Vijyender Sharma
DHARMSHALA / TOKYO, -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday met a group of 30 Indian businessmen based in Tokyo. He praised the peaceful co-existence of all the major religions tradition in India. “For the last 55 years India has been my home. I think of myself as a son of India. All my knowledge is derived from India. My brain is filled by Nalanda thought. The importance of this was articulated by Je Tsongkhapa who composed a verse saying: ‘In the Land of Snow, The snow is a bright white, Yet until the light of India reached this land, Tibet was covered in darkness.’”
His Holiness added that over 55 years, his body has been nourished by Indian dal and chapatis. What’s more, Tibetans have for long regarded India as the gurus and themselves as disciples since Shantarakshita introduced Buddhism to Tibet in 8th century. He mentioned that some Western writers have referred to Tibetan Buddhism as Lamaism, which is a mistake. It actually represents the pure lineage of Nalanda University. This is not just a matter of religion, but of philosophy and logic too. He said he would go so far as to describe the Buddha himself as a scientist who encouraged his followers to investigate and experiment with the mind.
“Today, I hope the younger generation of Indians will pay more attention to the knowledge of the mind and emotions to be found in ancient Indian literature and combine it with the qualities of their modern education. I sometimes complain to my Indian friends that there too many temples and not enough places of learning. However, I am impressed at how India, the world’s most populous democracy, has grown, nearly 70 years after independence. Didn’t Nehru compare India to an elephant, taking time to stand up, but having done so being strong and stable?”
When this group said they just wanted His Holiness’s blessing, he told them what he told a wealthy Mumbai family who asked the same thing. He said he had nothing like that to give them, but they had the source of blessing in their hands. They were wealthy and lived in Mumbai where there are thousands of poor and homeless. He told them that if they were to employ some of their wealth helping the needy with health and education they would create their own blessings.
The second group His Holiness met today were Chinese and he offered them warm greetings, reminding them that China today has the world’s largest number of Buddhists. A survey by a Peking University put the number at more than 300 million, most of them educated people. Recently Premier Xi Jinping has declared Buddhism one of China’s important traditions. It is significant that after trying to destroy Buddhism during campaigns against the Four Olds during the Cultural Revolution, the fifth generation of Chinese leaders now acknowledge its importance.
“Today, there is a huge gap between rich and poor in China. I have met farmers from the villages who tell me how hard things are for them and that there is no one for them to turn to for help. The local authorities are only interested in their own money and power. Therefore, I felt encouraged when, during the 3rd Plenum, Xi Jinping talked about the needs of the peasants and reforms to the Chinese judiciary. A Chinese scholar I met in New York told me that in an atmosphere of declining ethics, Buddhism has a lot to contribute.”
His Holiness recalled a piece of propaganda from the early 1960s that stated that Buddhism was just a matter of blind faith that would vanish with growth of scientific knowledge. Whoever wrote it would be astonished today to see the interest and respect that renowned modern scientists, particularly those with an interest in the mind, show for Buddhism and ancient Indian findings about the mind and emotions.
“These days I advise Buddhists to be 21st century Buddhists, which means they need to study to find out what Buddhism is really about. Tomorrow, I’ll be teaching a couple of Buddhist texts and you are welcome to attend.”
Among questions from those avidly listening to him, His Holiness was asked about organ donation. He mentioned one Khangsar Rinpoche who had specifically asked that his body be fed to the birds rather than cremated because he wanted it to be of benefit to others. While admiring the principle of organ donation, His Holiness felt wary about organs being taken before the donor was properly dead. He has heard reports of this happening to imprisoned members of Falun Gong.
To those anxious about approaching death, he said, death will come. If you have lived a good life, putting your body, speech and mind to meaningful use, you can be confident of a good rebirth. He quoted a Tibetan saying that the best Buddhist practitioners welcome death; the middling ones are not sad and even the lowest practitioners meet death without regret. Therefore, it’s best not to worry about death, but live a good life.
A woman who told His Holiness that she works as well as studying, while her employers are scathing about it, asked what to do. First of all he advised her to recite Manjushri’s mantra and then decided to give those assembled before him an impromptu blessing of Manjushri.
He told them to visualise Manjushri, wielding a flaming sword of wisdom in his right hand and holding the stem of a lotus supporting a book in the other, on his head, with light pouring forth from his brow, throat and heart and filling them up. He asked them to repeat the mantra after him, telling them that it would help them develop extensive, clear, profound and swift wisdom. He advised them to recite the mantra every morning and to say as many syllables dhi as they can on one breath. He told them this was a practice he had done since childhood to good effect. In addition he advised them to cultivate mindfulness by observing the inhalation and exhalation of their breath, counting rounds of 21 or 100.
Another issue he touched on in response to a question was sectarianism among Tibetan Buddhist followers. He described it as the result of ignorance citing a number of Tibetan masters who took a broad minded, ecumenical approach including Je Tsongkhapa, Gendun Gyatso, the 2nd Dalai Lama, and more recently Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Trulshig Rinpoche. He remarked on the fact that all Tibet’s Buddhist traditions are ultimately sourced in the Nalanda tradition.
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