The Dalai Lama Wins Hearts and Minds at Glastonbury

A report from Glastonbury Festival by Communications intern, Issie Lakin (Year 10, Alcester Academy).

The morning of Sunday the 28th of June at Glastonbury music festival was quiet, with a sense of mystery in the air as rumours whispered through the tents and anticipation heightened. At 10.30am via worthyFM, the on-site radio station, the news was announced: “His holiness, the Dalai Lama to appear at the stone circle at 10.45am.” With a half an hour walk ahead of me and with only 15 minutes to get there, I headed off.

After an agonizing power walk over to the sacred space, I got there in time to see BBC executive Sir Alan Yentob introduce His Holiness the Dalai Lama onto the stage. The ‘stage’ was a small wooden temple with the Tibetan flag displayed on the wall behind him. As he appeared on stage, the crowd silenced as they watched in awe at the presence of a man who many seemed to admire and adore. He began by explaining how nice it was to see so many happy people and how this is in stark contrast to the situation of so many of the world’s inhabitants:

“Brothers and sisters, I can see you’re enjoying this Festival. On my way here, I noticed that everyone seems to be full of joy. I’m happy to have been invited to this Festival of people. As I always say, the purpose of life is to be happy. Who knows what tomorrow may bring, but we live in hope. Without hope our lives have no direction. The 7 billion human beings like us alive today all have a right to be happy. And it’s sad to note that while you are here enjoying yourselves, in other parts of the world like Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, people are killing each other. Therefore, we need to promote a greater awareness that we are all human brothers and sisters, that we belong to one human family.”

Then the Dalai Lama explained how suffering is closely related to materialism:

“I speak to you now just as another human being. Like you, I too am subject to mental disturbances. Like you I love my life, in fact everyone loves their own lives and everyone has a right live a happy life. And yet, we tend to make problems for ourselves. What we need to do instead is to promote greater human affection. Problems like killing, cheating and exploitation arise when we only think in the short term. Our education systems are oriented towards materialism. We need to change this to a greater focus on the long term and teaching about inner values, secular ethics. This entails simple warm-heartedness and a real sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. On such a basis we could demilitarise the world and use the money saved to close the gap between rich and poor.”

“I don’t expect to see real change in my lifetime, but if you young people, people who belong to the 21st century start to make efforts now, the later parts of the century could see a happier more peaceful world. Please think seriously about this. This is something I am committed to, just as I am committed, as a Buddhist monk to promoting religious harmony and as a Tibetan to the preservation of Tibetan religion, culture and language. Tibetan culture is characterized by peace and compassion, which makes it something worth preserving.”

Finally, His Holiness reflected on how he, himself, overcomes suffering:

“Faced with difficulties, I take the advice of Shantideva, an 8th century Indian master who said ‘Think carefully about difficulties you face - if they can be overcome, there is no need to worry. What you need to do is make effort. If they can’t be overcome, worry is of no use.’ This is practical advice that I follow myself. My other secret is that I get nine hours sleep. I get up at 3am and I do about 5 hours mediation, mostly analytical meditation. I analyse who I am, and what the world is; the idea of interdependence. The real meaning of the word ‘jihad’ is not doing harm to others, but engaging in combat with your disturbing emotions. Every day I try to do this. Whether we are angry about some things or attached to others, our feelings about them are exaggerated. As an American psychiatrist told me, our feelings like this are 90% our own mental projection.”

The Dalai Lama throughout his speech displayed humour, nostalgia and of-course, compassion. Many questions were asked to the Dalai Lama, but one in particular stuck with me. “If you weren’t the Dalai Lama for a day, what would you like to do?” At this point the Dalai Lama seemed lost in thought, and then delivered his answer with positive certainty, “I would be a tractor driver in my home town.”

After an hour of intense questions, his Holiness headed off to Greenpeace fields for his lunch whilst I stayed at the stone circle and spent time talking with Lizo Mzimba, Sir Alan Yentob and even a man dressed as Jesus.

Later on in the day, during Patti Smith’s performance at 3pm, the Dalai Lama was brought on stage in front of a mass audience. Many of them might not have shared the same feelings or views as His Holiness. But as soon as he stepped on to the pyramid stage, the audience leapt to their feet in complete respect. Accompanied by Patti Smith, the crowd sang him happy birthday. The audience of thousands was silent and clinging on to every word the Dalai Lama said. He began:

“Dear sisters and brothers, I really appreciate it when so many of you express your warm feelings to me and I reciprocate. Every day I dedicate my actions of body, speech and mind to the benefit of others. When you show me such warm affection it strengthens my enthusiasm. I’ve watched you musicians here and see that although your hair is white, your voices and physical actions are youthful. That encourages me in turn, although I’m now 80, to be more active like you.”

The Dalai Lama then ended the day as he had begun: By reflecting on the importance of happiness.

“We are all the same as human beings. We all want to lead a happy life. We can think of every day as a new day, as a birthday. When we wake up we can remind ourselves - ‘I need to be happy, I need to have warm feelings towards others. This will build self-confidence, honesty, transparency, which leads to trust. And trust is the basis of friendship. We are social animals and we need friends. This is a source of happiness that I wish to share with you. Thank you”

Overall, his Holiness was very much accepted and respected at Glastonbury 2015. The crowd enthusiastically welcomed him with deep respect and reverence. I interviewed young people in the crowd to get their feedback on the day and they described the Dalai Lama as ‘inspiring, loving and passionate.’

I hope he will be back next year.

Issie Lakin