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I am a professional laugher: Dalai Lama

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:49 am
by loCAtek
...he writes in 'My Spiritual Journey', his recently-released autobiography. “I have been confronted with many difficult circumstances throughout the course of my life, and my country is going through a critical period. But I laugh often, and my laughter is contagious. Laughing is a characteristic of the Tibetans, who are different in this from the Japanese or the Indians. They are very cheerful, like the Italians, rather than a little reserved, like the Germans or the English.”

The idea, he says in this excerpt, is the responsibility of being realistic. “Of course problems are there. But thinking only of the negative aspect doesn’t help to find solutions, and it destroys peace of mind. Everything, though, is relative. You can see the positive side of even the worst of tragedies if you adopt a holistic perspective. If you take the negative as absolute and definitive, however, you increase your worries and anxiety, whereas by broadening the way you look at a problem, you understand what is bad about it, but you accept it.”
Stanford to live webcast Dalai Lama events Oct. 14 & 15
Live webcast of "Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism" conference.

Tickets for the Dalai Lama's public talks and a day-long conference this week are sold out. But there is still an opportunity for those without tickets to hear the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader speak: All events will be streamed live over the Internet.

On Thursday, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to deliver a talk titled "The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society" (view it here), and the annual lecture in memory of the late Stanford business and law professor Harry Rathbun (watch it here).

The following day, he will take part in a conference sponsored by the School of Medicine's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research (CCARE) and Education titled "Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism."
Speaking at a venue normally reserved for basketball games, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Buddhist monk, charmed a capacity crowd of 6,300 as he discussed the necessity for compassion in world society. But for the 14th Dalai Lama, the lecture was no different in message from the numerous other talks he has given during his 60-year reign.

"I think, more or less, hundreds of my talks are all the same subject," he said with a grin after being reminded of the lecture's title, "The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society."

Still, for those who did not see the Dalai Lama speak at his previous two visits to the Farm in 1994 and 2005, his message had strong resonance as he discussed the place of secular views in society and addressed the large portion of the modern world that did not embrace religion. Central to his talk was the belief that an individual's morality did not have to originate from a religious base.

"Some people have a view that any moral ethics must be based on religious faith, but if you believe that, then [your understanding of the world] becomes very narrow," the Dalai Lama said.

"I usually try to promote the human value of compassion to [secularism] that is not against any religion," he continued, stressing the importance of respect for other belief systems.

Moving on from the idea of secularism, the Dalai Lama transitioned into a discussion of the role of science in understanding human emotions like compassion. He is visiting, in part, because of his interest in scientific research and is closely monitoring the work of Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), a program that uses psychology and neuroscience to understand the basis of empathy, compassion and altruism.

The Dalai Lama helped develop CCARE, donating $150,000 from his book sales in 2008, to fund the institute's establishment. CCARE Director James Doty joined him on stage, later presenting the Dalai Lama with a few handpicked questions after his talk.

"Now, because of neuroscience, there is more attention to the mind and the relationship between the mind and the brain," said the Dalai Lama, before stressing the importance of medial knowledge in understanding emotional states. This information is crucial in understanding the motives behind depression and suicide, he stated.

"More and more people realize that real peace must come through inner peace," said the Dalai Lama. "How do you develop a calm mind and inner peace? Tranquilizers? No. Drugs? No. Alcohol? No. Inner peace must develop through mental ways, through mental process."