Meeting the Dalai Lama

Today has been the Bahá’í Holy Day known as the Declaration of the Báb. It marks the very beginning of the Bahá’í Faith in the Iranian city of Shiraz in 1844.

My great treat for the day was a trip to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s historic residence in London, to take part in a private meeting of religious representatives with the Dalai Lama.

Demonstrators

Two small groups of demonstrators, penned by the police across Lambeth Palace Road from the palace gate, shouted the odds as I arrived (not, please note, because I arrived). One group wanted China out of Tibet and accused the Dalai Lama of betraying Tibet. The other group seemed to favour China’s remaining in Tibet.

Inside, as always, Lambeth Palace was a peaceful retreat from the constant noise of London traffic.

The Prime Minister, the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama

I was conducted across the courtyard from the main gate to the Atrium, an unusual informal space which subsequently proved to suit the nature and mood of the meeting very well. As the Buddhist monks and leading Christians, Hindus, Jews, a Jain, a Muslim, a Sikh, and a Zoroastrian gathered, conversations started. Some of us knew each other well, others were meeting for the first time.

Suddenly media teams arrived, quickly followed by the Prime Minister, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Gordon Brown, not looking at all fazed by the result of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, shook our hands and smiled (looking much more natural in this act than he does on TV), chatted with a few, and then left.

We took our seats in a circle with the Dalai Lama: Archbishop Rowan Williams, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor in his scarlet skull-cap and scarlet edged cassock, the various Buddhists, the Sikh, the Jews, the Hindus, the Jain, the Bahá’í, the Zoroastrian, the Director of the Inter Faith Network, a panoply of spirituality. Archbishop Rowan welcomed all of us and invited the Dalai Lama to give a short meditation.

Actually, it was a short homily, simple but profound, as one has come to expect of the Dalai Lama.

Our common humanity

He relates to human beings, he said, on various levels. The foundation is the level of our common humanity, a level he referred to as “secular ethics”. In other words, all human beings have the same needs and can agree on common values, regardless of whether they have any religious beliefs or not. Everyone wants a happy life and wants to avoid suffering.

But there is a great deal of suffering in the world, despite the advances in science and technology. All spiritual traditions, he said, address suffering through love and compassion. All human beings come from one Source.

Human unity, religious diversity

However, when one relates to people at the level of religious doctrine, differences are infinite. Religions are either theistic or non-theistic. Within each broad category, there are many different beliefs and practices.

• And yet, despite these different approaches, all traditions have the same message of love and compassion.
• The theistic traditions see all humans and sons and daughters of one God.
• The non-theistic traditions cultivate right action towards all human beings.
• And at the level of our humanity, one can find common ethical ground with everyone, including those who have no particular religious belief or who are atheists.

Religion and ecology

To close his meditation, the Dalai Lama called on the religions to be more active in environmental protection, a call that was echoed by Archbishop Rowan.

Questions to the Dalai Lama

After the meditation, we were, one by one, introduced to the Dalai Lama, who made namaste to each of us. We then had some time for questions and discussion. Mostly questions, it has to be said. Who is going to engaged in debate with the Dalai Lama?

The first questioners asked about religious extremism and intolerance. One or two of the questions focused on ethics. What did he mean by “secular ethics”? What practical steps, asked an ayatollah in black robe and turban, can we take to put these ideas into practice?

Compassion and the motivation to act ethically

When my turn came, I said I thought religion provided an important motivation for people to follow an ethical path. The Archbishop nodded. How, I asked, did the Dalai Lama envisage people being motivated to follow secular ethics?

The Archbishop nodded again.

Compassion, said the Dalai Lama. Everyone has the capacity for compassion. Compassion is what motivates people to ethical acts.

Archbishop Rowan brought the meeting to a close, referring to compassion as a release from the prison of self. And, he said, one of our prisons is the prison of greed. He endorsed the Dalai Lama’s call for greater religious involvement in the environment.

Once again the Dalai Lama made namaste to each of us.

Photographs and farewells

Afterwards we went outside into the warm and rather humid sunshine for photographs and farewells. Archbishop Rowan said he wished the meeting could have gone on much longer. We had been touching on some really interesting questions, especially in the field of ethics.

This is how the Archbishop’s own news release described the meeting:

The religious leaders who had gathered to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama listened with great appreciation to what he had to say about the priority of compassion in all our religious traditions. He also spoke about the need for all of us to engage with our culture not only in the vocabulary of our specific convictions but out of a recognition of a common humanity – a ’secular ethics’ alongside the doctrines and disciplines of faith. A warm and searching discussion took place, and the meeting ended with a time of shared silence. It was a privilege to have this opportunity of engaging with a great spiritual teacher.

Reflections

In some ways, what the Dalai Lama said seemed obvious. In saying that, I do not mean to denigrated it (or him) in any way. My guess is that it was obvious because he was drawing on the common spiritual heritage of humankind and citing wisdom that is to be found in every genuine spiritual tradition.

It was undoubtedly a great honour to spend some 90 minutes in the presence of one of the world’s great spiritual presences. What I love about the Dalai Lama is that he manages to combine this great spirituality with humility and humour, delicious and down-to-earth.

As I emerged from the gate of Lambeth Palace onto the noise and bustle of the street, the protesters were packing up their banners and heading off towards Waterloo.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Dalai Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury, religion, spirituality, wisdom, common humanity

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