The Dalai Lama

Needless to say, April just wizzed by. So many things happened. One of the hilights, seeing the Dalai Lama! Kinda neat.

This annual trip to Seattle (Jon was there too, but we did not see him) just happened to coincide with Seeds of Compassion, a conference in which the Dalai Lama was the honored guest. We decided to crash the party thinking there may be empty seats on a Monday at 1pm and we were right. The panel included His Holiness, as he is called, and a group of business leaders, the most noteable being the president of Costco there to discuss bringing compassion to the workplace.

It was amazing to see how humbled these business execs were to be in the presence of His Holiness, who happened to be the most humble of them all. It was quite ironic, because he frequently spoke about how industrialism was the begining of the man-made problems of war, violence, anger, hatred, and jealousy. What could these businesses do bring compassion to their employees, how would that affect the customers and ultimately the bottom line? The truth is that before before industrialism, more importance was placed on a healthy mind, compassion, warm heartedness. This made for healthy and thriving societies with a more wholistic view of world. To back it all up, science is now proving that emotion is so important to creating this well being.

The conference was focused on the youth, parents, and caregivers. By teaching the youth compassion at an early age, they will show that same compassion towards others through out their lives. "Early child development, after all, is the foundation of community development." And if we can inspire them early, we might be able to soften the soul-less effects of industrialism.

I know so many people having babies lately, this is a great message.