The Dalai Lama has influenced my thought considerably for many years now. I have watched him and listened carefully at every opportunity, moved always by an indescribable emotion in his presence. Yet, as my eye and ear trained to focus on the realm of numerous Masters, I was always mystified by the emotions that HH stirred in me. For instance Kundun, a film made as a biographical account of HH's life, until he left his beloved Tibet in 1957 for India because the Chinese made his stay in Tibet impossible, is one such instance. Martin Scorcese, the director of Kundun and apparently a practicing Buddhist, made a lyrical tribute to an extraordinary man, monk and head of a besieged people and state. I have watched the film at least 7 times and each time, certain moments of the film make me weep with an intensity I cannot quite fathom.

But this time, at such close quarters, almost in a personal dialogue, I sat before a man who calls himself a simple monk, the world calls him the greatest living symbol of peace and men of faith refer to him as a living Buddha. So as I learnt and listened, my heart continued its own very intimate, inexplicable and complete supplication to the presence of a man whose compassion, humility and love were as transparent as they were pervasive. His simplicity, openness and complete un-selfconsciousness were quite unique, since these are areas of focus for me, I watch for them attentively. Add to that, the depth of his understanding of the Way, his ability to translate it into a scientific methodology for the modern mind, his endeavour/flexibility in shedding rituals and re-interpreting Buddhist traditions for modern living are only some of his remarkable characteristics. Especially his gentle humerous digs at the Chinese who have singularly brought such suffering (and continue to do so with impunity) to his people and land and yet, he continues to speak with hope and faith for a gentler world. Quite a package in one man!

But there was something more that continued quietly to pull at my heart and as I sat with my eyes closed I felt my whole being slip quietly to his feet, in complete surrender. Especially so, when he chanted his favourite pledge (taken from the ancient Buddhist sage Shantideva):
“For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.”

His Holiness must have repeated this vow a hundred thousand times both within himself and before all those that he teaches the way of the Bodhisattva. And yet as he mouthed the sacred, awesome vow the man and monk suddenly disappeared into the Bodhisattva whose eyes filled up with the tears of his intention and prayer. In that moment -the man, the monk and the Bodhisattva in a flash became both distinct and inseparable in the purity and majesty of total Compassion.

Buddhist tradition hails the form of the Dalai Lama as an incarnation of Avlokiteswara, the Buddha of Compassion, re-incarnating merely to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. Such a state of compassion is said to reside in the final stage of man’s transcendence when all melts into the infinite Heart Chakra or Anahata, where the un-struck cosmic music plays on uninterrupted. That melody is universal love and its manifest form is called the Compassion of the Bodhisattva. I had only heard, and for many years contemplated that stage of Compassion with every subtle thought, wondering always if it were possible for the heart to become so completely One. The mind wondered for it was only the heart, which would know.

That day, sitting before him, melting into the power and purity of his vow, slipping where there was no mind, I knew as only the heart can, that I had met the living Buddha