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Tag: dalai lama
WATCH: The Dalai Lama Mocks Trump In An Interview With Piers Morgan

WATCH: The Dalai Lama Mocks Trump In An Interview With Piers Morgan

The Dalai Lama has joined the ranks of world leaders with strong opinions on Donald Trump. Although the spiritual leader’s feelings on the GOP nominee weren’t exactly vocal, they were unambiguous.

Appearing on the “Good Morning Britain” with Piers Morgan Thursday, the Dalai Lama was asked what he thought of Trump. Although he at first responded “I don’t know,” he then clearly mocked not only Trump’s manner of speaking but also his infamous hairstyle.

Morgan and the Dalai Lama also discussed other serious and not-so-serious issues, such as ISIS and Kim Kardashian’s Twitter.

Watch the full interview below:

Photo and video via Good Morning Britain/YouTube

In A First For The Senate, The Dalai Lama Gives The Opening Prayer

In A First For The Senate, The Dalai Lama Gives The Opening Prayer

By Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, delivered the opening invocation in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, praying “to Buddha and all” and suggesting that purity of thought will guide humanity’s actions.

In his saffron robe, the Dalai Lama climbed the few steps to the Senate dais and delivered the three-line prayer, first in the Tibetan language, then in English. He chuckled over his English pronunciation.

“With our thoughts we make our world,” the prayer began. “Our mind is central and precedes our deeds. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you like a shadow that never leaves.”

The Buddhist monk is continuing a U.S. visit, after meeting last month with President Barack Obama at the White House despite objections from China, which accuses the Nobel Peace Prize winner of instigating a Tibetan independence campaign to separate from China.

The Dalai Lama planned to hold visits with congressional leaders Thursday across Capitol Hill.

Guest chaplains occasionally open the House and Senate chambers, but Thursday marked the first time the Dalai Lama gave the invocation, according to the Senate Historical Office.

He was invited by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and greeted on the Senate floor by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) the only Buddhist in the Senate, as well as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) a longtime ally of the world-renowned monk and champion of human rights in Tibet.

“This is my favorite prayer,” he said when he arrived at the final line, pointing at his notes. “Daily I pray this. That gives me inner strength. So I am asking to serve humanity as long as space remains and as long as beings remain, until then, may I, too, remain and help dispel the misery of the world.”

Only a small number of senators — almost a dozen Democrats and fewer Republicans — were present on the Senate floor for the occasion.

“I know I speak for the entire Senate family when I express our gratitude for that beautiful prayer, and for his words of encouragement and blessing,” Reid said.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Obama To Meet With Dalai Lama At White House

Obama To Meet With Dalai Lama At White House

BEIJING — The Dalai Lama is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday morning — their third meeting in four years and one that will be handled delicately to avoid inflaming relations with China.

No photographs will be allowed of Obama and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as they meet on a ground floor room at the White House, and not in the Oval Office. China has retaliated against international leaders who host the Dalai Lama or criticize China’s tight control of Tibet.

Chinese officials didn’t immediately comment on the meeting after it was announced late Thursday, but they reacted harshly when the two last met in 2011.

“This action seriously interfered with China’s internal affairs,” Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at the time. He added that the meeting has “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and harmed Sino-U.S. relations.”

The Dalai Lama’s meeting with Obama is part of a swing through the United States that will have him meeting privately with Chinese students in California and Minnesota, and speaking to larger groups in Los Angeles, the Silicon Valley and St. Paul.

To prevent retaliation against people in Tibet, he isn’t expected to talk about China’s policies in his homeland. China considers Tibet part of its historic territory, but it has since been accused of extensive human rights violations and brutal tactics in dealing with Tibetan insurrections, including a 1959 rebellion that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India.

At Santa Clara University in northern California on Monday, the Dalai Lama will be speaking about corporate ethics and compassion at an event sponsored by university’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

In Minnesota on March 2, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to appear before an audience of 3,700 at St. Thomas University, a Catholic college in St. Paul. Roughly 1,500 tickets that were made available to the general public at $130 apiece reportedly sold out in 7 minutes.

While the Dalai Lama is being careful not to say things in public that could harm his people back in Tibet, the subject of human rights is likely to come up at the White House.

“We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China,” Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement Thursday. She added the United States continues to supports the Dalai Lama’s “middle way” approach to Tibet, which advocates neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in Tibet.

In recent years, tension has increased in the region as China has accused Dalai Lama of inciting young Tibetans to set themselves on fire in protest against China. The exiled government has urged its followers not to engage in such protects, but in recent years, 109 Tibetans have died after self immolating.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons