An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (1935– )
One of the world’s most popular spiritual leaders has only achieved 
that prominence through exile. On 31 March 1959 the Fourteenth Dalai 
Lama left Tibet secretly by night. He was forced to flee because his 
country had been taken over by the People’s Republic of China, a 
situation which endures to this day. Before leaving he had consulted his 
oracle and prayed, visualizing a safe journey and a return. After a perilous 
three week journey, the Dalai Lama and his companions reached India. 
Some time later, he set up the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala. 
The reverence in which he is held is a measure of the Dalai Lama’s living 
example of Buddhist teaching, that it is through suffering that liberation 
is attained.
It is believed that the Dalai Lama, whose title is sometimes translated 
as meaning ‘ocean of wisdom’, is an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara or 
Chenresig, Bodhisattva of Compassion. Bodhisattvas are regarded as 
those who have become enlightened, who have achieved Buddhahood, 
but who remain involved in human affairs to bring all to enlightenment.
The choice of Dalai Lama is dependent upon a spiritual process, reflect-
ing the belief in reincarnation. When a major Buddhist figure dies, his 
successor is chosen through identifying his reincarnation. Born in Takster 
in north-east Tibet, Lhamo Thondup was picked out by a search party 
looking for the reincarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thupten 
Gyatso. By visions and signs, they were led to Kumbum monastery and 
then to Lhamo Thondup’s parents’ house nearby. They gave no indication 
of their mission and the leader, Kewtsang Rinpoché pretended to be a 

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servant, while carefully observing the three-year-old child. But Llamo 
Thondup recognized him, calling him ‘Sera Lama’, Sera being the name of 
Kewtsang Rinpoché’s monastery. The party returned the following day, 
bringing various articles, some of which had belonged to the Thirteenth 
Dalai Lama. The boy correctly picked out those items, saying that they 
were his. He was subsequently pronounced the Fourteenth Dalai Lama 
and officially installed in 1940.
This led to separation from his parents and life in the Potala Palace in 
Lhasa. It was there that tutors for different subjects came to give him 
lessons, on temporal and spiritual subjects as well as allowing a little 
time for play. As an adult, the Dalai Lama has a great interest in science 
and has co-operated with research on meditation and advanced practices. 
In the late 1970s he permitted Dr Herbert Benson from Harvard to under-
take experiments on monks in the most advanced states of meditation. 
This showed that the mind was able to control the body to such an extent 
that the monks were able to remain outside, sitting naked on the snow in 
freezing temperatures and to dry sheets which had been soaked in cold 
water simply through their body heat. In recent years the Dalai Lama has 
taken part in dialogues with the scientific community, particularly on the 
subject of consciousness under the auspices of the Mind Life Institute.
He travels the world teaching love and compassion, which he reflects 
in his own life. There has never been any question in his mind that the 
Chinese, who have taken over Tibet, should be resisted with anything but 
peaceful means. He remains steadfast in his refusal to countenance vio-
lence and in 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. He has said that 
he finds it hard to love his enemy, the Chinese, but accepts that they are 
probably his greatest teachers. This is a figure whose life has been centred 
on the spiritual since childhood, yet who remains fully engaged in the 
world; an exile who has turned into one of the most inspirational citizens 
of the world.