By Renée K. Gadoua
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Dalai Lama touts religious expression, mutual respect
Paul Melnikow sat about 20 rows from the Dalai Lama in a crowded gym Monday, wrapped in a quiet moment of spiritual reflection.
“There was a lot going on in the room, but it was nice to be able to meditate in that space,” said Melnikow, who traveled from Syracuse to Buffalo for an interfaith service during a three-day visit by the exiled leader of Tibet to the state University at Buffalo.
“The theme of peace was a good one,” said Melnikow, who practices at the Zen Center of Syracuse.
His Holiness,the 14th Dalai Lama, 71, is an international religious and political leader who gained prominence for his nonviolent reaction to the Chinese occupation of his homeland. In 1959, he fled Tibet and set up a government in exile in Dharamsala, India. In 1989, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
He spoke to about 6,000 people during a colorful, multilingual display of religious diversity at the university’s Alumni Arena. The Dalai Lama, believed to be the human incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, is expected to address 30,000 people today.
The Dalai Lama sat on a padded red and gold bench during the service, which included Tibetan flute music, a welcome from representatives of the Seneca Nation, and dance by UB theater and dance students. Students and Buffalo-area religious leaders presented readings from faith traditions including Baha’i, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
The arena turned silent as the Dalai Lama spoke, charming the audience with his trademark belly laugh and his unswerving insistence on compassion and tolerance.
“Today, beginning of the 21st century, humanity generally speaking enjoy immense, how you say, material advancement, Still, if we rely totally for happiness on material things, on external things, sooner or later you get dissatisfaction. Still you feel something missing.”
Religious expression is important, he said, adding that religion sometimes causes divisions.
“Therefore, harmony extremely important,” he said. “Harmony is the basis of mutual respect and sometimes mutual learning.”
Roko Sherry Chayat, spiritual leader of the Zen Center of Syracuse, described the Dalai Lama as tactful for not citing specific religious divisions, such as the outcry among some in the Muslim world to Pope Benedict XVIs’ recent comments about Islam.
“He never engages in pointing the finger,” Chayat said.
Bonnie Shoultz, a Buddhist nun who lives in Syracuse and practices at the Zen Center, said she enjoyed hearing the Dalai Lama laugh.
“It’s with his whole being and he draws everyone in,” she said.
He also reminds people of their common ground, she said.
“The traditions are all leading in the same direction,” she said. “Our ideas that they are all different and one is right and one is wrong is a misperception.”
The three from the Zen center agreed the service was moving and inspirational, but they said they had hoped for more sophisticated dialogue.
Melnikow said the Dalai Lama’s visit may inspire that.
“Maybe he’s making the space for something to happen,” he said.
