The Dalai Lama again appealed to China for talkson Tibetan rule Thursday, saying the two sides ``need to find a way to livetogether.''

In a graduation speech at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School ofAdvanced International Studies in Washington, the exiled Buddhist leader andone-time political leader of Tibet said an autonomous Tibet within Chinawould benefit from China's economic successes.

The Chinese people, in turn, would ``draw inspiration'' from the culture andspiritual traditions of Tibet.

``Despite the great suffering the Tibetan people have endured and continueto face at the hands of the Chinese authorities, I believe that we need tofind a way to live together in a manner that will allow both Chinese and Tibetans to live in dignity,'' he said.

``However, the relationship can only work if it is based on mutual respectfor the values and traditions of the other,'' he said in a speech tograduates.The speech ended a two-day visit to Washington in which the Dalai Lama metPresident Bush at the White House residence over Chinese objections.

Bush aides stressed that he received the Dalai Lama in his capacity as areligious leader and that the visit did not indicate a shift in policytoward China.

Beijing sealed its control over Tibet with a 17-point agreement signed withrepresentatives of the Dalai Lama in Beijing on May 23, 1951, after Tibetanforces surrendered to the Chinese army.

A major uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 was suppressed by China. TheDalai Lama then fled to India, where he repudiated the agreement and heads agovernment in exile.
 

(At the White House media stakeout, one of the questions was about the DalaiLama's position on China's bid for the Olympics. He seemed pleased to getthe question and took time to clarify his position because some of hisearlier comments have been taken out of context. International Campaign forTibet)

"Now this is a very complex issue. This question I was first asked inTaipei. From one level, purely as sport, China is a great and ancientnation, and deserves to the event. But Chinese government has too muchpoliticized this event. Therefore, many organizations including the Tibetangovernment in exile, are against that. Because of human rights violations,environmental concerns and religious freedom - so many negative things - sowhether to ignore negative events or awarding them. Judging from that, thisis very critical.

Therefore, I feel those Chinese intellectuals, thinkers and people who areinvolved in the democracy movement - I want to know what the opinion of themajority of those Chinese as to whether the Olympics will help promotedemocracy and openness in China. If they feel the Chinese government has toomuch politicized, then it would demoralize these freedom fighters involvedin the democratic struggle. So then, this even may sort of demoralize -world not care - then China should not take.

I always look from various angles - it may make me more indecisive. ...[indecipherable] ... I think those organizations, Tibetan communities, Tibetsupporters and other organizations - I think they should carry this movementso that this reminds the international community and decision makers thatthere are some problems. Decision-makers should have the opportunity to hearboth sides. I have told some students - there are demonstrations, go ahead -good."
 
 
 

PORTLAND -- The vast accumulation of material wealth during the 20th century has not led to human happiness, the Dalai Lama said during his final appearance in Portland on Tuesday night.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual and political leader discussed "Ethics for a New Millennium" in the sold-out Memorial Coliseum. Ticket holders paid between $25 and $100 to hear the Dalai Lama's ideas about leaving behind a century of violence.

He was introduced by Mark Hatfield, former U.S. senator from Oregon. Hatfield urged the audience to honor the Dalai Lama's legacy by "joining together in a new commitment to making peace in our community, in our families, in ourselves."

The crowd was diverse. Bearded men with long hair wearing natural fiber clothes sat next to well-dressed women wearing diamonds the size of walnuts on perfectly manicured fingers.

After receiving a standing ovation, the Dalai Lama walked to the front of the stage, shading his eyes as he squinted into the lights.

"I can't see your face," the Dalai Lama said as he settled into his chair, making a little grunting noise.

Enormous advances in technology and development were made during the last 100 years, the Dalai Lama said.

"But then what happened?" he said rhetorically. "More bloodshed, more pain, more suffering."

As technology improved, so did humanity's ability to kill each other. He noted that advanced weapons gave people the means to hurt each other from a distance so they couldn't see the suffering they caused.

"People can't see the pain," he said.

Those who kill in peace time are branded murderers while those in the military can kill thousands with impunity on behalf of their countries.

"We call them hero. I think unfair," he said. "War is organized, legalized violence."

