Dalai Lama in Seattle! - A Call for Compassion

The Dalai Lama is staying across the street from my office. Its been quiet an interesting time around here. When I came to work this am, he we getting ready to leave for his speaking engagements. The streets were all closed and the sidewalks jammed with on lookers. I saw some men in robes enter a vehicle, but am not sure if it was his holiness or just members of his entourage.


He spoke at the University Of Washington today and here is a recap of one of his topics:

The Dalai Lama says the difference between limited compassion and unlimited compassion is that the first is biased, the second is not.

His point is that you can't be compassionate only toward people you like, or toward people in your religion, or toward just your countrymen — that's cheating.

You must be compassionate toward people you don't know or even like. You must be compassionate toward people whose ideas you don't agree with, toward people whose lives you find abhorrent, he says.

If you limit your kindness and compassion for people with whom you already have something in common, than you're weakening yourself, he says.

When he finishes speaking, there is silence in the pavilion. None of the six experts sharing the stage speak. The Dalai Lama laughs.

"I don't know, is that right or wrong? Please make correction," he says, to the laughter and applause of the audience.