The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is visiting Hamburg at the moment, and today I got the opportunity to see the man from up close.

One perk of my job is that I got to participate in the Dalai Lama's press conference, where he endured the questions of the present journalists. ^^
Afterwards I got to observe his public speech in front of 10.000 people. He spoke of his favorite topic of universal, secular ethics and said that people tend to forget that most religions have in common that they preach love, peace and compassion. Despite of that, various violent conflicts rage in the world presently, misusing religion as motivation. He also claimed that ignorance is the main reason for the "seed of evil" within humans and that more education would be the best way to counter it.

I have to say that I was fascinated by that man. He is 79 years old and still so jovial, with a friendly and honest smile and he can't resist to crack a joke every few minutes. Considering what he had to go through in his life - pushed into the role of the Tibetan leader from an early age on, forced to flee his homeland in 1959 and not being able to return there even once in the past 55 years - he still manages to radiate positive energy and optimism. Someone from the audience even asked him where he gets his energy, to which he replied: "While it is too late for my generation, I will always have hope that the young people from today will be able to make the world a more peaceful place."

At the end, I stood up with everyone else and applauded him. I am sure he will continue to inspire other people to do good in this world.