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His holiness the 14th Dalai Lama* arrived in Long Beach on Monday after illness delayed his travel from Japan. The Buddhist spiritual leader was able to recuperate in time not to have canceled his scheduled engagements today in Long Beach and Irvine.
Showing no signs of the sore throat that sidelined him, the Dali Lama spoke earlier this morning at Cal State Long Beach’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center where he was presented Amnesty International’s first-ever “Shine a Light” award in honor of the organization’s 50th anniversary. He gave a brief keynote address on the subject of human rights. The Dalai Lama noted that he was socially and politically a “Marxist, but not Leninist” – a self-identification he has made numerous times in the past – before stressing to the audience the importance of persistence and freedom from fear in enacting change.
Wearing a visor that matched the color of his maroon robe, the exiled Tibetan who recently stepped down from his position as a political leader, then took selected questions from the audience. Hussam Ayloush, the local Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic relations based in Anaheim, was one of the few and asked the Dalai Lama about Islamophobia. Seated on a chair, his holiness responded that the religion could not be judged as a whole based upon the actions of a few before going on to draw similarities between the practice of Buddhism and “the real meaning of jihad” as the internal struggle against “negative forces.”
The Dalai Lama ended his Long Beach appearance this morning by encouraging activists to maintain enthusiasm in their efforts and not to be trapped by wanting to see the manifestation of them in their lifetimes, noting that such a desire was essentially selfish.
Later today, the Buddhist figure will visit UCI to give a talk entitled “Compassion and Global Leaders.” The occasion marks the sixth anniversary of the University’s XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship and is part of the campus’ ‘Living Peace’ series.
*The Dalai Lama was a subsidized asset of the CIA as his administration has acknowledged publicly.
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