i just got back from talking to the dalai lama in philadelphia.
it’s not every day i get to start an update/journal entry/blog(i hate that word) with that sentence.
in fact, well, just today.
to begin: i went to philadelphia last night with serj from system of a down and kt tunstall and joss stone to meet
up with the dalai lama today and hang out and talk informally.
well, ‘informally’ insofar as ‘informally’ involves bomb sniffing dogs and secret service agents and camera crews and attendants.
but i’m getting ahead of myself.
we arrived in philly last night and had dinner at horizons(which is fantastic, even if the name ‘horizons’ sounds
kind of new-age-y and vague).
and then last night after dinner i was asking myself, ‘ok, you’re meeting h.h dalai lama in the morning, what
do you want to talk about with him?’
and i was kind of stumped.
a part of me wanted to ask fun and lighthearted questions, like ‘if you were a breakdancer what would
you want for your breakdancing name?’ or ‘if you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go and what would you do?’
or ‘do you prefer pantera or slayer?’
and another part of me wanted to ask more serious questions about dharma and meditation and politics and quantum mechanics.
but then i thought that he probably gets asked serious questions all the time, so maybe he’d like
the more lighthearted questions.
then i thought that maybe the lighthearted questions would be deemed offensive or irreverent.
and then it was morning.
serj and kt and joss and i met for breakfast and drank too much coffee and talked about what we’d
talk about with h.h.d.l.
we were shuffled into a small conference room. we met some very nice tibetan people and some nice
mongolian people and some nice los angeleno people and some nice secret service people and nice
camera crews and so on.
and then it started to get odd.
i went upstairs to go to the giftshop to see if i could buy a blank cd, cos i had this idea that i’d
burn a cd for the dalai lama, maybe some relaxing music he could listen to on long flights.
they didn’t have blank cd’s in the gift shop, but snoop dogg and his posse were leaving the hotel
just as the dalai lama was arriving.
postmodernism reared it’s messy head, and the dogg pound posed for pictures with h.h. dalai lama.
this, needless to say, was entertaining.
then h.h.d.l had some lunch.
then h.h.d.l came downstairs for his informal meeting with us.
he walked into the room(preceded by security people).
he smiled at us.
he played with serj’s beard.
he shook our hands and smiled some more.
then we sat down for the meeting.
kt tunstall played a song for him(it was a very nice song, a new song inspired by ‘the giving tree’.).
hhdl closed his eyes and listened and then we talked about meditation(well, he talked, we listened).
i asked him if he could do any job for a week other than being the dalai lama what would it be?
at first he said that he’d like to do something to protect the environment.
then i asked, ‘but what if you could be completely selfish for a week, what would you do?’
‘sleep.’ he said.
‘so you’d be a professional sleeper?’ i asked.
and he laughed and laughed.
and boy, when the dalai lama laughs at one of your jokes(even if it’s not such a good joke) you feel pretty good.
serj asked him about spirituality and justice. joss asked him about the situation with tibet and china.
we chatted informally(under the watchful eye of secret service and camera crews and attendants and translators
and well-trained monkeys…ok, no monkeys. but monkeys would’ve been good, as everyone seems to like monkeys).
we took a whole bunch of pictures, we said our goodbyes, and he left to further spread the causes of peace and compassion to
the good people of philadelphia.
hopefully at some point i’ll get the pictures back so that you’ll know i wasn’t just hallucinating.
or was i? was i actually having an ambien inspired hallucination?
nope, cos i have the commemorative t-shirt. unless hallucinations can produce commemorative t-shirts, which i don’t
think they can.
and how would i describe h.h dalai lama?
mainly i was struck by his intellect. he might be the brightest person i’ve ever met.
secondly i was struck by his sense of humor. whenever he got the chance to make a little joke he made a little joke, and he
genuinely laughed whenever anything funny(or even quasi-funny, like my quips)was said.
thirdly i was kind of in awe, so i didn’t have the perspective from which to objectively assess the situation or the man.
ok, so that was my day. now i’m headed out to a barbecue with mayor corey booker, who is a remarkable politician
and might be president someday.
some days are way more interesting than other days.
this was a way more interesting day than most.
thanks,
moby
