Cchicken's Weblog

 I heard on the radio yesterday that this is the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet.  I immediately began thinking about His Holiness the Dalai Lama after hearing the piece on the radio, and decided to make a little post dedicated to him and a very special day in my life. 

An organization called Seeds of Compassion brought the Dalai Lama here to Seattle last April to discuss his views on compassion, it’s importance, and most exciting for me, the early childhood teacher- why compassion is the essential ingredient in early childhood education.  I couldn’t score a ticket to the big event, but I did get the opportunity to be present during one of his panel discussions.  Even though my seat was fairly high up in the bleachers, and even though his voice could be so quiet I had to strain to hear it, I sensed the significance of his presence, and I could honestly feel the ‘good’ radiating from his body.  Quiet and small, his presence alone is quite powerful.  He is a tiny old man, who immediately showed the audience he had no qualms about being silly, joyful, and downright child-like in the midst of all the serious talk.  He sat in a chair larger than himself, pulled out a maroon visor that matched his robes, and put it on, making some joke about the lighting hurting his eyes.  He then proceeded to curl up on the chair, legs tucked underneath him, comfortable and ready to discuss the importance of compassion.

“Compassion…make you sleep!”  he announced with a laugh.   “Ahh, yes.  Compassion help you sleep better.  If you have compassion, you have no worries, you happier, you sleep.  I love sleep.  I sleep oh, 8, 9, sometimes 10 hours in a night.  People don’t sleep enough.”  And then he laughed at his own joke, as he continued to do throughout the conversation.  (By the way, he is actually hilarious.  Once he got himself laughing so hard he started slapping his knee and had to stop for a moment)

The day was a confirmation of many things for me.  Primarily, it felt positively AWESOME to have such a significant world figure in my town to discuss the importance of my job, especially when early childhood can easily be ‘poo-poo-ed’ as nothing of great significance, and when education in general has been leaning towards who can score the highest on a test.  I have always been interested in the teachings of Buddhism, and I have great respect for the Dalai Lama, so hearing him discuss my world was fascinating.  Additionally, he reminded me that I have been correct in one of my main assumptions.

Compassion.  One word that encompasses so much.  Compassion arises when we realize we never fully know what is happening in another person’s life.  We don’t get to make those assumptions.  

I remember being younger, standing in line at a Dairy Queen or something (I have an ice cream addiction, so probably, yes, DQ) and watching the man in front of me berate the cashier for being slow.  I was horrified.  While yes, he needed his Blizzard NOW, and I understand customers deserve their services, I could not believe how rude he was to her.  Before having a customer/cashier relationship there should have been the human being relationship.  I kept thinking to myself- How does he know what her day has been like?  Maybe her son was in a car accident and she’s frazzled.  Maybe she found out her husband lost his job.  Maybe she’s trying to make extra money so that her daughter can take ballet lessons.  Maybe she burned her breakfast, stubbed her toe, lost her cat, and got to work late.  Compassion.

As I’ve gotten older, I continue to discover Compassion as a main ingredient for Peace.  We all have stories.  We all have hurts.  We all have things that have happened to us, that are happening to us, and that will happen to us that are painful.  Many may be able to look great on the outside, but have deep and painful parts to our otherwise cheery selves.  There isn’t a person among us who does not grapple with something not so ready to be put on display for all to see.  My struggle ( no, I’m not letting you in on my personal story here…just what I’m learning:) has been in developing the ability to have my “somethings” be a part of my being, but to not let them hold me back from becoming who I need to be.  I know from my experience that I cannot judge any one else’s struggle, just as I don’t want anyone to judge my own.  If we can all accept that we all are human, that part of being human is to experience pain, but to learn from it, we are on a more level playing ground for Compassion.  

We have no idea what is going on in another person’s life on any particular day.  We have no idea (even when we think we do, sometimes).  With that in mind, it is quite a bit more difficult to be anything less than compassionate.

One more illustration here, then I’ve got to go.  Yikes. Sorry for the long post.  

Over the summer, I woke one day to learn about something quite difficult for me.  As I was walking along, mulling it over in my mind, a biker rode by me.  I guess I was a bit out in the middle of the bike path, because he felt it was his duty to come back, stop, get off his bike, and yell at me for being in his way.  I was so stunned I said “Sorry.”  SORRY?  Two seconds later I had the overwhelming urge to run after him, push him off his bike and let him know what had just happened, and that being in ‘his way’ really wasn’t the first thing on my mind that moment.  

But I didn’t.  Compassion.  Compassion. Compassion.  Actually, his bike just got away too quickly.  yeah…no…i would never have the nerve to do that…but i wanted to….