cultivating happiness...

...begins with having unbiased compassion and affection for everyone. That's what Dalai Lama said as he shared his secret to leading a happy life. His Holiness is a man of small stature, yet commands the attention of everyone before him. A very humble person with a great sense of humor and a funny affectionate laugh, his speech was very matter-of-fact peppered with jokes. It was especially funny when he whisked out a visor to shield the blinding lights on stage and shared with the students the top three reasons for listening to his talks:

1. To satisfy our curiosity and just listen to see what he has to say
2. That he'll have some ground-breaking secrets to share
3. That he has some healing powers of some sort (which would be disastrous because he had none, he said)

But I think he forgot the fourth and most important reason, the reason I spent 30 minutes on YouTube, the reason why I skipped my lecturer (Ok, I’m exaggerating things) to listen to his talk... and that's to earn some karma points. I mean, I have a big deficit and I need some karma points big time. I'm so far away from the Middle Path I think I'm in hell. Ok, I am in hell... what am I talking about?

Anyway, that aside, I'm learning to lead a happy life, and it begins with being nice to everyone. Practising unbiased compassion, unbiased affection… (: