It wasn’t just seeing the Dalai Lama. 

Or hearing his words—“The 20th century became like the century of bloodshed. This century should be the century of dialogue.”—swirl through a stadium filled with 55,000 other people. 

It wasn’t just the Salish Elders, original inhabitants of this land, who opened the ceremony, dancing in the middle of Quest Field, thanking the ground and the place for allowing us to gather. 

Or the kids from local schools who pledged compassion and who sang in a dozen languages.

It wasn’t just the message of gratitude from governor Christine Gregoire (although that was good), or the reports that neuroscientists are discovering that compassion—like learning to play a musical instrument—is something that increases with dedication and practice. 

Today was all of these things, but what I remember best was the bus ride.

We got on at 80th and Aurora. The 358 MT. I sat next to an old oriental man with a shaved head. We didn’t talk at first. He seemed to be praying, or chanting—these low growling sounds that mixed in with the vibrations of the engine.

I had baby Layla on my chest. She noticed the old man and then the two were staring and smiling at each other.

“She 4 months?” he said.

“Seven.” 

“Big,” he laughed. 

We rode on a few minutes more, crossing the 99 bridge. It was as warm and clear. From the bridge you could see the Olympic mountains blazing white over Puget sound.

The old man pulled out a ticket to Qwest Field. He ran his thumb over the numbers. 

I gave him the thumbs up sign. “We’re going too.” 

We started talking then. Baby Layla listening all the while as if she understood. He was from Tibet, but fled to India along with the Dalai Lama and thousands of others, in 1959. He lived there 40 years. In 1996 he moved to Seattle. 

“Have you been any other places in the US?”

“Only California and Portland. I have to keep working to send money back to India," he said.

"India too many poor people. Here, not so many poor. Here religious freedom. Women’s Rights. In China, no women’s rights, no religious freedom. 

"In China (he held both fists then clenched them, hard) rules strict. The police (he made the sign of a gun, only not the pow-pow pistol sign a kid growing up here would make, but a pistol aimed downward at someone tied on the ground) they kill.

"Here they just arrest you . . they give you food. Then you go home. 

"So lucky. We have a good life. We live in the best country. But we must make a good path for the next life. 

"We have to . . .compassion. We have to love each other. You have to love your family. Then you are happy.”

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For more information on local events in Seattle with the Dalai Lama this week, check:

seedsofcompassion.org