Sitting Through History

On November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America. It's the kind of thing that will make people ask "where were you when it happened?" As it turns out, I spent most of the evening at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery...of course.

The first Tuesday of November, aside from being the traditional election day in the US, is also part of the "First Tuesday" monthly lecture series given by the monks at Abhayagiri Monastery. It's always a great opportunity to see the monks and there's normally a packed house although this time there were, unsurprisingly, fewer people in the Buddha hall.

After the opening meditation period, Ajahn Amaro (himself a recently naturalized U.S. citizen!) made some jokes about the attendence with his characteristic wry, British style. "Hmm, I wonder where everyone could be. Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

He then eased into a Dhamma talk on a topic most appropriate for the evening: uncertainty. The main theme of his talk was that we must recognize the precarious situation we put ourselves in when we attempt to tie our happiness (or sadness) to external conditions that are always changing. It was very inspiring and I walked out of there with a feeling that even if the sky falls down, everything will be OK. That being said, I completely and wholeheartedly failed to put this teaching into practice that evening.


Shortly after leaving the monastery, received a call from my mother informing me of the news regarding Barack's blowout victory. I was absolutely ecstatic and it seemed everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seemed to be as well. Random crowds of well wishers and cars beeping their horns to the "Yes We Can!" tune could be heard everywhere. The night, however, was still quite young.

One of the guys who lives in my building and is friends with my roommate had called him up and told him about a "crazy ass victory rally" occurring on the south side of campus. Not wanting to miss any of the actions, my roommate and I went to check it out. Arriving first at Sproul Plaza (site of the Free Speech Movement many years ago) we came across a big crowd cheering and being happy. Walking further down though, we encountered a mass of revelers jamming up the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Avenues. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people singing, cheering, screaming, and celebrating a sweet fruition of the American Dream. Fortunately, I had a camera to record this epic moment and the pictures can be viewed here.

If Bill Clinton was the "first black president" then the the cool, contemplative demeanor of "No Drama Obama" most certainly makes Barack the "first Buddhist president".

Yes We Did.