Try this experiment: When you read one of the passages where the Dalai Lama seems to be putting forward simple common sense, imagine hearing the exact same words from the Pope or Dr. Laura or a TV evangelist. When I tried this, I could feel my cynicism rising. The same words that sounded like elegant wisdom from the Dalai Lama seemed to be sanctimonious, simplistic crap when they came from a more familiar source.
In my opinion, we in the West have poisoned the well of common sense by so often using it as the basis of a rationalization or an attempt to manipulate others. When a Western religious figure tells us that spiritual values are more important than money, for example, we harden ourselves against pitch for money that seems certain to follow. When a Western leader talks about compassion, we steel ourselves against being manipulated into eliminating the right to abortion out of compassion for the unborn, or releasing dangerous criminals from prison, or using public money to support dysfunctional behaviors. We wonder if we're being conned into not defending our positions, when our opponents will not be conned into stopping their attacks.
I believe that many of us in the West are looking for an outsider who can remind us of what we all have known for a long time. We can't hear the message from each other because we have so much distrust, so we hope that someone will come in from the outside and set us straight. In addition to his obvious virtues, the Dalai Lama benefits from fitting so well into our collective fantasy.