Calling for compassion

Thousands of students, community members, international visitors and monks flocked to Assembly Hall Saturday afternoon for a chance to hear the Dalai Lama deliver his final message to Bloomington.\nAs the audience gave the Dalai Lama a standing ovation before he appeared, dozens of monks stood silent as they waited for their spiritual leader to walk on stage.\nFollowing introductions by IU President Michael McRobbie and Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, a spokeswoman for the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and wife of musician John Mellencamp, the Tibetan leader walked onto the stage and sat down in a large yellow armchair. \nJoking about his shoes making him uncomfortable, the Dalai Lama immediately removed them and addressed the awaiting crowd.\n“Sit down!” he said. \nGenerating laughter from the audience, the Dalai Lama began his lecture on compassion and character. \n“Many of the world’s problems are due to a lack of human compassion,” he said. “Major disasters are due to hatred, jealousy and negative emotions.”\nHe encouraged the audience to take a stand to cultivate and nurture positive emotions. \n“Affection and compassion are very much present in the mind,” he said. “These things I learned from my mother, not my teacher. She provided me with maximum affection, and in some sense, I think I’m spoiled because of it.” \nHe said compassion has nothing to do with Buddhism or religion, but comes at the time of birth. \n“Animals also have the capacity of compassion to offspring and humans,” he said. Chuckling, he added, “I like cats, they are very clean.” \nWith his head-of-state status and entourage of Secret Service agents, the Dalai Lama insisted that he is not the “holy or special someone that people think (he is),” rather he considered himself to be “just another human being.” \nMoving into the topic of violence, the Dalai Lama stated that the concept of war is outdated. \n“The past century became a century of bloodshed,” he said. “Millions were killed, and this century, the 21st century, is not off to a very good start.”\nHe suggested that this generation of students become an age known for dialogue, not bloodshed. \n“The destruction of your neighbor is the destruction of yourself,” he said. “The concept of ‘we’ and ‘they’ is no longer relevant.”\nAfter his final message to the audience, “there is infinite compassion through reason,” the Dalai Lama stood up and briskly said “Thank you.” \nBowing to the crowd, he walked off stage, escorted by his company of bodyguards.