His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking to the staff of Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Photo: Republican Eagle
His Holiness the Dalai Lama brought his teachings to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in the United States, where he was undergoing treatment. The Tibetan Spiritual leader spoke to a crowd of 500 Mayo Clinic staff on compassion in health care for about an hour and a half on February 29.
He was introduced by Mayo Clinic President John Noseworthy who said “Each time we are privileged to hear His Holiness speak is a gift”.
His Holiness thanked Mayo Clinic staff for their “kind and caring gestures” towards him during his month-long stay, saying their care went beyond exercising their professional skills.
In his speech His Holiness said “All the seven billion human beings should be just treated as human beings and shouldn’t be categorised based on race, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. If we look at the fundamental sameness of all the human beings, many of the problems in world today can be reduced”.
“Faith brings hope and optimism even to the dying,” he continued. When asked if developing compassion requires religious faith, he said that believing in and feeling close to a personal god inspires compassion and courage for some people; “in fact, love and compassion are basic human values”, he added.
Speaking about the nature of compassion, he explained that there are two kinds of compassion, saying that one is a biased concern for those we know, but the other has the scope of recognising that each of us is a human being and has the same goal to be happy. It’s on the basis of such warm-heartedness that we can contribute to others’ welfare.
In conclusion, His Holiness said that basic human nature is kind and positive, and cultivating kindness and compassion is something we all can do.
On March 5, the Dalai Lama spoke to about 300 Tibetans and Americans who gathered at Deer Park Buddhist Centre at Madison to welcome him, and three days later gave a teaching on Geshe Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses for Training the Mind at Madison Masonic Centre at the invitation of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association. The teaching was primarily about altruism, attended by around 1,050 people, including 700 Tibetans.
His final American appearance was on March 9 when His Holiness attended a discussion on The World We 
Make at the Overture Centre for the Arts in Madison. While at the Centre, he expressed his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Murtin Luther King and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
His Holiness returned home via Geneva where he spoke at a panel of Nobel Peace Laureates at the Human Rights Council session on March 11, arriving home in Dharamshala on March 13.
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