Let us take the time to pause in that space of not knowing.

This week a video went viral. In the video, His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) is approached by a boy for a hug. The boy is seen asking the Dalai Lama for a hug, following which the leader blessed him, asked him to kiss him and stuck out his tongue saying, “Suck my tongue.”

Let us pause and notice our reaction.

My initial reaction was along the lines of, “wait, what?”. While I have not seen the video, I have seen still photos taken from it. I first became aware of this video from the Dalai Lama’s Facebook page where an apology had been posted. “I am not sure what is happening but we will wait and see what shows up”, I said to my husband.

Since Sunday there has been an uproar, with persons blaming the Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader of behaving inappropriately, and of being a paedophile. On one hand, it is understandable. There have been many men, many leaders, who have taken advantage of their authority in the vilest of ways. There have been scandals and cover-ups. We know of the need to protect our children and our communities and we know why that need is so strong in this present day.

I am thankful for this post created by my friend Ekta as it spoke to what I was feeling in those initial moments of reaction and questioning. Her post has many slides speaking to her view of the situation but the one I chose to share was this:

“May we all awaken.

May we learn and evolve together and benefit all beings.”

I thought that more context was needed. Yes, the video and subsequent photos presented a view of what occurred but, I think that especially now, in this age of social media, we need to look at what we are presented with and ask ourselves some questions:

• What is the lens through which I am seeing this?
• What is the purpose behind the sharing of this?
• What truth does this represent?

Yesterday, I shared this article that was shared by a fellow yoga instructor: World Owes Tibetan Community Apology For Attacking Pure Acts Of Love. Between yesterday and today I have seen many articles and posts from people within the Tibetan community who have said that the actions were misinterpreted, viewed from a Western lens without knowledge of Tibetan culture.

Here then is some of the context. Who knows what else may be there? We do not know what we do not know.

What I know is that this is another instance where we can rest in our yoga practice.

Through svadhyaya (self-study) we can determine our own thoughts and beliefs on the matter. We can work on our understanding and practice of viveka (discernment, discrimination), the ability for us to tell the truth from untruth, what is real from what is not. This ability and understanding will vary for each of us.

What I know is that:

• The wisdom and comfort that has been shared by HHDL during his lifetime thus far cannot be discounted.
• I do not know enough about Tibetan customs or culture to make a blanket statement of, “this is not right”.
• I do not believe that either side owes the other an apology. I think that everyone needs to take the time to pause and become aware of the global space that we are in. I think there needs to be more understanding on both sides, that this is how the situation may be viewed through different lenses. That there are many cultures besides our own and that the world is blessed by this.

Perhaps we will all learn something from this incident.

peace,

Renee Arundhati