A Bollywood movie? No - the headline given by the Glasgow Herald to its coverage of the visit of HH the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, whose five-day visit to Glasgow elevated both consciousness and local eyebrows. You can usually count on inhabitants of Scotland's wettest city to view events such as these with an especially jaundiced eye, but sights such as Partick locals playing footie against Tibetan monks are something you don't see often, as are those of elderly tulkus tottering serenely around the Barras with their attendants (and, naturally, dharma-groupies) in tow.
The four days of teaching were delivered through a very polite and well-groomed Tibetan translator, a former monk who'd fallen in love, disrobed, and married. There is no doubt that the appearance in Glasgow of famous head of state and spiritual leader, (believed by the Tibetan faithful to be an incarnate manifestation of a bodhisattva) is a sight to behold. However, it's amazing how listening to four days of the heaviest existential philosophical teachings can transform the most welcome guest into a test of patience. But I guess that's the idea, huh?
Traveling by taxi across town, I had an amusing but all too brief (central Glasgow is small, not a whole lot bigger than Bag End) chat with a local taxi driver. To get an idea of what one of these sounds like, click here, then come back. Conversation turned to the topic of HH's visit and its (positive) effect on business; although I noted a sudden downturn in the driver's mood and countenance. Within minutes he'd professed his devout atheism, a result of a Plymouth Brethren education (they're big in these parts). He then regailed me with a tale of two Jehovah's witnesses who'd promised to convert him by the end of their fifteen-mile trip to the airport (a ten-minute drive). He replied that if they could convince him that Adam and Eve bore sons who bore children without committing incest (doin' their maw), he'd not only convert but waive his fare. They failed.
The four days of teaching were delivered through a very polite and well-groomed Tibetan translator, a former monk who'd fallen in love, disrobed, and married. There is no doubt that the appearance in Glasgow of famous head of state and spiritual leader, (believed by the Tibetan faithful to be an incarnate manifestation of a bodhisattva) is a sight to behold. However, it's amazing how listening to four days of the heaviest existential philosophical teachings can transform the most welcome guest into a test of patience. But I guess that's the idea, huh?
Traveling by taxi across town, I had an amusing but all too brief (central Glasgow is small, not a whole lot bigger than Bag End) chat with a local taxi driver. To get an idea of what one of these sounds like, click here, then come back. Conversation turned to the topic of HH's visit and its (positive) effect on business; although I noted a sudden downturn in the driver's mood and countenance. Within minutes he'd professed his devout atheism, a result of a Plymouth Brethren education (they're big in these parts). He then regailed me with a tale of two Jehovah's witnesses who'd promised to convert him by the end of their fifteen-mile trip to the airport (a ten-minute drive). He replied that if they could convince him that Adam and Eve bore sons who bore children without committing incest (doin' their maw), he'd not only convert but waive his fare. They failed.
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