Read Part I here.
With his twinkly eyes, humorous nature, and non-violent approach to reclaiming his homeland of Tibet from China, the Dalai Lama cuts a charismatic figure in his red and saffron robes. A worldwide symbol for tolerance, compassion, and peace (except in China, that is), the 14th designated political and spiritual leader of Tibet has spent a lifetime cultivating his message, and even now, after nearly fifty years in exile, the 72 year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner remains as big an international draw -- and source of diplomatic tension -- as ever. In New York City alone, crowds of 200,000 and 250,000 people flocked to his 1999 and 2003 public talks in Central Park, respectively, and Radio City Music Hall has been at full capacity this past weekend for his lessons on "emptiness" and the path to enlightenment through the Diamond Cutter Sutra and Seventy Verses on Emptiness. In fact, it is a testament to the superstar status of the "jolly little man," as one event participant described him to her neighbor -- rightly or wrongly, I personally couldn't help but be reminded of the kids' show "My Big Comfy Couch" as I watched the grinning Dalai Lama sit cross-legged on his oversized chair -- that so many people attended the three-day affair (tickets for individual lectures were not available for sale from Ticketmaster; attendees had to either buy admission to all the lessons or none at all).
What the Dalai Lama is not, however, is the equivalent of the Pope in Catholicism, as I frequently heard murmured at Radio City's three-day event. Even though the man originally born Tenzin Gyatso may be the religion's most popular public face in American culture (Keanu Reeves, we hardly knew ye), the Dalai Lama, in actuality, only leads one of Tibetan Buddhism's four sects, the Gelugpa school, and is not necessarily recognized as a national, in addition to spiritual, leader in other Buddhist traditions. His Buddhist message of tolerance and compassion for all, however, is universal. Noting that the human capacity for compassion is rooted in our biology and that even as babies, a "willing cooperation" exists between mother and child, it is our duty in life to turn biased into unbiased compassion, and cultivate our compassion to an advanced mental level of wanting to free the world of suffering. While religious Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth may not mesh with everyone's worldview, Buddhist ways of living can be adapted to anyone wanting to find inner peace. Take their vegetarianism, for example. Buddhists do not eat meat, or hurt any other life forms, be they men, mice, or mosquitoes, because they believe compassion truly should be extended to all. While the two-second act of squashing a bug may seem minor to many, in their perspective, even for those two second, the squasher's heart is still temporarily filled with hate, which can accumulate and is counter to the idea of compassion. In my opinion, the beauty of Buddhism is that one need not fully convert to implement lifestyles changes. Directives such as freeing your heart from hatred and your mind from worries, while giving more and expecting less, seem practically like common sense.
Even world leaders are coming around and granting more official audiences with the Dalai Lama, despite implied (and not-so-implied) reprisals from China, who still consider him a separatist threat. The Asian powerhouse has canceled three meetings with Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the exiled Tibetan last month, and they have also already expressed displeasure with both President Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday and his receiving a Congressional Gold Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor - on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. While the reception may not seem like much, the event will mark the first time a sitting U.S. president and the Dali Lama appear together in public. Not bad for a man who still calls himself a "simply monk."