Private session of top Buddhists to cap his U.S. tour
Deseret News: The 14th Dalai Lama is simultaneously the exiled monarch of Tibet, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning statesman and Buddhism’s most renowned world leader — aspects that are all evident during his current U.S. tour.
But a private event, carrying out his religious role, may be the most significant moment in the India-based lama’s visit — a conference in the upstate New York community of Garrison for 300 leaders of local Buddhist centers in the Western Hemisphere.
This is apparently the biggest gathering of Buddhist teachers ever held in the United States. Only followers of the Dalai Lama’s own Tibetan form of the faith are invited, although some speakers will come from other traditions. The lama has previously encouraged smaller meetings for teachers representing all Buddhist branches, most recently in 2001.
Such get-togethers are rare because North American Buddhism is highly individualistic and decentralized, with less unity and nationwide cooperation than is found in Christianity, Judaism or Islam…