University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: April 20, 2006

Rebecca French is a professor in the Law School and a member of the Dalai Lama Visit Steering Committee.

I understand that you know His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a personal basis. Can you explain how that came to be?
I went to Tibet in the early 1980s, to Dharamsala, which is the home of His Holiness, with funding to do a project on Tibetan law. I had several experiences of being interviewed by him; over a series of about four years we had several meetings. At one of our meetings His Holiness said mine was one of the most important projects that he had ever heard of and he thereafter called almost everyone who had been a judge or a major participant in a lawsuit in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and gave me entree to all of them. At one point, I lived in his guest house on the Dalai Lama's compound fornine months. He was often at the temple; I got to see him a great deal. Since then, I have seen him every year or two. He recognizes me and obviously it is very easy for me to recognize him. He knows about me and my work. I am a scholar who sees myself as serving him in part and who then is able to connect with him every year or two. He has given me things - he gave me a katag (scarf), a special one made of brocade. He gave me a book when I presented him with my dissertation. When I attended a ceremony, he spoke to me about my work at the end of a ceremony and gave me special seeds for the long life for my family. I feel incredibly honored.

Tell me about the project that led to your meeting His Holiness.
I practiced law for six or seven years before I went back to school to get a Ph.D. and LLM at Yale University. My LLM was in comparative law and my doctorate was in legal anthropology. Legal anthropology is the study of dispute resolution systems at all levels of society and related legal phenomenon through the lens of anthropological theory. I originally was going to look at a small Nepalese or Indian village in which people were speaking Tibetan and perhaps focus on Tibetan dispute settlement. But then I discovered that no one had ever looked at Tibet's national legal system perhaps because they had presumed that it was a religious, not secular system. It turned out there were very ancient law codes, administrative works, all kinds of information, most of which was only available by talking to people, talking to judges. The people in the country knew them and had internalized them. The result of the project was a book, "The Golden Yoke" (Cornell University Press, 1995), which depicts the working of the Tibetan legal system in the 1940s and 1950s. It is used by scholars working in the area of Tibetan law today.

What is the Dalai Lama like?
The first thing that struck me when I met him was that the Dalai Lama is not necessarily a charismatic figure. He is not like Indian gurus or American politicians, because these people exude an enormous amount of power and personal charisma. They are in the business of creating charismatic aura and power. The Dalai Lama is exactly the opposite of that. Instead, he is absolutely calm, but totally present and focused on you. The term Nirvana means you are "blown out," that you don't have an egoed self. The Dalai Lama has a very happy sort of light, exquisite presence; he looks at you and is there with you, but he does not exude any kind of emotive or aggressive force. Some people mistake it for him being ineffectual. For example, one of the first times I saw him was at Amherst College in the late 1970s. He was speaking in an old church and in the middle of the discussion, he stopped and he looked up and said, "Aaahh, you've come to visit us." There was a tiny bird, about six inches long, sitting up in the rafters. The bird just started "speaking" to him, chirping. The Dalai Lama didn't want to interrupt the proceedings, so he waited and said something to the bird, in Tibetan, and the bird said something back and then flew out one of the windows. That typifies His Holiness. He is an enormous presence of calm and an enormous presence of compassion.

Do you practice Buddhism?
I entered into my Tibetan studies as an academic so I didn't know much about Buddhism. My approach to Tibet was very scholarly. Once I got to India, I started practicing Buddhism on my own. My teacher, Kungola Thubten Sangye, told me, "You may practice on your own, but you may not become a 'Dharma head' or a 'Dharma bum' like these people wandering around looking for the Buddha because you wont' be taken seriously." He wanted me to be a very serious scholar, he wanted me to go back to the U.S and have a position, which I do now, in law and he wanted me to be able to speak about Tibet from a position of power. He said, "What matters is your being able to talk about Buddhism and the Tibetan legal system as an authority in your own culture." He had this whole plan for me. Many of the Tibetans said he had been waiting for me to come, but he was very disappointed that I was a woman. In their society, many of the official roles were taken on by males.

How has Buddhism influenced your life and work?
I think there is no question that Buddhism is enormously important in the way I approach everything in my life. It changes your entire perspective about what's important, what's not important, and what you are doing in the process of teaching. The point of teaching is not just giving out information, but making the information work for the individual so they can take it in and become better human beings through it. Most of my teaching and most of the way I deal with my personal life has entirely to do with the ideas of Buddhism. It has changed me enormously.

Buddhism appears to be appealing to increasing numbers of Americans? Why?
I think Americans are turning to Buddhism in huge numbers, because it is particularly appropriate in our current times. Many people start to practice meditation or read about Buddhism and become excited about it. With all of the stress that Americans have, sitting and meditating can help to reduce stress and focus concentration. Another important part of Buddhism is being very present in your active life without a lot of ideas running through your head as you're multi-tasking. It's very good for the American "body," let alone the American psyche to calm down, focus, speak directly to others, and stop multiple ideas from popping up. Other ideas of Buddhism—such as reincarnation, impermanence, the very idea of life being short, and true compassion—are also very appealing. The Tibetans might say many Americans are turning to Buddhism because they were Buddhists in previous lives. We in the West have spent the last 2000 years working on technological advances, to create a better plow, a cotton gin, a light bulb or radio. Our entire lives and mental systems are based on hundreds of gadgets that work technologically to change and improve our environment. The Tibetans have spent those same 2000 years concentrating on the mind, how to meditate and calm the mind and how to have happiness and a sense of peace. Many Americans are realizing the next iPod is not going to make them happy. They are moving toward ideas that will be able to calm their mind and help them understand the world better.

How are you advancing the study, understanding of Buddhist law?
The first course on Buddhist law that has ever been taught in the world will be taught by me this fall in the Law School. Students across the university will be able to take it. Students will learn about Buddhism, and look at how Buddhism is structured in terms of secular legal systems all over the world. I also am directing the Project for Law and Buddhism funded by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the University at Buffalo Law School. We held a conference in 2004 that helped establish the Project and last month we held a conference in Bellagio, Italy, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. Participants from around the world presented papers on aspects of "theft" in Buddhist legal systems. A book will be published based on the proceedings. In my opinion, the most important thing is to produce works that focus on Buddhist law, to get them out in the knowledge stream. This knowledge will be expanded further when a conference, "Law, Buddhism and Social Change," is held from Sept. 20-22 at the Law School in conjunction with the Dalai Lama's visit to UB. His Holiness, who has never talked about how you make social change happen, will address the opening of the conference. Leading professors in law and philosophy and Buddhist experts will be participating. We are working to build the Project for Law and Buddhism. Ultimately, I would also like to coordinate all of the Buddhist lawyers in the U.S. and help bring people together to introduce compassion and Buddhism to the American legal system.