Dalai Lama speaks on peace

Rutgers University's football stadium was transformed into the Dalai Lama's open-air classroom yesterday morning, when a crowd of about 36,000 gathered to listen to the spiritual leader's lecture on "Peace, War and Reconciliation."

Tibetan peace flags created by Rutgers students adorned the field's inner fences, and a large stage covered in flowers stood behind the end zone.

The audience included 27 members of Princeton's Buddhist Students' Group (PBSG), who joined the public to listen to the voices of the Dalai Lama and his translator resonate over loud speakers.

The Dalai Lama "was sitting up there casually ... as if he knew all of us already," PBSG leader Ian Petrow '07 said. "I liked that aspect of it."

Rutgers University president Richard McCormick presented Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, with Rutgers' degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for his role as "an inspiration to millions of peace-seeking people."

Accepting the award, the Dalai Lama said, "It is particularly helpful to receive an honorary degree without having to work hard and study."

Then the spiritual leader, dressed in red and gold monk's robes with prayer beads around his wrist, spoke to the crowd about the obsolete nature of war and ways to reach compassion and peace.

The idea of "[destroying] your enemy is an outdated sort of concept," he said. With modern science advancing and the world becoming increasingly interconnected, making war on other countries and people is essentially self-destruction, he added.

"Eventually, I think the whole world should be free of nuclear weapons," the Dalai Lama said, calling for countries to trust each other and to ban nuclear, biological and eventually all offensive weaponry.

"Hopefully, our dream should be [to do this] within the end of this century or the next," he said. He stressed that peace is not just the mere absence of violence but the condition when all actions are motivated by compassion.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating nonviolent solutions during Tibet's struggle for liberation from China.

For the Dalai Lama and many practicing Buddhists, the spirit of disarmament must start personally through introspection and meditation. These words hit home with many University students.

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Owen Fletcher '08, PBSG's meditation leader, started practicing Buddhism to understand his own thoughts. "I had never investigated my own preconceptions, my own prejudices," he said.

Meditation is the most meaningful practice in Buddhism for Fletcher. "The breath arises as your thought. It gets to the point when you merge with it. Then breath becomes your thought," he said.

Petrow started PBSG in February 2004, after not being able to find a religious community with which he could identify. Though the group practices a Zen form of Buddhism, it welcomes all interested students. "Up to half the people who meditate with us don't call themselves Buddhists," Petrow said.

The group's main activity is an hour-long meditation and discussion session held twice weekly at Murray-Dodge Hall.

Eight students attend on a regular basis, though Petrow said he expects an upsurge this year.

While the group is dominated by undergraduates, ecology and evolutionary biology grad student Alex Barron GS said their meditation sessions are "an important way for me to balance the craziness that's inherent to being in an academic setting."

Sitting in the nearly filled stadium, he speculated that so many people would not have shown such interest 20 years ago. The Dalai Lama is "one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the world," he said. "He's the rock star of Buddhism."