Mexico City, September 10, 2011—Before departing the hotel for Museum of (War Crimes) Memories and Tolerance, His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with Senator Santiago Creel Miranda, who earlier served as Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox, and his family members. In October 2004, when His Holiness visited Mexico, Senator Santiago Creel received His Holiness officially on behalf of the Mexico Government as Minister of the Interior.
At the Museum of Memories and Tolerance, His Holiness the Dalai Lama along with the actor Richard Gere opened an exhibition, ‘Tibet: Memories of a Lost Nation’. Five-room exhibits display not only the repression of the Tibetan people under China, but also highlight the timeline of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s life as well as display some aspects of the Tibetan Buddhist culture.
After opening the exhibition, His Holiness briefly spoke to more than 200 guests and media people presented at the opening ceremony of the exhibition. In his address, His Holiness thanked the management of the Museum for organizing the exhibition on Tibet and commented that these kinds of museums are so important to educate the people and create more awareness. After concluding his brief address, His Holiness signed the special visitors’ book of the museum.
From the Museum of Memories and Tolerance, His Holiness departed to Metropolitan Theater where he gave two sessions of teachings (morning and afternoon) to the Buddhist community of Mexico on ‘Eight Verses for Training the Mind’ composed by Geshe Langri Thangpa ((1054-1123). The first seven verses of the Eight Verses for Training the Mind deal with the practices associated with cultivating the method aspect of the path such as compassion, altruism, aspiration to attain buddhahood, and so on. The eighth verse deals with the practices that are directed toward cultivating the wisdom aspect of the path.
His Holiness was extremely impressed and touched by the amount of attention paid by the Mexican Buddhists throughout his day-long teaching. More than 3,500 people attended the teaching.
At the end of the teaching, the organizers of the visit and the teachings led by Marco Antonio Karam, President of the Casa Tibet Mexico received a special blessing from His Holiness. This was followed by the recitation of special long life prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Spanish by the devotees who attended the teaching.
After the lunch break, His Holiness visited the studio of Televisa, a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, which is the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. At the Televisa studio, His Holiness gave an exclusive interview to Carlos Loret de Mola, one of the most well-known Televisa News anchors.
When asked to comment on his observation on the situation in Mexico, His Holiness said although the media has been projecting so much violence in this country, one gets a real picture when you are on the spot. Just a handful of people engage in violence and the rest majority of the people here are peaceful, he added. When asked to comment on Mexican people in general, His Holiness said Mexicans are very gentle and nice people. During the interview, His Holiness
