hyacinths, forsythia, daffodils, oh my! the world is in bloom. i came home to find my house surrounded by all kinds of spring flowers and blooming trees! wow. that said, this recap is hard for me to write. im very introspective and deep in it right now as a result of all i learned this weekend. best shot while it's fresh:
rewind: thursday night - i went to yoga class the night before i left for ann arbor and the teacher was questioning when in life we cease being childlike... when we start comparing our performance, begin caring how how we look, what other people think... etc. she encouraged us to re-create that child-like curiosity and glee during our practice. i was reminded of her lesson several times this weekend, b/c i can honestly report - His Holiness the Dalai Lama possesses that child-like glee. he is soooo unbelievably happy. he radiates the same joy and happiness that make adults smile at children. everyone just grins at him. it's absolutely contagious. he's 73 and he hasn't lost his child-like radiance yet!
the above pic is the visor he donned when he got into the meat of the teachings b/c the stage lights were so bright. he is so cute. i dont normally use the word 'cute' - especially to describe senior Teachers... but this man is so undeniably cute.
ok, so to the meat. per the usual, the beauty is his, the mistakes are mine.
Engaging Wisdom & Compassion
he greeted the audience saturday and sunday in english. there are numerous monks who sit around him on stage and he reads and teaches to them in tibetan - with about 8,000 eavesdropping americans - pausing to let the english translator pick up. and boy, was the translator amazing! he would translate 10 minutes of intense teaching at a time! it made your head spin! initially, i started to mentally freak out... this is so intense! these teachings are serious! im not ready for this! ahhhh! im never gonna get anything out of this! so i gave up. and it all flooded in.
Dalai Lama Lesson #1: Don't Try So Hard.
we covered 2 buddhist texts: Commentary on Awakening Mind and In Praise of Dependant Origination. it's intense fascinating theory and im not going to go into detail here on the highlights reel...
i was reassured that the first teaching makes direct reference to a yogi's efforts at mastering one's own mind. hooray! familiar territory! Lesson # 2: its all the same...
but the highlight of the weekend, that i really want to share with you, was during his response to a question during this morning's Q&A session, which he answered in english...
(i point this out b/c the Dalai laughs and jokes in tibetan while giving discourse on the ancient, rather obscure teachings. the translator, much to my chagrin, did not interject the same humor and laughter in his translation, so you were left wondering what was so funny... once again how i wished i was multi-lingual!)
Lesson #3: Verbal communication entails much more than words
so i find it no coincidence that my most intense learning experiences arose when he taught in english. saturday, the Dalai Lama cautioned the audience against jumping on the buddhist train (ive heard him say this many times before.) he feels its best for us to remain in the religion that is closest to our culture. you could feel the audience's anguish. so this morning, one of the anonymous questions pertained to a person's dissatisfaction w/ their birth faith and their desire to follow the buddhist tradition but they were reticent based on his caution and asked for further clarification. this is his response (paraphrased)...
regardless of religion, our day to day life should be happy. inner peace. happiness. satisfaction. that's the real purpose of our life. whether there's a God or not, we're here. this is fact. and as human beings, we want to be happy, this is fact. external stimuli do not produce inner peace. cultivate inner peace. an altruistic mind is the source of all goodness. we want to live a long and healthy life. and we are social animals and will live among others. LIVE FRIENDLY. friendliness and affection breed trust. when you have trust with others, you have people with whom to share your troubles and get help. w/o these things, you will remain lonely inside. money, power, physical strength wont bring friendliness, which brings true happiness. everyone wants to be happy. be "wise selfish" not "foolish selfish." be truly affectionate and friendly to others. care about them. this is "wise selfish." foolish selfish is caring only about yourself. cultivate an altruistic heart. by our human birth, we all have the same potential. its up to us.
so yes, i cried. quite a bit. but i still managed to pay attention. ;)
i am humbled,
c.
p.s. began Walden. can't put it down.
p.p.s. why are birds SO loud before they go to bed?
one more p.s cleanse on the road did pretty well. exhaustion fading, energy returning. found a whole foods in ann arbor and made all kinds of yummy raw concoctions. i admit - i like raw. a lot. i'm spending the remainder of the cleanse month learning how to integrate all these new substitutions and yummy recipes ive learned into my daily life. its all a process. these next 2 weeks are pure transition.
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