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Dalai Lama greeted by thousands in Cedar Falls

By Lee Rood | DesMoinesRegister.com

Claire Oleson-King, of Des Moines, Iowa, reads the programme while waiting for the Dalai Lama to speak to students, faculty, and guests at the University of Northern Iowa, on 18 May 2010, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.AP/Charlie Neibergall/US

His Holiness met the enthusiastic crowd of about 5,000 cross-legged on a couch inside the McLeod Center, a red sun visor on his head, his hands clasped as he bowed.

“I-o-wa, I-o-wa?” the Dalai Lama said, practicing the name of his latest stop on a two-week tour of several Midwestern states. The shiny black shoes of the man who calls himself “a humble monk” sat unused on a stage adorned for the occasion with an oriental rug.

On a panel discussion Tuesday morning entitled “Educating for a Non-Violent World,” the spiritual leader-in-exile offered a mix of simple messages: educating both “the head and the heart,” acting on behalf of “one human family,” and teaching non-violence to future generations.

Joined by a handful of other experts at the Univeristy of Northern Iowa, he encouraged listeners to rise about divisive differences like religion and nationality and act on behalf of humankind.

“I tell a lot of people, many problems we have today are man-made problems,” he said.

Thousands of people from across the Midwest snaked through long lines and tight security Tuesday morning to hear the 74-year-old Tibetan leader speak.

“He just has a great unarmoredness about him and great good cheer,” said a smiling Zuiko Redding, resident teacher at the Cedar Rapids Zen Center. She also saw the Dalai Lama about five years ago in Wisconsin. “I just remember how very joyful and unflappable he was.”

One of the world’s longest-running rulers, the Dalai Lama has travelled six continents spreading a message of peace, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. He won the Nobel Prize in 1989 for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet.

Believed to be the reincarnation of the previous 13 Dalai Lamas, Tenzin Gyatso assumed political power after China’s invasion of Tibet in 1949. He was forced into exile a decade later, and currently lives in northern India.

Also during his Midwest tour, the Dalai Lama stopped for a check-up last week at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he later told crowds he was found to be in excellent condition.

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