Dalai Lama Reveals Earthy Sense of Humour During Adelaide Visit

THE Dalai Lama has revealed his earthy sense of humour in an exchange with MC Dorinda Hafner during his sold-out session at the Adelaide Convention Centre today.

After his 40 minute address, where he urged educators to teach a code of secular ethics to develop a sense of compassion and concern for the well-being of others, the session moved to a less formal tone.

Before the question and answer session with the crowd of more than 5000, Hafner explained her concept of personal wealth - silver in her hair, gold in her teeth and a body full of natural gas.

This elicited peals of laughter from His Holiness. "I too," he said. "Especially on a plane. And then, you look around...." Peering left and right, he leaned aside and raised one buttock from his chair. It brought the house down.

Earlier in the day, His Holiness struck a more serious note at a private session with invited guests.

It was beyond his capacity to tell Australia's politicians how to achieve both compassion and wisdom.

He also said that we need to work out how to judge whether asylum seekers are genuine refugees, and to show the needy compassion.

He was asked whether he had any advice for the nation's leaders.

"I think ex-politicians should talk more to those young… politicians," he said as he sat between Greens elder Bob Brown and SA Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

"I do not want to focus on some special message or special thing. That I think is beyond my capacity," he said.

His Holiness covered a broad range of topics from vegetarianism to overpopulation to religion to whether we should start using desalination to green the deserts, and he also spoke at length on asylum seekers.

He said it was a "complicated" situation, that compassion had to be practical and that "you have to act according to circumstance".

"Some really face persecution in their country… so you must act," he said.

"Some are not in that serious a situation but they hear Australia is a good place for making money.

"So you have to judge."

After the session His Holiness addressed a packed Adelaide Town Hall, told a range of anecdotes, chuckled endlessly, and donned an Akubra he was given by SA Independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

His Holiness also is holding a public talk this afternoon at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Yesterday, dozens of followers lined Adelaide Airport, awaiting his arrival from Melbourne just before 3pm, before hundreds crowded the Tibetan Buddhist Institute at Flinders Park to hear him speak. At the airport, His Holiness was welcomed with traditional milk and roasted barley, then he individually greeted the 60-odd followers who had waited patiently in line.

Among them were Kate Durham, Wangyal Phendytsang and their smiling baby son Tashi, whom the Dalai Lama blessed.

Ms Durham said it was a divine moment to meet the Dalai Lama and for her son to be blessed.

"They (children) are the future so it's very important to be blessed and for Tashi to see the Dalai Lama," she said.

"His teachings are very, very divine. It's important to have people like His Holiness in our world because he can teach us to become better people."

Beau Beaumont travelled from Christies Beach to see the Dalai Lama arrive and said it was well worth it.

"My heart was racing and I welled up," he said. "The feeling of his hand touching my hand was an out-of-world experience. He is someone who I idolise and is my inspiration."

At the Tibetan Buddhist Institute, hundreds heard him give a speech that was punctuated by his familiar laugh.

Institute member Grant Cameron said it was a special moment.

"I saw the Dalai Lama when he came in 1992 and that was one of the reasons I became a Buddhist," he said. "To have His Holiness turn up at the centre ... it's just a remarkable day."

The Dalai Lama used his speech to champion the need for broader education.

"He was saying the centre shouldn't just be about teaching Buddhism and practising it, it should be a centre for education of the community as a whole," Mr Cameron said.

"He talks about tolerance, he talks about kindness, he talks about compassion ... In a world that seems to be getting angrier and more violent, that message to me seems more relevant than it ever has."

The Dalai Lama's talk today, on prosperity, health and friendship, will break a crowd record for the Adelaide Convention Centre.

He has already spoken in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Dalai Lama is visiting Adelaide for the first time in 21 years.

Follower Kate Durham was among the crowd who turned out to see the Dalai Lama.

"It's a very divine moment," she said. "It means a lot."

The Dalai Lama is in Adelaide for a sold-out public talk at the Convention Centre tomorrow afternoon.


TORY SHEPHERD AND DEB BOGLE ADELAIDENOW JUNE 20, 2013 10:57PM

Dalai Lama on Freedom

When you are free, you understand freedom.  When you are not free, you  might understand it more.

I have often experienced up-close situations where people are not free.

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama explains, “Today, the values of democracy, open society, respect for human rights, and equality are becoming recognized all over the world as universal values.

To my mind there is an intimate connection between democratic values and the fundamental values of human goodness.

Where there is democracy there is a greater possibility for the citizens of the country to express their basic human qualities, and where these basic human qualities prevail, there is also a greater scope for strengthening democracy. Most importantly, democracy is also the most effective basis for ensuring world peace.”

I spent time in Warsaw, Poland during the Solidarity Movement when the country was occupied by Russian communists and a state of war—martial law—was enforced. Curfews restricted movement, shops ran out of food and basics.

Luxury items such as coffee were non-existent.  The people I interviewed supported the Solidarity workers who were trying to re-gain control of their country. They wanted freedom.

I did not know how difficult my situation would be, until I arrived.  But strangers eased my distress.

According to His Holiness, “We also need to focus on cultivating good human relations, for, regardless of differences in nationality, religious faith, race, or whether people are rich or poor, educated or not, we are all human beings.

When we are facing difficulties, we invariably meet someone, who may be a stranger, who immediately offers us help. We all depend on each other in difficult circumstances, and we do so unconditionally. We do not ask who people are before we offer them help. We help because they are human beings like us.”

When the Russian KGB (State Security Committee) detained me and took me in for questioning, I was terrified.

However, the interrogating officer ended up helping me.  He had a fern plant on his tiny window sill. It was struggling to stay alive in the cold and lack of light.  I commented on the plant and we struck up a conversation about keeping ferns healthy in the deep of winter.

He was impressed by my Polish which I had learned as a child from my Polish grandmother and soon I was released.

He urged me to take the first available flight out of Poland when air travel resumed. And when he handed back my passport we smiled at each other with loving kindness and respect.

“Peace starts within each one of us,” The Embodiment of the compassion of Avalokiteshvara assures us.

“When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities and so on. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”

Today Poland is a free country.

By Terry Reis Kennedy, Dec 10, 2012, Deccan Herald