Interview with Dr Alan Molloy   Convener of the Organising Committee for the 2002 Australian Tour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

by Gabriel Lafitte

Gabriel Lafitte: Why does it take years to organise a tour for His Holiness the Dalai Lama?

Alan Molloy: I am going to do an interview with a leading Australian business publication, where they will ask questions about novel, innovative ways of achieving extraordinary results, using methods that are at times extraordinary. However, it really gets organised because of His Holiness' karma, his integrity and the prestige he holds in the community. You are simply riding on the wave of something so profoundly powerful and so profoundly respected in the world that it is almost like: if you follow the rules, everything will be all right! You do have to have tremendous faith. It is not just a product you are selling, it is not a commercial enterprise, it is something that requires incredible faith and devotion from the people who are doing it, whilst bearing in mind that it is not you who is succeeding: you are an instrument for the Dalai Lama's incredible good qualities; his good karma, accumulation of merit and positive energy. You are just allowing that to be expressed. As the organising body, we all realise that and reflect on it at all our meetings before we start, which helps to set our motivation right. This is useful, because it also helps to reduce the pride, ego and self-interest of the various groups that contributed to the organisation. Six hundred people were involved in the organisation at its zenith. Once you reduce pride, ego and self-interest, there is less conflict and more co-operation, teamwork and unity of purpose in working together. That is the pith of it: you are working as an instrument of the Dalai Lama. Everything that occurs, results from his energy.

GL: Did you do a meditation prior to each decision-making meeting?

AM: Yes, at the national executive and board levels. We also encouraged the other executives to do a meditation of motivation before each session - to quell ego and self-interest and to see themselves simply as instruments of the Dalai Lama. It would be a purely secular, non-religious meditation, because many of the people involved in the organisation are non-Buddhists and many people are downright atheists. It's hard to get a balance that does not threaten people who are not Buddhist or non-religious by nature. One's motivation is important. At the end of every meeting we would dedicate whatever virtue we had created, for the purpose of bringing that manifestation of compassion to the people of Australia; to bring as much benefit to them as possible.

GL: In the actual decision-making, everyone has his or her own version of the Dalai Lama, so if there are ten people in a meeting all with ideas as to what the priorities should be, what do you do?

AM: We have tried various models in the past, when we brought the Dalai Lama out to Australia in 1982, 1992 and 1996 and have learned what the best corporate model is. New Zealand has been through exactly the same process. Their model is now very similar to ours and they achieved that independently. It was successful for them and I think we've proved how successful our administrative corporate model is during this visit. Corporations can be virtuous and moral and do the right thing. They do not have to be self-interested.

We have a high level of managerial sophistication, responsibility-sharing and delegation. That model is similar to most corporations: we have a board and we were careful that everyone on the board shared a common vision and goal. Chope Paljor Tsering, the Tibetan government's representative in Australia was on the board. Geshe Sonam Thargye was on the board as the initiator of the visit. There was also George Farley who had been instrumental in previous visits and in the Tibetan struggle in Australia, Alex Butler as president of Australia Tibet Council, and myself as a long term Buddhist supporter. We shared a common vision.

The next level is to appoint the national director, or CEO, who has executive authority. We do not have to vote. During the whole tour, we voted on only a handful of issues. The thousands of decisions that were made were made in a process of consultation and delegation, but from a top-down structure. The national director has executive authority over every decision; if he or she can't resolve it, it goes to the board.

Similarly, on all our sub-committees, the chairman has executive authority. We trusted that person by delegating authority to him or her and that person was expected to use that authority in the wisest way. So, voting and the principles of democracy were instituted, but in a properly run organisation where there is executive authority given to somebody who is capable of handling it with intelligence and the right motivation. The scenario of ten people around a table arguing what to do did not occur that often. When it did, the issue would be referred up the chain of command and resolved. Some difficult decisions were referred to myself and I would resolve them in a decisive fashion! Sometimes you have to be decisive. Compassion sometimes has to be strong.

His Holiness answered a question from a Bosnian girl who lived through war and terror. She asked how to forgive. He said forgiveness does not mean submission or passivity as in, 'I'm a Buddhist, I'm a doormat, walk on me.' Compassion can be very strong. Forgiveness can be forgiveness, but you can still fight back with non-violence in a strong fashion. You do not have to be submissive.

