Wednesday morning was all about much anticipated seeing His Holiness Dalai Lama, attending his teaching in the temple in McLeonganj, the Little Lhasa as it is also known.

I am not sure what exactly I’d expected, but I know that my expectations were very high, much higher than a few years ago when I saw the Pope (I must admit that I’d love to be able to see the new Pope though as I really like the way he behaves and speaks).

So what was it like? It was a pubic teaching in the Temple, which substituted HH annual lectures for the Tibetan youth which he used to hold in their college but this year decided to make public given his age and the demand for seeing him. Apparently, due to his health conditions his doctors recommended him to cancel private audiences, so so far the only chance to see him is to attend his teachings. (I am still on the waiting list for a private audience with him).

I arrived there at 7.30am to be in time for a 9am start. I allowed time for security (friendly, but rigorous) and choosing the right seat. Given that I would have to sit crosslegged for three or four hours on the floor I really wanted to find a spot where I would at least be able to lean against the wall or something. Luckily, I found one next to the railings where I had to beg a stray dog to move for me to place my cushion. However, only an hour later I realised how lucky I was as Dalai Lama was passing literally three meters away from me and I could see him, his facial expression, his gestures properly.

He is an old man of 81, ill and slow in his motions, but very cheerful and in sound mind, he did not look tired and was eager to see people who gathered in the temple yard. I am not sure about reincarnations but as a human he does deserve lots of sympathy and respect!

The audience consisted of three major groups: Tibetan monks and students, Tibetans and foreigners, I did not see any sizeable number of Indians there.

Whilst we were waiting for His Holiness the temple servants distributed freshly baked Tibetan bread and tea with butter, very tasty and timely given that many people travelled from far and definitely were hungry. Even I was hungry and it took me only 40 min to get there in a taxi. A nice touch which would be welcomed in any religion I am sure. After everyone finished eating, small children of 5-7years old gathered all the litter and brought it away. Again, something I truly appreciated.

Dalai Lama’s talk consisted of two parts: generic one and the one on a specific Buddhist text, which I did not understand at all, so here are brief point on the first part:

• We have education of mind but not education of spirit/soul. The education of spirit cannot really be achieved through religions no matter how good they are, as almost 1bn people in this world do not adhere to any religion (and I’d say that out of 6bn many only name themselves followers of some religion but have no idea of what it is about).
• The basic trait of people is compassion. If it were anger, we would have no chance for survival as humanity.
• Tibet is known as the roof of the world. The knowledge they have can be regarded the same and therefore 6mn Tibetans must dedicate themselves to spreading this knowledge among others.
• Buddhism is the only religion where teaching is not taken by blind faith, it is going through rigorous logic analysis. Therefore there are plenty of Indian books on logic, and these must be studied properly before following Buddhism
• Research shows that 90% of negativity in a person we are angry at originates in our own mind. That’s what Buddhism has been telling for centuries.
• Buddhism teaches that we are responsible for our own karma – negative or positive as opposed to theistic religions (not sure about this as it seems like Christianity teaches the same, doesn’t it? On the other hand the Indian guru I saw earlier this week talked about our lives being predestined).

Overall, it was a great experience and I am eager to finish reading the book by Dalai Lama I bought last week, however I do feel like I should not have expected more than that from that day.

PS: No gadgets were allowed during the teaching except simple FM radios for listening to interpreters, so I could not take any photos. The photo here is from the Dalai Lama official website: the railings behind which I was sitting and Dalai Lama.