Lama Talking Again

On the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 21, I was lucky enough to see the 14th Dalai Lama speak in Ox- ford, Ohio. And let me tell you, it did not turn out exactly how I expected.

A couple months ago, my friend Elizabeth, who attends Miami University, called me and asked if I would like to go with her to the Dalai Lama's speech when he would be in Oxford. I was incredibly excited for this opportunity, and was honored that Elizabeth would ask me to go with her. I don't have any sort of personal ties to Buddhism or His Holiness, but Elizabeth and I are both journalism majors and on the staff for publications at our respective universities, so we were definitely giddy to see such an important figure speak.

The Dalai Lama is the most influential and revered individual in Tibetan Buddhism. Members of Tibetan Buddhism believe that the Dalai Lamas are reincarnations of one another, and the cur- rent one was chosen for his position at the age of two. His life has been spent preaching the message of peace around the world, and as a 75-year-old man, he has certainly been a prominent member of pop culture for a long time.

I drove down to Oxford Thursday to see his speech, and Elizabeth and I were positively elated, exchanging several Facebook wall-to-walls and texts about our excitement. We fought the traffic to get to Miami's basketball arena, where the Dalai Lama would be speaking to 10,000 plus people. After making our way through airport-esque security, we found our floor seats and waited for the speech to start.

The first thing that surprised me was the lack of formality at the event. The president of Miami University gave a relatively short introduction before giving the stage over to the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness was dressed in traditional Tibetan Buddhist robes, but had also donned a red Miami visor for the occasion as well. He sat on a couch on the stage, explaining to the audience that he was a little too tired to stand for the entire hour-and-a- half speech, and asked for permission to rest his feet. His query was greeted with applause, which he chuckled at.

The Dalai Lama's speech was entitled "Ethics in a Modern World," but his talk was largely spontaneous. His Holiness preached simple messages during his time in the arena, focusing mostly on kindness to one other. He said that all humans have the choice to be kind and make others happy. People require a drive to achieve that happiness, and it's mostly a mental choice. Of all the points he made, the one I found to be most important was his statement on compassion.

His Holiness said all humans require compassion, a fact that may seem obvious to some. But, many people don't realize that every other person is very much the same, from a best friend to a worst enemy. Even the Dalai Lama has the same human needs as anyone else, he said, not long before he kicked off his shoes to get more comfortable.

I was really, really eager to see the Dalai Lama, and came out of the experience fulfilled, but for a different reason than I expected.

His Holiness is an incredibly important figure in the world, but he's also just a normal guy - a cool dude I'd love to sit down and have a conversation with. He may speak to sold-out crowds and has met many world leaders, but deep down, he's just like each and every one of us. It's a message that I think people have a hard time remembering, and a tough vision to live out. But His Holiness reenergized me to attempt to live that out in my daily life and spread his message to others.