Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 23rd 2006, 9:41am By Joan Fedyszyn

As a long time NYC resident, I had the opportunity to see the Dalai Lam on two previous occasions.

My favorite ivisiti was many years ago on a misty Sunday morning. It was one of those ibetweeni seasons; spring or fall, I really canit recall. I happened to be working on a TV show with a Brooklynite friend of mine. During the week we had discussed the possibility of attending the Sunday morning visit of the Dali Lama that was to be held in Central Park. He called that morning and we made arrangements to meet on the 1-2-3 subway platform at 72nd St, on the Uptown side of the train.

We connected at the stop, rode uptown and jumped off somewhere on Broadway, like, 86th or 92nd St. I had brought a blanket for us to sit on. We stopped en route for water and a couple of iscrambled eggs on a rolli to go. Walking into Central Park around 10AM, we approached the gathering crowd. I was surprised as to how quiet the park was, even though there were already a great many people on the lawn.

We spread the blanket, settling down to our breakfast while waiting for the celebration to begin. It was a low-key group. Along with the surprising quietness of the scene, I also noticed the absence of the NYC Type Ais! No one was having a iproblemi with anything! It was a very well-behaved group.

As I said, I remember it as a misty Sunday morning; the type of day where another degree of humidity would be the tipping point between actual rain and the mist that enveloped us. The temperature was comfortable; we both wore simple shirts. We finished our breakfast, chatted for a while, finally settling in for the event, lying down on our blanket, feeling the heavy humid air on our faces.

The Dali Lama was preceded by a parade of monks in beautiful ritual clothing. He followed them to a rather small istagei which included seating for the group, including the Dali Lama. The only celebrity sighting of the day was that of Richard Gere, who was accompanying the Dali Lama on his NYC visit.

The Dali Lama spoke in the lovely way that he does; telling simple human stories in his simple human way. I remember that he told a charming story about how your life is when iyou are not getting along with your neighbori and that we should strive to iunderstandi and iget along.i

I was really looking forward to the Dali Lamais visit to the Buffalo area. While not a practicing Buddhist, I do find the need to occasionally be reminded of a quieter life, and I looked forward to His calming nature.

Weather-wise, Tuesday in Buffalo was an extraordinary day. As the crowd patiently waited in the Stadium, I kept looking at the big sky. During the few hours we were there, the weather ran the gamut from dark, ominous heavy clouds with a drizzel to a cloudless clear blue sky!

I must confess to being a bit nervous on Monday when the local media began their reports as to the ihuge crowds of 30,000 peoplei and a series of rigid rules pertaining to "designated off campus parkingi and ishuttle buses to the North Campusi and iwhat could/couldnit be brought into the stadiumi and the fact that ino one would be seatedi an hour before the Dali Lama was to speak. It all seemed so complicated and the antithesis to the simplicity of the Dalai Lama. Who knew that it was going to be so complicated?

What would he have thought about ALL of this?

My thoughts went back to the simpler time; of a visit by the Dalai Lama to NYC. People who just took the subway to a big park on a misty Sunday morning to listen to a simple man tell a simple story of people being neighborly.

I thought about how different Tuesday could have been if UBis stadium were located Downtown. I thought about how simple for attendees to access the Metro, utilizing the Park & Rides, rather that the enormous fleet of gas-guzzling buses that carried the masses to and from the various off campus parking locations. Iim sure many people would have chosen to avoid cars altogether and would have ridden their bikes to a Downtown site. I thought about how great it would be to have an additional 30,000 people attending UBis iDowntown Buffalo Campusi every day, going to school and buying lunch. I thought how wonderful it would have been to lie on a blanket in Delaware Park and listen to the Dali Lama tell his stories of iliving with a warm heart,i while feeling the air on my face.

This post is not in anyway meant to disparage the excellent job and the years of planning that it took UB to coordinate the recent visit of the Dali Lama. It was for many people a wonderful once in a lifetime event. These are just my nostalgic musings of a visit by the Dali Lama in a pre-9/11 NYC compared to his recent visit in todayis uber-coordinated post-9/11 suburban world.

His message was clear on both occasions; we should all strive to get along.

It was the same; only different.