Dalai Lama offers health strategy

BERKELEY, Calif., April 26 (UPI) -- Tibet's Dalai Lama urged a California audience to take a more global view rather than focus on their own problems because it will be better for their health.

Speaking to more than 6,000 people at the University of California, Berkeley, the Dalai Lama proposed that being self-centered magnifies a person's own problems and creates harmful stress.

"There are thousands, millions of people facing similar problems," he said Saturday. "Don't take oneself as the center of the world. Think of others, then your health will become better."

The Bay Area News Group said the exiled spiritual leader was contending with some health issues of his own -- a touch of the flu -- during his appearance, but nevertheless kept the crowd focused and in high spirits.

Some members of the audience camped out for more than a day for the event, which was sponsored by the American Himalayan Foundation and the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies. Blum is a San Francisco philanthropist who is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.