11.07.2005

Lama

So yes, I did in fact see the Dalai Lama, live and in person, when he gave a lecture at UT a month or so ago. He reminded me a lot of Yoda, speaking in good but sometimes rearranged English and giggling at his own jokes.

The overriding impression that I came away with was that he was a nice guy who would probably be fun to hang out with. He was very laid back. When he came out onto the stage, the first thing he did was take off his shoes so that he could sit cross-legged in his chair. Then he pulled out a bright red visor so that the stagelights wouldn't blind him. He laughed and said he was a little nervous to see so many people there, because he didn't really have anything very important to tell us.

That much was true. His message was basically that we should all be kind to each other because it will lower our blood pressure and make us happier people. (Really, he cited scientific studies about the health benefits of being kind.) All in all, a pretty selfish motivation for being kind, and I'm not so sure it's even true. Sometimes being kind -- in any meaningful sense -- hurts. It's hard. It requires forgiving, cancelling debts (emotional and otherwise), dying to yourself, putting another before yourself. Why should we bother? Because we are made in the image of God, and so is everyone else who we encounter in all our daily interactions.

For Christians, we have an additional motivation; we are being remade in the image of Christ, who died for us.