Dalai Lama Trip Expectations

Something Mr. Canfield said that stuck with me was what his expectations for this trip (the trip to see the Dalai Lama) were. "I have no expectations. I am an empty bowl, waiting to be filled." Many people agreed with the idea of going on this trip and not having any pre-conceived notions to cloud our experience. However, I think it is hard to approach anything without any preconceived notions. Since the day we are born, we are exposed to all sorts of different stimuli which influence and shape the way we think. Over the years, sixteen to be exact, those beliefs become engrained in your, and are hard to escape. This is a concept the Dalai Lama talks about in his book, "The Art of Happiness". He says that we cannot go from a negative state of mind to a positive one straightaway. First, you have to achieve calmness in your mind. That way, you can learn how not to react to powerful emotions by getting angry or upset. Once you mind is cam, like a blank, neutral slate, it is easy to build good virtues onto it, thus achieving a positive mind set. I tried to go to the trip with a neutral state of mind, but as we will later see, I had pre-judged the outcome of this trip without even knowing it.