War is an outdated notion that should be eliminated in the 21st century, the Dalai Lama said, prompting a lone voice from the far reaches of the coliseum to shout: "Yeah."

"The destruction of your neighbor is the destruction of yourself," he said.

Going to war is not the best way to serve others.

The Dalai Lama called for nuclear disarmament and the elimination of land mines. He also called for each person to undertake an "inner disarmament."

Feelings of fear, hate and doubt are all negative emotions that are not only painful but "keep the brain from functioning properly," he said.

"Internal disarmament, external disarmament, this must go together."

The idea of neighbors should extend beyond the U.S. borders. While the domestic policy of the country follows democratic principles, "the international relations are still old concepts," the Dalai Lama said. He called on the United States to treat all nations as neighbors and do away withe idea of "foreign relations."

"All parts of the world are a part of ourselves. For a happy future we have to take care of others' future."

Changing an entire country's approach to policy is a big order, but people can do a lot individually to make the world a better place, he said. Gov. John Kitzhaber, who sat in the first row, recently declared May a "month of peace" for Oregon.

"I hope everybody should not lose temper," he said, prompting laughter.

The Dalai Lama also encouraged a life based on serving others rather than acquiring possessions.

"Begin to realize the limits of material value," he said.

That concentration of wealth while others starve should be a source of shame.

"I think that's morally speaking, wrong," the Dalai Lama said. People live in destitution in Washington, D.C., the capitol of the richest nation in the world, he said.

"I think sad, very sad."

The mood lightened considerably when the Dalai Lama fielded the last of a handful of questions.

"What does the Dalai Lama do for fun?" his translator said, reading from a white slip of paper.

He seemed perplexed by the question.

"Perhaps joke?" he said with a laugh.

"As I get older, I want sleep," he said pantomiming with his head on two folded hands.

The Dalai Lama concluded by asking the audience to keep to the "true spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood" for their whole life, and if that's not possible, for at least one day.

The Dalai Lama, master of the mind's inner technology, is confounded by the external technology that drives the planet. He put it like this: ``My computer literacy is zero. It's partly because it wasn't easy to learn, so I just gave up.''

He broke into his booming laugh.

This was Wednesday morning in his Peninsula hotel room, where His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, sat for a private interview with the Mercury News about money, technology and an ancient Buddhist prophecy. More about the prophecy later.

Back to computers. The Tibetan government in exile he oversees in Dharamsala, India, is well-wired with e-mail, computers and the Internet. A Bay Area devotee went to India to help put it together several years ago. It's a little surprising that the Dalai Lama, a famous tinkerer who disassembled and rebuilt watches for fun as a boy, hasn't jumped aboard the technological train.

But he cited precedent for his lack of interest: The fifth Dalai Lama, who was named Ngawang Losang Gyatso and lived from 1617 to 1682, once said he didn't ``pay much attention to letter-writing skills because he felt he could always find someone to do it for him. Same for computers!''

He's busy enough.

The Dalai Lama, who wakes each day about 4 a.m. to pray, read and do prostrations, is in the midst of a five-day Bay Area visit for teachings, talk and ceremony through Sunday at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.

He arrived for the interview without fanfare, wearing a pair of worn rubber flip-flops, bowing to his visitor and a photographer and settling into a sofa. He folded his feet beneath him on the cushion, lotus-style. With his closely shaved head, claret robe and spectacles, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, 65, looked to be the ``simple monk'' he calls himself. He zoomed in on questions and was never perfunctory with answers, though he sometimes struggled with his English. Then he turned to his longtime translator, Thubten Jinpa, for clarification.

The very fact of sitting in a Silicon Valley hotel room led to conversation about the vast sums of money generated here in recent years. Wealthy people sometimes are afflicted with a spiritual ``restlessness'' because they rely on comforts at the ``sensorial level: good colors, good smells, good companions, including sex. But still, mentally, they are not necessarily happy. . . . The restlessness and unhappiness that occurs at the level of the mind is something that can only be addressed by a means that is mental. . . .

``Sophisticated machines produce very sophisticated articles,'' he said, ``but cannot produce peace of mind. . . . If I go shopping and say, `Please give me peace of mind. I will give you a million dollars,' I think the shopkeeper will laugh.''

