What an incredibly humbling experience. To see a man, world famous for his teachings, spirituality and knowledge, a man with a Nobel Peace Prize and years of worldy experiences… cozily covered in his maroon and saffron monk’s robes…sitting so simply in a circle of people, just listening.
Through its Emory-Tibet Partnership, Emory sponsored a visit with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama this past week. I was able to attend the session on Compassion training. In the midst of a week of five Block 2 exams (our first semester is divided into 3 blocks of core classes, and we’re just finishing the second), it was a wonderful and welcome release to sit on the bleachers and listen to a conversation on compassion.
Although a bit of the seminar detailed cognitive based compassion training (CBCT) studies and was a bit on the technical side, I was able to gather several takeaways. My first, the best of all, was the realization that if a man as highly sought after as the Dalai Lama had time to sit, breathe and listen, then so did I. A first year business student can only study so much.
I found myself learning something out of this exchange that I did not expect, though. I expected to hear about how best to practice compassion, in a world of war and controversy, but instead, the primary teaching was, “in order to have compassion for others, you must first have compassion for yourself.” Now there’s something to sit and think about. Since the minute I stepped onto campus, I have been critiquing my interviewing skills, figuring out how to better articulate my stories, telling myself to work harder and longer on my class work, taking each experience as an opportunity to improve something about myself…and here I am being reminded about having compassion not for others but for myself. So, in the middle of exam week, this was a perfect time to be reminded to have compassion for myself—for my goals, for where I am going, for how far I’ve gone and how much I’ve learned in just a few months.
And then in the midst of a few more PowerPoint slides on another study, I gathered my next takeaway—the importance of laughter. The Dalai Lama has such a hearty, lifting laugh. His whole body bounces under the mounds of cloth in which he is covered… and his face lights up. Even from the bleachers in the back of the room, the Dalai Lama’s laughter makes quite an impression.
This was a wonderful experience. I’m glad to have these resources available to me during my studies, something I believe to be very unique to Emory.
So now, in between my studies and internship search, I have a new inspirational book to read that I thought I’d share: The Art of Happiness—A Handbook for Living, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. Definitely worth recommending.
Read the full article: A Conversation on Compassion