By Tom Precious
NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
ALBANY—State lawmakers were urged Wednesday to practice honesty, respect and openness, traits long advocated by government reform groups.
This time, the message was delivered in person by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and Nobel Peace laureate.
“Compassion brings us inner strength,” said the visitor to the state Capitol, who delivered the invocation in the Senate chamber before giving a speech at a nearby theater.
Lawmakers from both parties lined up to touch His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who followers believe is a reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, as he made his way in and out of the Senate chamber.
Several of the more politically connected Democratic senators, including Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, wore spiritual white Buddhist scarves, called a kata, as they led the procession into the chamber.
After a brief prayer, the Dalai Lama, 73, who has lived in exile in India for 50 years, told the packed crowd in the ornate chamber that he wanted “to show my deep respect about American values — liberty, justice, democracy.”
He wore a maroon and saffron robe and was accompanied by several other monks, as well as a U. S. Secret Service detail.
Compassion should be the “primary mover of our activities in order to be constructive,” he said. “Compassion brings us inner strength.”
The Dalai Lama also stressed the importance of “transparency,” something usually lacking in the Capitol.
Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican whose party lost control of the Senate in January, noted the Dalai Lama’s work for minority groups. “You protect the interests of minorities in Tibet. Certainly, we ask that you pray for this minority,” he said as the crowd laughed.
The Dalai Lama later looked out over the Republican side of the chamber. “The feeling is to side with minorities, so my sympathies would be more [with the] Republican side,” he said. Republican lawmakers jumped from their chairs and applauded.
But the Dalai Lama quickly waved them off. “Just a joke, just a joke, not serious,” he said.
As he ended his brief appearance, he looked at the chair he had been sitting in, positioned in the middle of the podium, saying he didn’t know whether to side with the Democrats or the Republicans. “Or I should start another, new party,” he said before thanking the lawmakers for the invitation.
One watchdog welcomed the Dalai Lama’s entreaty to the Legislature. “Sometimes I feel like Albany needs divine intervention,” said Blair Horner, a lobbyist with the New York Public Interest Research Group.
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