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Soundfile 19940401GRWT1

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche and HHDL

Location

Topic

Section

Transcriber Wee Lin

Date

( Tibetan )

0:00:20.5 HHDL: What is pointed out is not so much that we accept the act of injustice done upon yourself or others but rather what is crucial is not to lose your affection for propagator of the crime and not to lose your recognition of the human dignity of that person. But that doesn’t mean that you give in, you submit yourself or you give your approval to the evil act committed by the person. And not only the case of evil acts which are motivated by unwholesome thoughts and emotions which should be recognized and appropriately responded to but even in the case of some actions which may although be motivated by wholesome thoughts but if the act is wrong and act is harmful, even that action has to be recognized as a harmful act and responded to appropriately.

Therefore sometimes people misunderstand the meaning of tolerance and patience as a sign of weakness or a sign of submission. That is definitely not the case.

0:02:12.8 Tolerance definitely does not mean giving in to the act of injustice or giving your approval in some way or accepting it without any qualification. What tolerance means is, in responding to that act of injustice or harmful act,you are ensuring yourself not to lose your temper , not to be hateful, not to lose sight of that other person’s humanity and that is what it is meant by tolerance. So the purpose of retaliation is actually try to stop that unreasonable or unjust act.

Next question.

0:03:07.8 Question : Your Holiness spoke on both the benefits and limitations of the traditional monastic education in your autobiography. What kind of education would you most like to see made available for our children today and how can determined parents collectively and individually create this for our children or supporting our household and continuing our own dharma spiritual practice.

0:04:16.7 HHDL : This is indeed a very important question and very crucial question regardless of what type of educational training I myself had which is a task. I feel that in our modern society, not enough attention and concentration is being paid to the development and promotion of the basic goodness of human heart and the spiritual qualities and also the importance of being simply a good person and behaving according to that towards others compared to the amount of attention and concentration that is paid to intellectual development and because of that within society there is not enough recognition of the importance of the spiritual values.

0:06:01.2 There might be an historical explanation as part of , the wide explanation of how this situation has come into being. I feel that in the past when secular schools were being set up there was a specific purpose for the institutions of that nature where intellectual development in the various human fields of knowledge are seen as the primary purpose and objective of these schools. Whereas the spiritual development and development of the heart are seen more as a special programs for the monastic institutions and the religious institutions. And as the secularization process developed and progressed and when religion became less and less influential in running the lives of individuals in society maybe the responsibility which was left to the religious institutions were also remained unattended in some sense.

0:07:28.2 However that is not to say that in order for the revitalisation of spiritual values in society and reintroduction of ethical values within society, we must go back to religious beliefs and religious faith. I don’t feel that is the case. As I pointed out earlier in my talk , what is crucial is the recognition of the basic spirituality which lies inherent with all of us and acknowledge that and then cultivate that. And in that respect I definitely believe that there is a possibility of developing secular ethics what some other people called secular ethics.

0:08:18.1 Question : What do you believe the role of the US government should be in conflicts such as Bosnia.

HHDL: That is very difficult to say. Actually what happened there I think the circumstance has reached beyond human control. The human emotion I think becomes so tense that the human negative emotion now becomes out of control. Under such circumstance it is very difficult to reason, to talk. So the only thing is try to cool down to such as cease fire and then let people , some of them very hot ( Tibetan )

0:10:12.9 Through such as cease fire and so on what is crucial right at the moment is to try to bring the level of emotion down to a point where people can begin to create space where they can talk and that is the most important point right now. However what is , one very important lesson to learn from this crisis which is that in our old way of dealing with crisis, particularly international crisis what happens is that we tend to neglect when the situation were developing at the causal stage where many conditions are being coming together. It is at that stage we have to intervene so that the causal chain could be broken and it doesn’t reach to a point of explosion . However once the causal condition and causal chain has reached such a point where all the conditions have gathered and aggregated and it has come to a boiling point then it is beyond control, takes motion or the crisis is imminent. So this is an important lesson that we have to learn from this crisis.

0:11:36.6 Question : How can we, in this country support the goal of returning Tibet to the Tibetan people?

