Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 - (Page 21)

clockwise from top left: The Dalai Lama donned a Lehigh cap during Sunday’s presidential luncheon; His Holiness accepts an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from Lehigh President Alice P. Gast; the book the Dalai Lama taught from was translated by a team of scholars led by Joshua W.C. Cutler, co-director of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center of New Jersey; Stabler Arena was packed for the public lecture; monks gathered onstage during the teaching sessions, as the Dalai Lama taught from an ornately painted throne. Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Instead of the audience bowing to His Holiness in rapt silence, the crowd for the public lecture gave him five separate standing ovations. And unlike his morning and afternoon teaching sessions, when the Dalai Lama sat on a throne surrounded by Tibetan scholars in monks’ and nuns’ robes, the Dalai Lama found himself joined onstage by people in academic robes—including Gast, Provost Mohamed El-Aasser, Smith, and Lehigh’s college deans. Dignitaries attending the lecture included local government leaders such as U.S. Rep. Charles Dent, a Lehigh graduate school alumnus who represents Pennsylvania’s 16th congressional district, current Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, and former Bethlehem Mayor Gordon Mowrer. The text the Dalai Lama taught from during the morning and afternoon teaching sessions clearly had great meaning for him personally. On the first day, he held up a well-worn copy of the book and told the rapt audience: “I brought with me my own personal book of Lam Rim Chen Mo because this text—on the 17th of March, 1959, when I left Norbulingka that night— this book, I brought with me.” The reference was to the night that the Dalai Lama, fearing for his own life and the lives of thousands of Tibetans from the Chinese government, left his native Tibet to go into exile in India. As he concluded his teachings on the afternoon of July 15, the Dalai Lama told the thousands who attended daily that their journey had just begun. “I, as a simple Buddhist monk, am extremely happy to have lectured on this book, on this text,” the Dalai Lama said. “Of course, my own knowledge is still very limited.” He said he first developed “a genuine interest” in the book when he was just 16 years old. “So now, look at teacher,” he said. “Since 16 years old, now 73. Still working on it.” During the morning and afternoon teaching sessions throughout the Dalai Lama’s visit, Joshua W.C. Cutler and his wife, Diana, sat onstage near the base of the throne from which His Holiness taught. Cutler supervised the translation of The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Lam Rim Chen Mo, which took 12 years and involved a team of a dozen scholars. “The book hasn’t been translated in 600 years,” Cutler said in an interview as the event drew to a close. The Dalai Lama agreed to come for the six days of teaching—the most extensive he has ever done in North America on the text—“as a way of honoring that and the importance the book has for the Tibetan people.” The Cutlers are co-directors of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center of New Jersey, and were instrumental in bringing the Dalai Lama to Lehigh. “It’s an amazing experience,” Cutler said. “I’ve never been involved onstage, right nearby His Holiness.” The book, Cutler said, is “something very dear to him and to the Tibetan people. It’s one of their treasures. In Tibetan culture, it’s a highly regarded jewel.” As he walked off the stage for the last time on July 15, the Dalai Lama greeted the gathering of monks, nuns, and special guests who sat on mats all day throughout his teachings. As he left through a back exit, he briefly stopped to pose for photographs with seven groups of staff, contractors, and volunteers who worked behind the scenes to make the event such a success. Then, at 4:17 p.m., with one final wave and bow, he climbed into his waiting black Cadillac and was whisked off. In her closing remarks following the public lecture, Gast expressed hope that the Dalai Lama’s visit would have a lasting effect on the Lehigh community. “I hope that this event has brought us all to a deeper appreciation of the spiritual values central to all Buddhist teaching that all people of goodwill can, and should, honor,” Gast said. “I’m equally hopeful that we can, in turn, give His Holiness a gift by translating his words today into action, buoyed by the sense of peace, compassion, and commitment that he conveys in all that he does.” Fall 2008 21

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Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Cover Story: The Dalai Lama at Lehigh Heart of a Champion Around the World in 80 Years Fighting for Children wth Autism Keepers of the Flame From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008

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