Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Meets with Pope Benedict

Dali Lama

In the Catholic capital city of Rome where religion still plays a big role in people's beliefs and everyday life, a major Roman university, the Roma Tre cleared the path for the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, Tenzin Gyatso XIV Dalai Lama in its Department of Literature and Philosophy. This increasingly important figure in today's mixed society has become somewhat of a hero in the hearts of many as his wish is to settle the on-going conflicts between science and religion. He was to receive an honorary degree in biology. His trip to Rome also included a meeting with Pope Benedict which was kept quite low key.

The interest of His Holiness Dalai Lama in science is already legend. He was born on 6th July 1935 in a small village in north-eastern Tibet from a peasant family and was recognized at the age of two as the XIV Dalai Lama. He began from a young age in Dharamsala, India in his exile when he started an extensive exchange with scientists and philosophers from all over the world including big names Carl Von Weizsacker, David Bohm, and Carl Popper. Since then, along with his religious and political activities, science exchange has become one of the predominant aspects of his life.

In 1982 the Dalai Lama had a very famous meeting with a young neurobiologist and epistemologist Francisco Varela and as a result the Mind and Life Institute was created with the help of American Entrepreneur Adam Engle. Its first session was held in 1987 in Dharamsala, India. He then gained worldly recognition and one of the Dalai Lama's articles covering meditation inducing short-term and long-term changes in the brain appeared in PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, which together with Nature and Science is one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.

More recent events were those of a memorable meeting held in Washington, USA on 29th September 2005, Mind and Life XIII-Investigating the mind, sponsored by many major American universities and in Zurich where he was present as spiritus rectus at the Swiss federal Institute of Technology of Zurich and where he was in a dialogue at the University of Zurich with specialists like Jurg Kesserling, Roger Nitsch and Rolf Pfeifer. It is the first time in history that a non-scientist has spoken from such an authoritative post within the science world actually managing to raise awareness of the possible co-existence of science and spirituality.

The Dalai Lama captivated the attention of all the people present at the university Roma Tre department's aula magna on the sunny day of 15th October 2006. The invited guests and students were made to feel immediately at ease with the friendly smile ever-present upon the Dalai Lama's face as he began his speech. His sense of humor was appreciated by all as many times throughout his speech laughter filled the conference room. The Dalai Lama eagerly tried to promote his belief which goes past the boundaries of science and religion and focuses on the most important factor of all, humanity and a caring attitude amongst society. He commenced his speech emphasizing the importance of the mother as the font of all human compassion. He pointed out the main Buddhist concept as being selflessness. This is vital for our wellbeing. "It is important to understand the mother's emotion in order to understand compassion."

He then went on to talk about problems in modern society criticizing contemporary methods of solving emotion pain. "There are a lot of emotional problems in human society and people cannot survive on drugs or external things to resolve this. The answer is not based on religious beliefs but on true investigation which is more useful to widen the mind. Help can be attained through ancient tradition and with the help of science."

Promoted by the Department of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, the degree was awarded for the Dalai Lama's "promotion and support of the Mind and Life institute and for having generally promoted dialogue between science and spirituality". The audience welcomed the declaration of the degree's conferral with a long applause. "It was very much a shared decision due to the excellent importance of the scientific and social actions we have witnessed," Professor Guido Fabiani, the University's rector. "With your presence, we can today write a page of the University's history and we are grateful to you."

Whilst taking in his surroundings the Dalai Lama at one point commented, "Rome, with its old walls and buildings reminds us of the ancient times. I am happy to be in a modern educational system in a university in Rome." This unforgettable visit by such an important figure to the Roma Tre will remain in the hearts of all present for some time.

By Sarah L. Parker