Hello Dalai, Day Two and Three
Hmm, after day one, I have to admit I wasn’t really bursting with anticipation for a second day of close reading of Tibetan Buddhist poetry from the 14th century. So, rather than put it off to the end of the day, I went to morning yoga and missed His Holiness’s morning session. According to the schedule, the morning was teaching, and the afternoon session was his message to the local Buddhist community, so that sounded more interesting.
So, day 53 of yoga goes down easy, and I head to the afternoon session, and he is doing a Q&A format. Fun stuff, a little easier to digest. And after about an hour, he says, last question, back to the teaching. Ack… so, I hang out for a while, find out they only covered 11 stanzas in the morning session, and I realize that I’m sort of checked out on it, so I bail, go buy thick oatmeal at Whole Foods and catch an afternoon movie. Thankfully, I pick a good one.
On Sunday, I leave my apartment 15ish minutes before his talk is to begin, as I had the other days, and when I get there th eline is doubled over and around the block. I’m not sure how it is easier to get Buddhists into a building, but for some reason the public is taking a lot longer. As I was going to late yoga, I had my backpack filled with towels and smartwater on me, despite their “no backpacks” sign. The person looks in the top of my bag, and when they move it on the table, the lock in the side pocket makes a big metallic noise against the table. I say, “that’s my lock for the gym,” expecting them to want to see it. But they don’t. The guy waves the metal detector wand over my body, and that’s it.
The event starts late, probably because they were aware of the logjam coming in. The throne is gone, as are the hundreds of monks on the floor of the stage. It is a simple white chair, as well as a piano and other seats. First we get a piano player and a cellist playing us a song, then H.H. The Dalai Lama comes out. Immediately, some young Asian guy (that was my take from way up in the balcony) is yelling at HHTDL. Security is already rushing toward this guy, and then right before they get to him, the guy throws something at HHTDL, which is swatted down before it ever hits the stage. The guy yells out, “It’s just an apple!” several times, as he is pushed off the main floor. HHTDL looks a bit confused by what’s going on, as the audience is welcoming him with a standing ovation, and then he sits down and quickly said the guy just wanted to give him an apple, and nothing else was inside the apple, so let him back in. My guess, it didn’t happen.
This entire talk was in English, although the Yoda-esque nature of it all continued. If you sort of removed the fact that he is a religious leader recognized around the world, and you just printed up the messages he said, well… most people would just read it and not think it was anything profound. But, I guess the Pope doesn’t say anything surprising either. And between the two of them, I was seeing the one I prefer.
He’s pretty quick-witted. when asked why Congress was going to give him a medal of honor in the fall, he said, he didn’t know, ask them. And when another person asked (questions submitted in advance and read from index cards by his translator), what advice he had for raising children, he said, “I’m a Buddhist Monk, how would I know anything about raising children. If you give me a child, I’d be OK for a few hours, but then it would be… someone take him back!” Then, he proceeded to talk about teaching compassion and such.
He does have a warm and genuine presence, though, and I really enjoyed Sunday better than the previous two days. So, I guess in the future, when he is doing a teaching session, skip it. Public talk, go.
