The day after his public talk, the Dalai Lama on Wednesday expanded on his views about religion in a panel discussion for about 100 students who are involved with religion on campus, either through academic study, student clubs, or the campus ministry.
The program, titled “The Moral and Spiritual Power of Religion and the University,” was introduced by ԱƵ President Rebecca S. Chopp, herself a religion scholar, and moderated by Steven Kepnes, Murray W. and Mildred K. Finard Professor in Jewish studies and religion.
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| Students and the Dalai Lama discuss the power of religion at a special session on campus. (Photo by Susan Kahn) SEE MORE PHOTOS |
Each of ԱƵ’s three chaplains — representing the Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant faiths — addressed a question to the Dalai Lama, as did several students whose questions also had been prepared in advance.
No matter what the question — how secular universities can help student connect their religious faith to their education, or how religious people can develop an interior life despite the countervailing stream that tells them to be busy all the time, or how students can connect with each other on the basis of their spirituality — the Dalai Lama always circled back to his main message: “Religion is personal business. Ethics is very much business of society and community.”
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He also stressed that “we all belong to this small, blue planet,” and therefore must take global responsibility for it.
Despite the seriousness of his subject, the Dalai Lama was characteristically jovial and self-deprecating. He admitted to occasionally losing his temper, and joked that if he recites his one-sentence homage to Buddha too many times too quickly, it sounds like “money, money, money, money, money.”
With that, he threw his head back and enjoyed a few moments of unbridled laughter.
Serious again, he gave his parting advice: “Please study more. Think more. Analytical meditation is much more important than reciting a mantra.”