Serendipity

Today, Tuesday, was the last day in this series of teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama was doing at the temple here in McLeod Ganj. He had been talking about the merits of secular morality, meaning that we all ought to practice kindness and compassion regardless of our religious outlook. I enjoyed it until he started getting into the more specific Buddhist material, at which point I got a little lost since my understanding of Buddhism is pretty rudimentary.

Anyway, this morning I hung around my room for a little while looking up useful Hindi phrases on my translation app. I felt like this was a good use of my time since, you know, I'll be living in India for another 3 months. The result as far as my morning schedule, however, was that I got to the temple a little late. We got funneled up a side staircase and had to pick our way through the crowd to the hall in front of the main temple area, inside which HH sat when he did his teachings. The crowd was blocked by a security guard; we waited there for about 15 minutes, presumably to allow HH enough space to walk by and do his thing, before we noticed some people peeling off to the right, navigating their way through the section of seated monks, and into the “English Language Room” where we had been sitting the last two days.

After a few moments of consideration, Julie and I decided to follow. We got into the room and put our things down in our spot, and moved up to the doors where we'd seen HH the previous two days. Since we were late, there were already a bunch of people sitting here. It might sound odd since there were hundreds, maybe a thousand or more, people in the temple for the teachings, but I didn't recognize most of these people; I was sure they hadn't been there before today. I sighed and accepted that I probably wouldn't get any better of a view of HH than I had Sunday or yesterday, so I plopped myself down next to one of the previously mentioned dreadlock-laden neo-hippies. (I will say, though, that he had damn nice dreads. Not messy and dirty like some of them are.)

As I sat there I considered: there was a spot between the wall and a man who had been sitting in front of us during the teachings. If I could get over there I'd at least be closer to the door, and I figured why not? Something told me sitting there was the only chance I'd have at getting close to the man everyone was there to see. I decided it couldn't hurt and climbed over a couple other tourists' outstretched legs and said good morning to the man. We waited patiently.

It became obvious that His Holiness was close by when we heard laughter from the back of our room – his, and then that of a bunch of other people. I have no idea what he said; it could have been anything. He has, after all, referred to himself as a “professional laugher.”

He made his way around the outside of the room just as he'd done the last two days, and we saw the monks come by with incense and a couple of press guys come by with cameras. HH appeared and gave us a hearty “Good morning!” which was returned in like and with the Tibetan equivalent “Tashi delek” by everyone close by. He addressed the guy in dreads, asking where he was from; “Australia” was the response, accompanied by a grin. He put out his hands toward the monk and the rest of us did the same – if not now, it might not happen at all. He took each hand in turn. Mine was last, and he held my hand there for a few seconds, during which we smiled and bowed slightly to each other.

Then he moved on around the temple. We returned to our seats. And I couldn't help but think that it was a good day, that confidence and assertiveness were good qualities to cultivate, because without them I'd have sat back down lamenting the fact that I hadn't left my room earlier. Instinct definitely played a part, but unless you act on it, instinct means nothing.

I may not be a “believer” in the sense that many others are, but I think most of us will agree that there are some people you just “get a feeling from.” Sometimes it's a good feeling, sometimes it's not; I can certainly say that I got a good vibe off of this most famous of monks, a man who is proclaimed to be the embodiment of compassion.

Tibetan bread was passed out by young monks carrying big metal buckets, as it always is at these big gatherings, and to our delight today it was still warm. We nibbled on it as the teaching began.

Today HH talked about how negative emotions are nothing more than misconceptions, that the mind naturally wants to be peaceful. He touted the merits of meditation and spoke of the basic precepts including mindfulness, vigilance, and concentration.

Today was a day of ceremony. His Holiness led blessings “of the mother,” who I believe is called Punji Paramita, and he also led bodhisattva vows that laypeople could take if they intended to “take refuge in the Buddha” and pursue enlightenment so that they could “benefit all sentient beings.” He said that those who did not feel they could take such a vow right now could still participate, as long as they had the intent to take the vows soon. He spoke of the practice of bodhicitta, which would “set yourself on the path to happiness.” He said that much the same way that the sun, the wind, the plants belong to no one in particular and we should all benefit from what they can offer, so too should we strive to attain “liberation” so that we can serve as conduits for peace for other living beings.

He wrapped up the teaching itself by speaking about how form and emptiness are dependent on one another. He said also that it was important to meditate daily on Emptiness. We must develop the wisdom to see what is worth studying and what should be avoided.

Generally speaking, the whole thing was a pretty cool experience. A lot of the more specific points went over my head, but the overarching lesson – that we be kind to each other, and compassionate toward all other living things – is certainly one I can get behind. I also have a significant amount of respect for any religious leader who genuinely urges his followers to seek the truth for themselves and not just do it because he said to. I'm not involved enough to know whether this is a surface claim in Buddhism or if most actually practice this through and through, but any religious leader who opens a 3-day teaching by calling into question the usefulness of faith, to me, is worth hearing out.