Dalai Lama Visits Northwest D.C. Shelter

During the teaching session, he was introduced to Daisy, a schnoodle (Schnauzer-poodle mix), who had to have a leg amputated and whose owners gave her up to the shelter. Janna Cowell, a humane society volunteer who received services from N Street Village in the past to help fight addiction, brought Daisy up on stage.

"I've always loved animals, but I didn't like people. Didn't trust them," Cowell told the Dalai Lama. "Through animals, I learned compassion for other people. I am also learning compassion for myself, too."

The Dalai Lama hugged her, and clasped his hands and bowed to Daisy.

As he left, the room fell silent, save for the clear voice of Audrey McMorrow, 46, a former shelter resident seated in the midst of the crowd. Slowly, majestically, she chanted a Sanskrit mantra she said she'd heard the Tibetan leader recite years ago, the mantra that inspired her to pursue chanting as a way to stay sober.

McMorrow left the shelter last year and now works as a massage therapist.

Spriggs, the 48-year-old shelter resident whose chin-piercing attracted special attention from the Dalai Lama, found herself teary through both the smaller and larger teaching sessions. She said later that she had just celebrated one year free of drugs and was surprised by how much the meditation program helped.

"Originally, I didn't even want to try the meditation. But then I said, 'Let's not defeat myself, let's give it a try," Spriggs said. "It showed me a light inside myself I never knew I had."