Meetings with Remarkable Men: Jerry Brown
The first time I met Governor Jerry Brown was at UC Berkley, our mutual alma mater.
He came to give a talk on a topic I can’t remember.
At the time, he was the youngest governor of California and would later become the oldest governor. His father had also been governor of California.
I went to shake his hand as he got into his car and he gave me an intense stare. He wasn’t friendly, but he wasn’t hostile either. He was quickly sizing me up.
Governor Brown became a controversial figure. He was very liberal socially, but quite conservative fiscally. He was a follower of Fritz Shumacher, the “small is beautiful” economist, and a fan of the systems philosopher Gregory Bateson, whom he appointed as a regent of the University of California. Brown was a futurist and visonary. He liked to level-hop intelectually like a grass-hopper.
Brown later ran for president three times and was soundly defeated. He was too much of a gadfly and visionary.
Fast forward eighteen years.
Through my contacts, I was invited to a seminar on Tibetan Buddhism at Governor Brown’s home in Oakland. The great Tibetan scholar Robert Thurman gave a talk on monastic life. Uma Thurman is the daughter of this intriguing man. Unfortunately, she was not present.
I sensed a deep connection between Governor Brown and Thurman. All three of us had experienced monastic life. Governor Brown had been a Jesuit priest before he became governor and later explored Zen meditation. Thurman was America’s first Tibetan monk and had been ordained by the Dalai Lama.
Thurman felt that America had lost its way. That there were no more spiritual anchors in a race to the materialistic bottom in which the super-rich hid behind the walls of their compounds.
Governor Brown fired up the crowd with a series of provocative questions.
After the talk, I shook Governor Brown’s hand. The intense stare was still there. The energy was electrifying. The monk-politician was still alive and kicking.
“What have you done since you left Berkeley?” he asked.
I was stunned by the question and left his house in a daze. The karmic connection was still there.
I have read quite a few biographies of Governor Brown, but not the latest one. Unfortunately, a book about his witty sayings is no longer in print.
