As a passionate Carlton supporter it was a huge honour to have His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama attend what I consider scared ground to give his blessing* and a free public talk. Bathed in beautiful sunshine 20 000 people listened to His Holiness covered a wide range of subjects.

As a volunteer who worked the Melbounre leg of the tour, I wish to publicly thank the staff of the Carlton Football Club. They were outstanding in thier efforts to help make the day a huge success. The ground and surrounds were immaculate, the staff friendly and accommodating.Thier efforts are deeply appriecated by the Buddhist community. Now who was the senior Carlton staffer who was nearly emotionally overcome by being in His Holiness's presence? ( It was funny to watch)

Thank you to the club again

BlueMark

* Blessings are a huge deal within Buddhism and to have the ground blessed was a really special moment.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Blessed are those who believe in The Blues!!

You need to believe in order to receive!

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

I feel like chicken tonight

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They coud'nt.....could they?

Wonderful, the ground has been blessed by a heathen religious leader. The footy gods aren't going to be happy with that. The Christian god won't be pleased either. Fire and brimstone coming our way.

On the contrary, a real encouragement of positive spirituality can indeed come from a blessing from the Dalai Lama.

This will only do us good.

As I have said before, Carlton will be the recipent of very special football blessings during the course of a season which is drawing near.

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My Blue Heaven

We won Satuday night didn't we

PS Hopefully that Aborginal curse has now been lifted

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

karma!

Yep - it was a great afternoon. His holiness is one funny guy!

Great intro by Kerry Armstrong talking about some guy called Andrew Walker whose name is plastered all over the girl's toilets. Reckons he must be a bit of a spunk - or words to that effect.

Being bathed in the golden late afternoon light on a winters day at Princes Park is an ethereal experience in itself, but to compliment this with a blessing from the Dalai Lama is to ensure that good times are to come.

When they do, we will look back at the past 6 years as if it were nothing more than a bad dream had overnight.

The special times at Carlton come quite unexpectedly, during a year which was intended to be nothing more than a team building season.

Well, we are certainly starting to build a purposeful team in 2007 with a new, young dynamic and growing group of players....

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My Blue Heaven

I was very fortunate to be able to observe His Holiness over the course of several days, both during teachings and behind the scenes. He is indeed a funny guy. He has a genuine affection for people and often seems bemused by what all the fuss is about. While he takes his teaching very seriously, he is not afraid to make a joke at his expense.

His core message of compassion and kindness toward others seeems to underpinned by a message of 'Relax, enjoy the teaching and practice.' Even his bodyguards broke 'character' and laughed on occassion.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

I was lucky enough to teach a class of young monks in Laos last year and they were among the cheekiest kids I've come across. Must be something to this happiness business ...

Bhuddists are of the belief that life as we experience it, is actually an illusion and that life in a spiritual dimension is actually a more desirable reality to be strived for.

The present life we have is a training ground for another type of existance.

So when they interact with people who are firmly attached to what they see as an illusion - then this is a source of much humour for them.

Before the first half of the 21st century has passed, there may well be actual scientific discoveries which validate this particular view of things.

Anyone that cares to look at the world of physics right now, will see that 'reality' is actually something that is relative.

This would fundamentally change the world as we understand it, transform the way that we relate to each other and also the way we regard and treat the earth..

This will be a time where everyone becomes like a philosopher.

The Dalai Lama is probably aware of this possibility too - and is gently preparing us for this quite profound change.

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My Blue Heaven

Bandwagoner

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Hopefully it helps.

When he blessed Skilled Stadium in 2004, Geelong turned their season around, and barely lost a game afterwards.

I don't know about the ground being scared, but it sure used to be one that visiting teams feared.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Dont be at all surprised if Carlton significantly improves their performances after the Dalai Lama's blessing.

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My Blue Heaven

With all this happiness etc that he speaks about, does this make the Dalai Lama the biggest sugar coater of all time?

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

I was thinking the same thing..

We have come a long way since the bone was waved at us!

Does anyone remember what year that happened??

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

He's very anti-tanking

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Green Shooter

Did he buy a membership?

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.