{"id":664,"date":"2009-01-23T12:39:43","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T12:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/01\/obama-had-the-dalai-lamas-scar.html"},"modified":"2009-01-23T12:39:43","modified_gmt":"2009-01-23T12:39:43","slug":"obama-had-the-dalai-lamas-scar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/01\/obama-had-the-dalai-lamas-scar.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama Had The Dalai Lama’s Scarf In His Pocket During His Swearing In"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lama Surya Das<\/a> passed on this fascinating bit. Richard Blum<\/a>, who is the husband of California Senator Diane Feinstein, also happens to be a major supporter of Buddhism. He was up on the platform during the swearing in.
\nBeforehand, he told Barack Obama that he had with him a white khata<\/a> — a silk Tibetan scarf — given him by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Blum described what happened next in a letter to an associate of the Dalai Lama:<\/p>\n

“I offered it to President Obama before the ceremony. I said that I could get it delivered to him later. He said, no, that he was going to take it and have it with him; in fact, it was in his pocket when he was sworn-in.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s the significance? Lama Surya Das, one of the nation’s leading Buddhist monks\/teachers, explains:<\/p>\n

“The meaningful symbolic gesture of our youthful new president keeping
\nthe Dalai Lama’s blessing scarf in his pocket during the inaugeration
\ncertainly augurs good things for Obama, for us and for the country and the
\nworld, in its way, however great or small; but I think it’s we ourselves
\nwho have to help the new president and his team of allies, give of our best
\nto the collective good right now in these troubled times, and not wait for
\nsomeone else or perhaps divine intercession to do it for us. I like to
\nremember the old Middle Eastern saying: ‘Trust in Allah but tie up your camel.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lama Surya Das passed on this fascinating bit. Richard Blum, who is the husband of California Senator Diane Feinstein, also happens to be a major supporter of Buddhism. He was up on the platform during the swearing in. Beforehand, he told Barack Obama that he had with him a white khata — a silk Tibetan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nObama Had The Dalai Lama's Scarf In His Pocket During His Swearing In - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/01\/obama-had-the-dalai-lamas-scar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama Had The Dalai Lama's Scarf In His Pocket During His Swearing In - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lama Surya Das passed on this fascinating bit. Richard Blum, who is the husband of California Senator Diane Feinstein, also happens to be a major supporter of Buddhism. He was up on the platform during the swearing in. 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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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