Today is very special, we are going to hear His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak in New Delhi, celebrating the 2550th anniversary of the birth of Buddha. The event is being held in Jayanti Park in the west side of New Delhi. It's a unique opportunity to witness music and rituals associated with Buddhism from around the world on one platform during the three-day International Festival of Buddhist Music and Ritual.
The festival is being organized by Tibet House in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Culture and India Habitat Centre. And HH Dalai Lama is speaking on the "Eight-fold Noble Path". The event will also include the "Golden Procession" of 108 monks and nuns, followed by sacred chanting by various groups participating in the festival. Apparently, the last time this procession occurred was in Lhasa when HH was a young boy.
The 3 day event plans is on the way that Buddhist culture in Asia developed varied forms of ritual, dance and music through the centuries.
Margaret, Karma, Tenzin and myself make our way to the event, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. We hope to get a chance to get close to his Holiness. But we are herded along the path and into the event. We somehow were put into the VIP line and found ourselves seated near the front of the event and spent the next three hours watching, listening and feeling the radiation of goodness that emanates from this event, and his Holiness. There was lots of pomp with the "Golden Procession" and the kids seemed to drift off until HH began to speak and to my great delight were thoroughly interested in HH comments. We left for our hotel, just before the event concluded so that we will not be caught in the large traffic jam and security net.
I had earlier in the week visited with the Office of Tibet and caught up on various old friends I had met during my work with the Tibet Government in the 80's and early 90's, including 3 weeks of traveling with HH in 1985 on his unofficial visit to France -back then he was embraced at a distance. They recommended that if I wanted to meet with his Holiness that I might catch him at his Hotel after the event but unfortunately the time arranged was after we were departing from Delhi. But as fate would have it when we got back to our living quarters in Delhi "Habitat Center" the individual I had meet with at the Office of Tibet was at the reception desk - apparently HH was coming to our Hotel for Lunch - and we were invited to meet with him when he arrived! This was great news for Jennifer and Kobi as they stayed home and had not gotten to see HH! Security was very tight but Kobi and I were allowed to greet HH when he arrived - When we got back to the Habitat Center I was surprised to see the general secretary at the reception desk.
HH was so gracious and asked if we could take a family picture with him which we did. The camera seemed to falter at this very important moment, but luckily recovered its senses. We were all very touched and moved by the experience.
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