In an organisation such as this, the stakes are very high. For example, in the Dalai Lama in Australia Limited, we had one shot at getting this right. If we did not get it right this time, we would not get a second chance. If you are building a web site and it doesn't work when you put it up, tomorrow you can fix it. But if you are ten minutes late getting the Dalai Lama to an event - orchestrating maybe hundreds of facets of that one event - the event will not occur and His Holiness may miss out on something precious. Or it may cause a security problem. Once our drivers were fifteen minutes late getting to their vehicles and missed the escorting motorcade. You cannot afford that.

Organising the Dalai Lama's visit is more akin to a military operation than to a community organisation. It requires very similar organisational structures to a military operation. There are a general, colonels and captains who each have their brigades, platoons and so on. You go into your battle. The Dalai Lama travels in a motorcade surrounded by armed men to protect him. We have to protect His Holiness. The first priority is how to protect the Dalai Lama from over-exertion, by making his travel easy, not from external threats such as over-enthusiastic supporters or people who might want to harm His Holiness out of delusion or confusion.

One remark we received from the officials in the Tibetan government, who accompanied him, is how well the tour in Australia was organised; it was one of the best, maybe the best. Everything went smoothly and was easy for them. We all know that His Holiness has been sick. Tours to America, Canada, Italy, France and central Europe were cancelled. He is sixty-six years old. We also have to protect the government ministers who follow him, because their role is central to supporting His Holiness. We have to ensure that from arrival to departure the visit does not tax them, hurt them or cause them anxiety or stress.

We noticed that when they arrived here, they were a bit anxious and worried; they had to get used to us. Within twenty-four hours they were completely relaxed. I'm sure they said in their minds, 'these guys know exactly what they're doing, we're in good hands, everything will be looked after. Our transport, our meals, our security, our accommodation, the events: all we have to do is follow what they say.' Every evening during the visit, we would sit down and debrief on the day that had passed in meticulous detail, then plan the next twenty-four hours. Then we would sit down around a table with His Holiness' representative, the security people, etcetera and go through the next day, minute by minute. We would catalogue it and at midnight distribute the new running sheet. Everybody knew what would happen through crystal clear communication, this is what is expected of you - bang-bang, it will happen like this.

GL: That makes for a very long day, but every time I ran into you during the tour you looked so relaxed, like you were enjoying yourself.

AM: It was one of the most extraordinary, wonderful experiences of my life. By the time His Holiness arrived I had very little to do. That I regard as a credit to the organisation levels. The boss should not be running around in circles like a blowfly - that would be a sign of failure. The people who are hands-on running events should be flat out, but not the national executive, not us, not myself. I had very little to do, my mobile phone did not ring, I did not have many e-mails sent to me. That is exactly how it should work. It freed me up to do some of my other work, such as liaising with the media and being a more public face for the visit. It does not look good if the media face for the visit is stressed out and worried all the time. That makes other people worried, such as His Holiness' party. They would be thinking, 'He's the boss and he's worried. We'd better get worried.' In all honesty, I can say that by the time His Holiness arrived, it was very relaxing. They were long days without much sleep, but they were very, very relaxing.

GL: If I try to put myself in your shoes, I imagine the hardest part would be having to say 'No' to so many people who want a slice of the Dalai Lama.

AM: The hardest part for us was when His Holiness got sick. In December and January there was tremendous uncertainty. We were concerned about His Holiness, the Tibetan people, the future of Buddhism and what would happen if His Holiness did not get better. It was terrible. That, itself, was heartbreaking. Then we were worried about whether the visit would get cancelled. America, Canada etcetera lost their visits. We were in intense backroom negotiations with His Holiness office, waiting for news. They could not give us news, because they did not know what would happen with his health. Eventually, we got confirmation that the visit would go ahead. We had all sorts of strategies in place; we had borrowed funds from underwriters, we had exit strategies, but it would have been financially embarrassing. We would not have been able to cover our bills and we would have had to fall on the generosity of our supporters while winding down the entity.

