After
spending both a morning and an afternoon session in the presence of His
Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama, my mind was reeling with what I
wanted to remember. I told my husband
that at our age, it wasn’t so much that what he said was new to me because I
try to live a well-examined life (even though I sometimes fail) but that it helped to hear and be reminded of
the right ways to live, along with 10,000 other people. Because His Holiness spoke to two groups of
people in Portland each of the three days he was here, certainly there should
be soon an upsurge in better behaviors and right action in our communities,
right?
What
I enjoy most about His Holiness is that he giggles. I would like to be there
when he sits and chats with his friend, Bishop Desmond Tutu, because he giggles, too.
I imagine that giggles are joy burbling from souls focused on unconditional
love.
Also,
he didn’t try to pretend to know something, to have an answer, when he didn’t. He said, “I don’t know. That I will have to
leave to the experts. I can answer only
as far as I know. They have studied
more.”
He
wasn’t about blind acceptance, however.
He said that we should analyze and study before coming to a
conclusion. In other words, the
scientific method is very important to follow.
Most
of what The Dalai Lama is about is common sense. If you are living from your
soul, from the part of you that is the part of me, you will be full of joy and
helping others. Nothing worthwhile is about acquisition of objects and money;
everything worthwhile is about compassion for others. We need to show affection and receive
affection. Those deprived of early
affection grow to be insecure adults who lack self-confidence. Those assured of
affection, no matter how poor, grow to be happy, confident adults.
All people, religious or
not, should be compassionate. All the
major religions have compassion as their basis, but that gets lost in the
delivery. Instead of focusing on a
specific religion and saying it’s the only one, we should focus on the message
instead and make it secular. Everyone
should practice compassion because it’s the right thing to do, not because the
religion says it is. Our soul knows the
right thing is to practice compassion for others. Making the choice to show compassion,
affection for others, is what makes you happy.
Affection is necessary for survival.
The mother child bond of nursing, for example, makes for a happy person.
In the morning session,
the topic was our environment. Our own personal environment, our community
environment, and the global environment.
The Dalai Lama was joined by Andrea Durbin, Executive Director of Oregon
Environmental Council, Oregon Governor Kitzhaber, David Suzuki, all of whom
were introduced by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
All agreed that the focus
on consumption as a measurement of economic growth was ruining our environment,
personally, in our country, and globally. They suggested that we determine a
system whereby our focus isn’t on money but what really makes us rich. That we re-use, re-cycle. That we do not
export natural resources that will pollute another country. That we ban toxic
chemicals and products. That we find other ways to obtain the energy and food
we need. That we learn ways to shrink our carbon footprint.
I always enjoy hearing a
discussion on re-purposing and recycling.
I grew up in a household where our carbon footprint was no bigger than
the piggy who went wee, wee, wee all the way home. We were poor and being poor necessitates
knowing how to grow your own food, how to wear hand-me-downs, how to make your
own…anything. How to can, freeze, and
dry food products. How to make what you
do buy last, how to think before you toss.
I remember my mother telling me that after my father’s mother cleaned up
vegetables for the table, she took the scraps and boiled them to make
broth. The same with chicken bones.
My father could fix
almost everything and invent almost everything he needed on our farm. I’m hopeless at that, but my sister can do
it. My brother does that.
Most of what I learned
from my parents and grandparents growing up, I do myself, not because I have
to, but because it’s fun. I preserve the
food we grow so I know what’s in it. No Roundup-infused
or GMO food on my plate. I make my own laundry soap, cleaning products, and
some beauty products. I grow my own herbs and make my own teas.
When I noticed my friend
Linda washed her Ziploc bags and used them over and over, I realized this made
sense and I’ve done the same ever since. My mother washes and saves plastic
wrap. She washes and saves plastic silverware.
I don’t do those things. I don’t save the dishwater and throw it over
the flower beds like my grandmother did, but I think it makes sense. I wish our
house had a retrieval system for gray water so it could be re-used. Why aren’t houses built that way to begin
with?
For that matter why aren’t
houses built with solar panel roofing materials? Why aren’t little windmills in
our backyards? Why don’t our exercise
bicycles hook up to the electric grid so we can generate our own electricity
while we pedal? Other countries do this.
Why don’t we? My friend Rosemary and her husband tried to do some of
these things when they built their new home but they found the costs involved
were prohibitive. Why is that?
I love that in my little
town the young mothers get together once a year and bring all their outgrown
baby and children items to swap and trade.
I love it when grown-ups do the same thing with their clothing. That’s what my parents, their relatives, and
friends did when I was growing up and it just makes sense.
I love that in Portland
young people are embracing this lifestyle rather than one of full-out
consumption without regard for finite resources. They’re finding out that this
way to live is meaningful, productive, creative, and fun.
In the afternoon session,
His Holiness was introduced by Representative Earl Blumenauer.
The Dalai Lama was presented a Trailblazer cap and jersey with the number 14 on
it. He said he couldn’t use the jersey,
but the cap came in very handy, and then he put it on so the light wouldn’t be
in his eyes. He spoke of the need for
compassion and understanding we all are interconnected, so what we do to one,
we do to all. Therefore, we are all better served if we treat others as we
would like to be treated. Treating others with compassion means that compassion
will come round to you. My husband has found his joy in mentoring neglected and
tortured youth. Teaching was my career, which also often requires mentoring
neglected and tortured youth, being compassionate even though the ego feels
something else entirely. I know lots of people who love unconditionally day
after day and so do you. Those are the people you love.
When asked what to do
when confronted with the overwhelming negative news stories we see daily, he
said that if you can make a change for good regarding a negative matter, then
work to make the change happen. If it’s not possible for you to make a change
for good to happen in some matter, then work on something else where you can
make a difference. That will bring you joy.
When asked what we can do
to help make Tibet its own country again, he said that 400,000,000 people in
China are practicing Tibetan Buddhists even though they are Communists. In other words, China is becoming Tibet
instead of Tibet becoming Chinese. Hee-hee-hee. (giggle) China now needs, with
all its pollution and climate problems, the Buddhist solutions.
When asked what to do when things
change, like climate change for example, he said that if change happens and
there is no way to reverse that change, then you need to change yourself in
order to deal with the new. It’s that
simple.
Here’s the thing. If we are interconnected and your soul and my
soul are from the same place and if nature is also like that and connected to
us, then why would we want to hurt ourselves?
Why would we disregard ourselves?
I think compassion and taking care of ourselves, others, and the Earth
are the things we are here to learn. They are also the things I forget from time to time when I'm ensconced in my ego.
I’m
so glad, then, to be reminded of them in the books I read, the music I listen to, the
films I watch, the relationships I have—which are all, by the way, my choice, the way yours can be your choice—and I am honored to have been reminded of essential
truths once again by a representative of unconditional love and right living,
His Holiness, The Dalai Lama.
