His Holiness the Dalai Lama 

It was not out of the ordinary to have a request to meet Lloyd Steffen, the university chaplain and professor of religion studies.  He had something extraordinary to say.  He and Lehigh had a longstanding relationship with the Tibetan Buddhist learning centre if New Jersey.  Their directors, Joshua and Diana Cutler had translated  The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment:The Lamrim Chenmo.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama was to come give his longest teachings in the West from this important book. Fourteen years of hard work by Cutler and a team of a dozen scholars was to culminate with an historic visit. They wanted to work with Lehigh to host the visit.

 Deborah Nyby is one of those intense, driven and keenly intelligent people who make universities hum.  She would scale a cliff for her boss.  As the “administrative director” and number one for the Provost she had clout, drive, and sway.  One of the busiest people on campus; she was perfect to make it all happen.  HHDL teams, meetings set up and launched over a year in advance. 

 It was a glorious sunny July day.   His Holiness the Dalai Lama was arriving at Lehigh University for his longest teachings in the west.  I had the privilege of greeting him outside Stabler Arena, our largest indoor gathering space used for basketball, wrestling and music.  Over the next week, the sold-out audience would be wrestling with his teachings from the English translation of  Tsong-kha-pa’s The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: The Lamrim Chenmo. The teachings were sponsored by the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center of New Jersey where he was staying.  

 He arrived early stretched as he got out of the car and bowed and waved to the crowd.  I presented him with a khata, a ceremonial white silk scarf, he blessed it, touching it to his forehead before wrapping it around my shoulders.  A thrilling greeting. 

 We had been preparing.  Throughout the year prior to his visit, we had readings, music, teachings and discussions.  Our first-year reading for the year was his holiness’ autobiography, Freedom in Exile. 

 In October we had a delegation of monks construct a complex sand mandala in the Linderman Library rotunda.  They spent five days creating the beautiful and colorful sand painting symbolising the residence of five deities, to represent overcoming the five delusions of ignorance, anger, attachment, jealousy and pride. In a solemn ceremony with prayers and chants they brushed the sand together into a glass urn to be released into the Lehigh river.   The moving event highlighted the impermanence of all and the return to the river symbolizes the kindness and compassion of the deity being released into the world for the benefit of all.

 We welcomed Tibetan monks - in their saffron robes - descending on Bethlehem  PA in numbers. This caused “Dalai Lama sightings” all over town. Part way through the teachings HHDL and his team decided that the commute from the Tibetan Buddhist Center in New Jersey was too far away and he moved to the Hotel Bethlehem.  For security reasons, they did not announce the move.  Security had cleared the top floor (they had been through similar high profile stays in the past) and he came through on a sunny afternoon. 

 A friend was in the lobby when the HHDL delegation arrived.  There was a wedding about to start and a bevy of bridesmaids and a bride were also in the lobby. Squeals of delight erupted: Oh, look, the Dalai Lama!!  What a memorable wedding.

 Tibetan monks enjoy table tennis and our General Counsel and Senior Olympic champion, Frank Roth, engaged in rounds of matches.  They were very good!

 The highlights for me were the private audience for my family with his holiness, the lunch we held for him and his public lecture. 

 We welcomed him to the living room of the President’s house where he sat cross legged on an overstuffed chair.  We had an engaging dialog, asking him about his life and sharing our life and interests.  We each had a khata blessed and my son David, who was eleven at the time, presented him with a very small origami paper crane. His Holiness was delighted with the gift. 

 We learned that the Dalai Lama only eats once a day. He rises around 4AM for his prayers and meditation, and eats a midday meal.  It should be a large midday meal. In order to ensure that he eats enough, we had a sumptuous buffet with oversized plates so that a large amount of food would look normal.  We all had a large meal of salmon, chicken, several vegetables and starches. 

I gave our chefs my mother’s cheesecake recipe. So on the menu, was Druselle Gast’s cheesecake.  Also cooked in oversized pans so that a modest slice was larger than usual.  Simple food for a “simple monk”, graham cracker and butter crust, cheesecake with cream cheese and vanilla topping.  It is creamy, sublime and delicious - just enough tang and sweetness and cream.  

 I asked HHDL whether he ever had trouble with jet lag.  He shook his head, pointed to his cheap watch with loose metal band rattling around his wrist.  It was set at some unknown timezone.  He tapped the watch, said, time to sleep, sleep comes.  Then he grinned at me and looked a bit mischievous - and said jet lag problems as he slapped his rear.  Seems digestive issues are the only plague of modern travel for HHDL.

When we went to Stabler Arena for the public lecture, crowds of fans and well-wishers were around along with a small handful of protesters.  Wearing academic gowns was our best attempt to be like monks and show our respect.  It was before we had designed our beautiful Lehigh Trustee gowns so I was wearing my Princeton gown - orange on black.  It was a thrill to walk into the packed arena with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on my arm. 

We had many of our Trustees in attendance. Many alumni and people from all over the country made up the audience of 5,000.  Everyone was ecstatic to see and hear from such an amazing human being. 

His Holiness gave a wonderful public discourse on “Generating a Good Heart”.  He called the 20th century a century of war and called for the 21st century to be a century of dialogue.  He gave a simple message to people to cultivate love and compassion in their hearts, and to solve problems through non-violence.  He said that by learning and listening, we could cultivate our basic human compassion into an infinite, unbiased compassion.

 We had collected questions from the audience in advance.  One question asked what HHDL would be doing if he weren’t the Dalai Lama?  He paused then said with a chuckle: probably an Engineer.  I said that warmed the hearts of us at Lehigh.

 It was an historic and momentous event for all of us at Lehigh. 

 After his visit, I spoke to our community saying: “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 good will can, and should, honor. 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.”