We knew for sure that the tour would happen about three months before the starting date. It was absolutely confirmed after two and a half months of terrible uncertainty. During that period of uncertainty we tried to stop paying bills, we engaged in expenditure cutting, we got expert advice - we had all sorts of strategies to deal with it. But on the other hand, we could not stop. Some things you cannot stop: 100,000 people came to see the Dalai Lama. You can't stop all planning, marketing, media, major event and strategic planning for two or three months. It has to go on. We just kept our fingers crossed. We prayed for His Holiness' health, and gradually the news came that it was on. Then we changed gear emotionally and we cranked it up. Suddenly there was an intense sense of relief that His Holiness was well, his holy being would be with us for longer and the tour was on. It was incredibly exciting.
It was like someone having a cardiac arrest, then waking up after having seen the light in the tunnel and being reborn again, thinking, 'Oh, I have another chance at life.' As a doctor I see that lots of times. Some people do transform after those near-death experiences. Wise old people get up in the morning, and say, 'I breathed today, I got up, I walked, I dressed myself. It's been a good day.' That is the Buddhist concept of impermanence and death. That is how I live my life. I get up in the morning and when I'm feeling down I think, 'Death is definite, the time of death is uncertain. I'm not dead. What is important at the time of death are none of the things I get upset about in my daily life. What matters is my mind, what virtue I have created, what good I have done in my life.' That helps me tremendously; that one meditation on death and impermanence transforms my life.

Since I am a doctor, I confront death every working moment of my professional life. My job is a battle against death. If there weren't death, there would be no doctors; I'd be out of a job. Every moment of my working life is a battle against that nemesis of death, so he's my friend, really. He provides me with my money, my profession, my worth in the community. He also provides me with an emotional strength, through having transformed my attitude to life and to adversity. One of my national executive members said, 'Alan, thank you for your humour in dealing with times of crisis.' I did say to people, on several occasions, 'You're worried about something, it seems terrible. Has anyone died? No? Good. Is anyone really sick? No. That's good. So what have we got to worry about? The Dalai Lama's not sick, you're not sick, no-one's dead. Great! Fantastic! What is the problem? I can take you to a place where people are dying, they have got a problem, you can sit with them. Say to somebody lying in the hospice up the road where I work, would you worry about this?'

GL: What needed doing urgently when you did hear the tour was going ahead?

AM: We had to confirm things and started spending the money that we had put on hold, then there was the merchandise, the media, the marketing, etcetera. The main thing was our concern for His Holiness' well-being. It was heart-breaking for us to think the tour may not have gone ahead, but the main thing that was heartbreaking for us was that His Holiness had been sick. But he is in resplendent health, he looks fantastic. He's robust. The tour to Australia did not exhaust him. His Holiness' team said that he was not tired. We always asked if it was too tiring, and it wasn't, which is amazing considering the demands made on him and what he gives.
In Canberra, we flew in late on the Thursday night and he got up early, as he always does, at 3.30am to do his prayers. Very early in the morning there were political meetings with High Court judges, Senators: one after the other. Then we went to the national Press Club - bang, straight into a different scenario. He had to give an address to the whole of Australia on the ABC. He just transformed from one person to another, got up and performed brilliantly. He is like the most incredible public speaker, orator, media personality.

At the Press Club he took over their attention, just like that. When he walked in there was a table of hard-nosed cynical journalists in front of us. His Holiness came in and we all got up, many people clapping or putting their hands together in a gesture of respect. But this table of journalists sat with their arms crossed and wouldn't get up. Then His Holiness started talking and as the talk went on you could see these journalists relax, unfold their arms and start to get really interested. At the end they got up and clapped along with the rest of us. He was totally in control, even with a difficult audience like that. He answered questions on all sorts of topics, from politics to personal relationships, to terrorism.

GL: How does he do it?

AM: To our minds, he's a Buddha; he is omniscient. That is one reason. But the Dalai Lama's message has not changed since its inception, from when he started talking publicly. That is good, because it means that he has had clarity from the beginning as to what his core principles are. His core principles are human values: the values of kindness, love, compassion, respect, truthfulness and honesty. The second is the harmony that must occur between the world's great religions, how those religions provide the solution to humanity's problems and how sad it is when religions become a cause of suffering. That is his second core principle. The third principle is raising the issue of Tibet - to seek some autonomy for Tibetans: not independence. He's not seeking a Tibetan State, but autonomy in certain areas - in economic management, social structure, culture, language and religion. He is willing to cede over to China certain aspects of governance such as foreign policy and defense. Those three core principles have never changed. That means that from the beginning, he knew what he was on about, whereas other people change; fickle winds change.

