Brad and I went with our friends John and LeeAnne to see the Dalai Lama give the "Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability". He was in Ann Arbor for three days, and this was the final talk- the other talks were on “Engaging Wisdom and Compassion”. On Friday, he was at Hill Auditorium for a discussion on "Buddhism and Art".
It was a fun day: we all went to early mass, then out for breakfast at Angelo's. I also gave them a short tour of the Biomedical Sciences Research Building (BSRB) and the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) where I work. The weather was gorgeous and we had a nice little walk around the medical campus before we headed to Crisler Arena for the lecture. We were able to find a parking spot nearby and walked past hundreds of Chinese protesters to reach the venue. It was a peaceful protest against the Dalai Lama's teaching about Tibet being separate from China, and to promote a peaceful Olympics in Beijing this summer. It was interesting to see and to read some of the literature they were handing out.
The lecture itself was general admission (I stood in line for 1.5 hours back in March to get tickets), but we were able to get great seats with a straight view to see and hear the Dalai Lama. I was glad that he gave the lecture in English, since the other talks had been through an interpreter. His English is very good, but he wanted to have the advantage of knowing all of the nuances of his native tongue for his spiritual teaching talks. He was a very interesting speaker, but the arena was pretty warm and stuffy, so it was hard to concentrate and stay awake. He also answered questions at the end and handed out some scholarship awards and gifts to the event organizers and sign language interpreters. He was very gracious; I am glad that we got the opportunity to see him speak.
*Update: The Dalai Lama lecture has been archived and is available here.
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