West Conshohocken, Pa, USA, 29 March 2012 - The Dalai
Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader whose long-standing
engagement with multiple dimensions of science and with people far
beyond his own religious traditions has made him an incomparable global
voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world
religions, has won the 2012 Templeton Prize.
For decades, Tenzin Gyatso, 76, the 14th Dalai Lama – a lineage
believed by followers to be the reincarnation of an ancient Buddhist
leader who epitomized compassion – has vigorously focused on the
connections between the investigative traditions of science and Buddhism
as a way to better understand and advance what both disciplines might
offer the world.
Specifically, he encourages serious scientific investigative reviews
of the power of compassion and its broad potential to address the
world’s fundamental problems – a theme at the core of his teachings and a
cornerstone of his immense popularity.
Within that search, the “big questions” he raises – such as “Can
compassion be trained or taught?” – reflect the deep interest of the
founder of the Templeton Prize, the late Sir John Templeton, in seeking
to bring scientific methods to the study of spiritual claims and thus
foster the spiritual progress that the Prize has recognized for the past
40 years.
The announcement was made this morning online at www.templetonprize.org, via email to journalists, and on Twitter via @TempletonPrize by the Templeton Prize office of the John Templeton Foundation in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
The Prize will be presented to the Dalai Lama at a ceremony at St.
Paul’s Cathedral in London on the afternoon of Monday, May 14. A news
conference with the 2012 Prize Laureate will precede
the ceremony. Both events will be webcast live at www.templetonprize.org and to global media on a pool basis. Photography from the events will also be pooled.
Valued at £1.1 million (about $1.7 million or €1.3 million), the
prize is the world's largest annual monetary award given to an
individual and honors a living person who has made exceptional
contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.
The announcement praised the Dalai Lama for his life’s work in
building bridges of trust in accord with the yearnings of countless
millions of people around the globe who have been drawn by the
charismatic icon’s appeal to compassion and understanding for all.
“With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the
world’s problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a
spiritual quest can answer,” said Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., president
and chairman of the John Templeton Foundation and son of the late Prize
founder. “The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion
underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific
research that centers on every single human being.”
He also noted that the Dalai Lama’s remarkable record of
intellectual, moral and spiritual innovations is clearly recognized by
the nine Prize judges, who represent a wide range of disciplines,
cultures and religious traditions. The Prize judges evaluate –
independently of each other – typically 15 to 20 nominated candidates
each year and then individually submit separate ballots – from which a
tally then determines the selection of each year’s Laureate.
The Dalai Lama responded to the prize in the humble style that has
become his signature. “When I heard today your decision to give me this
quite famous award, I really felt this is another sign of recognition
about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around
different religious traditions,” he said in a video available at www.templetonprize.org.
In other brief videos on the Prize website, the Dalai Lama
elaborates on key issues including his call for humanity to embrace
compassion as a path to peace, both personally and on a global scale.
“You can develop genuine sense of concern of well-being of others,
including your enemy,” he states in one video. “That kind of compassion –
unbiased, unlimited – needs training, awareness.”
The Right Reverend Michael Colclough, Canon Pastor at
St. Paul’s Cathedral, welcomed this event: “A non-violent voice of
peace and reason in a calamitous world, the Dalai Lama represents core
values cherished by many different faiths. The award of the Templeton
Prize to the Dalai Lama under the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral will be a
reminder that working towards peace and harmony is a practical and
spiritual challenge to all faith communities.”
The Dalai Lama is no stranger to honors and accolades, with scores
to his name. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his
advocacy of nonviolence as the path to liberation for Tibet. He becomes
the second Templeton Prize Laureate to have also received the Nobel
Peace Prize; Mother Teresa received the first Templeton Prize in 1973,
six years before her Nobel.
In concert with his efforts to achieve peace for Tibet, the Dalai
Lama’s extensive travels have promoted cross-cultural understanding with
other religions and with disciplines as varied as astrophysics, quantum
mechanics, neurobiology, and behavioral science.
He often notes that the rigorous commitment of Buddhists to
meditative investment and reflection similarly follows the strict rules
of investigation, proof and evidence required of science.
Among his most successful efforts is the Mind & Life Institute,
co-founded in 1987 to create collaborative research between science and
Buddhism. The Institute hosts conferences on subjects such as
contemplative science, destructive and healing emotions, and
consciousness and death. While initially beginning as quiet academic
affairs, they have evolved into enormously popular public events.
In 2005, after a series of dialogues at Stanford University among
the Dalai Lama, scientists in the fields of neuroscience, psychology,
and medicine, and contemplative scholars, the university became the home
of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.
The interdisciplinary discourse recognized that engagement between
cognitive sciences and Buddhist contemplative traditions could
contribute to understanding of the human mind and emotion. The center
now supports and conducts rigorous scientific studies of compassion and
altruistic behavior.
Many of these conferences have led to popular best sellers written
or co-written by the Dalai Lama, including "The Art of Happiness"
(1998), "The Universe in a Single Atom" (2005), and "The Dalai Lama at
MIT" (2006). All told, he has authored or co-authored more than 70
books.
