The Dalai Lama spoke in Woodstock, NY yesterday. My friend, Red Eft, was there. Here’s an excerpt from her report. The rest is on her blog, Oswegatchie.

The Dalai Lama arrived punctually and was introduced briefly by the town supervisor, who thanked KTD monastery
for arranging the talk. A chair had been placed for the Dalai Lama on a
dais behind an arch of flowers, but he stood to speak to us, noting the
beauty of the day and the mountains all around, and gesturing to the
cemetery nearby, saying "and there is the final destination."

Most
of his talk concerned love, compassion and harmony. I think my children
best related to some anecdotes he told from his youth, having to do
with animals he had wanted affection from but they rebuffed him. One
was a dog and the other a parrot who, when he fed her nuts, became
aggressive. "I lost my temper," he said. "And I hit her with a stick, a
little stick." Everyone laughed at the image of the Dalai Lama hitting
a parrot with a stick.

Both of my kids were squirmy, wanting to
sit on me, feeling too hot or too cold as the sun traveled in and out
of clouds. Before the end they had to go to the portapotties so I
missed the closing words. A friend of mine had a restless daughter
who’d gotten sunblock in her eye and was having miscellaneous allergic
reactions. We commiserated about how, even in sitting to hear the Dalai
Lama, we must always be called to actively practice our patience. Some
attendees sat in half-lotus, their eyes shut, mouthing chants, and when
the Dalai Lama arrived they sat riveted and missed not a word. A
parent’s practice is different.