Spiritual Days

Well, the past couple of days was a break from "normal" life.

Yesterday, I went with a classmate to the Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Garden for a performance of their Enchanted Evening Concerts, a series of performances consisting of fusions of ethnically diverse traditional music. Last night was a duo consisting of a Japanese flute master and another musician versatile in Indian string instruments. It was the perfect opportunity to soothe my soul and explore its connections to a higher power, and also to use these free tickets that I won at a school BBQ.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert in a Chinese garden, a miracle in a region where it doesn't rain until you have a camping trip or a picnic, and then it rains even more. The performance was serene and mesmerizing; your conscience just harmonizes to its complex tones, in an environment that is totally conducive for spiritual and self-enlightenment. Me and my classmate had a wonderful time.

Good thing her boyfriend was cool about her coming to the recital with me.

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Today, me and a couple of neighbors went to see the Dalai Lama on a rare visit for one of his talks called Cultivating Authentic Happiness held at GM Place arena. This is the second time I've been an audience to the Dalai Lama, the first time being when he visited my university in Miami. What can I say? I just can't get enough of the guy.

As expected, the neighborhood around the arena was packed full of people. Good thing we bought our tickets online. This would probably be the same size of crowd that would gather around when there's a Canucks game, but this time with more Buddhist monks and nuns who aren't in it just to see the big body checks, colorful exchange of words, and fights. Or maybe they will if the Dalai Lama gets heckled.

It took an half an hour to get in, and another half hour to get to our seats, given that a lot of Tibetian merchandise and Non-Profit Organization booths were set up in the lobby hallways and crowding up the place.

After we finally sat down, the event began with performances of traditional Tibetian folk music and dance done by these adorable little Tibetian kids (or Canadian kids of Tibetian descent) in costume. This one little guy had the total demeanor of a rock star on his some sort of traditional Tibetian string instrument, much to the delight of the audience.

After that, the mayor, the Dalai Lama, and a trustee of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education were announced. However, the emcee was then informed that they have not made it to the stage yet, and in fact were still en route to the arena, leaving the poor guy with a long awkward silence. And what do Canadians do when there is an awkward silence?

We all sing the national anthem.

Have you ever seen that one special episode of South Park which was entirely about Terrence & Philip, foiling a plot by Saddam Hussein to take over Canada? Remember at the end of the episode, when Sadam Hussein has been stopped and T&P saved the day, all the Canadians with their plastic-Easter-egg-shaped heads started singing Oh Canada? They were right about us!

It was totally surreal. Imagine being in a musical, where the whole stage usually breaks into song spontaneously. Now imagine that the musical is about an entire arena audience, and every song in the opus is the national anthem. Unlike other normal Canadians, the unprovoked singing of Oh, Canada felt rather awkward for me, but I just sang along anyway to avoid feeling left out. Besides, if this was the US, I'd be branded as a non-patriot and lynched.

The Dalai Lama finally emerged, and the first item on the program was the presentation of an honorary Canadian citizenship to the Dalai Lama by one of our Minister of Immigration or some bigwig like that, then a speech by a trustee of the Dalai Lama Center recounting his experiences in Tibet and China.

At last, it was the Dalai Lama's turn to speak. He started with a gesture of humility by amusingly chastising the trustees for naming the Dalai Lama Center after him, when he could think of a hundred better names. He then cracked a few jokes like that he is happy to be an honorary Canadian citizen, but once they ask him to pay taxes, he is fleeing back to India. Fun Dalai Lama stuff.

Then he cut to the chase and imparted his wisdom. Unfortunately, because his English isn't too good, he couldn't convey his deeper views, but his words still bear a lot of weight nevertheless. I guess he would want me to spread the word, so here are a couple of things I managed to take home.

In order to stay happy, you must not let traumatic events and hardships affect you too greatly. You are like an ocean. For example when your best friend dies, of course you will feel grief, but only the surface of your ocean is turbulent; your innermost depths, however, should barely be disturbed at all. One corollary I managed to get from that was that in order to remain calm in the face of adversity, make your ocean very deep. How do you do that? Add water. Lots of water...

In order to bring happiness to others, you must first bring happiness to yourself; don't try to altruistically and stoically make other people happy if you yourself are unhappy. If you are not happy, then when others express their happiness to you - such as when stranger waves, smiles, and says hi to you - you would only receive it with suspicion. How can you spread happiness if you are unable to even reciprocate it?

After his talks and a little Q&A to the e-mails he has received, it was time for the Dalai Lama to say goodbye. The audience then gave the warmest farewell that an arena full of Canadians could give. We walked out of that session feeling a bit wiser, or at least like a wiseass.

Well, that's everything I want to say.....Yup, I'm finished......That's all.......umm.......err.................

~Oh, Canada! Our home and native land...~

The view from the nosebleed seats behind the concert.
Thank God I'm not sitting here.