The Dali Lama, Pizza and Death

[Nak Khid]

(June 2018 video) Here's the click bait story, the headline according to the Today how , Australia choose to headline it
on their youtube site
Dalai Lama starts eating pizza during interview
When we look at the the interview in the beginning there was no pizza around.
They brought out the pizza and asked him to try it but if you look at the headline they make it seem like it was his idea
Then there is a break in the interview and they show another clip where
they brought him a pizza and told him it was "one with everything".   This is variation an old joke usually >

Q. What did the Buddhist monk say to the hot dog vendor?
A. Make me one with everything. He takes the hotdog and gives his money. When the vendor accepts his money without saying anything, the Buddhist asks about his change."Change comes from within," says the vendor.

Would this same reporter be trying to joke around with props the pope? I doubt it.
Then aft the Dalai Lama plays along and takes a bite out of it you here the reporter say "I wouldn' t eat it"
(apparently turned off by the knowledge that it was a vegetarian pizza)

Anyway the Dalai Lama does have a sense of humor.  However despite the reporter says "one with everything" a few times hoping that the Dali Lama would get the joke he does not seem to.

At the end of the interview the Dali Lama hugs him and whispers something in his ear.

Later this reporter, Karl Stefanovic is  sitting with his fellow anchors and one asks him what the Dali Lama said.  He has to be asked twice and then he says the Dalai Lama said "we might be one with everything" .

Do you believe that's what he said?  I suspect it was something else and he still didn't get the joke and it was what it looked like a second fail.

This same idiot reporter tried the exact same joke on him way back in 2011 and the Dai Lama didn't get it then either because he probably does not
recognize "one with everything" as a stereotypical expression

This is an entertaining thread but also irritating to see the lack of respect.  Excuse my for the triviality
of this yet even dumb mini interviews with fools, guards can go down and something heavier might skip in

The reporter in his introduction says

"he kindly agreed to sit down and have
another chat with us and I thought I'd
had a few things about him I found out
he's got a fear of flying we found out
his thoughts on women replacing him and
how much he's enjoying his retirement
from political life"

In the interview Stefanovic brings up out of the blue to the Dali Lama "so you were a nervous flyer"

 the Dalai Lama says:
(excerpts) >

no, in early period yes
there's some turbulence, then come some water here (points to palms referring to sweat) ....
nowadays not much....

the other day other night from Singapore
to Sydney on one occasion (with hands gesturing turbulent flapping motion of plane)
quite serious over city<  some people
shouting 
but then O.K....
 so that's good
well I think (it's a ) reminder,  our life is not very sure how long will
remain,  
as a Buddhist practitioner it is important to think about impermanence
every day every moment

Stefanovic: especially on a plane, the worry is that if the Dali
Lama is worried about flying on the
plane then all of us should be worried.

_________________________________________________

Interestingly the reporter,  Karl Stefanovic instead of waiting for a reaction by the Dalai Lama to " all of us should be worried."
he changes the topic.

We can learn from fools he actually did ask a profound question here amidst the jokes and irreverence.
I think he may have been wondering if the apparent "head" of Buddhism was afraid of death and if he wasn't maybe he could overcome his own fear of death and perhaps he also gets nervous on planes sometimes.  And then when he found out that the Dali Lama himself  was nervous on planes (at least used to be)
he may have thought
"I thought maybe meditation would help me overcome my fear of death but if the Dalai Lama has only become used to recently it is probably due to desensitization and not meditation and renunciation, what relief now I don't have to waste my time with that stuff"
And as soon as he found out that the Dali Lama had had sweaty palms about flying  he didn't want to hear anything further about how he might try to address the issue of "worry" .  
So you see the title of this mini interview is Dalai Lama starts eating pizza during interview
but the real title would be if the Dali Lama is worried about flying on the plane then all of us should be worried (and Buddhism discredited)

But is the Dalai Lama really the pinnacle of Buddhist practice?  He was groomed to be a leader not specifically to be the foremost embodiment of the practice

Sometimes people ask him if he is enlightened and he says he isn't. 
He was asked if he knew any enlightened people.
He replied that he was not aware of anyone sufficiently advanced that  could be referred to as enlightened.

Whatever the case may be he seems to be a very nice person with a good sense of humor and advocate of compassion

________________________________________________

How was the Dalai Lama selected?

The current Dalai Lama was enthroned when he was 4 ½ years old and renamed Tenzin Gyatso.

The search for him began soon after the 13th Dalai Lama died. Disciples closest to the Dalai Lama set to identify signs indicating the location of his rebirth.

There are usually predictions about where and when a Dalai Lama will be reborn, but further tests and signs are required to ensure the proper child is found.

In the case of the 13th Dalai Lama, after his death, his body lay facing south. However, after a few days his head had tilted to the east, and a fungus, which was viewed as unusual, appeared on the northeastern side of the shrine containing the body. This was interpreted to mean that the next Dalai Lama could have been born somewhere in the northeastern part of Tibet.

Disciples also checked Lhamoi Latso, a lake that is traditionally used to see visions of the location of the Dalai Lama’s rebirth.

The district of Dokham, which is in the northeast of Tibet, matched all of these signs. A 2-year-old boy, named Lhamo Dhondup, was just the right age for a reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, based on the time of his death.

When the search party, consisting of the 13th Dalai Lama’s closest monastic attendants, arrived at his house, there were immediate signs that this was the one they were looking for.

Dalai Lama memoirs

The 14th Dalai Lama recounts in his memoirs about his early life that he remembered recognizing one of the monks in the search party, even though he was dressed as a servant. The search party did not show who they were to the villagers, to prevent any manipulation of the process.

As a little boy, he remembers asking for the rosary beads the monk wore around his neck. These beads were previously owned by the 13th Dalai Lama. After this meeting, the search party came back again to test the young boy with further objects of the previous Dalai Lama. He was able to correctly choose all items including a drum used for rituals and walking stick