Schools

Gavin Sullivan Shares His Experience Meeting the Dalai Lama

The Loyola Academy junior from Deerfield met the holy figure in late April.

This article was written by Gavin Sullivan, a junior at  from Deerfield.

The day I met the Dalai Lama was a blur—surprising, enlightening, eventful—but ultimately a blur. 

Renowned leaders in the promotion of nonviolence, not to mention the Dalai Lama himself, punctuated my hours at the Gentile Center.

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Briefly I met the Loyola University president backstage, turning around I encountered movie star Sean Penn, and soon I walked upstairs to greet the Dalai Lama before an audience of 3,000. 

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Eventually some external force, as a Catholic I’ll call it the Holy Spirit, seemed to take control, switching my body to auto-pilot through this maze of rapid fire “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences. 

Cited by the Dalai Lama

But His Holiness quickly yanked me back into the mundane and present moment. He highlighted a portion of my speech where I discussed the significance of subsidiarity, a calling for action on the most local level possible.

Instantly I realized the surreal character of the opportunity before me. The Dalai Lama was citing me, a high school student who spent the previous days shuttling between classes, staying up completing homework, and working last weekend for minimum wage. Yet, somehow, my words resonated with one of the world’s most renowned figures.

I must not consume myself, however, with the initial astonishment from those events. The Dalai Lama posed challenges for his audience that far transcend a fleeting morning at the Gentile Center. We must work for peace, he insisted, on all levels—from daily actions to global policy decisions. 

Commitment to Love, Compassion

The event solidified my commitment to these ideals, but it did not dissolve the obstacles that impede my path. I admittedly struggle to develop a complete dedication to love over hatred, compassion over hostility. 

But through the Dalai Lama’s personable, congenial demeanor—he even slipped in a few jokes—I realized that everybody greets these same trials as a human first and foremost.  Likewise we all experience setbacks, mistakes, and shortcomings.  As long as we center our intentions on the distant vision of peace, we can gradually depart the murky arena of sin and malice.

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