Though he is a religious man -- teacher, scholar, monk and, to Tibetans, the incarnation of divine compassion -- the Dalai Lama says he thinks most people do not derive their values directly from religious traditions. Given that reality, he said, a system of ``secular moral ethics'' must be taught to lift the lives and spirits of millions of people. The values he enumerated include nurturing what he calls a ``warm heart,'' and a ``sense of caring, a sense of sharing,'' as well as ``self-discipline and contentment.''

Oh, the prophecy.

It said that the dharma -- or teachings -- of Buddhism would pass to the land of the ``red-faced peoples'' 2,500 years after the coming of the historical Buddha, known as Shakyamuni. According to most calculations, those 2,500 years were up in the 1950s when the Dalai Lama fled Tibet. To some of his friends and followers, that means the Dalai Lama -- now an icon in the West -- is the inevitable expression of the prophecy.

Does he believe it?

``No.''

He says there is more than one way to interpret the prophecy and to calculate the passage of time since the coming of Lord Buddha. He says the land of the red-faced man might be Tibet. And besides, this is precisely the type of statement the Dalai Lama steps away from. Tibetans call him a living god, but he describes himself as a political and spiritual leader in the real world.

Exiled from Tibet in 1959, the monk travels extensively in Europe and North America. Some might assume his goal is to spread Buddhism, but he said that's not so: ``I'm propagating the value of human beings and religious harmony -- not Buddhism.''

In fact, he said he sometimes feels ``a little hesitant'' teaching about Buddhism in the West because he believes every religious tradition arises from a particular historical and cultural context, and, while people can change faiths, it's not necessarily advisable. A new tradition might not suit the convert and could end up causing ``some confusion and some difficulties.'' That's why it is ``better, safer, to keep your own tradition.''

He expanded on this Wednesday at the Shoreline, during the first of three days of teachings on the Heart Sutra, a pagelong discourse at the center of Buddhist thought. Before the Dalai Lama were more than 7,000 people, many of them Buddhist students or converts to Buddhism. Some may have been surprised to hear him say there are certain Buddhist notions that Christians shouldn't necessarily probe, as they could undermine their own beliefs in God as creator..

But there are ways that religions and their ``many truths'' can enrich one another. For instance, he mentioned a group of ``Christian brothers,'' friends of his, who ``incorporated into their Christian practice methods for cultivating single-pointedness of mind . . . meditations and visualizations regarding compassionate behavior.''

Then he said Buddhism would benefit by emulating the Christian tradition of community service in education, health and other fields. That Buddhist institutions have often neglected to serve their communities was brought home by a German friend who visited Nepal and returned complaining that ``he saw many large monasteries built by lamas. However, there were very few hospitals and schools built by the monasteries.''

``There's nothing else the Buddhists can say but, `He's right,' '' the Dalai Lama said.

At the Shoreline, the Dalai Lama was seated, again lotus-style, on a raised platform behind which stretched a massive backdrop depicting the Himalayas and the Potala Palace, the towering centerpiece of the city of Lhasa, Tibet. The Dalai Lama grew up inside the gilded cage of the palace -- and escaped from it 42 years ago, slipping past the Chinese military and crossing the Himalayas to safety in India.

The men and women in the crowd listened raptly to the Dalai Lama's explanations, spoken in Tibetan and translated by Jinpa, who wore a sport coat and slacks amid 200 robed monks filling the stage.

The scene was bursting with typical colors of Tibet: maroon, saffron, blue. The audience, in shorts, T-shirts and sun hats, seemed to have arrived from a different world.

Yet Tom Flynn, director of a Buddhist retreat center in Soquel and a main event organizer, pointed out to the assembly that there was something very right about the day. It was entirely appropriate, he said, for the Dalai Lama to come to Silicon Valley.

After all, it used to be called the Valley of Heart's Delight.

Contact Richard Scheinin at (408) 920-5069 or rscheinin@sjmercury.com. 

