The Dalai Lama in New York: NY Times

From "With Disarming Humor, the Dalai Lama Tackles Weapons and War"
By ANDREA ELLIOTT New York Times [excerpts]

The two bald monks, a combined 181 years in age, seemed oddly out of place as they sat in the bleachers of Rutgers Stadium awaiting the Dalai Lama on Sunday.

"Every year more and more people are coming to temple," said one of the monks, Yonten Gyantso, 84, who lives in a monastery in Howell, N.J. "The reason people come to hear his teachings is they trust him. There's a lot of suffering on the earth, especially this year. The teaching is medication they need to heal themselves."

Under a cool, gray sky, the Tibetan leader and 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, rose to the stage and addressed the audience with the disarming humor and message of compassion that has won him a loyal following across religions, cultures and languages. As he has in the past, the Dalai Lama began his speech with a strong dose of humility. "I have nothing to offer, no new ideas or new views," he said, laughing softly and offering his apologies in advance for being too "informal."

"We are living things, like trees and grass," he said looking out at the bright-green football field, and adding, "I don't know if this grass is true grass."

Again and again, laughter competed with applause. Still, he quickly arrived at a serious discussion of political and social conflict, calling war "out of date" and urging listeners to dream of a demilitarized world. "Eventually the whole world should be free of nuclear weapons," he said, but to arrive at external disarmament, people must first learn "internal disarmament," he said.

Seventy-five students and teachers from Princeton Day School filed into front-row bleachers well before the event began, led there by a teacher at the school who is a Buddhist.

"His message is so simple, and we've made it way too complicated," said Sybil Holland, 59, another teacher at the school. "We're forgetting how connected we are to each other."

As the Dalai Lama neared the end of his speech, he explored the difference between attachment and compassion - attachment being a selective connection shared by friends, he said, while compassion is an "unbiased" act. The two Tibetan monks, Mr. Gyantso and Japal Dorjee, 97, sat hunched and listening, their eyes closed. Nearby, a former flight attendant, Kathleen Davis, squealed. She had been taking notes on a pink piece of paper and pointed to the words "attachment" and "compassion."

"That's it!" she said. "It's one or the other. I've got the goose bumps."