The Dalai Lama

This Saturday, Chuck and I had the honor of hearing His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak here in Bloomington.

We had "student" (cheap) tickets and were pretty high up, but we still had a very good view. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the red dot in the middle of the big yellow chair on stage is the Dalai Lama. As you can see, there was also a Jumbo-tron for a close-up view of him (we were in the IU basketball arena).

When he came out, he took off his shoes and sat Indian-style on his chair. He also put on a funny little red visor (because of the glare of the lights). An interpreter sat next to him, but to our surprise (and delight) he spoke almost entirely in English. The interpreter helped out with a few words here and there.

The talk he gave was on compassion, and he was very inspiring. It's hard to describe everything he talked about, but he stressed the importance of recognizing the humanity in everyone in order to practice compassion - each and every person is a human being, just like yourself. He said that a lot of suffering in the world is man-made, and stressed the importance of ecology and taking care of the earth. He said that compassion can be practiced regardless of your religion, and that most religions have this ideal in common.

He was also very funny. He peppered his talk with a few jokes and had really good comic timing and delivery. He even joked about those of us way up in the cheap seats - that we were up in heaven, and we better not fall down from heaven! He had a great voice, too. It was a deep baritone voice, but when he was emphasizing a point it would rise in pitch and he sounded just like - how perfect is this - Yoda.

Chuck and I have both read a few of his books (our favorite is Ethics for the New Millenium), so the message of the talk was obviously similar to those, but it was just amazing to see him in person.