Dalai Lama visits Princeton, answers age-old question

Seekers of wisdom once climbed mountains to seek counsel from the Dalai Lama, yet there he was Tuesday morning in the basketball arena of Princeton University.

"What is the key to happiness?" a student asked.

A hush fell over the audience as the 79-year-old leader of Tibetan Buddhism pondered a reply.

"Money," he said.

The crowd appeared startled, then a few began to laugh.

"Or sex," His Holiness added.

As laughter echoed through the cavernous arena, no one was laughing louder than the 14th Dalai Lama himself, who had already revealed his playful side by wearing an orange Princeton cap atop his shaved head.

Once the laughter died down, however, the 1989 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize turned serious and returned to the theme of his 90-minute talk, "Develop the Heart."

"Develop inner strength . . . driven by compassion," was his reply to the secret-of-happiness question. That way, he said, "you carry your work, your actions, truthfully, honestly . . . transparently."

Forced to flee to India at age 16 as communist troops invaded his native Tibet, the world's most famous exile now devotes himself primarily to advocating Tibetan autonomy and teaching Buddhist values to audiences like the 4,300 who came to see him at Princeton.

He was invited to speak by the university's Office of Religious Life and the Kalmyk Three Jewels Foundation, which promotes the culture of Tibetan Buddhists who have emigrated from Mongolia. He is to lecture next in Boston and New York before returning to his home in northern India.

Tuesday's lecture did not initially seem promising. Working without notes, his ideas wandered, and his accent made him difficult to understand.

The audience - mostly students and faculty - listened politely, however, and his ideas and diction gained in clarity as he warmed to his "main message," which he called "the oneness of humanity."

He repeatedly urged his listeners to look past the "secondary differences" of religion, race, and nationality, and to practice compassion and loving kindness. Exposure to these values in his own childhood did much, he said, to shape his worldview.

"I never saw my mother's angry face," he said, and told how, as a "young, spoiled boy," he not only rode on his mother's shoulders, but also steered her by tugging on her ears.

"People who receive maximum affection . . . develop a much happier mental state," he told them, while those deprived of it live "a whole life of insecurity."

Gesturing toward the students in the seats before him, he told them they were "the generation of the 21st century."

"If you make an attempt now," he said, "the 21st century can be more peaceful, more happy, not through prayer or wishful thinking, only through action - action with vision. The 21st century will not be happy unless you make some effort."

He later took questions from the students in the audience, which were written on index cards and read to him.

His biggest regret, he said, was that as a teenager, "I was quite a lazy student." He urged his listeners to expose themselves to diverse, even conflicting, ideas and to develop critical thinking.

The best way to forgive, he said, is to not develop anger toward a person who has done you wrong, although that person may require "appropriate condemnation" for his or her actions.

He said he extended "spiritual forgiveness" to the communist Chinese leaders who sent him into exile and claimed Tibet for China. Their "wrong policies" are the result of "shortsightedness," he said, "but they are also human beings."

One question that got a laugh from the audience read simply: "Investment banking. Your thoughts?"

"I don't know," he said with a laugh. "To make a proper answer, let me spend one year in investment work," and, rubbing the fingers of his right hand together, "with a high salary."

Asked how to incorporate Buddhist principles "into the demands of a very busy lifestyle," he spoke of the Buddhist notion of impermanence, or " 'the absence of independent existence,' which is usually translated as 'emptiness.' "

As an example, "I never consider that I am something special," he said. "I never think, 'I am His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.' " Such "foolishness" would only make him a "prisoner" of his exalted titles.

"If I consider I am one of you, we become close," he said. "So while I am talking, even this is the practice of religion."

After a few more questions, he raised his hand to the audience. "OK? All completed," he said, and made his way down from the stage. After greeting several in the audience, he was escorted by security guards from the building.

"I'm really happy I was here," Ariana Lazzaroni, a senior economics major, said as she headed for the exit. "His message of compassion was very strong, and that's something we don't focus on in our society. It's mostly achievement and getting ahead. I'm hoping this is something people take to heart."

"He comes from an entirely different perspective," said freshman Tlaloc Ayala. "He starts these conversations about the lives that are meaningful and of service. I thought it went very well."