, detailed language that is sometimes hard to keep up with).

I can't see how, if you didn't like his business model, that this would have set you up to expect something bad from him (as you said). I think it's good to review our potential biases.

I don't want to belabour the point on this. He's not my buddy or my brother, and I don't need you to like him. But I didn't feel like I could scroll past the post of a clever, thoughtful man like yourself without seeing if I could offer another perspective. If for no other reason, than Huberman's educational offerings really do give much to the world and have been incredibly helpful for Brad's and I in supporting a healthier lifestyle.

I, like you, want to know who is doing good things and who can be trusted. Who do we let into our lives, our minds and, directly or indirectly, influence our families?

Huberman is someone who, upon reflection, and listening to him speak in a long interview since about that period of his life last year, is someone I 100% trust.

Is he perfect? No. Does he belong on a pedestal? No. But is he human and being of great service to a great many people? Yes.

(A Google search revealed a great many articles and videos capitalising on the smear campaign of Huberman, his past life and his work, from people who no doubt wanted to steal some of the clicks. But a bit of a dig brought up this - another perspective - in case you're open to considering that, perhaps, Andrew doesn't deserve to be in a pit anymore than you or I:

JoeRogan/comments/1bog1t1/saagar_comes_to_hubermans_defense/#lightbox) reddit metadata:fEpvZVJvZ2FufGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnJlZGRpdC5jb20vci9Kb2VSb2dhbi9jb21tZW50cy8xYm9nMXQxL3NhYWdhcl9jb21lc190b19odWJlcm1hbnNfZGVmZW5zZS8jbGlnaHRib3gpfA== ~~~

Thanks for the long comment 😃 I really appreciate your perspective. Let me try to offer a few additional thoughts.

I'm sure there is another side. Dating multiple women at once and lying to each of them about it might be somewhat questionable behavior, but it's also a pretty common thing for both men and women to do. All the pieces definitely take the women's side over his. That said, I do agree with many of the pieces that his science is questionable at times and the products he choose to advertise are also questionable—some of them have been shown to downright lie about their content—which isn't necessarily his problem, but it is disappointing that he chooses to align himself with them, presumably because they pay him a lot of money to overlook their flaws.

All of these things don't take away from the good that he has done. In addition to the knowledge and curiosity he's bright people, his popularity has led to a huge host of YouTubers who copy his format, many of whom are pretty good. His actions above just show that he is a flawed human like the rest of us. In another comment Azircon pointed out that the Buddha also had his moments of dubious behavior, abandoning his wife and child when he went off on his spiritual quest. Far from denying or trying to explain away those questionable actions, we usually accept them as showing the Buddha was far from perfect and in that sense, we embrace them as a part of the Buddha story.