With education and a strong desire for world peace, eventually society could literally change.
These were the words echoed by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, to the 12,000 UW-Madison students, faculty and community members who filled the sold out Kohl Center Friday.
""Many problems which we are facing today are essentially man-made problems—we have the ability to solve [those] problems,"" he said of his optimism toward the future and potential leaders that can come from a peaceful society.
""As the Head of State and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989,"" UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said in his introduction of His Holiness. ""The Nobel committee noted that in his struggle for liberation of Tibet, he consistently avoided the use of violence.""
The 72-year-old, who as Wiley said ""humbly refers to himself as ‘a simple Buddhist monk,'"" brought words of inspiration in his speech entitled ""Compassion: The Source of Happiness.""
""We all want happiness and we all do not want suffering,"" His Holiness said. ""I think any form of life has the right to exist ... not just mere existence, but exist with happy, meaningful [lives].""
The charismatic speaker kept the mood light during his talk, referring to himself as a ""rather lazy student"" when preparing for his doctorate in Buddhist philosophy and laughing at his ability to care for children.
""I have no actual experience to take care of children. So if I take care of children, maybe few are very nice, then others worse—I don't know, I'm not very sure,"" he said, laughing. UW-Madison sophomore, Kallie Pechacek, said the chance to see him was like seeing the Pope.
""He was a lot more laid back than I expected—he was able to laugh and make jokes,"" Pechacek said. ""When someone like that comes in, you kind of expect it to be very formal.""
His Holiness spoke of how our capacity as humans to control our emotions directly influences our different levels of happiness. He said true compassion relies on the crucial period after birth when humans depend on the care of another human being.
""A certain amount of my compassion happened because of the first few days under [my] mother's full care,"" he said.
His Holiness also discussed the role of religion in determining basic human values that affect overall happiness.
""Some people believe moral ethics must be based on some form of religious faith—I think that is too narrow,"" he said. ""Compassion or warm heartedness is ultimately [the] source of happiness.""
The Dalai Lama will make his sixth return to Madison in July 2008 to bless a new temple at Deer Park Buddhist Center located in the Town of Dunn.
