UNIVERSAL CITY - The Dalai Lama spent the weekend in Los Angeles and held a Sunday afternoon talk at the Gibson Amphitheater with musicial guest Sheryl Crow.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism delivered a speech titled "Cultivating Compassion and the Needs of Vulnerable Children" to a crowd of several thousand people.
Sitting cross-legged on a chair on-stage, he said people today are "too much concerned with exterior material values and not our inner values."
He talked about Tibet, saying he believes all social change first comes from within -- on the individual level.
"At the fundamental level, we are the same human being," he said. "Mentally, emotionally, physically -- same."
His holieness also infused humor into his speech, discussing his 2008 gall bladder removal surgery. He said he referenced his own medical scare when a woman asked if he had special healing powers.
"That proves scientifically that I have no healing power," he joked.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, met with President Barack Obama at the White House Thursday before traveling to L.A. He stayed in the presidential suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The leader has said he has hope that China will someday recognize Tibetan autonomy. One good sign, he said, is the rise of Chinese intellectuals who express sympathy for Tibetan independence.
The Sunday event was being held in support of Whole Child International, a nonprofit that works on behalf of orphaned and abandoned children.
This marked the Dailai Lama's first large-scale public talk in Los Angeles since September 2006.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism delivered a speech titled "Cultivating Compassion and the Needs of Vulnerable Children" to a crowd of several thousand people.
Sitting cross-legged on a chair on-stage, he said people today are "too much concerned with exterior material values and not our inner values."
He talked about Tibet, saying he believes all social change first comes from within -- on the individual level.
"At the fundamental level, we are the same human being," he said. "Mentally, emotionally, physically -- same."
His holieness also infused humor into his speech, discussing his 2008 gall bladder removal surgery. He said he referenced his own medical scare when a woman asked if he had special healing powers.
"That proves scientifically that I have no healing power," he joked.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, met with President Barack Obama at the White House Thursday before traveling to L.A. He stayed in the presidential suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The leader has said he has hope that China will someday recognize Tibetan autonomy. One good sign, he said, is the rise of Chinese intellectuals who express sympathy for Tibetan independence.
The Sunday event was being held in support of Whole Child International, a nonprofit that works on behalf of orphaned and abandoned children.
This marked the Dailai Lama's first large-scale public talk in Los Angeles since September 2006.
