The City if Calgary received a taste of compassion this week, as his holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama returned to the city for his second visit in over three decades. Hosted by the University of Calgary, the Dalai Lama was one of the honorary speakers at the 2009 NOW conference. In it’s efforts to reach a higher education and understanding of community engagement, the University welcomed his Holiness with the hope that his message of Inner peace and compassion would be heard and cherished by all participants joining in on the two day event.

20,000 people flooded through the doors of the Pengrowth Saddledome arena Wednesday afternoon to share an historic moment while listening to the respected global leader share his spiritual and enlightening message of peace, non- violence, humility and compassion.

Hosted by Canada’s own and Grey’s Anatomy star, Sandra Oh graciously helped to welcome his holiness to the stage along with colorful and creative performances from local Calgary school age children along with a peaceful musical performance by cellist Micheal Fitzpatrick, recipient of the Prince Charles Award for Outstanding Musicianship.

Wearing Traditional Tibetan Kata scarf’s, thousands stood as his Holiness humbly stepped on to the stage to receive an Honorary degree from University of Calgary. With his famous smile and kind eyes, The Dalai Lama’s first words were his contagious laughter, as he began his address by expressing his gratitude to the University for their outstanding efforts in offering and promoting higher education. The Dalai Lama, whom has an extensive educational history, admitted to being “quite a lazy student” who compensated for never doing his homework, through his effort and dedication to using his heart. “ I am no king” he said as he went on to describe the simplicity of his nature “Some people call me living Buddha or god king, some people call me a demon. These are just labels…I am just another human being.”

The simple monk went on to share the fundamental components of Compassion; Commitment to Human Vales, Harmony and Awareness. With inner peace as the vehicle for these actions, The Dalai Lama stressed the importance of what he calls secular ethics “There must be universal ethics without touching religion.” The spiritual teacher offered a lesson in developing inner peace through compassion by raising the importance of constructive intelligence and awareness of the human condition. He asked the audience to take his words in to strong consideration, “please experiment with your own life”.

The lack of complexity found in address shed light on the simplicity of his purpose. For a city that holds a cold reputation as a strong competitor in Canada’s economic rat race, Calgarian’s were undoubtedly warmed by his captivating view towards the meaning of life “We must try to do something good and useful with our lives. If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find that goal. This is the true meaning of life.”

Prior to ending his address with selected questions from the audience, The Dalai Lama lit up the room and opened minds as his Holiness spoke of human equality “On a basic level we are all the same. I want happy life, you want happy life. If we communicate and work together we can make an effort for a better world”.

His Holiness provided a shorter more intimate closing address Thursday at the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary. Pleased to have had the opportunity to interact with Calgarians, his Holiness spoke of modern education as insufficient “Theoretical practice are not enough. Education is an instrument to be used constructively”. Amongst his final and wisest words was an invitation to practice his message as he asked the crowd to “Please pay more attention to our inner-spiritual morals, secular ethics, human love and of course...compassion”.

It was a true honor to have had the opportunity to hear and feel the sincerity of the Dalai Lama’s extreme genuine attitude towards obtaining peace. His Holiness offered a flavorful address while generously sharing the ingredients that formulate his recipe for compassion. As a result, after being a witness to his affectionate and positive spirit, I must say, compassion tastes pretty good.

Written by :

lakonrad

 

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