HIS HOLINESS the 14th Dalai Lama, the leader of millions of Buddhists, has sloping shoulders and the headlong bowlegged shamble of a bear. His gaze is intense and his crewcut so short that you want to rub his head as soon as you see him up close, although this is frowned upon by tradition and the very tall US State Department agents who hover near him at all times.

Recently, his travels brought him to Oregon, where he sat on a cushion at the visitors' end of the basketball court at a Catholic university and addressed an audience of people of every religious stripe imaginable.

Before His Holiness entered the arena proper he was ushered into a holding room at the university, a room where its athletic heroes are enshrined with mammoth wall plaques.

"Who are these famous people?" he asked.

"Football stars, mostly," he was told.

"Ah, America," said His Holiness.

"Too much ideas and ambition make you mad," he said to the president of the Catholic university a minute later. "That why a university with a spiritual context is a very good thing. A warm heart is more important than anything, isn't that so?"

"I couldn't agree more," said the president of the Catholic university.

Once inside the basketball arena, His Holiness bowed to everyone in sight and they bowed back, and the crowd stood silent and reverential for a long moment. The absolute silence of thousands of people is a remarkable sound. Then he mounted a little platform and folded himself on to his cushion and began to rock back and forth gently for two hours, during which time he talked pretty much continuously, in English for a while and then for a long time in Tibetan, his patient and gentle-voiced translator trying to keep up with His Holiness' thought, which was quicksilver and ranged far afield.

"Whenever I give a large teaching, I always make clear that it is safer to follow your own traditions, rather than change to another tradition," he said. "There's less confusion. Here in the West, I do not think it advisable to follow Buddhism. Changing religions is not like changing professions. Excitement lessons over the years, and soon you are not excited, and then where are you? Homeless inside yourself.

I will switch to Tibetan now, thank you. Sometimes when I speak in English, not only do I confuse you, but I have no idea what I am saying.

"Love and compassion are common to all faith traditions. Compassion for all sentient beings made by your Creator, this is integral to Christianity. Christians strive to fulfil the wishes of your Creator, and the primary wish of your Creator is love, is that not so? The Buddha and the Christ were similar men: ascetics, men used to hardship and not to luxury, men of perseverance and effort, extraordinary teachers. And, indeed, such hardship and ascetic practice are common to all the great spiritual teachers of the world. Yet now we seem to believe that our intellectual progress has advanced us past the great teachers of the past; we seem to believe we are superior to the simple teachers of long ago. But this is a mistake."

At this point a small girl ran up to one of the State Department agents who bent down from her great height to listen, and then the agent smiled, shook her head no gently, and the girl ran back to her seat. The agent said later that the girl had asked if she could speak to the Dalai Lama alone now.

His Holiness had a great many other things to say, but finally the Dalai Lama's two allotted hours in the gym drew to a close and so did his peroration. "All things are transient," concluded His Holiness suddenly, and there came a great silence. He rocked back and forth on his cushion. "Things change moment to moment, things are impermanent. We worry over the past, we anticipate the future, and we barely perceive a shred of the passing moment. But all of us of every faith tradition possess the possibility of pure light, is that not so? The question of who we are is very much open." 

In recent history, our world has become smaller and more interdependent. Political and economic ties, linked by worldwide communications, unite us. However, we are also drawn together by problems: overpopulation, dwindling natural resources, and an environmental crisis that threatens the very existence of the planet.

Within the context of this new interdependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the interests of others. We must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for our own self, family, or nation, but also for the benefit of all humankind. Love and compassion are the ultimate source of joy and happiness. Once we recognise their value and actually try to cultivate them, many other good qualities - forgiveness, tolerance, inner strength, and confidence - come forth naturally.

These qualities are essential if we are to create a better, happier, more stable, and civilized world. Of course, human beings naturally possess different interests and dispositions. So, it is not surprising that we have many different system of belief and different ways of thinking and behaving. And this variety is a way for everyone to be happy. If we have a great variety of food, we will be able to satisfy everyone's diverse tastes and needs. When we only have bread, the people who eat rice are left out. The more we understand one another's ways, the more we can learn from each other. And the more easily we can develop respect and tolerance in our own lives and in our behaviour towards each other. This will certainly help to increase peace and friendship throughout the world.