His Holiness The Dalai Lama...

So I saw this thing about a Global Compassion Summit celebrating the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday.  It kicks off with a big thing at Honda Center on Sunday July 5th.  Then throughout this week there are some talks at UCI.  I thought - Um Hello!  I can see the Dalai Lama!!!!  So, I shot one of my usual emails out to some folks I thought may be interested and 3 of my girlfriends and I bought tickets for Sundays event having know idea what we were in for except we get to see the Dalai Lama himself.  Rad.

Tickets were a bit pricy so we ended up in obstructed seats which was kind of a bummer.  We did get to see a lot but whenever he was sitting we couldn't see him.  I have a mishmash of my pictures and pictures off the internet below.  I brought my little digital (we weren't allowed fancy cameras dammit) but my phone seemed to take better pictures.  Neither are very good though which is why I've pulled from the internet as well.

Anywhoo - on with the blog!

None of us had any idea of what to expect.  We got notice that the thing started at noon but the pre-show festivities began at 10am.  Jennifer and Jill arrived at my place at 10 and we headed over, parked down the street and headed in.

There was a huge wall out front that you could paint on to wish him Happy Birthday!

So cool right!?  I'm so glad we opted for early because the line to get in was already pretty long and security was pretty tight so we still were able to paint on our well wishes with plenty of time to spare!

Jennifer and Jill

My little message

Jenn's message!

We got in line and Terri arrived before we got in.  We got through security and found our seats.  Now, I was thinking maybe pre-show was like some kind of festival or something but it was actually little shows on the stage.  First up was this lovely dance group.

You can also sort of see where our seats were.  These performers were just lovely!

Following them was a couple duo singing and playing guitar.  Meh.  That's when we went to grab some coffee and water.

After that was these acrobatic type folk and stilt walkers.  Now I must mention here - they were not very good!  They kept goofing and not able to complete some of the acts.  It looked like they never rehearsed.  At one point they were trying to do this thing with the stilt walkers by raising someone up but they couldn't do it and the whole time Jennifer and I were clutching each other thinking they were going to fall!  Yikes!  There was a gal that did a cool hoop thing but that was about it. 

Following them was a very colorful group of dancers that seemed to be a mix of Asian style dancing and Spanish.  It was really beautiful.

I apologize for the crappy pictures.  I really wish I could have brought my fancy camera with the awesome zoom!

Then was another musical group that was meh.  It seemed like church.

Following this was some adorable kids that sang with an especially charismatic little one. 

It's now a bit after noon and we do have the fun seats that you can see all the happenings backstage, so that was kind of cool!  Anywhoo we see him coming!  We get giddy with excitement and Ann Curry (who MC'd the whole thing) introduced His Holiness.  Yay!!!

Yay!!!!

Now you'll start seeing some actual good pics off the web.

Ann Curry was a great MC

 Throughout the next hourish, different people came up to say a few words of well wishes to him.  Then after they would speak they would go over to him, he'd get up (the man got up so many times!) and they hugged, or chatted a moment, or he put his head to their head.  It was so touching and he was so humble and sweet!

It started out with the mayor of Anaheim.  He called Anaheim "The City of Kindness".  The girls and I all chuffed.  We knew that was just a political move because the Dalai Lama was here, but he called him out later!  (This is why I love His Holiness too!).  He said when mentioned how Anaheim is now called the city of kindness - you can't just call it that, you need to live it.  He basically said prove it now!  I sure hope they do!  I really would love to see the campaign for the city shift and focus on kindness and compassion!

Mayor Tom Tait

 After the mayor was Lama Tenzin Dhonden.  This is the monk responsible for bringing the Dalai Lama here.  He broke down multiple times during his talk and it was so beautiful.  Watching someone that overwhelmed with emotion makes my heart swell.

 After this numerous amount of folks spoke including Robert Thurman (a professor of Buddhist Studies who was super colorful), Josh Radnor (actor), George Lopez (comedian), MC Hammer, Randy Jackson, Julia Ormond (actor and activist), Shirin Ebadi (Who is an Iranian Human Rights Activist - she spoke in Farsi with a translator and there was a point where she was so passionate it hit me like a brick.  Tears welled up in my eyes and my heart soared and I didn't even know what she said! It was amazing.) Jodi Williams (another Nobel Peace Prize winner fighting to rid the world of landmines.  She was super cool), Wilmer Valderrama (actor), these 2 scientists that I missed their names but were so awesome and talking about how we need compassion to make science work, and many others I just recall at this time.

After they would talk they would have the lovely moment with him as I mentioned above then sit if they were part of the panel.

A group children whom were Tibetian refugees living up in San Fran came out and did a rather long little song. 

 Then one of my favorites - Michael Franti - performed!

I love him so much!  He got everyone up and moving (which was much needed) and dancing!  It was friggin awesome!

After this a huge cake was brought on!

Then the Dalai Lama spoke to us (while munching on his cake mind you! Ha!)

This was my favorite part!  He is such a beautiful human being that has dedicated his entire life to trying to promote non violence, compassion, love, etc.  We can solve problems without violence!  We need to take care of our fellow humankind.  It was so wonderful to hear.  My heart swelled and my eyes welled up (but I didn't cry as much as I thought I would!).  It was such an honor to hear him speak.  He also has the most adorable giggle!

The panel then followed and Ann attempted to get the questions and talks focused on compassion in the arts.  It was a bit long and unorganized and some of the actors would ramble on a bit off topic (Um Randy Jackson talking about The Illuminati and Jay Z? WTF?)  but Ann was quite good at trying to keep it on track.

After the panel everyone was told to exit the stage and Ann brought His Holiness to the side and said something cool was going to happen.  But this point I must admit - I was so tired and starving.  Then this huge lotus flower lowers, a gal enters it and the  Lucent Dossier Experience  performs!  Now - I love these guys, I really do, but it was so random! Me and the girls were giggling and wondering WTF at this point.  They did a beautiful number and afterwards some awkward thanks yous then the Dalai Lama was like "bye!"  It was kind of a funny way to close things, but still rad.

All in all the event was super cool but there were some oddities.  It was a bit long, surprisingly unorganized it seemed.  It was as if a lot of the folks involved weren't sure what was going on.  I could tell there a few times Ann was totally thrown but she handled it like a pro.  I do wish we had better seats and it was freezing!  A majority of the people did leave earlier (during the panel) because I don't think anyone was expecting the length.

But the whole experience was just that - an experience.  It was so awesome to listen to the Dalai Lama speak and just to be in his presence.  The room was full of love and joy.  A beautiful celebration for a wonderful man!  I'm so happy I can put this in the books and will continue to move forward in my compassionate lifestyle!

Live and love in kindness my friends!   Help those in need! Help your fellow humans!  Let's continue to love each other and treat the world with compassion.

"An open heart is an open mind."
-Dalai Lama