Dalai Lama Visits Chicago

With trademark humility, a hearty laugh and simple suggestions for cultivating compassion in children, the 14th Dalai Lama disarmed a crowd of more than 11,000 students, spiritual seekers and the just plain curious Sunday in Millennium Park.

Earlier in the day, the exiled spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet delivered his first Buddhist teaching to a Chicago audience at Harris Theater. And at a VIP luncheon that honored benefactors and politicians such as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., he delivered a gentle rebuke of China’s policies in Tibet.

“We are trying to tell the Chinese government the present policy is counterproductive,” said the Dalai Lama, 71. “Once we get meaningful autonomy ... we will be loyal and there will be more unity and genuine stability ... and genuine prosperity for Tibet.”