Dalai Lama Donates $1.5M to Charity

Wins Templeton Prize for linking science and 'compassion'
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 14, 2012 8:59 AM CDT
Dalai Lama Donates $1.5M to Charity
The Dalai Lama speaks at the 6th World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet in Ottawa, Ontario, Friday April 27, 2012.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

It's a big news day for the Dalai Lama, from the dangerous to the charitable. He will today be awarded $1.5 million for his services to human spirituality, and he's giving away all of the winnings. He'll donate some $1.45 million to India's Save the Children and more than $200,000 to the Minds and Life Institute, which blends scientific investigation and "contemplative tradition." Some of the funds from the Templeton Prize will also support Tibetan monks' scientific education, the BBC reports. The Tibetan spiritual leader received the prize for backing "serious scientific investigative reviews of the power of compassion."

"With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the world's problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a spiritual quest can answer," said the president of the foundation behind the prize, whose first winner, in 1973, was Mother Teresa. "The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centers on every single human being." (More Dalai Lama stories.)

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