I am writing now, a day after the end of finals and a day before hiking and camping in the mountains of Vermont. It's a great feeling to be finished, I must admit, though there is that nagging desire to know every last final grade before I take off later today. For now, I'll just be patient...
Yesterday, the Cornell community had the rare and precious opportunity to have an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Not bad timing, either, I must admit. We had finished our last final -- Economics -- in the morning, then walked over to Barton Hall to stand in the longest line in history.
In that huge steamy auditorium, just about everyone in the place was restless, talking and jostling for a good seat. But when the monks from Namgyal Monastery started in with their chanting, everyone was quiet.
When His Holiness finally came out, he said he thought he was entering an empty auditorium, since everyone was so quiet. But I guess we were just anxious for some words of wisdom. And that's what we got -- simple words of compassion, friendship, peace, and tolerance from the old Tibetan monk, sitting cross-legged on his chair, shoeless.
I had seen the Dalai Lama once before. When I studied abroad in India, Nepal, and Tibet, I lived just down the hill from his palace in Dharamsala, India for about a month. He was in meditation retreat for most of our time there, but he came out for one special audience to greet the newest Tibetan arrivals, who had just crossed the highest mountains in the world to escape to India and religious freedom.
This talk in Ithaca was even better. I think it was because of the stark contrast between what I've been learning and exposed to in business school -- the pervasive feeling that competitiveness is and must be a part of daily life -- and the simple message to treat each other well, that we're all brothers and sisters. Regardless, it was a special event that I won't soon forget.
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