Compassion, love, happiness, mindfulness, forgiveness and respect

On October 24 His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama visited UM. The title above summarizes most of his speech but there is no way to summarize the experience. The first thing he told us was that peace and change was in our hands, as students it is our responsibility. Peace is possible through compassion, I think this is the word he emphasized the most during that hour, and possibly the solution to most conflicts all over the world. When talking about religion he highlighted the need to respect everyone’s point of view and concluded that there is one thing all religions have in common: faith. I really did not expect his advice to stick to our own religion. He mentioned the importance of tradition and was able to convey a sense of security in our own beliefs that opened a new perspective for the religious debate.  During the entire hour he was constantly making jokes, telling us stories and portraying a very down-to-earth character, things were as simple as eating a plate of cookies with people he visited. After I left it finally hit me, this is a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize and that is slowly changing the world by doing the simplest little things. It was very humbling to see him admit he had no idea when answering some of the questions at the end; and as it is true he must not know the science details of the most controversial topics nowadays, it all came down to forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, respect and love to be on our way to the pursuit of happiness. 

DM