Dalai Lama: A Compassionate Heart, The Life of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Last Friday, the family and I went for a wonderful theatre performance at one of the schools in the area- Living Wisdom in Palo Alto, CA. The performance was about the life of The Dalai Lama, and was enacted by the children of the school, ages 4 to 14!
The name of the production was: A Compassionate Heart, The Life of His Holiness, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. I wanted to take the kids because my friend, who’s daughter used to study at the school, had raved about the productions of years past, and also because I have a strong leaning towards Buddhism and the theme appealed to me. I was greatly surprised, however, that the play was based on the very serious aspects of Chinese invasion of and aggression towards Tibet, with a great deal of world politics underlying the performance. The Dalai Lama and his life was juxtaposed against this backdrop. I had imagined that the play would not be touching so much upon the political bits, but instead would be only about his life and his spiritual essence.
The children carried the production with tremendous force and energy, and the audience was mesmerized. It was a nearly two hour production, with a fun break in the school’s beautiful courtyard- yes, an India style courtyard with samosas and brownies floating around! When we were driving back home, I asked my older son, rather skeptically, about his take away from the play.This is what he had to say: “I learnt that the Dalai Lama is a very peaceful and wise person. When the Chinese invaded his country, he didn’t have any hate in his heart towards them, only sadness. That’s not easy to do- is it? That’s why I think the Dalai Lama is a very special person”. My reaction: Wow!
