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August 30, 2010
Stanford preparing for Dalai Lama's October visit
The Dalai Lama's visit to Stanford on Oct. 14-15 will include a public, ticketed speech, a student-only talk and participation in an all-day conference.
By Cynthia Haven
The Dalai Lama will be coming to Stanford to lead a series of programs titled "Compassion, Science, & Society" on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 14 and 15.
It will be the Buddhist monk's third visit to Stanford; earlier visits occurred in 1994 and 2005.
Tickets for the events are now available online at http://dalailama.stanford.edu/tickets/ . They are also available through the Stanford Ticket Office.
Demand for tickets is expected to be high, but all events will be broadcast live over the Internet.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winner will speak on "The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society" at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, in Maples Pavilion. Tickets for this event are $20 for Stanford students, $40 for faculty and staff and $60-$80 for the general public.
At 2 p.m. on Oct. 14, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and religious leader will deliver "Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life" as part of this year's Rathbun Visiting Fellow program. Attendance at this event will be determined by a random drawing for Stanford students only.
On Oct. 15, the Dalai Lama will take part in an all-day conference on "Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism." The conference, sponsored by the School of Medicine's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), will take place at Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $30 for students, $75 for faculty and staff and $165 for the general public.
The Dalai Lama's visit is hosted by the Stanford School of Medicine, the Office for Religious Life and CCARE. The new center on compassion and altruism is the reason for the Dalai Lama's interest in returning to Stanford. He contributed seed money for the center.
"With the ever-growing impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater role to play in reminding us of our humanity. There is no contradiction between the two," the Dalai Lama wrote in his 1990 autobiography, Freedom in Exile. "Each gives us valuable insights into the other. Both science and the teachings of the Buddha tell us of the fundamental unity of all things."
The Dalai Lama was born as Lhamo Dhondup on July 6, 1935, in rural Tibet. He was named the 14th Dalai Lama when he was 2 years old. That made him the successor in a line of political and spiritual leaders spanning six centuries.
The Chinese invaded Tibet in 1949-50; he fled after a failed Tibetan uprising against China in 1959. The Dalai Lama and Tibet's government in exile have been based in Dharamsala, India, ever since.
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