0:11:59.1 Now this is a very complicated issue. It needs lengthy explanation. At the moment the thing is, in spite of the approach in spiritual reconciliation with maximum concession, a meaningful response from Chinese side never came out from the last 14 years’ effort. They actually are aimed at the Chinese government to bring to the negotiation table and for some improvement inside Tibet. These two things which was my effort for more than 14 years, I describe as middle??? approach is now failing to bring result although the other side, the other feat, the international communities’ support or appeal as a result of my middle??? approach which was previously considered as realistic act , really reasonable. So that brings more attention to the world at large. So that side proposed my proposal create good result but the main target is negotiation and improvement is such that it is completely finished. So still my part is completely open to some positive sign of sincere sort of spirit from Chinese government’s side, then I am ready to discuss or to talk as I had mentioned in many cases in the past, anywhere, any time. On my side I am really very much willing to meet some Chinese leaders. So that’s our position.

0:14:26.7 However according to the our past experience our own effort will not produce satisfactory result. So the international communities’ help is very much needed to put more pressure on Chinese government in order to bring to negotiation table. So that’s the situation. We are passing through most difficult period so actually the situation is such the Tibetan nation with its unique cultural heritage is now facing threat of extinction. Therefore it is a very very crucial period. Time is running out so I always appeal to the International communities to, “please don’t forget us.”

0:15:41.6 Question: My young friend has cancer and will die soon. She led a beautiful and good life. What would you say to her now if you could meet her.

HHDL: Yes, very difficult. Very sad. Usually for such occasion depends very much on the person’s belief . If the person follows some religious tradition then according to that tradition I think some thoughts according the religious tradition might help at that moment. If the person is not religious believer, perhaps what is most important is, in order to be more realistic and also true to one’s belief, what is important is not to plague your mind with all sorts of thought occurrences , having all sorts of thoughts and emotions occurring in the mind, try to have a more tranquil and calm state and also in some sense, try to accept the inevitability and also have a greater degree of acceptance of one’s present reality.

0:18:00.3 One instruction which we find in Bodhisattvacharyavatara which may be possible to apply even in the case of someone who does not believe is that if the situation is such that there is no solution to it, there is no point in being overwhelmed and worrying about it, if the situation is such that if there is a resolution of the problem, then there is no need worry and to be overwhelmed by that concern.

0:18:53.5 Question: If you have a chance to have a personal dialogue with a historical figure, past to present, who would you speak with and what would you discuss.

0:19:13.2 First, Buddha Sakyamuni. For the recent historical figure I think, Mahatma Gandhi. Then to Buddha , I don’t know ( ha ha ha ). My feeling is that if such things were possible and if I did have the opportunity to have direct personal meeting with the Buddha, the experience of joy may be so overwhelming that I may not even remember having to ask a question.

0:20:33.5 On behalf of Jewel Heart in the audience , we wish to thank the Dalai Lama , His Holiness, for patience in answering questions and now we have intermission and we will be preparing for the Tara ceremony, the White Tara ceremony. 45 minutes intermission.

(Chanting )

0:32:02.7 As a human being , naturally, no matter what is the culture, what religion, what social background, we are human beings. On that level we have no differences. Sometimes it seems to be we are emphasizing more on this superficial differences then forgetting the basic oneness. So that I think is the problem. The real ultimate source of stand?? source of right path must base on our own human affection. So that’s important, that’s is what I call my religion, compassion, sort of universal religion. Not necessarily complicated philosophy or tradition. Simply being a nice person that I consider a good person. So let us try to be good person. ( chanting )

0:33:48.1 In the spring of 1994 , Jewel Heart Tibetan Buddhist culture and meditation centre was honored to co sponsor the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Ann Arbor, Michigan. During the visit His Holiness gave a teaching in transmission on the basis of the goddess, White Tara. An explanation of the practice was given by Gelek Rimpoche on the following day. These four tapes are the recording of those programs.

Tape 1 introduces the transmission, tape 2 continues with the teaching transmission, tape 3 and 4 contain the explanation of the practice.

