His Holiness the Dalai Lama enlightened a packed Memorial Church crowd yesterday with jokes, childhood anecdotes, Buddhist lessons and an exhortation to develop moral character while at Harvard.

Insisting that he was “just a simple monk and a human being, no more, no less,” and dressed in red and saffron robes, the spiritual leader of Tibet used his 100-minute talk to emphasize the significance of compassion and altruism in creating happy, healthy lives.

At 4 p.m., the audience—many of whom had camped out last weekend to snag a ticket to the speech—rose as a group of Tibetan monks, Harvard administrators and security officers filed in around the Dalai Lama, who grinned at the crowd and chatted to a group of Tibetan musicians in their native language.

The Dalai Lama began by joking that he would pray for students’ academic success.

Interrupting the translator—his remarks alternated between English and Tibetan— the Dalai Lama quipped that his prayers would not actually be that helpful. “Hard work is better,” he said.

His emphasis was on creating happy and healthy lives.

“From birth, all have every right to have a happy life,” he said. “The main purpose of education is to bring happy and successful life at the individual, family…and even global level.”

But, he pointed out, education is not enough. Leaning forward and gesturing, his eyes widening behind his glasses, he reminded the audience that even those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks had “very sharp brains.”

He warned that as students occupy themselves with sharpening their intellects, they may forget to simultaneously develop their moral character. But he encouraged students to develop an “altruistic attitude.” He said that this attitude would result in personal peace of mind and happiness.

The development of compassion, the Dalai Lama said, begins at birth.

“First we learn affection from our mother, not our guru,” he said. “Guru comes later. Everyone survived up to now because of…mothers’ affection.”

In a globalized, interdependent world, the Dalai Lama said, it is particularly important to nurture compassion. In response to one of the questions from the audience, which were submitted before the speech and read by Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby, the Dalai Lama said that violence had little political use in today’s world.

“Particularly in the modern world, warfare is outdated because every part of the world is part of yourself,” he said. “So destruction of your enemy is destruction of yourself. Complete destruction of enemy and victory for yourself is impossible.”

He touched only briefly, in response to a question, on the difficult political situation in Tibet, saying that he still wants autonomy for the cultural and religious life of Tibetans. But he conceded that Chinese control had brought economic windfalls to the region and said he would support democratic rule if the Tibetan government were restored to power.

In addition to his role as the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama is the political head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, located in India, where he fled Chinese occupiers in 1959. In the intervening years, he has become internationally known for his commitment to nonviolence. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.