UUA President Meets with the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama and UUA President William Sinkford. Sinkford is wearing the kata, a ceremonial Tibetan scarf.

The Dalai Lama and UUA President William Sinkford in the Dalai Lama's hotel suite in Cambridge, MA

The Dalai Lama during his meeting with UUA President William Sinkford.

(from left) John Hurley & Tsering Wongmo of UUA Staff; His Holiness the Dalai Lami; the Rev. William G. Sinkford, UUA President

(Boston, September 13, 2003) UUA president William Sinkford met privately with His Holiness the Dalai Lama last Saturday morning in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the Dalai Lama’s four-day visit to the Boston area. Sinkford’s twenty-five minute conversation with the Dalai Lama, the religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism and the political leader of the government of Tibet-in-exile, covered issues of international relations, spirituality, and the relationship of Buddhism and Western scientific empiricism.

Sinkford began the meeting with the ceremonial offering of a kata, a Tibetan scarf, to the Dalai Lama who accepted it and later ritually returned it to Sinkford. After welcoming the Dalai Lama to Boston and thanking him for making time in his very busy schedule for this meeting, Sinkford described the diversity of theological perspectives within Unitarian Universalism, its support for its members on their spiritual journeys, and the growing numbers of UUs who follow Buddhist spiritual practices. The Dalai Lama replied that this was “a good thing…because there are many paths. Keep doing that.” When Sinkford mentioned the UUA’s 2000 Action of Immediate Witness in support of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet, the Dalai Lama said, “Thank you. We need every help.”

The Dalai Lama said that he understood that Unitarian Universalists “try to bring people together,” and Sinkford confirmed this by describing his trip to Amman, Jordan, last May as part of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP) interfaith delegation that met with Iraqi religious leaders. The Dalai Lama expressed interest in other WCRP activities, and Sinkford promised to forward this information to the Office of Tibet in New York City. Both religious leaders noted the pain and suffering caused by the violence in the Middle East, and the Dalai Lama advised that “change must start in the human heart.” Agreeing with him, Sinkford added that this change starts when “people are brought into relationship with one another, when they reach out across the differences that usually divide them.”

Knowing that the Dalai Lama was participating later that day in a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigating the physiology of meditation, Sinkford applauded the Dalai Lama’s courage in agreeing to be part of the study. The Dalai Lama chuckled at this and admitted that some of his advisors counseled against his participation because, according to them, “science tries to kill religion.” But he felt that Buddhism had much to offer Western empiricism, especially in the fields of “cosmology, quantum physics, neurobiology, and psychology.” “Buddhism is not theistic,” he said, “but neither is it anti-God. I think Buddhism is a science of the mind. Perhaps we can be a bridge between religion and science.”

The conversation between Sinkford and the Dalai Lama, who is revered by his followers as the 14th reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, was punctuated several times by laughter. At one point, the Dalai Lama related the story of a Buddhist monk who married a Western woman. “He chose another path,” laughed the Dalai Lama.

Minutes after the meeting ended, the Dalai Lama was escorted by his staff and government security personnel through the hotel lobby and into a waiting SUV for the short trip to MIT for the scientific conference. Noting that, as far as is known, he was the only religious leader to have a private meeting with the Dalai Lama while he was in Boston, Sinkford said, “I consider it a blessing that the Dalai Lama saw fit to make time in his schedule to meet with me. He is completely unpretentious, but it is impossible to be in his presence without sensing his serenity and compassion. And he has a wonderful sense of humor as well.”

Sinkford was accompanied to the meeting by Tsering Wongmo, a Tibetan who works in the UUA’s office of information and public witness. Wongmo emigrated to the United States from India in 1992 and lived for three months with a UU host family from First Parish in Framingham, MA. “I am so very grateful to Rev. Bill Sinkford for inviting me to this private audience. It is the dream of every Tibetan to meet the Dalai Lama, and my family and friends will be thrilled to hear that I attended a private audience with him. This is the highpoint of my life. Nothing is better.”

The meeting between Sinkford and the Dalai Lama was arranged between the UUA’s office of information and public witness and the Office of Tibet in New York City with invaluable assistance from Gail Henrie, a UU Buddhist from Indianapolis, IN. For more information on Unitarian Universalism and Buddhism, visit the website of the UU Buddhist Fellowship .

The Dalai Lama's Sunday night appearance before 14,000 spectators at the Fleet Center in Boston was emceed by the Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, senior minister of the Arlington Street Church which sponsors a Zen Center. For more information see http://www.ascboston.org/ascenter/zencen.html .

Written for the web by John Hurley.

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St. | Boston, MA 02108 | 617-742-2100