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Dalai Lama

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Rabbis Laurence Kushner (left) and Arthur Green unroll the Torah: An ancient culture meets an ancient scroll.

to enlightenment, encircled by narrow red
and gold bands at the top. Inside the base
of the stupa were the ashes of the founder
of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center,
Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmuck Mongolian
lama who died in 1983.
First came what appeared to be a spon-
taneous recital, in Hebrew, of the Jewish
blessing before a meal:
Praised are You, 0 Lord our God,
King of the Universe, who brings forth
fruit from the earth.
And then, almost as a counterpoint,
came its Tibetan equivalent, intoned in the
language of the country at the roof of the
world.
I offer with faith this well prepared food
Endowed with one hundred tastes .
May it be continually endowed to the
Buddhas and the Bodhisattras
Through this may all beings enjoy
the food of profound meditation
One had the feeling that having been
said, the prayers were fused in the air, their
words and syllables going to the source to
which they were directed, but in two
languages that had never before been
intertwined.
The simple meal of cheese sandwiches,
cantaloupe and Sprite was enjoyed under
a clear, early autumn sky; the Jewish
"delegation" briefly toured the center's
grounds and medication room and shrine,
and was led to the library where it met
with the Dalai Lama for two and a half
hours.
Just before the Dalai Lama appeared,
one participant said there was "something
mysterious and wonderful in the air." A
beaming Dalai Lama then came into the
library. He was followed by four monks,

26

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1989

including one, now finishing a doctorate at
Cambridge University, who acted as his
translator.
Even before the Tibetan spoke, the
Jewish participants were smitten with the
Dalai Lama. "The minute he walked in,"
said Judith Hauptman, an associate pro-
fessor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological
Seminary, "any negative feelings I had
were dispelled. I had been told by Wolfe
Kelman [executive vice-president of the
Rabbinical Assembly, the national associa-
tion of Conservative rabbis] that he radi-
ated. And he is, indeed, a radiant presence."
By the end of the meeting, the Jews used
such words as "sweet," "charming," "self-
effacing," "jolly," "delightfully aware" to
describe the Dalai Lama. The executive
vice-president of the Reform movement's
Central Conference of American Rabbis,
Rabbi Joseph Glaser, described the Dalai
Lama as "deeply, profoundly human. This
is what guarantees and ensures his claim
to divinity."
Even Hauptnian, the Jewish participant
who had been the most skeptical about the
encounter, was captivated by the Dalai
Lama. She had deliberately avoiding
addressing the Dalai Lama as "Your Holi-
ness," the traditional term of respect for
him because this, she felt, was forbidden
by Jewish law, or Halachah. But, she said,
"I could see immediately that he's special.
His holiness is invested in him by his
people. My not calling him that did not
diminish or refute that fact."
Reform Rabbi Laurence Kushner of
Sudbury, Massachusetts, did address the
Dalai Lama as "Your Holiness" because he
"wanted to demonstrate manners." He also
"wanted to get close" to him.

Asked whether he considered the Dalai
Lama a holy man, Kushner, author of
several books on Jewish spirituality, said,
"Of course, but that's not saying much. A
lot of people are holy."
lb Kushner, a holy person is someone,
"who, by his demeanor, the way he talks,
the way he smiles, the way he pays atten-
tion, reminds you that you have been
created by God. And that even though it
seems preposterous, you might have as
much to teach him as he does to teach you."
Encountering the Dalai Lama for Kush-
ner was not a religious experience, al-
though it was "a religious eye-opener. I
thought, 'Whatever these people are, they
are for real. Did I come closer to God? No.
Did I do anything prayerful? No."
"I was dumbfounded."
"The fifth century was the time of the
Golden Age in Greece and of the Buddha
and of Isaiah. And yet, there was little —
if any — contact or cross-fertilization
between the religions of the West and the
Indian religions. Amazing!"
— Conversation in car heading to the
meeting with Dalai Lama

For more than 2,000 years, Tibet was
aloof from the world. Perched 15,000 feet
up in the Himalayas, it was a feudal king-
dom of peasants, Buddhist monks and
nuns, nomads and aristocrats. Their tem-
poral and spiritual leader was the Dalai
Lama, who presided over a religion that
taught that all life was suffering. Spiritual
freedom, or Buddhahood, could only be
achieved by realizing that all life is
ephemeral and there is an inherent conflict
between the appearance of material objects
and their actual existence, and by culti-
vating compassion, renunciation and
wisdom.
Tibet was forced to confront the world
in the 1950s. China, claiming that Tibet
was part of its ancient empire, occupied the
country, attempted to modernize it and
tried to eradicate its ancient religion. In
1959, as a futile revolt against the Chinese
was brewing, the Dalai Lama, the "Protec-
tor of the Land of the Snows," disguised
himself as a soldier and left Tibet for exile
in India. Since then, he has not returned
to Tibet.

IT

I he Dalai Lama is the 14th in a
dynasty that Tibetan Bud-
dhists believe has been reincar-
nated since the fifth century.
Contrary to many westerners'
beliefs, Tibetans generally do
not consider a Dalai Lama to be a deity.
Instead, he is an embodiment of the com-
passion of all the Buddhas. His mission is
the same as any other person striving for
enlightenment, or who has attained en-
lightenment: lb aid the spiritual progress
of all other beings. In fact, Mahayana Bud-
dhism, the school of Buddhism which