LIVE: "His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama"

"Dalai Lama is a Mongolian title meaning 'ocean of wisdom'. Tibetans believe that the Dalai Lama is an enlightened being, who has chosen rebirth as a way to be of benefit to all living beings."

The Dalai Lama was dressed in traditional wear, and began his speech by making a joke about how he was hoping the rain would cancel the speech, so he could have a holiday, using his friendly, light-hearted personality to capture the audience. Hundreds of people stood, umbrellas overhead, took in the words of “His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama.” His main focus of the first speech was about peace. (note: the recap is my interpretation of what he said, from memory and a few soggy notes)

He discussed how the idea of war was outdated. How our world was too connected, each person being someone’s neighbor, people all over the world are the same and war was no longer necessary or productive means to end a conflict. Instead he emphasized the importance of dialogue, forgiveness and compassion. That these skills and values should be taught by families in the home and also within the schools setting. People need to learn to use dialogue to appropriately express feelings and come to resolutions. He also discussed the idea of taking a step back from situations in order to give it perspective, when focused in to close, anything will look big, but with a step back, the problem will shrink. To do this will require us to open our minds, to see problems from other perspectives and approach them with compassion.

He talked about how in we need to weary of negative emotions. When our negative emotions combine with human intelligence and new technology, our emotions can be amplified and causes can be extremely deadly.

I loved the way that the Dalai Lama approached other people. He has obvious very strong faith beliefs and value system, but never did he seem use his faith as the introduction to conversation with people. Instead he would talk to people about human emotion, the mind and other universal concepts. Engaging in dialogue with various people about universal concepts brought genuine interest by both parties and allowed each person to learn from the other and provided a foundation for further depth of conversation.

(a caption from a press release on the event) ‘Caring for others and demonstrating compassion ar the best means of achieving happiness for oneself’, he said, continuing that this was a belief Buddhism shared with Christianity, all other theistic traditions, and even atheism.

Most of what the Dalai Lama discussed was a reminder of what we have all learned over the years. The most impact part for me was to be standing among the thousands of people who were seeking change. The Dalai Lama said the usual “each individual can make a difference” and those common words had a new meaning when I looked around and saw thousands of people who were seeking to make a difference as well. It showed how much can change when people come together, that it isn’t just my individual contribution, but thousands and thousands want to integrate more compassion into their life, to see more unity and peace around the world.

"Every human being is a member of humanity and the human family, regardless of differences in religion, culture, colour and creed. "

"I am serving our cause with the motivation of service to humankind, not for reasons of power, not out of hatred. Not just as a Tibetan, but as a human being my mission is the propagation of true kindness, genuine kindness and compassion".