Dalai Lama awarded 2012 Templeton Prize

It was announced Saturday morning that the 2012 Templeton Prize has been awarded to the Dalai Lama.

Valued at 1.1 million UK pounds, the prize is the world's largest annual monetary award given to an individual and honours a living person who has made exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.

The announcement praised the Dalai Lama – who is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism - for his life's work in building bridges of trust among people around the globe and his research into the power of compassion.

Accepting the award he said: “I totally dedicated my life to bring a more close understanding among these different religious traditions”. “So we must use our common sense from our past experience. Whenever we face a problem we have to find a nonviolent way to solve that problem. Use violence, rely on force cannot solve the problem.
That is my fundamental belief”.

Past prize winners include Brother Roger, founder and Prior of the Taizé Community in France. Cardinal Suenens, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels, Belgium, a pioneer in the research and discourse of the Charismatic Renewal Movement. Chiara Lubich founder of Italy’s Focolare Movement. Mother Teresa, founder of India’s Missionaries of Charity, was awarded the first ever Templeton Prize (six years before she received the Nobel Peace Prize) for her extraordinary efforts to help the homeless and neglected children of Calcutta.