My Day With the Dalai

My religion is very simple; my religion is kindness-The Dalai Lama

I received an invitation in the mail to go to the arena at the University of Miami to hear His Holiness, the 14^th Dalai Lama give a talk entitled, The Quest for Happiness in Challenging Times.

Being busy doing other things, I never responded and then one day I was feeling like I had not been ‘attending’ to myself for awhile, I took another look at the invite on my desk and decided to call the night before to see if by some chance I could still get a ticket. The woman on the phone told me I could and said there would be a ticket waiting for me at will call. So the next morning I got in the car put in The Four Agreements to listen to one more time, (another blog another day), had a latte and drove the hour and a half by myself down to the University. (Pretty heavenly so far…)

I was so shocked when I went to Will Call and got my ticket when they directed me not to the nosebleeds but right down to the left of the stage. I had perfect view of his chair! WOW! So cool, so I settled in and waited. The front section was reserved for the students and I was so happy to see so many young faces filling up the floor. All around the students were people of all walks of life and all ages. All with the same goal, to listen to this man and find some answers to how one finds happiness in these challenging times. It struck me as I sat and waited looking around that EVERYONE, from the students to the 70something year old woman sitting next to me, was texting or looking at their phones. (Including myself), and I thought I wonder if he will say anything about technology? I turned my phone to silence and shoved it in my bag quickly before he came out so he wouldn’t see me with it and he would realize right away that I was already very enlightened. hahaha (so self-centered!! I have things to work on)

He came out onto the stage, a small man with a huge smile. He was friendly and relaxed and so sweet. You just felt like not only did you know him but he was your favorite old Tibetan Uncle that you never got to see enough of.

He spoke for around 90 minutes. He was charming and funny. He said so many wonderful things but what I came away with was the only way you will ever find happiness is through love. People who have loving families and no money can be much happier than people who have money but not the love and attention from their families. He said part of this is due to technology in the 21^st century that has given us so much knowledge and opportunity but with opportunity comes responsibility and technology has also been the cause of great human suffering. (He was talking more about weapons and bombs not cell phones i"m pretty sure but technology just the same). As well as getting in that cycle of wanting to "have" more for your family because you love them but not spending the time with them because you have to keep working to "have" the stuff.

Our survival as a community (and by community he really is saying humanity is our community) will come from love, respect, kindness, compassion and tolerance. If we have love from our families and choose our friends wisely we will have the self-esteem to have all of these qualities for ourselves and others. What he considers the downfall of humanity is self-centered behavior. He said we would only achieve peace through inner peace. He can’t give it to us; we can’t get it from a book or a spa. It is only through love and self-esteem can we achieve this peace and then have the confidence to allow each other to be who we really are without judgment.

I could go on and on reiterating all of the wonderful things he said but that was the nutshell of happiness. Love from an early age and keep it coming. It’s the simplest and hardest thing to do, just put everything else aside and give your love to your family and wisely chosen friends and your quest for happiness will be right there. He ended with a joke…what is Birth Control for violence? Produce more Monks and Nuns!