The spacious interior of Harvard’s Memorial Chapel quietly filled with students, faculty and special guests.
演說當天，哈佛大學紀念教堂(Memorial Chapel)的會場中，坐滿哈佛大學的學生、教授以及特別來賓。

Light was streaming in through the tall, arched windows and played off the delicate filigree of the altar gates. In front them an elegant chair had been set up for His Holiness the Karmapa, who appeared right on time, moving easily across the small stage to the waiting chair.

This lama with the 900-year-old lineage is now present at the 350-year-old university, the oldest institution of higher learning in the US.
傳承歷史900年的第十七世大寶法王噶瑪巴，在美國最古老的高等學府——具有350年歷史的哈佛大學，開示「21世紀中對地球生命的關懷」( Caring for Life on Earth in the Twenty-first Century)。

Professor David Hempton, the Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, welcomed the Karmapa with warm words and the gift of a silver memorial bowl inscribed to him “with highest appreciation on the occasion of his historic visit to the Harvard Divinity School.” Professor Hempton recalled that the 16th Karmapa had come to the Harvard Divinity School in 1976, and that now the Divinity School hosted a thriving Buddhist studies and ministry program.
哈佛大學神學院院長大衛．漢普頓教授(David Hempton)首先致詞熱烈歡迎法王，他並代表向法王致贈一只紀念銀杯，上面刻著「以最高的敬意，謹誌法王噶瑪巴對哈佛神學院的歷史性訪問」。漢普頓教授回顧，1976年第十六世法王噶瑪巴曾訪問哈佛神學院，而現今神學院的佛學研究和神職教育已發展蓬勃，進步卓著。

Next Professor Janet Gyatso, Associate Dean and the Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, introduced the Karmapa as the great hero—a reference to him as bodhisattva (literally “hero of full awakening”). She explained that the Karmapa was the first officially recognized reincarnating lama, or tulku, and then gave a swift history of the main incarnations of the Karmapa down to the present 17th one, Orgyen Trinley Dorje. She noted that the 17th Karmapa is no less exceptional than any of his predecessors, proof that the tulku system in Tibet is alive and well. Professor Gyatso characterized him as bold and intelligent with amazingly honest energy, pursuing his interests beyond traditional areas of study to include the environment, the status of women and social justice. She concluded by saying that his recent commitment to convene a platform for ordaining women in the monastic tradition followed by Tibetan Buddhists is of historical importance.
副院長暨佛學研究赫胥講席(Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies)珍妮．嘉措教授(Janet Gyatso)稱法王為偉大的覺悟英雄、大菩薩，她指出噶瑪巴是第一位正式開啟轉世認證的祖古。接著，她為會眾簡介歷代噶瑪巴中幾位具代表性的轉世，從第一世噶瑪巴杜松虔巴開始，一直到第十七世噶瑪巴 鄔金欽列多傑。

In his address to the assembly, the Karmapa began by making a link to his previous incarnation, the 16th Karmapa, who was one of the first masters to bring Tibetan Buddhism to US and came to Harvard. He was glad to be back, His Holiness said. Turning to the topic of how to care for living beings on the earth in this 21st century, he began by stating that the real essence of Buddhist teachings is dependent arising: all things arise by depending one upon the other. It is vital that we do not leave this a mere abstract philosophical idea, but apply it directly to our lives, he said. “How can I embody dependent arising? How do I know it through my emotional life? In this twenty-first century, we can all see that through social media and the Internet, interdependence is even more obvious, but the mere exchange of information is not enough. From one point of view, the more information we have, the clearer things become. On the other hand, sometimes we have too much information and it obscures, preventing us from truly understanding. Furthermore, interdependence is not just about sharing information or our thoughts among ourselves, but sharing the feelings we have in our hearts, our real experience.”
她讚揚第十七世法王有智慧、有膽識，他所散發的能量，極度誠摯正直；他的興趣與關切超乎傳統的學習領域，涵蓋環境保護、女性地位與社會正義；他的卓越出群，不下於之前的任何一位噶瑪巴，這證明西藏的轉世制度至今保存良好。結語中，她說明，近日法王著手恢復藏傳佛教的比丘尼傳統，實為教界的歷史性舉措。