“The Dalai Lama is now following your tweets on Twitter.”
Less than a year ago I wouldn’t have even understood the meaning of this phrase. The word “Twitter”, let alone the concept of Tweets from the Dalai Lama were not in my lexicon a short year ago. Everyone talks about the power of the Internet and new social media. Receiving this message in my morning inbox is one of the most wonderful examples of this I have experienced to date !
I also thought, “Holy cow the Dalia Lama knows who I am!”. Now, I know what you are thinking, that I am pretty naive. He is following 64k people and he probably has a team of Tweeters. But still I like the ratio – billions of people out there and I am within his close circle of tens of thousands.
Raised in stick Catholic schools, I have always been drawn to the Buddhist’s liberal teachings and the peacefulness of its followers. I consider the Dalia Lama to be one of the great masters of our time. He is on my top three living people I would like to meet (can you guess who the other two are?). So, for me to imagine that my Tweets might somehow reach the Dalai Lama is mind-blowing. I am reminded of the remark Biance made on the evening of Barack Obama’s inauguration, “He makes you want me want to be smarter”. Now, I feel the pressure to Tweet smarter!
One of the many things I admire about this joyful sage is his love of science and technology. He believes we need to create a better balance science and spirituality. He is living this model by leveraging the best of the new technology for its ability to connect, while doing it better than even media giants like Oprah. Now don’t get me wrong, I adore Oprah, but she has almost 2 million followers and is following only 19 people – this is considered a colossal faux pas on Twitter!
As I got all caught up in the euphoria, swooning like a teenager at rock concert, I was reminded of the famous Buddhist parable, The Monk with the Sweaty Palms. In this story, a senior monk is about to meet the Dalai Lama when he realizes that he is not ready for enlightenment because he is nervous (has sweaty palms) in the prescence of such a revered figure. This parable teaches us that we are all equal and should not revere anyone no matter what their status in life, anymore than we should look down on those of lower status.
Lately, I have been labouring into the wee hours of the night on a new social entrepreneurial venture – a business that will support small businesses in their efforts to become more sustainable. As with this type of endeavour, I have been battling my own set of demons. I constantly question whether I can actually pull it off. I don’t believe I could get a better sign that I am on the right track, unless of course God “poked me” on Facebook!
The reaction I received from my friends about this was lukewarm, at best. What I quickly realized is that most of my cohorts have only a vague knowledge of Twitter. I hope that through this post I will begin to illustrate to them and others the incredible power of this new channel.
Posted by Lianne Bridges
Founder of DesigningTransformation.com
[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Please let us know what you think!