Though the Dalai Lama regards himself as a simple Buddhist monk, the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls broke out in thunderous applause as the 14th Dalai Lama took the stage May 18.

The events of the day started with a panel entitled “Educating for a Nonviolent World.” The focus was on various forms of education and how they can work together to create a peaceful environment.

“We must educate with our brains and educate our hearts,” the Dalai Lama said.

The panel was comprised of Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education; Art Erickson, founder and CEO of Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation; Jackson Katz, co-founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention Program; and Lee Rainey, who has devoted enormous amount of time to youth programs.

Education issues the panel discussed were poverty, violence and broken families. Panel members said why they believe these issues exist and what they personally, and as a community, were doing to solve these problems.

The panel asked the Dalai Lama what else they could do to help promote world peace

The Dalai Lama responded to these issues by saying society must give hope to people of tragedy.

“If society rejects [them] that leads to frustration, which leads to violence,” he said.

To help give this hope, the Dalai Lama said society must fulfill the core values of life, including hard work, confidence, education and training. With these values, we reach understanding how precious human life is.

Jeffrey said she hoped audience members took away the Dalai Lama’s message of caring for mankind.

“It’s true regardless of the age; respect the individual, to have compassion for all and to really find that contentment and love that is so necessary for the world to survive.” Jeffrey said.

While the Dalai Lama focused on education, he emphasized that humanity must work together, at both family and community level, to help better mankind with understanding and compassion with a focus on helping the family first then the community.

“If we make effort with optimism and compassion to make a clear vision … we can improve,” the Dalai Lama said.

To help both on family and community levels, the Dalai Lama projected the sense of a renewal of ethics, though not necessarily from religious faith. As well as a sense of responsibility and long-term interest rather than short-term interest of issues and events.

The Dalai Lama visited the University of Northern Iowa after the UNI president asked his holiness to visit at the urging of members of the Tibet Fund, due to the work northern Iowa did with the organization to provide scholarships to Tibetan students.