Every faith has a piece of the truth, said the Dalai Lama in the opening remarks of his Buddhist teaching on Saturday morning.
"All great world religions have methods for overcoming suffering. Buddhism is just one example," he said, sitting cross-legged on a 5-foot high "throne" built especially for his presentation at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus.
Those with no religion should choose one and those reared as Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews or in any other faith should stay with it, he said.
Later in the speech, the Dalai Lama suggested that missionaries should teach mostly those without religion rather than believers steeped in another faith and the crowd of 11,000 applauded loudly.
The Dalai Lama, spiritual and political leader of exiled Tibetans, made no mention of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nor its 65,000 missionaries.
Indeed, he was probably referring to Christian missionaries of all denominations who have been seeking converts in Asian countries for centuries, but his comments seemed to hit a chord among those who live in the Mormon heartland.
However, the bulk of his Buddhist teaching, "The Six Perfections: Generosity, Morality, Forbearance, Joy, Concentration and Wisdom," was a dense philosophical introduction to Buddhism.
The Dalai Lama spoke almost entirely in rapid Tibetan, challenging his soft-spoken translator, Thupten Jinpa, to keep up with his complex sentences.
He introduced Buddhism's Four Noble Truths: Life is suffering; suffering is caused by desire and attachment; desire and attachment can be overcome; and the way to do so is to follow the Eightfold Path of right thinking, speaking and acting.
The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful, he said.
This takes more than "prayer or wishing," the Dalai Lama said. It requires deep analysis into the cause of harsh feelings like hatred and a conscious effort to shift one's perspective.
"Our enemies provide us with a precious opportunity to practice patience and love," he said. "We should have gratitude toward them."
By that reasoning, the Dalai Lama must have been grateful that I-15 was snarled in traffic, forcing his motorcade to take an alternate route to his speech at Utah Valley State College in Orem.
After arriving a half-hour late for the speech scheduled for 2:15 p.m., the Dalai Lama seemed a "paragon of inner peace," said UVSC President Kerry Romesburg.
The Buddhist leader gave his customary smiles and bows, saying only, "The drive was beautiful."
He then revisited his recurring theme that a positive attitude can affect reform the world.
The roadblocks to a peaceful or happy 21st century are Western materialism and greed, he said.
With the rise of technology our power to destroy one another has increased, he said, but so has our power to communicate and spread wide a positive influence.
"Co-existance, peace, disarmament" will require special attention during the 21st century, he said. "If you want to change our century . . . first we must change our lifestyle and behavior."
-- Kirsten Stewart contributed to this report.