HHDL 2

For some reason, I got a chance to meet the 14th Dalai Lama last weekend. It was a quick visit in between shopping for a wedding dress, a lunch meeting and catching up with all sorts of friends and family. For me, it was a treat, a special occasion. Out of anyone in the world, I believe in His Holiness. It was a very special opportunity for me, but nothing at all compared to the people of Tibet who will likely never lay eyes on this spiritual man, a “simple monk”, as he calls himself, who is more influential than almost any other leader in the world.

“Invariably almost the entire population of Lhasa, the capital, came to catch a glimpse of me whenever I went out,” The Dalai Lama writes in his Autobiography “Freedom in Exile”. “There was an awed silence and often there were tears as people lowered their heads or prostrated themselves on the ground when I passed.

“It was a life very different to the one I had known as a small boy,” he continued. “I was born on July 6, 1935 and named Lhamo Thondup. This means, literally, ‘Wish-Fulfilling Goddess’.”

The 14th Dalai Lama was born in a small and poor settlement farmed by nomads; his family was one of a handful making a precarious living off the land.

And here he is in 2010, in Beverly Hills, with lines of people waiting to see him and an entire amphitheater waiting downtown.

What are we are yearning to hear from this man?

A simple monk
A simple message

We Are One
Be Kind to Each Other

“The best medicine is a compassionate mind,” he said. “It relieves stress and makes you feel better… and it’s free,” His Holiness says to us with a smile and a glimmer in his small dark eyes.

Oh, why and how could any country, regime, dictatorship call this being a parasite as the Chinese have done?

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 thinking he could better serve his people outside of his country that was invaded by The People’s Republic of China in 1949. His Holiness writes in his autobiography, about the remarkable way of life of the Tibetan people and how much worth preserving has been lost forever.

But, he does not live in the past or cast blame, he says: do something, make an effort.

And we will.