ATLANTA—Thousands came to Centennial Olympic Park on Monday to hear the Dalai Lama. He had come to town to become a visiting Professor at Emory University. The atmosphere was festive. It had just rained in the middle of a cruel drought. A dreadlocked man sat on the ground reading "The Road to Enlightenment," cigarette in hand. A group of young women walked up and down holding a "Free Tibet" flag. Yellow robed monks leaned on a police barrier, chatting and smiling at people. Infants to elders, people waited.
"He's going to hell and so are you!" shouted Zachary Baxter at those entering the park. Most ignored him, emptying their pockets to go through a careful security check. No bags. No umbrellas. Picture ID required. Cameras must be carried in the hand, no extended lenses. Men stood facing out at the foot of the stage, watching intently. A pair of men stood on a nearby skyscraper roof.
The crowd grew and grew. Drepung Loseling Monks performed a Black Hat Dance, the Snow Lion Dance of friendship and traditional deep-throated chanting, to cleanse the atmosphere and banish negativity. "I moved to Atlanta because the Drepung Loseling Monastery is here," said Lynda Larsen. She had studied Buddhism for several years.
Emory Board Chair Ben Johnson spoke of the history of the park, "built as a place of celebration" for the Olympic Games in 1996, it suffered a deadly terrorist attack during the games, "not from foreign terrorists, but from one of our own." (Eric Rudolph). He said that event showed the need for peace and reconciliation.
Congressman and civil rights movement hero John Lewis said "through your life and work you demonstrate…the way of peace, the way of love, the way of compassion. You are helping us to take one more step towards the building of the beloved community."
The Dalai Lama arrived, bowing and smiling and pressing his hands together. The 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said he was a simple monk. He had three points to make in his talk "Educating the Heart and Mind:"
- Compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment.
- Harmony and understanding between religions. "Some of my Christian friends tell me I'm a good Christian…"some of my Islam friends say, anyone who creates bloodshed, he is not Islam.
- "As a Tibetan carrying the title Dalai Lama, I am committed to speaking for the Tibetan people, in their struggle for justice."
He said he felt something deep in his heart when Congressman Lewis mentioned Martin Luther King. He knew the twentieth century could be called the century of bloodshed. Millions died, yet their deaths did not solve any of the world's problems. "We're so interdependent that if you destroy your enemy, you've destroyed yourself." He said "war is outdated, that is very clear. Perhaps the twenty first century should be the century of dialogue."
On a lighter note, he said he was a lazy person and would most probably be a hopeless professor. He would be too lazy to grade papers. Despite his lazy and ordinary nature, he does have warm heartedness. He felt full of human happiness and love about the honor of being chosen to teach. He wondered how we could teach warm-heartedness from kindergarten through college. Inner disarmament would lead to outer disarmament.
As he spoke, the crowds' demeanor became more peaceful. The brimstone preacher at the gate had fallen silent. Many sat with their eyes closed. At the end, he draped white prayer shawls around Congressman Lewis, Ben Johnson, and Emory University President Jim Wagner.
Five shirtless Georgia Tech students stood in a line. On their chests they had painted "HELLO" in green and black paint, on their backs "DALAI." As the crowd filtered out of the secure park, a few people laughed and took pictures of the fleshy greeting.
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