A Simple Buddhist Monk

My 7AM start to the day was far from holy until I realized that today was the "Common Grounds for Peace" discussion panel. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was on campus for this event. 

Hikari and I gathered the sleepy boys from our floor to head down to Goldstein Auditorium an hour and a half early. The professor of the Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Learning Community, Bruce, managed to get 40 tickets to see the distinguished panelists and the Dalai Lama talking about peace. There were only 1,000 available seats and the event was sold out. 

Ann Curry from NBC! Love that skirt. 

Here were the panelists : 

• Ann Curry - NBC international correspondent/anchor. She was the moderator for the panelists. 
• Shirin Ebadi - first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the first female judges in Iran. 
• Mohammed ElBaradei - former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• Irshad Manji - founder and director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University. 
• Andrew Young - UN Ambassador, Civil Rights Leader alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 
• R. James Wooley - former director of the Central Intelligence. 
• Martin Luther King III - oldest son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. 
• A. R. Rahman - Indian composer, singer/songwriter, music producer, and philanthropist. 
• Roxana Saberi - Iranian American freelance journalist who was falsely imprisoned in Iran for spying for the United States. 

Now the Dalai Lama gets a lot of credit for coming out to SU, but I think equal gratitude is due to all the influential people that made an appearance on the Goldstein stage. All of these leaders and teachers stand for peace and when they share their thoughts and teachings, they influence and inspire us. 

The panel

There has been a lot of protest and debate on campus with the arrival of the Dalai Lama, and people are allowed to have their opinions. But I think people need to look past whatever differences there may be between themselves and others and acknowledge this "common ground" that this whole event was based off of. We want to talk about peace, which is a universal idea. The Dalai Lama is a holy man in some eyes, but he should be seen a symbol of something good to all. He has a graciousness in his heart that only grows larger when he shares it. 

Andrew Young, His Holiness, and Chancellor Cantor

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is 77 years old from Tibet. His red and yellow robes were draped about him and sometimes he pulled out a red visor to wear when the stage lights got a bit too bright. He sat cross-legged in a custom-made Dalai Lama chair (Ann Curry said, "Yeah, you get the big chair, Your Holiness," to which he chuckled heartily in response). 

Martin Luther King III said, "When you see a man like His Holiness, all you see is love." And that was an accurate description. He talked in simple (sometimes broken) English which was hard to understand sometimes since he spoke with such hushed sincerity. He was also quite charming and light-hearted. He told us, 

"People tease me that I should act more like a holy leader. Heheheheheheheheheheheheheheh....heh."

He giggled at his own jokes, which lightened the atmosphere and made you an instant fan of his personality. 

Tonight, I'm having a discussion with some friends about the politics of philanthropy during dinner. Expect another blog about the content of the panel's discussion later. 

All photos from: http://dailyorange.com/2012/10/gallery-the-rise-of-democracy-in-the-middle-east-a-panel-featuring-the-dalai-lama/