In the 1970s, when he went on his first European tour, he talked about globalisation, the interdependence of the global community and how when one nation is affected it affects others. He spoke about it before it was even a concept. Now in 2002, since 'September 11' last year, it has become poignant. This has convinced everybody of the interdependence of the global community. The Dalai Lama was talking about this almost thirty years ago. He knew. He is ahead of his time, can predict patterns and knows where humanity is going. He doesn't have to guess, he knows. His core messages are very simple, but very profound. He understands and is totally sincere about them; that's how he can do it.

After the Press Club the next step was to go into a two-hour meeting with scientists, physicists and psychologists to talk about the nature of human consciousness, the nature of mind. He was able to sit down with these five extraordinary scientists from Australia, who were all coming from different conceptual frameworks and modalities in their views on the nature of consciousness and of reality. His Holiness was able to decipher that, respond and engage in discussion with them. It was amazing to see the transformation, the leap from one point of view to the next. And he did not get tired. That he was lucid and concentrated in intense discussion for many hours was amazing, extraordinary. We cannot do that.

GL: If you said yes to everyone who invited the Dalai Lama, you would need an itinerary of months rather than days. How did you make decisions about people who had a real claim to a slice of the Dalai Lama?

AM: It's an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. Our guiding principle was that the visit was only for nine days. We were only able to have two group meet-the-press media events in the whole tour and half a dozen one-on-one media interviews. They are important. We had dozens of media outlets wanting one-on-one exclusives. We went through them and asked ourselves which could best fulfil His Holiness' goals and our goals. His goals are core human values, the unity of religious traditions and Tibet. Our goal was for His Holiness to be seen and heard by as many Australians as possible and to focus on youth.

His Holiness flummoxed interviewers sometimes. Journalists think that when they sit down with the Dalai Lama, it will be just another interview. They will be able to ask their pointed questions and get under his skin a bit. But the converse happens. His Holiness retorts and gets under their skin! They can't concentrate. At the end of one live interview on commercial television, the journalist just sat there, gobsmacked. Normally, there is a clean cut to the next segment or advertisement, but she just sat there looking at the camera, smiling wistfully. We all giggled, because we knew exactly what had happened.

The same applies to the personal interviews. We took into account what the person had done or will do for the Tibetans. High and powerful people may feel they have a right to see the Dalai Lama, but if they haven't actually done much for the Dalai Lama, it might be more appropriate for somebody else to get an interview. For example, there is a family that has donated a business for a Tibetan centre in Australia; they got an interview. His Holiness wants to thank people. It is a normal human value that if you help people, you should be thanked.

His Holiness met with some refugees recently arrived from Tibet. They might have needed counselling or assistance if they had suffered during the refugee process. There were issues they wanted to discuss directly with the Dalai Lama. The people who help Tibet most are the great lamas, who work ceaselessly for Tibet and for Buddhism, people like the Venerable Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, Geshe Loden, Geshe Sonam Thargye, Geshe Doga and many others. They have dedicated their lives to benefit Australian people and are now getting older, in some cases, sick. To reward those people is impossible.

GL: There was a note of cynicism - sometimes strongly sounded - that a religious organisation should not be run like a business. It was unlike any previous visit.

AM: Let's talk about the commercialisation of the Dalai Lama. It's a real thing. We must prevent it, the commercialisation of the Dalai Lama. We were under very strong instructions from His Holiness' office and from His Holiness himself, that we should not try to make excess funds. We should just try to break even, make the bare minimum and under no circumstances should we try to make a surplus. Under no circumstances should affiliated organisations use His Holiness as a means of fund-raising. In contra-balance to that, how do you raise the $1.2 million it required to bring His Holiness out, stage free events, inform people and communicate? You need money. It's a tricky balance. I think we went too far in the beginning. We had too much merchandise and too much effort went into selling the merchandise, which raised funds for the tour. We did get criticism and we accepted that criticism.

