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The words themselves are not that profound. Spokespersons from many religions have said something similar.

But those words brought back a memory from nearly 25 years ago, when the Dalai Lama spoke in Bloomington. As I looked down from the balcony on the crowd, I could feel the spiritual Cheap ED Hardy Snapback Hats energy in the room.

With the Dalai Lama on the podium was a retired and eminent Indiana University professor who had the honor of introducing the speaker. It was impossible not to notice that the man walked with the aid of two cumbersome crutches.

The Dalai Lama Cheap Snapback hats lectured for about an hour, his high-pitched voice rising even higher when he spoke about the universal need for compassion.

When he completed his speech, the Dalai Lama welcomed questions from the audience. The first two questions were technical ones about Buddhism, questions that seemed to have been asked simply to show the intelligence of the questioner. I wondered if all the questions were going to be that abstract.

But then someone asked, "Why do we grieve?" The tone of the question led me to believe that the questioner was Cheap New Era Snapback hats no grad-school student showing off. No, this was someone who really wanted an answer.

And I, too, wanted an answer. When my wife lost her father only a few months before, I lost one of my closest friends. My wife and I were still grieving.

After a moment, the Dalai Lama responded, saying that we grieve because we try to hang on to those we love. Grief means that we have tried to stop the river of time so that those we love will not leave us. We need to learn to let go.

Moved by the response, I kept my eye on this extraordinary man when the event ended. Within seconds,Cheap Kids Baseball Hats there were 20 people on the stage, all of them hoping to say a few words to the famous guest.

But at the back of the podium, the elderly professor was struggling to rise from his chair. At first he didn't succeed, but he tried again. Everyone's attention was on the Dalai Lama, and the professor's struggles went largely unnoticed.

Suddenly, the Dalai Lama turned completely around, walked over to his friend and helped him to his feet.

There must have been a hundred of us better positioned to come to the professor's rescue. But we had not. Only the Dalai Lama, the center of attention, had his attention on another's need.Cheap New Era 59Fifty hats

I left the auditorium sensing that we had witnessed a miracle. Yes, we had heard a spiritual leader talk passionately about compassion.

But more important, we had been shown, in a simple act, what compassion truly is.