RETRO BLOG: Dalai Lama

Today the Dalai Lama gave two presentations at the University of Northern Iowa.  I went to the first one.  I didn't understand a lot of what he said, but the presentation was a very enjoyable experience.

In a nice bit of obliviousness, I had no idea that the Dalai Lama was coming to town.  I learned about it only three days before the speech.  I should probably get a subscription to a local newspaper or something.  I'd never read it though.  There's just too much on the TV and the Internet.  I didn't feel as bad that I didn't know he was coming when several people at work didn't even know who he was. Now, I won't pretend that I have any idea as to what DL's function was, but I'd heard of him and figured he was supposed to be important because of his monkness and heck, he's sold some books, and I like books.  So the guy in the office next to me got some tickets, and we decided to go see DL speak to the masses.

Unfortunately, the morning and afternoon sessions were different.  The DL's full two hour lecture was the afternoon session, and we got tickets for the morning session (which was not sold out...the afternoon session sold out in something like twenty minutes four months ago).  The morning session consisted of DL sitting on stage with a panel of people who lead various charitable organizations.  The charity leaders were all allowed to ask the Lama Man a question.  Let's see if you see a theme in his answers:

"Mr. DL sir, we are having a big problem with kids dropping out of high school and young people getting pregnant and not paying attention to their children.  What should we do with these people?"

DL:  "We need to make education more enticing. We need to show its benefits. We need to make people not afraid to learn.  We also need to make sure we coach others how to love people. People who are loved pass on love to their children. People need to have a connection to the people around them. If someone isn't loved by their parents, neighbors, and communities, they won't know how to love their children, neighbors, or communities."

"Yo DL, this be Charity Bob, what do you thing we can do to curtail some of the tension between various peoples?"

DL: "We need to educate people on the differences of religions and also let people know those differences are okay. We can be several religions, but we are one humanity. We need to love those around us, and make sure we are doing what we can everyday to make everyone's lives better."

"Dizzle Lamizzle--Ralph the Charity King here, what are your thoughts on ABCXYZ?"

DL: "We need to educate people on ABCXYZ.  We need to love those around us, and make sure ABCXYZ helps enhance the love and kindness people have for each other. There's a basic agreement between people that says we won't harm those around us. We've gotten away from that."

There were a lot of questions asked, but there was only one real answer: People should just be nice to each other, dammit.  The Dalai Lama didn't drop the emphatic dammit, but he might as well have. It's amazing to me that a small peasant boy, chosen to be this mystical Dalai Lama figure at a young age, can develop such a peaceful attitude towards his fellow man when he's essentially been exiled from his homeland for wanting to be nice to people.

I enjoyed seeing people hang on his every word--even though his every word was essentially common sense. We should be nice to people. We should try to reach some sort of understanding with others. We should spend time trying to make those around us, and thus the world, a better place. Unfortunately, we (and I'm no different) get so caught up in the day to day drama of nothingness--where will LeBron sign, what's up with Speidi, how will LOST end, that we forget to enjoy the world and the people around us.  It's unfortunate it takes a small visitor from another country to remind us of life's most basic tenet: treat others how you want to be treated.

There's more about the event I could highlight. I found it sad that they had tourist trapesque shops outside the event where poorly produced semi-authentic looking Buddhist gear was being sold. I thought they let the MC of the event take too much time talking. I thought it was interesting the Dalai Lama is very playful kid at heart--the first thing he told us after appearing on stage ten minutes late was, "I'm sorry for being late, but I'm just too lazy to be on time."  The microphones weren't quite loud enough. He was very hard to understand. But I think that's okay. I think it's good for people to struggle to understand something only to find out that the something is beautifully simplistic.  It's good for the soul.