GL: The criticism seems to be based on the assumption that religion and money do not mix; that every other cause in existence is free to operate on sound business principles but religions are not supposed to. How do you deal with that?

AM: I will tell you how His Holiness deals with it. His Holiness was offered two separate $10,000 cheques by the same group in Melbourne. His Holiness returned them to the people and said, 'Donate it to charity.' He won't accept money, any money; he gave it back. He is very clear that whatever the organisers do, he is separate. From his side he does not want one cent. If people give him money, he returns it.

The organisation gave offerings to His Holiness at the end of the teachings, of several thousand dollars. He returned it to us. In New Zealand they offered him money and he returned it. From his side, visits to other countries are not fundraising exercises. To the Tibetan government too, they are not fundraising exercises. Look at it from their side; they are absolutely pure.

GL: The 1996 tour did aim at producing a surplus and used it for worthwhile purposes.

AM: There were about a hundred worthwhile organisations around the world that benefited financially from the 1996 visit of His Holiness. Not only Buddhists: the Red Cross, relief organisations and Tibetan projects around the world; there was a great dispersal of funds to charity. In 1996 the aim was not to make money. The management and planning were too worried about not making enough, so they did their financial modelling in a different way to how we did it. They were more conservative. We were happy to be a little riskier and come close to breaking even. As it's turned out, we have not broken even, we have made excess funds - probably around $100,000 - which will be dispersed to Tibetan organisations.
We are also going to keep some for the next visit. His Holiness has agreed to a request from The Dalai Lama in Australia Limited to come back again. We feel it is imperative to have something in the kitty when we start again. It's very difficult to start from scratch. We'll put some money in the bank until the time comes to issue a formal invitation.

Every voluntary organisation in Australia is struggling with the costs of liability insurance. Before you can do a sausage sizzle, or sell one jar of marmalade at a local market, you have to have public liability insurance. In 1996, it cost us $550. In 2002, it cost us $32,500. That has to be paid before you can sell a packet of incense or a book at a community fair. Before we can start fundraising, somebody has to come up with $32,500. You need a lot of money to do anything these days. We paid almost $80,000 in insurances for this visit and we did not need to utilise one cent of it. That is the world we live in. The big venues won't hire themselves to you if you do not have the insurance. It is a mandatory pre-requisite; they won't let you operate without it.

GL: How would you reflect on the tour?

AM: It was absolutely, astoundingly, fantastically, successful. Before he left, the Dalai Lama said, 'I'm very happy, it was very successful.' His Holiness' office got back to us, and his representative said it was fantastically successful. We had thirty-two thousand five hundred people come to the Rod Laver Arena - there were sixteen thousand people outside. I went outside to have a look and there were people walking across the paddocks because they could not get in. So maybe it would have been thirty-five or forty thousand. That is amazing. It is the biggest indoor or outdoor event the Dalai Lama has ever had in the west.

Australians, for some reason, love his message, they love Tibetan Buddhism and they are supportive of Tibet. Through the virtue and good karma to be involved in this organisation, we can look back and say we have done something meaningful with our lives. There are not many times in your life that you can look back and say, 'Maybe we altered the balance for humanity in general. Having the Dalai Lama come and be so hugely successful, his message heard directly by over 100,000 people and indirectly by millions, maybe billions, around the world, might shift the axis of the world.'
We are at a crucial time in the world. I believe that the safety and preservation of humanity relies on His Holiness' message. If there is one person, in this world, who could save humanity - and we are looking at extinction of humanity if we do not change the way we behave as a species - it is the Dalai Lama. Humanity may not exist at the end of this century. His Holiness' message gives us a way to preserve humanity in line with the environment and ecosystems. He can show us how to live together.

We have made it possible for that message to come out. Maybe by our humble efforts - this group of people in Australia who sat down week after week, month after month, year after year in planning - have done something good for humanity. That is great. We look back on our lives and think, 'That is something we did for humanity.' A little thing, but profoundly big. We do not know how big it is, but we think it is huge. We are very grateful, we are humbled by it and we are incredibly devoted to His Holiness. We are all emotionally tired, not flat or depressed, but exhausted and we cannot tell why.

Positively exhausted.