Me and Dr. King

Several years ago I was fortunate to be in the presence of the Dali Lama. Though his press conference was concluded before I was able to ask him my question about meditation I nonetheless treasure that moment of eye contact we made that day in the lobby of the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

As he and his entourage passed through the lobby, he seemed tired, his body slightly stooped as his feet pushed along the carpeted floor. As he passed me I smiled and for just a moment he paused and returned my smile. A warm joy began to spread from my heart through the rest of me. For a moment I sensed a deep and profound sense of inner peace from this man, fighting oppression with tolerance and love.

It was the second time I was in the presence of a hero. While a college student in the early 1960’s I managed to wave my Providence News press card and be admitted to the press section when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was about to begin his historic march through Boston. Boston was severely divided between the rulings of Judge Garrity and the neighborhood of South Boston’s resistance to bussing as expressed by School Committee chairwoman Louise Day Hicks.

From the moment he arrived in Boston Dr King had a strong police presence surrounding him. It was a cold damp day and it was drizzling. Together with several dozen reporters I stood in the jammed hallway of the police station on Berkeley Street. Dr King strode down the corridor and out of the building, his eyes wide open, his face a mask of intense determination. I saw a soldisser--a warrior for social change. As he passed me I felt his profound tension. Surrounded by his soldiers: Reverend Abernathy, a younger Jesse Jackson, and numerous young black women with old eyes. I looked at him and he stared through me. I felt I was looking into the eyes of an American soldier at Guadalcanal, fighting for his life against a camouflaged enemy.

But this wasn’t a battleground in the Pacific. It was the historic, patriotic Boston of John Hancock, Paul Revere, and John Adams, white men fighting to preserve a liberty determined exclusively for white men. Although Dr. King and I didn’t connect personally, he imbued in me a sense of unity with someone out to perform the impossible. Here was Abraham serving his son up to God. Here was Moses starting up a mountain to receive stone tablets. Here was a moment of change for all America obscured by drizzle and raincoats and a cold wind blowing in from the Charles River.

I wonder if he knew his life would be cut out from under him within a decade and that he would later be considered the most significant spokesperson for Black America since Frederick Douglas.

In his lifelong struggle to free Tibet, The Dali Lama remains a man of peace, and that moment of connection with him filled me with peace from his heart. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was a nonviolent soldier for civil rights. His zeal inspired me to witness my times and to speak out against injustice. The Dali Lama’s heroism embraces all of us in his benign and beautiful smile. His all-encompassing love inspires me to work to love myself and others unconditionally.