His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Yesterday, I had the chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go hear the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama give a teaching in McLeod Ganj. I attended with Vandana, the visiting Shansi fellow Erika, and her friend Barbara. Even before we could go, because of security reasons, we all had to register for the teachings. Erika and Babs took our passports and two passport sized photos to an office in McLeod, then returned with a little yellow card in Tibetan, with one of those photos and our registration information.

We met up on Monday morning and headed down to the temple together. I have never seen McLeod Ganj so packed full of people before. At the temple we went through a vigorous security scanning. Basically anything that isn't allowed on an airplane was not allowed in the temple, plus no cellphones, cameras, or other electronics, with the exception of little FM radios. The radios were necessary for translation. Then we all got a thorough pat-down before we were allowed to enter. Entertainingly, of the three security lines, one was for Tibetans, one was for monks and nuns, and one was for foreigners. Vandana, an Indian, was told to join us in the foreigner line. I am sure that was a first for her in her own country.

Even with our attempt to arrive early, hundreds of people had arrived before us already. The four of us found a place to sit on the ground in front of the temple, sitting on shawls or our shoes for a bit of cushion. Although we were not in a position to see His Holiness while he spoke up on the second level of the temple, we could see him enter and climb the stairs at the beginning as well as when he descended at the end. Just as in the photos, he looked unassuming with a warm, contagious smile. He was greeted with chanting and throat singing from the monks and Tibetans, then he started to speak.

He began the teachings in English, welcoming the special guests from Thailand who had requested the teaching and everyone else, then explaining what text he would be teaching from. Even with the speakers projecting his voice all over the temple compound, it was still very good to have our little FM radios that we had borrowed from Dr. Barbara. There were several local channels going: one for the Dalai Lama's speech, an English translator, a Thai translator, and probably a couple of others. We brought two radios and ear-bud headphones with us, but we quickly discovered that one of the radios did not work. Once he switched into lecturing in Tibetan, we scrambled to find the translation channel, then one of the two people sharing the headphones would have to repeat what she heard to the other two. That job usually fell to me or Vandana, though we traded off with the headphones. His Holiness did switch in and out English a couple of other times. His voice, even when I could not understand him, was deep and very pleasant to listen to.

His morning teachings went on for three hours. He gave a short history of Tibetan Buddhism, touched on its main points such as cultivating compassion, knowledge, and single-focused meditation. He then went on to talk about the relations of suffering and happiness to the other parts of life and how causes and outcomes, in a religious way, were related. He stressed again and again that the important practices and values of Buddhism appear in essentially all other world religions, but is a sense of morality and not a deity that prompts pious living in Buddhists.

During the talk, Tibetan bread and butter tea were served and blessed, then everyone ate and drank. The bread came around first, and we being stupid and hungry foreigners, ate ours right away. It wasn't until the tea was poured out for everyone that the Tibetans ate theirs, dipping it in the tea. Tibetan butter tea is an interesting experience, and not one I have ever partaken in outside of a temple. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it tastes like a cup of salty, melted butter. It is easier to think of it as a soup than a tea. That said, it was hard for me to drink without the bread to wash it down. The Tibetans sitting near us noticed that we didn't have any bread with their tea, so they broke their rolls in half and shared it with us. It was very sweet of them.

The teachings broke for lunch and His Holiness descended from the temple. A shiny new SUV pulled up into the temple, he got in with a bow and a wave, and he was driven away to his residence for lunch. No one clapped. People only put their palms together and bowed in a gesture of respect to him as he departed. His car was no more than 20 feet from where we sat.

Then, everyone mobbed for the main gate. Again, I marveled at just how crowded McLeod could get. The four of us got some lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around McLeod Ganj. We didn't realize that there were also teachings in the afternoon. That was alright, however, as Erika and I were starting to feel a bit sick and Vandana had to go back down to Sidhbari for a meeting at Jagori in the afternoon. There were teachings again today, but none of us went. Erika and Babs are on their way to Amritsar, Vandana is working, and I am taking a much needed day off.

I am really glad I finally got to go hear the Dalai Lama speak, after spending so much time living so close to his temple. It was a great introduction to Tibetan Buddhism for me. I feel like I understand their culture a lot better, even after listening to him speak for only three hours.