BLOOMINGTON | There's no reason the path to enlightenment can't start with a joke.

The Dalai Lama proved as much Wednesday, drawing rousing laughter from the near-capacity crowd gathered for the first of five lectures at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington.

"Some of my Christian friends would consider me as a good Christian," the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader joked, seeking to stress the universality of faith. "We all sincerely practice love, compassion, forgiveness and tolerance."

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, was greeted warmly as he began a two-hour teaching based on Atisha's "Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment," a celebrated Buddhist text. Some in the crowd of 3,000 bowed in the auditorium aisles, hands clasped over their heads, as the Dalai Lama took the stage.

The program began with a traditional Tibetan folks song, followed by a brief presentation by a pair of Mongolian Cham dancers donning colorful garb and intricate masks steeped in mythology.

Some three-dozen monks, most wearing maroon and gold robes, joined the Dalai Lama on stage for the lecture, the first half of which he delivered in English. A translator later followed along as the spiritual leader read Atisha's work.

While emphasizing the commonality of religion, the Dalai Lama insisted "it's very important to make clear all the differences."

Even Buddha's teachings sometimes contradict, he noted, explaining that there can be different approaches toward the same goal "to become a person of genuine wisdom."

"I think Buddha, like Jesus Christ, is full of compassion," he said.

Gyatso was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of 2 and began his monastic education four years later. He fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against communist Chinese rule.

While the Dalai Lama, exiled in India, has made several visits to the United States in recent years, the Indiana University lecture series has given admirers a rare opportunity to absorb his teachings first hand.

The Dalai Lama's six-day visit, which began Tuesday, marks his fifth trip to Indiana since 1987. His eldest brother, Thubten J. Norbu, a professor emeritus at IU, founded the 108-acre Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington in 1979, nearly three decades after fleeing Tibet. The Dalai Lama dedicated at new entrance at the center Tuesday.