Peace Day

We had a big Peace Day celebration at school on Friday. The Karmapa Lama (3rd in line after the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama, although I'm not sure what's at the front of the line) came to visit our school. His title is "His Holiness," something I'm not familiar with in a school context, and it was strange to hear that all day.

Preparations were intense. The Peace Day Committee met several times and planned how H.H. would spend every minute of his day here. There was an online "Monk Sign-up" if you wanted two monks (not H.H. himself, though) to come visit your classroom. Faculty members with closer connections to the Buddhist community sent out a video clip and some book excerpts to explain the Karmapa's background. The H.H. schedule went out over the internet (somehow no one could figure out when classes were supposed to start that day, but we all knew what H.H. was up to). The day before the visit, a faculty member on the P.D.C. sent out an email with a "Peace Day hotline" (her cell phone #) for those who were feeling stressed out by Peace Day's imminent arrival. I prepared by watching the video clip and reading the book excerpts, which took me a total of about 20 minutes. (This detail may seem meaningless, but just wait).

The big day arrived. H.H. was greeted by elementary school representatives, teachers, administrators, and other important folk at the school gate. Meanwhile, I was ordering coffee in the campus "Open Hand" cafe and sitting in a comfy chair grading papers, a slacker right in the path of the happiness parade. (If you look closely at the picture, you can see me feeling guilty in the building behind the parade, the one marked "Open Hand.")

I saw them from the back when I looked up and realized that I had missed the M.O.G. (moment of greeting). But soon there was an all-school assembly where I sat next to a woman who clearly needed to call the Peace hotline. Her cell phone rang - no, her TWO cell phones rang - several times during the assembly, which was otherwise happily quiet, she spoke on her cell phone once during the "meditation moment," which seemed to go beyond inappropriate to some lower domain of hell, and then she almost fell over sleeping a short while later.

At the assembly, the school director stood for some time watching 1600 people or so happily chatting (where's the respect?) until he realized that quiet would never happen until he said something, so he did. We all stood while H.H. the K.L. entered - he is 24 years old! - and then he sat down and motioned for all of us to follow. A program of peace-related songs and readings ensued. Some were good. One was unusual - the premier performance of our a capella choir - they came up to the front and stood silently, conducted by the faculty leader, for 4 minutes - he described the piece as "without notes" and yet in three parts, joyful, sorrowful, and hopeful. As with most choral pieces, I missed the cues, watching the persistently smiling face of a choir member, so it was over before I had time to think about sorrowful and hopeful.


And the comment of a high school student next to me (on the other side) was telling: "What the hell was that?" Another candidate for the Peace hotline.



According to H.H.'s schedule, there were going to be several sessions with elementary school and middle school students with the title, "How to be happy." Now, I pondered the ethics of indoctrinating young students with such quasi-spiritual teachings, but I couldn't come up with an argument against happiness. I did wonder how 20 minutes could do the trick, and I would have gone myself except that at several points during the day, I realized that I was supposed to be teaching, so I did. At lunchtime, though, there was an opportunity (with your free ticket) to go to an assembly with H.H.

The assembly felt much more like an audience. H.H. the K.L. was sitting on a chair (throne?) on the theatre stage. There were floor cushions and bolster pillows along the floor (chairs were under temporary floorboards), and the place was wall-to-wall people.
The translator was amazing - H.H. would speak for at least 5 minutes, and then the translator would tell a story, presumably the same one he had just heard. I can't even remember 10-digit phone numbers. The Karmapa's final words were "we can make the world a better place." My head was full of music, but then the questions started.
"His Holiness, what is the best practice to find peace?"
"Where do you find peace?"
"What makes you happy?"
This was starting to remind me of the Miss America pageant, except with only one contestant.
And there were a lot of adoring glances in the room - none of them directed towards me, unfortunately.

I had to leave because I was afraid that I had a class to teach, and it appears that I did, though, like my other classes that day, it did not appear on the daily schedule with H.H's whereabouts.

When the day was over, I felt somewhat happy, though not as happy as I probably would have been had I gone to one of the elementary school sessions. So I went over to the American Embassy bar to think further about this with a few colleagues. After a margarita, I felt happier, but I wasn't sure that happiness and peacefulness were related. And finally, over the weekend, I read an article about the Karmapa that helped me find out how it is the Karmapa finds peace - he plays violent video games. Yes, folks, he recommends this as a stress reliever - apparently he has not called the Peace hotline, ever. The reporter asked, not surprisingly, "Isn't meditation supposed to do this for you?" And H.H. replied, "No. This is just another method." I will have to ponder that for awhile - the possible next Dalai Lama playing violent video games. Here's the link to the article, for those of you who don't believe me.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/Video-war-games-satiate-my-feelings-of-aggression/articleshow/5032672.cms

So back to my 20 minutes of preparation for the Karmapa's visit. I felt guilty because I had put off doing the reading and watching the short video until the night before. By that time, I figured, everyone else knew all about this guy. Apparently I was wrong. When class started after the lunchtime assembly, a number of students asked (certainly not because they were trying to avoid class activities) what/who the Karmapa Lama was, and no one else there had done the reading or watched the video. This makes teachers very happy, because then no one knows if you are wrong. So I told them my version of the story of the Karmapa's succession to his position, how birds flew backwards before his birth and other auspicious signs (Halo came out) signified the importance of this baby. Ok, so these were high schoolers too busy facebooking and blogging (ha ha, get it?) to read background material before the visit. Then, over the weekend, the same thing happened with a group of teachers - I got to be the expert for the second time, and the birds flew backwards all over again. Just to show you that 20 minutes of half-assed preparation at the last minute can sometimes go pretty far.

I hope that you all had a productive Peace Day celebration. Even if you celebrated by playing violent video games, you can rest assured that that doesn't prevent you from having a lot in common with H.H. the K.L. In fact, who knows what his online name is for "Worlds of Warcraft." Maybe he's been playing against Jason Szporn for years - that would explain Jason's Buddha-like calm.

Random yet somewhat related in terms of possible spiritual significance - Here's a photo of the sunset in Mussoorie, about 6 hours north of here, where I was this weekend (after celebrating Peace Day):