World Tibet Network News Wednesday, May 13, 1998

May 11, 1998

By Gayle White, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With students exercising, playing table-tennis and watching golf on nearby, several hundred people spent part of Sunday in Emory University's basketball arena, learning the basics of Tibetan Buddhism from the Dalai Lama.

Outside, near the arched entrance to the university, a handful of protestors, including three Buddhist monks sitting still on the damp grass, handed out leaflets protesting his appearance and demanding religious freedom for all Tibetan Buddhists.

In town to speak at Emory's commencement exercises on Monday, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet gave two talks Sunday under the auspices of the Loseling Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. The center is affiliated with Emory.

The gentle, be spectacled man looked tiny sitting in a chair under a huge hanging of the Buddha in bright red, blue, green and gold. On the floor to his right, several monks in saffron and wine-colored robes sat absolutely still, listening to his teachings.

He spoke through a translator, sometimes going on for several minutes at a time before pausing for his words to be put into English. He touched on basic Buddhist topics such as the role of suffering and the importance of compassion and enlightenment.

Basic human existence "is a form of suffering," he said. "In order to develop an understanding of the nature of our existence . . . we have to understand suffering."

The understanding of suffering, when directed to others, can generate "great compassion," he said.

Humans also have to accept change, he said, since "right from the moment of birth, the body and mind have been going through

change."

Retired English and social studies teacher Ann Rogers, 63, of Cleveland, Ga., said she came to hear him because of her interest in spiritual matters. She said she had read much about Buddhist teaching, but the Dalai Lama "makes it a lot clearer. We are sucked in by our conditioning to be less than we can be."

Rogers, a 1957 Emory graduate, said the Dalai Lama's appearance there is evidence of the school's growing international stature. "Who would have believed it in '57!" she exclaimed.

Tom Mitchell, 38, an interior design professor from Indiana University in Bloomington, was at Emory not to hear the Dalai Lama but to try to get a message to him. Mitchell, a former Episcopalian who converted to Buddhism about three years ago, was protesting the Dalai Lama's 1996 order to his followers to

discontinue a specific meditation practice.

The practice is centered on a protector deity known as Dorje Shugden, generally depicted as a fierce, sword-brandishing warrior. Supporters of the practice say Dorje Shugden is a ``dharmapala,'' a benevolent diety who helps them develop love and compassion.

The Dalai Lama, who until the mid-1970s engaged in the practice himself, says Dorje Shugden encourages sectarianism and is an inappropriate form of spirit worship.

Mitchell and other protestors say that by attempting to eliminate Dorje Shugden, the Dalai Lama is limiting religious freedom and damaging the purity of separate strains of Buddhism.

Shugden practitioners have been demonstrating against the Dalai Lama throughout his current 15-day American tour, which included visits to Boston and New York and ends May 13.

--Religion news service contributed to this article.