Sakyong Hosted at Google by “Jolly Good Fellow” Chade-Meng Tan
reported by Joshua Silberstein, Chief of Staff for Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
photo by Breton Hoagland
On Thursday, May 9th, the Sakyong was invited to have lunch and tour the Google facility in Mountain View, CA. Our host, Chade-Meng Tan was one of Google’s earliest engineers.
Among many other things, Chade-Meng Tan helped build Google’s first mobile search service, and headed the team that kept a vigilant eye on Google’s search quality. After a successful 8-year stint in Engineering and 2 years as Google EDU’s Head of Personal Growth, he now serves with Google’s Talent Team. His current job description is to, “Enlighten minds, open hearts, create world peace,” and his job title is “Jolly Good Fellow.” He is also the creator and teacher of a meditation training for Google employees entitled, “Search Inside Yourself.”
During lunch, the Sakyong and Meng talked about the intricacies of Buddhist ideas and action, and their mutual inspiration to benefit the world. Meng shared that he felt the main aspiration of Google employees was to change the world for the better. This led to a discussion on how we bring that aspiration into action not only on the meditation cushion but throughout corporations and influencing the world to accept peace as a skillful means for the health of humanity.
Joining the Sakyong and Meng on this tour were Acharyas Adam Lobel and Alan Schwartz, Northern California Regional Director Joanne Martin Braun and Chief of Staff Joshua Silberstein.