Dalai Lama in Canada

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is currently visiting Canada.

Greg was incredibly fortunate not only to attend the session at the Rogers Centre (Sky Dome) in Toronto but also got to sit in the front row. When I asked him about the experience he said that he thought his holiness was delightful and had some very interesting thoughts on many topics including secularism and addressed the issues with China.

Apparently what I had heard is true and his holiness does indeed get the giggles on a regular basis, which is as endearing as I had suspected.

Greg said that despite being a religious leader, who emits a strong presence, his holiness also inspires feelings of warmth and familiarity which Greg compared to the affection you feel for your favourite uncle.

The experience inspired numerous conversations over the next few days including how the Dalai Lama is appointed/selected/found; his teachings in general; and how Greg was aware of people from many religious backgrounds including Jewish and Catholic who had been in attendance and how we both like cross-religion sharing.

Both being from Catholic backgrounds we amused each other saying how nice it must be to have a religious leader who you can feel genuine affection and respect for as we agreed that the likelihood of us ever feeling any warmth or calling Pope Benedict 'Uncle Benny' is highly unlikely.