Shep Gordon: The Supermensch Interview
Like, one of our responsibilities at Tibet Fund is the refugees who come from Tibet into Nepal, probably 60 to 70 percent of them lose their limbs–get frostbite—still, to this day. And they come to the Nepali Center when they come over. They don’t have shoes, and they walk over these mountains that are frozen.
Doctors without Borders puts on new limbs for them, but the U.S. government pays for the actual apparatuses. The U.S. government supplies us with Fulbright Scholarships for Tibetan kids. They pay for them fully. And when they audited our books, they forced us to spend more money on overhead. They said we’re spending too little money on overhead. It can’t be real. And under their guidelines you have to spend X amount on overhead to get their money.
OMTIMES: Here’s the next question: If your religious background is a belief in one God, even though, as you said, you were more culturally Jewish than religiously Jewish; but now you tend to–you seemed to have embraced Buddhism as well–how do you reconcile [the two]?
Shep Gordon: Well, you know, Buddhism is a way of life. It’s not a religion. They don’t think this way. His holiness doesn’t consider it a religion. So, you can be a Jewish Buddhist, a Catholic Buddhist, and a Protestant Buddhist. You be whatever you want to be; whatever makes you happy. Buddhism is a practical way of living to get to be happy. And it’s wonderful for them if you believe in–you know, if you believe in a Jewish God, or you believe in a Muslim God, or you believe–that’s even better. It’s really a way of life, very, very, very practical way of life.