0:34:32.5 Rimpoche: It is my privilege to introduce HH the DL. He is the living embodiment of Buddhist principles both in his wisdom and his compassion. We are indeed fortunate to have HH with us today. At the age of 15, HH became both temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet and Tibetan people. Since then he devoted his entire life to bring a peaceful resolution to the Chinese occupation of our homeland, Tibet. He has maintained unwavering commitment to the non- violence. Very often he stated truth is our only weapon. With this firm commitment led to HH to receive Nobel peace prize in 1989. HH speaks today from the basis of his personal experience and extraordinary kindness. He is inspiring example of the capacity of the human heart. It is truly rare to have such a leader in the world today. As for myself as a Tibetan, the opportunity to introduce HH , both is a immeasurable honor and joy. Ladies and gentlemen, HH the Dalai Lama.

0:38:49.7 Distinguished guests, brothers and sisters , it is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to be with you here today. And I would like to first of all express my deep appreciation for your warm welcome particularly the warm words of encouragement and support and welcome I receive from the Declaration from both the state legislature and the governor and also welcome from the mayor’s office as well.

0:39:50.1 During my short visit to Ann Arbor here, I have had a remarkable opportunity to have interaction with members of the university faculty members and students from this famous institution of learning and also had the opportunity to interact with members of the public and during these exchanges I feel that I myself gain insight and learn through these experience and also I am particularly very happy to observe the enthusiasm and sense of joy on the part of the people here.

0:41:12.8 I feel that human affection and genuine human feeling is extremely precious. It not only provides you a temporary experience of joy and sense of contentment and happiness but also it has tremendous long term beneficial consequences because I believe that any or every human activity so long as it remains not separated from the human feeling, basic human feeling of affection , so long as it is combined and based on that feeling, these activities will have tremendous constructive potential. Therefore because of this belief that I have, the experience of joy and receiving human affection from the members of the audience especialy in my talk, I find it extremely joyful and happy.

And today’s meeting was open by a prayer from the members of the Interfaith council and I believe it has a special significance because it demonstrates the existence of harmony and interfaith understanding that exists and is beginning to grow in this world and also shows that how all these various major religious traditions though have the same objective and aims.

0:43:04.4 Interfaith harmony and understanding is very important and also it is important for members of the various religious traditions to have, to make common and concerted effort towards our common goal.

Today I will be talking about a practical application of non- violence, patience and tolerance in daily life. Given the limitation of time, I will be rather brief in my introductory address and then I will leave more time for interaction so that we can have a longer time for question and answer period.

0:44:12.6 Now I will like to try to speak in my broken English. My basic belief is that basic human nature is gentleness. Perhaps some people may have different views, might not agree with that. That’s ok. But I have some reasons to believe that basic human nature is gentleness or affectionate. The gentleness means nice attitude. Attitude of if possible help others and if not restrain from harming. That kind of behaviour or activities or attitude, I believe is gentleness. So did how that attitude come about, human affection. Every human being, no matter what that being’s attitude is, the very basis of that person’s survival or existence from the time of birth till death, I believe is human affection.

The reason is the without other’s affection, one simple person is very difficult to survive. Look at first day or first week of birth, if no body take care, that is very clear that without affection, that child will not survive. The child itself cannot manage. Even some people, though surrounded but without affection and with nobody taking care, that means will die. Then again when we are facing the end of our life again we need and have to rely more on others’ affection.

0:47:27.1 So the beginning of our life, at the time of beginning and at the time of end, we heavily rely or depend on others’ care. Usually between then, we feel “Oh we are independent, we no [longer need] others’ care.” So then instead of caring, instead of showing human affection to others, [there are] tendencies to exploit and disregard others’ right. So this I feel, is the real basis of all these sufferings.

There are of course naturally two types of sufferings or problems. One is natural problem, suffering due to natural causes. Another I think many or quite a number of problems which we are facing today at the individual level, family level, national level or international level many of them are essentially man made problems, or human beings’ creation. So certainly, in one way, nobody wants sufferings or problems, everyone wants happiness and happy life. In fact I believe, the very purpose of our life is happiness, not for suffering. However in spite of that kind of desire and effort we and everyone are making [to seek happiness], but [we are still] facing problems. Why ?

