His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, began a two-week U.S. speaking tour by meeting with President Obama last Friday. After annoying the Chinese government with a private presidential audience, he quickly winged it west to offer enlightenment to the devoted and the curious on the Left Coast, traveling from receptive audiences in Berkeley, Santa Clara, and Los Angeles before a swing through the heartland on his way back to D.C. for a final engagement next Friday.
His official schedule shows a certain thematic predictability in his talks, which generally highlight happiness, fulfillment, and compassion—key nodes of Buddhist thought and the subject of the many books he has published over the past fifty years. As an author, a speaker, and a gatherer of often otherwise disparate devotees, HHDL—if I may—is nothing less than a late modern spiritual mega-brand.
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