"Hey! You're a funny guy!"
The Dalai Lama spoke in Brisbane at the BEC yesterday afternoon. He had been on the go since 3:30am fulfilling engagement obligations, and at 72, he's doing very well to hold an audience of around 15000 people for a whole hour or more, nearly 13 hours after he started the day. What a guy...
He began with explaining how happy he was to be here, doing a talk to the public, and then....... he sort of trailed off for a while, repeating that,and probably having his train of thought interrupted by the
insane amount of crying and wailing from toddlers and babies in the Centre. Amazing how inconsiderate these parents were not to take the babies outside and calm them. No-one, not even his Holiness, could keep it together and concentrate with that racket going on. (and I'm on the side of the kids here, I think they were correct to be wailing,....loudly, I would as well if I was between zero and five and was asked to sit down anywhere quietly at 4pm!)
Anyway, after a few minutes he got it sorted and made a lovely joke about how old he was and how we shouldn't expect too much. :) His voice went high up and octave or two as he said it, and he was clearly having fun making fun of himself. Lovely.
His message was not about Buddhism, as he clearly said that was his private thing, and he was not going to talk about it; but he spoke on humanity issues, of moral education, and of education not being partnered with a religion, but that they should be separated. This then brought in the question of how moral education was to be presented in modern curriculum, and he made several references to how all religious doctrine of any kind is underpinned by similar if not the same moral codes.
He also expressed the concept of 'internal disarmament' of the Self was important, and how that was the starting point for global peace. It also had reference in his answer to a question from the audience regarding how one could forgive someone for grevious harm or grevious doings. He made a point of explaining that the action must be separated from the person who commited that action. As the action will always remain the same, yet the person who did it can change.
"There is a saying....'forgive and forget' ? yes? You cannot forget. If you forget what they did, you have no reason for needing to forgive them anything! How can one forgive something they cannot remember happening!? So remember, and forgive the person, but you don't forget the action..."
I and everyone else thoroughly enjoyed his 'matter-of-fact' attitude. When he was finished talking about something, he would sort of slap his knees, and say something to the effect of 'well that's done! next!'. He was great!
A good afternoon, and a beautiful sunset with the first evening star in a haze of cloud, manifested as we walked out of the Centre to the carpark.
Thankyou your Holiness, it was a pleasure.
