His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama will travel to UCSB this spring to deliver two public talks on ethics and Buddhist thinking.

The upcoming lectures will mark the fourth time His Holiness has visited the university and his first visit since the Dalai Lama Chair in Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies was created in his honor in 2001. Both appearances are scheduled for April 24 at the Events Center. Tickets are $20 per student and will go on sale at the Arts & Lectures box-office on Dec. 6.

In a statement released by the university, Chancellor Henry T. Yang said the appearance will be a tremendous opportunity for the Religious Studies Dept. and the campus as a whole.

“The visit by the Dalai Lama offers students and faculty across the university the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of Buddhist traditions and scholarship, one of the strengths of our renowned Department of Religious Studies,” Yang said.

Dierdre O’Shea, communications director for the College of Letters and Science, said the upcoming visit resulted from an invitation extended by José Cabezón, current holder of XIV Dalai Lama Chair and professor in the Religious Studies Dept.

“It’s a boost for the campus as a whole that he’s coming for the fourth time, and shows a great relationship between the Dalai Lama and the school,” O’Shea said. “It’s really a way of learning about Buddhism and Tibetan culture.”

Cabezón, who worked with His Holiness in the 1980s as a Spanish language translator in Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain, proposed the idea for the two lectures, titled “The Nature of Our Mind” and “Ethics for Our Time.”

“The first lecture he will give on campus is an introduction to the Buddhist theory of mind, and to the techniques that classical Buddhist thinkers and practitioners have developed for [gaining] insight into the nature of consciousness.” Cabezón said. “The second lecture deals with the topics of compassion and altruism — the core of the Dalai Lama’s ethics.”

Through the lectures, Cabezón said he hopes to expose students and community members to the different religious and political roles played by the Tibetan leader.