Archive Result

Soundfile 20041128GRNLPBWT2

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location

Topic White Tara

Section 1/1

Transcriber Choonhau Ng

Date 17 Sep 2021

Dutch Speaker: Rimpoche, for the people I would ask some very plain, basic, ordinary western questions about what you are trying to do here in the west. And you said in your blessing you said that Tibetans have a gift for the west, and you also urge us to go out and help people in the west. What is this gift?

Rimpoche: I think its gift, the peace, joy and spiritual connections. And overcoming negative emotions such as hatred, obsession and I think these are the mostly I can think straightaway right now. But what it is, is in essence is 2600 years wisdom coming from the Buddha. Experienced by the great Tibetan masters for over the thousand years. And that very experience we bring to the west and try to present and that. We did not come here to give to you, but it happens to be when we kicked out by the Chinese, they can’t take it away from us. That’s what happened.

And the very plain question, what you doing here. I’m trying to bring that message and deliver.

Dutch speaker: Tibetan Buddhism has certain practices that are not very well known in the west. When we think in the west about meditation, the common knowledge of meditation is about shamatha. About concentration meditation and a lot of people think that when they are concentrating about breathing, they do meditation. Tarab Tulku once said, after you have reach shamatha, meditation starts. Can you comment on that?

Rimpoche: Interesting. Interesting because you know why you think meditation is concentration, because it has been very long time in the west there is a gap of not having any meditation at all. Although in the Juda Christian tradition I know nothing, but still when you listen to the people who knows. And when you look into that, look to it in the tradition, like Kabballah tradition or anywhere else, there have been meditation no doubt about it. And there have been ceremonies no doubt about it. The Catholic church service reminds me of very liberate performance of ceremony in Tibet. You have everything there, you have robes, you have decoration, you have hat, you have blood, you have bread, you have incense running round, you have all of them there. As it has been, what has happened in the west unfortunately there is a huge gap between the spiritual aspects and material aspects, separated. And spiritual aspects also becoming, you know more closed and hitting and all kinds of things happened. And there is a big gap between the public understanding and spiritual on separate. So, it reduces simply to praying and center service or something, you know that type, gone to that level.

0:07:42.9 And the suddenly about 40-50 years ago, around that time this Theravadan tradition, or the Shamata type of meditation has popped up and it was very strange first time. Funny and strange. But gradually people pick up and people so much so that. They pick up now is even become treatment in hospitals. And everywhere else that’s just what’s happening. So, it is what information you got and how the people get accustomed to it and how you adapted, that’s what’s happening. But I have to tell you something else here and that is,