His Holiness’ Talk on Compassion Draws Thousands of Listeners in Palo Alto[Friday, 15 October 2010, 5:13 p.m.]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks to an audience at Memorial Church, Stanford University, on 14 October 2010/Photo by Linda A Cicero/Stanford News Service

Palo Alto, California:
The community of Stanford University gave a very positive and warm
reception to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as he began his engagements in
the University town of Palo Alto on October 14, 2010.  In the morning
he shared his thoughts on “The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life
and Society at a public talk while in the afternoon he talked about a
Meaningful Life as part of Harry’s Last Lecture series. His Holiness
concluded his engagement for the day by meeting with Chinese and
Tibetan students and scholars.In the morning, as His Holiness
entered the Maples Pavilion, the arena where over 6500 university
students, faculty and staff, as well as other people had gathered to
hear the public talk, he was given a standing ovation.In his
welcome address, Stanford University President John L Hennessy talked
about the personality of His Holiness saying that when he is asked to
name the one single world personality that he admired, it was him.His
Holiness began by saying he always found interactions like this very
educative. In addition to sharing his views, the questions posed by the
people were helpful to him in pondering on issues.His Holiness
said basically we are all same human being with everyone having the
right to achieve a happy life. Historically, he said that in ancient
time people had a strong sense of us and they and the feeling of
independence. Subsequently, new reality emerged and the concept of
independence changed to one of interdependence.He said genuine
friendship on the basis of trust is a necessity now. Trust, he said,
comes from transparency and honesty, and that the fundamental basis of
survival was a compassionate motivation.His Holiness outlined
three ways in which the promotion of fundamental human values can be
approached.  These were theistic, non-theistic, and secular ethics way.Those
people who follow theistic religions have belief in God the creator who
is infinite love.  These individuals submit themselves totally to God
and through this process promote human values.For those
individuals who follow non-theistic religions, they are moved by the
law of causality where your action determines the outcome. In order to
attain a happy life they are encouraged to proceed on the path of
promoting human values.The third approach is for those
individuals who are non-believers. His Holiness said that there are
some religious leaders who believe that moral ethics must be based on
religious faith. He said this is a narrow outlook.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with James Doty at Maples Pavilion, Stanford University, on 14 October 2010

His
Holiness felt that the community of non-believers has the same desire
for happiness as believers. He therefore, His Holiness then explained
the importance of developing secular ethics to promote inner peace
saying his definition of secularism is not rejection of religion but
something that India promotes, namely equal respect to all religions.His
Holiness explained three main reasons for the need to promote secular
ethics.  He said first is Common Experience. He said when a child is
born the mother provides the maximum affection to it. Similarly, he
said that the child at that age is not aware what its relation is with
the mother but nevertheless relies on her.  His Holiness said even
animals have this common experience. His Holiness also recalled the
kindness of his mother enabling him to appreciate the value of a
compassionate attitude.  He said the seed of compassion, in him, had
been sown by his mother and that as he grew up Buddhist practice had
enabled him to build it further.His Holiness said the second
reason for promoting secular ethics is Common Sense. His Holiness also
said that it is common sense that money brings about only temporary or
superficial happiness. Material values, he said, cannot bring about
inner peace, which can only be attained through warm heartedness.His
Holiness said the third reason for the need to promote secular ethics
is scientific evidence about its positive impact.  He said scientific
research has shown that constant fear and hatred are eating away our
immune system while individuals who are calm and compassionate
sometimes even show an increase in their positive body elements.His
Holiness recalled attending a conference at which a paper was presented
in which it was stated that people who continued to stress on “I”, “me”
or “my” had greater risk of heart attack.His Holiness then
emphasized the importance of inner mental development saying in the
past, people first depended on prayers to find solutions to their
needs. Subsequently, scientific and technological development enabled
people to fulfill many of their needs. Now people are seeing that there
is the limit to the solution that such external developments can
provide.  Attention is being paid to the importance of mental health.More
people are realizing that real peace comes from calm mind, not through
tranquilizers, drugs or alcohols. Inner peace is a kind of mental state
and must be developed through a mental process.His Holiness
talked about the increasing scientific interest in this field and said
that research was already being done in Stanford University, University
of Wisconsin in Madison, and Emory University in Atlanta.During
the reflections and Question and Answer session, Dr. James Doty,
Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and
education (CCARE) and clinical professor of neurosurgery in Stanford
University, began by acknowledging the support and encouragement of His
Holiness to their research initiative. He said the donation that His
Holiness made to the Center is the largest donation that has been made
to a non-Tibetan project.Thereafter, His Holiness answered
questions in the course of which he explained how compassion can be
practiced, how the education system needs to incorporate the promotion
of inner development, how the 21st century needs to be better than the
20th century, which was a century of violence and how the young people
of today like the students gathered at the talk had the responsibility
to make it happen.

His
Holiness concluded by calling upon the young people to think of making
the 21st century more compassionate and peaceful. He added that they
should develop the conviction that the only solution to all the
problems is through dialogue.In the afternoon, His Holiness
first addressed a group of supporters of CCARE before going to the
Memorial Church to deliver the Harry’s Last Lecture on a Meaningful
Life as the 2010 Rathbun Visiting Fellow.  Harry Rathbun was a Stanford
professor from the 1930s to the 1950s whose last lecture devoted to the
meaning of life became the inspiration for this lecture series.  Around
1300 people had secured seats for this lecture.The Rev. Scotty
McLennan, Dean for Religious Life of Stanford University, gave the
welcome remarks. Mr. Richard Rathbun, Chairman and CEO of Foundation
for Global Community, introduced His Holiness saying there is no one
more appropriate than him to the speaking about the meaning and purpose
of life.In his address, His Holiness the explanation of a
meaningful life would differ from one tradition to another, but at the
basic level we were all the same human being.He highlighted the
importance of a compassionate mind for a meaningful life saying that
money and power are of secondary importance in this. He stressed on the
need to practice simplicity and contentment and having self-discipline
in a spiritual sense.He talked about the need to respect all
religious tradition and gave the example of India, a country in which
all major religious traditions flourish together.His Holiness
then referred to his two commitments of the promotion of human values
and the promotion of religious harmony and how these impacted a
meaningful life.His Holiness then answered questions, both
previously compiled as well as from those among the audience. They
ranged from how decision could be made to drawing a distinction between
caring for one’s own interest and sacrificing them for others.In
answer to a question on death penalty, His Holiness said the argument
for it was mainly two; deterrence and retribution. He said if we
analyze from the developments in countries like China, where death
penalty is practiced, it is clear that both these justification did not
hold. He said there is no reduction in crime or corruption because of
having the death penalty.  Similarly, countries that have done away
with the death penalty have not seen any increase in crime or
corruption, he said.  His Holiness said he would think life
imprisonment during which the individuals would be provided with
education to become positive was a more effective deterrence. His
Holiness said he was among the signatories of the campaign against
death penalty launched by Amnesty International some years back.Following
the lecture, His Holiness returned to his hotel where he interacted
with over 130 students, professors and scholars, a majority of whom
were Chinese.Also read:His Holiness the Dalai Lama Discusses Tibet with Chinese Students