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One of the amazing gentleman who came on our Havasupai Falls Spiritual Hiking Journey recently spent some time in the presence of the Dalai Lama – one of my favorite humans. I love what he had to share – a very honest recounting of his experience and I thought you would enjoy it too.
Blessings, Sheri

Dear Sheri,
Yesterday I took off a day from work to go sit in the presence of the Dalia Lama for the first time. I was curious what his field would look and feel like, what I would experience in his presence. I made a few notes and will try to share some of the experience with you.

The morning was a questions/answers session between the Emory professors and students and His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Many questions were poised to him, most of which I have already forgotten. One of the first few questions caused him to sit contemplating his response for a few moments. In those few moments as I sat intently waiting, listening with every part of me I felt the first wave of compassion wash over me and a tear slowly trickle down my cheek.

He had not said anything, but a deep feeling of compassion washed over me lighting up my heart chakra, which seemed to expand outwards in response. My throat tightened a little as fought to control my emotions. Another wave hit and I relaxed into its embrace.

He began talking about the need for spirituality to be realistic. It needed to be grounded to be of value in difficult times. He counseled to approach life with a warm heart, which provides inner strength and a positive spirit making it much easier to connect with others. We become more trusted, a positive influence, which has the benefit to us of feeling more useful.

Then he said something that surprised at first. He said, the present is absolute, permanent – everything else changes. As that sunk into my consciousness I felt a growing respect for the depth of his reflections.

He went on to speak more about the truthful, honest, compassionate attitude that can bring change in others’ attitudes. Someone who is compassionate is more powerful. What?! Huh, what did he say? It struck me how obvious that was and how much it had escaped me in my life. I realized I had viewed my compassion as a weakness, soft, not strong and powerful.

He added a compassionate person is more powerful than a critical angry person. Yes, of course. When I have been attacked by an angry critical person I defend, put up my shields, reject their assertions – even if they are true.

A student asked about how to discover one’s gift and share it. He says laziness is also a gift. What?! Those who are very smart can do things quickly. Laziness requires me to work harder to get things done. I didn’t like to do my homework, so I had to work harder at getting it done. Much laughter!

Someone asked about the distractions of life, Internet, TV, video games, etc.  He spoke of the need to spend an equal amount of time looking at our inner world as we do the outer. We need to allow space/time to integrate all this information coming in, to process the external stimuli – which (I love this) allows our own force to arise. Yep, made a note of that one!

A young science student asked about how to find the Truth and if it were possible to prove it scientifically. His response, beautiful – if one truth must be one person, one ego thinking. Many people equals many truths. Always the search for one truth intimately tied up with individual. Religions, philosophies are just differences in methods – same goal. We can respect and admire other methods. The expert practitioners of methods benefit from deeper understanding and appreciation.

He closed the morning session by speaking directly to the students. You are at the beginning of next century, so have the most influence on how it goes. My generation has lived 80 decades of the last century, but only one of this one. You will live many more decades of this century than we will.

You should refine your minds with a warm and compassionate heart. Doing this will make a difference. You must take care of the environment. If you do these things, you will have a happy life!

Thanks for giving your attention and encouraging me to share this with you.

With warm regards,
Lewis