Emotional Intelligence in the Organization

Robert K. Cooper on the need for authentic presence

© 2003 by Michael Finley

Robert Cooper tells the story of a trip to Tibet. Tibet is an ancient land that, according to Cooper, was the center of a 12th-century empire larger than Rome under the Caesars.

The Lamaist religion of Tibet is one of extreme cordiality. The ancient greeting people make to one another is to bow, cross arms across their chest and say "tashi deley."

Tashi deley means, in English, "I honor the greatness that is within you." Though it is spiritual in character, the expression was used by everyone in Tibet, from the lamas to the merchant class.

Anyway, a mountain guide who looked like he was in his 70s but who may have been only in his 50s showed him a spot in a mountain pass where a huge hole was filled in with rocks. "My family is buried there," the guide said. "I made a terrible mistake."

When the Communist Chinese invaded Tibet in the 1950s, he was seen giving the ancient tashi deley greeting, and the Chinese decided to make an example of him, and they set his entire family on fire in front of him. The rocks in the mountain pass marked the spot where they were executed — for the crime of making an authentic spiritual connection with a friend.

After Cooper told that story, all 

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was long gone, and the table was set for his kind of discu

Robert K. Cooper