By Julie Fancher, Dallas Morning News, 1 July 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK — The Dalai Lama discussed the importance of compassion in achieving peace — and whether he should be the last Dalai Lama — during a celebration of his upcoming 80th birthday.
“I am just one human being, one out of 7 billion human beings, no differences,” the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people said Wednesday at SMU. “[All] 7 billion human beings, emotionally, mentally, physically, we are the same. We all have the same right to achieve happy life.”
A sold-out crowd of more than 5,000 people packed Moody Coliseum at Southern Methodist University for the event, which ended with the crowd singing “Happy Birthday” to the Nobel laureate, who was proudly wearing an SMU baseball hat.
The event, which was moderated by ABC News political correspondent Cokie Roberts, was hosted by the George W. Bush Presidential Center and SMU in conjunction with the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.
The Dalai Lama, who last visited Dallas in 2011, spoke largely about his philosophy of compassion and love.
“Our unique brains are capable of many good things: compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, love,” he said. “At the same time, [our minds] are a source of anger, fear and hatred. Some of the biggest challenges we face are our own creation.”
He also spoke about the importance of teaching others values like compassion, love and forgiveness despite differences.
“We really need, I think, some sort of lesson about warmheartedness as a human value,” he said. “[There is] too much emphasis on differences … different faith, different color, different nation, different belief, but still we are the same human being.”
He encouraged the audience to work together to achieve a “happy humanity” and urged women to seek more roles in leadership, saying they were capable of being more compassionate.
“[If] a female takes more responsibility in leadership, perhaps the world would be more peaceful,” he said.
The Dalai Lama assumed political power over Tibet in 1950 but fled to India in 1959 following the Tibetan uprising. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent campaign to end Chinese rule in Tibet.
He retired in 2011 as the head of state for the Tibetan government-in-exile.
With his 80th birthday this Monday, there has been debate over what will happen when the 14th Dalai Lama dies, and who decides who will succeed him.
He said Wednesday that Tibetan Buddhism will live beyond the Dalai Lama institution. Whether it should continue after his death, he said, should be up to the Tibetan people.
“The world belongs to 7 billion human beings. America belongs to Americans … not a Democratic Party or Republican Party. England belongs to English people, not the queen; therefore Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people, not the Dalai Lama,” he said.
“Dalai Lama will come and it should go,” he said.
He joked that the former president, who shares his birthday and turns 69 on Monday, should help carry on the institution of the Dalai Lama.
The spiritual leader and the 43rd president have a close relationship, having met multiple times during Bush’s presidency.
In 2007, Bush awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal and was the first president to publicly meet with him, which Chinese leaders saw as an affront.
After Wednesday’s event, Shivam Khanna, a senior at SMU, called the Dalai Lama’s message amazing.
“I loved his really forward talk about spirituality, integration of organized religions, the future of organized religions and just the overall talk about love,” he said.
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