World Tibet Network News Tuesday, May 05, 1998 (II)

NEW YORK, May 5 (UPI) _ The dalai lama is meeting a group of American doctors and researchers in New York City to discuss Eastern medical practices.

Conference participants are today discussing the clinical applications of Indo-Tibetan meditation and how it can help patients, their families and health care professionals.

Beth Israel Medical Center on Manhattan's East Side is hosting the conference, called ``Researching the Health Actions of Advanced Meditation,'' expected to draw 20 of the country's most distinguished physicians and researchers.

Matthew Fink, hospital president and CEO, told New York magazine he believes the conference will be ``the most unusual intellectual discourse that I have been involved in 25 years of medical education and training.''

Organizers say this is the first time the dalai lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, has met so many of America's ``leading scientific minds.''

During his visit to Beth Israel, the dalai lama was expected to meet several children battling brain tumors and then bless the hospital's rooftop terrace, which is to be converted into a healing garden for pediatric patients.

Scientific studies will continue after the conference by the hospital's Hyman-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery, along with the Tibet House and Columbia University.