holy lama

On Saturday night, I went to a book release party for The Tibetan Book of Meditation, authored by Lama Christie McNally. The book is beautiful, and the evening was so inspiring. Lama Christie and Geshe Michael entered through a row of people all offering flowers and fruit. Despite the number of people greeting them, these two wonderful teachers took the time to stop and acknowledge each person, genuinely greeting and smiling at each individual. We tend to think of high, holy teachers as distant from us -- somewhat unapproachable and superior. But perhaps inspired by the twinkling eyes, warm smile and humble demeanor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in whose lineage they teach, our teachers are sweet, kind, loving and warm. Their main teaching is that kindness and compassion towards others is what brings happiness -- and they live this message.

Lama Christie led a brief emptiness meditation before talking about her book. One of the phrases she used was that we paint the picture of our reality like a painter paints a landscape. No two painters will see the same scene in the same way. In fact, the same painter can see the scene completely differently at a different time (think of all of Monet's paintings of water lilies). And we jump into our lives as if jumping into a painting. This reminded me of the movie "Mary Poppins" -- when Mary, Bert, Jane & Michael jump into Bert's chalk drawing and sing "It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary." What a lovely thought. If you don't like something in your reality, paint a different picture and then jump in.