The Day I Met His Holiness the Dalai Lama

This is an excerpt about the time I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama from an essay I wrote recently. He was in Albany in the spring of 2009 on a promotional tour. Before his speech to a sold-out crowd, he met with a dozen or so reporters and photographers from the Capital District. It was an experience I'll never forget.

He seemed taller in person, and for someone who travels the world with such frequency at his age, I thought he was quite nimble. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was moving down a line of reporters, thanking them after a media briefing. His people urged him to hurry up--especially since he had talked with the reporters for nearly an hour instead of the allotted 30 minutes, pushing him even further behind schedule. But he insisted on greeting each one. Some asked for autographs, and amazingly he complied without having to stop moving. As he approached me, I held out my hand. That was when he stopped right in his tracks.

“You’re shaking,” he said with a laugh, as if to wonder if I were cold. In the fractions of a second that followed, my brain wanted to laugh with him or explain I was nervous to meet him. Instead, my mouth uttered five words that were difficult to tell even some of my closest friends.

“I have a thyroid disease,” I replied.

Indeed just about a month before, I was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease. It is an incurable, auto-immune disease that, for me, required radiation and a daily pill. I had lost 30 pounds in the four months prior to diagnosis--a byproduct of my speeding heart rate and metabolism. So was my trembling.

His Holiness immediately placed his palms over my throat, bowed his head, and appeared to say a meditation. After a few seconds, he was finished. Then he looked me in the eyes and said, “Be happy.” Just moments before, he had told us reporters that happiness is the purpose of our lives; however, 18 months would pass before I understood what he meant.