0:49:24.1 Definitely there is something lacking. So that I believe is due to lack of wider perspective. The reason is, the happy life, happy family or happy future or happy society or community even I think one single person’s happiness depends on many other factors, including human companions. So companions who are full of hatred, I think, are better not there. But companions from where we get tranquility, satisfaction and human affection , those are positive companions. Through that way our joy, our satisfaction and sense of fulfillment comes from that kind of basis.

As I had mentioned before, when for example, when I pass through streets, even by car, I usually smile at other people, whether I know them or not. As far as the human level is concerned, there is no need for introduction, We know [we have] two eyes there, one nose, one mouth and especially good smile, irrespective of whether good teeth or not. So through that way, we can communicate human affection for one another or respect one another. So therefore when I look at people with a smile, very often people also respond accordingly. So it gives me some pleasant satisfaction, some happy feeling. Occasionally in spite of my smile, some look like this [HHDL demonstrated], so that I also force to turn my face [away]. ( laughter) But that is a small matter. So therefore as a human being literally, no matter what the culture is, what religion and what social background, we are human being. On that level we have no differences. Sometimes it seems to me, we are emphasizing more on this superficial differences than forgetting the basic oneness. So that is the problem.

0:53:01.0 So if we go on deeper level, these artificial differences cannot be barrier for different religious believer. Let’s forget about or consider less importance on different religious thing. Thinking deeper, we are same human being. On that level, we do not find any difficulties to communicate. If we place more emphasis on the differences like that person follow that religion, I am following this religion so we are different, we are separate. When more and more emphasis on that, then dissent increases and finally the mental distance is there. Then even small disagreement becomes explosive nature. If we know that [person is] also a human being, belongs to same human family, then the differences are minor and even if there is a big disagreement, [we will think] “Oh it doesn’t matter, that’s our own individual business.” That kind of feeling we can develop. So therefore the human affection is the source of our happiness.

0:54:36.0 Since the affection is not cultivated later, [but is there] right from the beginning [at birth], the seed of appreciation of others, the feeling of appreciation of others’ affection is there. It is not cultivated or not newly created. Logically that means that the person who appreciates others’ affection indicates that himself or herself also have the seed of affection. Therefore basically we have the seed of that positive thoughts there.

Then in reality, one’s own happiness is dependent on many factors. Unless we take care of these factors there will not be independent self interest. So in reality my interest depends very much on others’ interest. Others’ interest is essentially in reality my interest. They are interlinked. So taking care of others, others’ right, others’ happiness is essentially taking care of one’s own good future.

0:56:32.7 Therefore in order to achieve [being] a happy simple human being or happy human family, happy human community, one of the most important factors is within ourselves and that’s human compassion or affection. Then also in order to have a successful future, that depends very much on constant efforts. Efforts come through determination or will power. Will power must depend on hope and self confidence. There the affectionate human attitude is also a key element. The more the kindness and compassionate mental attitude there, that person generally can have a more positive attitude towards other fellow human beings. As a result it can be much easier to develop mutual trust. That automatically reduces fear and suspicion. So the compassion or the affectionate mental attitude is also a source of inner strength.

0:58:14.3 So if you look from these angles, you can come to a conclusion that human affection is not just mere feeling but there are lots of important roles that can be functioning by that motivation. And from birth we have that, religious teachings come later. Obviously even without religion we can manage, we can survive. But without human affection, it is very difficult to survive. Therefore whether religious believer or non believer, even if one person can have a very negative attitude towards religion, that’s ok, there is not much problem. The problem is if we neglect basic human qualities and affections, then that is a disaster.

So while we are talking about future, the next generation or next century, the real ultimate source of strength or source of right path is very much dependent on our own human affection which we had nourished or developed under our parents’ care. That is important. That’s what I call my religion, compassion a sort of universal religion not necessarily a complicated philosophy or tradition. Simply being a nice person then I consider that’s a good person . So let us try to be good person. Ok . We have the potentials. By nature we have all these potentials. The method is also there. We can easily implement it. So that’s my talk. Thank you. Now questions and answers.