The Dalai Lama today starts two days of religious
teaching at the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist
Cultural Center
in Bloomington, Indiana. Then on Friday he is scheduled to
give a public talk at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis geared toward a wider audience
and focusing on compassion and wisdom through periods of difficulty.

During The Bloomington teachings are sold out, but some
tickets to the fieldhouse event are still available. Proceeds will aid local
hunger programs and a children”s cancer hospital in Mongolia.

The trip is his first to Indiana since the September 2008 death of
his elder brother and cultural center founder Thubten J. Norbu. While devout
Buddhists view physical death as a pause before rebirth, cultural center
officials say the Dalai Lama”s return signals that the Bloomington center will remain important even
though his brother is gone.

Donald Mitchell, a professor in philosophy at Purdue who
has heard the Dalai Lama speak on several occasions, said the Nobel laureate
will use examples from his Buddhist tradition to show how to address today”s
problems. It doesn”t hurt, Mitchell said, that the Dalai Lama has a good sense
of humor. “He is a charismatic, captivating guy who is very nice, funny
and very kind, a very gentle, kind soul, and has just some good things to
say,” Mitchell said.