He’s No Business Guru, but a Lot of Stock Is Put in His Guidance

The Dalai Lama sat before a group of rapt business leaders at UC Irvine on Friday, offering simple homilies to people who treated the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s words as spiritual gold.

They asked him about trade, technology and social investing, but if they were looking for expert advice, they came to the wrong place. “If I end up in business,” he said, “I’ll probably end up creating more debts for the company.”

To another question he answered, “I’m not an expert on management. To be frank, I’m not a good manager.”

When someone asked about trade breaking down borders, he replied: “My past incarnation was mainly in the spiritual field, not trade.”

So why were these 115 people -- 40% of them from out of state, several of whom had flown in from Europe and South America -- so interested in what this 69-year-old Buddhist monk had to say?

“He has no agenda, just pure absolute truth,” said Steve Trevino, chief strategist for global sustainability for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a management firm in Washington, D.C.

“It’s simple wisdom to put us on the right course,” said Dr. Charles Denham, chief executive of HCC, a medical innovations company in Austin, Texas. “I think there is a growing collective dissatisfaction with the way business is going.”

The Dalai Lama’s meeting with the executives was just one part of his daylong tour of UCI, starting with a morning appearance before about 4,500 middle school, high school and college students, some from as far away as the Bay Area, and included an appearance by actress Sharon Stone.

He finished in the late afternoon with a sold-out public talk.

Throughout the day he pressed the themes of self-confidence and compassion -- even compassionate dreams; your breakfast will taste better in the morning -- and the need to avoid negativity.

“Sometimes anger may get you some satisfaction in the short term,” he told the students, “but in the long term it always brings negative.”

He decried violence, saying it “creates more violence, more problems.” Through nonviolence, he said, “is the possibility of a solution.”

He showed himself to be something of a jokester, often at his own expense. He laughed when he told the students that he was a lazy pupil who sometimes cheated and that he enjoyed fixing clocks.

Sandwiched between his talks to the larger groups was his invitation-only meeting with the business executives who paid $100 each to listen to him as part of their conference, “Cultivating the Heart of Leadership: Designing an Economy that Works for Everyone.”

Wearing a sleeveless red robe, red socks, brown shoes, a UCI visor and wire-rimmed glasses, the Dalai Lama spoke in heavily accented English, seldom using the translator sitting next to him.

He deplored “ruthless competition,” exploitation and thinking only about profits.

He supports women as corporate managers. “In some cases the female brain is sharper,” he said. “But some feminists are a little extreme.”

His appearance at UCI followed four days of Buddhist lectures in Pasadena, said Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor of student affairs, who arranged the visit. He said the university paid the Dalai Lama’s expenses for the day.

Judith Simmer-Brown, a professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colo., the only accredited Buddhist college in the U.S., said Westerners are attracted to the Dalai Lama because “his whole purpose for living is wisdom and compassion.”

Michael Lythcott, a partner with the New York firm Uplift Capital Partners, was especially moved when the Tibetan leader talked about people meditating to sharpen their minds, then using the technique instead as a tool for “ruthless competition.”

And when he didn’t have an answer, the Buddhist would say so.

“These are lessons all people should know,” Lythcott said. “Know your limitations.”

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Times staff writer William Lobdell contributed to this report.