His Holiness the Dalai Lama in San Jose, CA: Day 2[Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 9:16 a.m.]

The San Jose Convention Center where a capacity crowd of 12,000 came to listen to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

San Jose, California:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama had two main public programmes on his first
full day in San Jose. In the morning, he addressed the Tibetan and
Himalayan communities in a special audience in the San Jose Convention
Center, which is adjacent to his hotel. Organised by the
Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC), His Holiness was
greeted at the venue by representatives of the Association and offered
the Doso Chema as a group of young artists performed the Tashi Sholpa. After
His Holiness went up the stage, students of the Tibetan culture school
led the singing of the Tibetan National Anthem. Thereafter, TANC
President Kaydor Aukatsang gave an abridged work report. He said the
Association had around 2000 members and that they had found a place for
the proposed community center. He requested His Holiness to kindly
consecrate the Center during a visit to San Francisco. He also outlined
some of the activities. He said for the ongoing Tibetan elections
process 480 people had completed their voter registration and that 337
of them had participated in the primary voting that took place early in
October.In his remarks, His Holiness talked about the richness
of the Tibetan spiritual and cultural tradition.  He said the Tibetan
version of the Tengyur (commentary to the Buddha’s teachings) may be
the most inclusive compared to, for example, the Chinese version. He
said that in the past 50 years the Tibetan people have been generally
successful.He urged the Tibetan people to really try to
understand their spiritual tradition and not to treat it merely as a
ritual. For example, His Holiness said they should look at the Buddhist
scriptures like Kagyur and Tengyur as textbooks that need to be
studied. He added that studying the scriptures was not something that
only the clergy should be doing. His Holiness said even lay people can
and should be well versed in the scriptures and mentioned the example
of Barshee Pala, who he said could quote at length from the scriptures.
His Holiness said after repeated suggestions now there is the trend of
lay people all over the Himalayas doing a more substantive study of the
scriptures and talked about his experience during a recent visit to
Ladakh when he found the lay Ladakhis participating in serious
scriptural debates.His Holiness said that in addition to the
study of the Tibetan religious and scriptural tradition it is also
essential that people really be educated in the modern sense. His
Holiness said the absence of a modern education system was a bane of
the past Tibetan society saying that the previous 13th Dalai Lama did
make an effort by sending some Tibetans to study in England. His
Holiness urged the people to think of specialising in subjects. His
Holiness also urged the people to be alert as there is the risk of
declining moral character. He said our spiritual tradition played a
useful role in making us morally strong. He recalled his conversations
with officials in Spiti regions in India, where the people are
traditionally Buddhists. He recalled the officials as saying that once
the people became exposed to the mainstream life in India their moral
character seem to be declining. His Holiness said he had discussed this
issue with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Talking
about decline in the Tibetan character, His Holiness referred to some
people who used devious means to go and stay in other countries and
thinking only of the self while not caring for the implication to the
community in the process.  He said there was a time when the Tibetan
name had very high credibility. He said there was thus a risk and the
people need to be alert to maintain their traditional characteristic
that has been much admired by the outside world.  His Holiness recalled
meeting Chinese who had visited Tibet and who talked about the very
positive atmosphere in their interaction with Tibetans as compared to
Chinese themselves. His Holiness asked the Tibetan people to
be always mindful of the hope that the Tibetans in Tibet place on us.
He said he admired the determination and courage of the Tibetans in
Tibet. His Holiness said he will not expand on the political
aspect of the Tibetan issue as the Kalon Tripa and the Kashag will be
briefing the people regularly. He, however, talked about his concern
about Tibetan environment and said he had heard reports about the
negative impact to the environment of relocating Tibetan nomads. Prior
to the Tibetan audience, His Holiness attended an event where the Gyuto
Vajrayana Center made a presentation of its project proposal of
establishing a Tibetan monastery in the San Francisco area. In
brief remarks, His Holiness talked about the importance of such centers
given the history of destruction of Tibetan spiritual and cultural
institutions in Tibet. In addition to the physical destructions of 6000
temples and monasteries, His Holiness said two years ago, a Chinese
Communist official had talked about plans to turn the Tibetan
monasteries, which have traditionally been living learning centers, to
mere museums with some caretakers. His Holiness said now the real
learning centers for Tibetan spiritual culture was outside of Tibet. In
India, His Holiness said there were 10,000 monks and around 3,000 nuns
undergoing study in Tibetan institutions.  His Holiness
suggested that the Gyuto Monastery project should be a learning center
not just for Tibetan Buddhist culture but also act as a venue for
serious dialogue within the Buddhist tradition as well as with other
traditions.  His Holiness said while there were philosophical
differences all religions shared the same practice in terms of
promoting love and compassion. He said it should also try to conduct
serious dialogues between Buddhists and scientists.  His
Holiness thanked the supporters of the project but said they should
also make sure that the money they provide is not wasted. In
the afternoon, His Holiness first addressed a gathering of Gyuto
Center’s supporters. He told them about his three commitments of
promoting human values, religious harmony and solution for the Tibetan
issue.  His Holiness said that the first two commitments were messages
of India that he was conveying. His Holiness also answered some
questions. Meet the PressThereafter, His
Holiness addressed a group of media personnel.  Here His Holiness
talked about his three commitments. His Holiness said he talked about
these three points wherever he went.  He said on his third issue of a
solution for the Tibetan issue, since 2000 there was an elected
political leadership and that he was in semi-retirement. He said now he
was looking forward to complete retirement.His Holiness first answered a question on cultivating compassion and explained the two levels of compassion. To
a question on his reaction to the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize
to Liu Xiaobo, His Holiness said that right from the beginning he had
been sympathetic and supportive of those people who made some effort
for more liberalization in the political field.  Specifically, when Liu
Xiaobo announced Charter 08, His Holiness said he was in Poland and as
soon as he heard the news he had expressed support.  He said this time,
some Nobel Laureates, particularly Archbishop Tutu, had launched a
signature appeal for the Nobel Prize to be given to Liu Xiaobo and he
was invited to join. His Holiness that since he had made the worldwide
appeal when the announcement to award the prize to Liu Xiaobo was made,
he felt happy.His Holiness recalled the time when he himself
was awarded the prize. He said he had told the media some time back
that the prize did not amount to much of a personal change as he was
just a simple Buddhist monk. His Holiness said he saw the prize as
recognition of his contribution to promoting nonviolence and compassion
and this gave him some encouragement.His Holiness said that
this time, too, he felt that this prize is some recognition of Liu
Xiaobo’s commitment of promoting freedom and democracy and he should
feel more encouraged to continue his work.  Asked to comment
on the Chinese Government’s reaction to Liu Xiaobo’s prize, His
Holiness said if he answered something, his opinion will not be of use
and so he would keep quiet. To a question about the Gyuto
Vajrayana Center’s activities here, His Holiness said California was a
multicultural state and so its project would be a small contribution to
this culture. He said he hoped this center’s project would be a
learning center and a forum for dialogue between religious traditions
as well as between Buddhists and scientists. At the conclusion
His Holiness reminded the media personnel that they too had a role in
promoting human values and religious harmony and encouraged them to
spread this message. Public Talk on Mind TrainingThereafter,
His Holiness entered the Convention Center to provide a commentary on
the Eight Verses for Training the Mind, a text composed by Tibetan
Buddhist Master Geshe Langri Tangpa. The Convention Center was filled
with a capacity crowd of 12,000 people. His Holiness began by
giving a broad overview of Buddhism. He then explained the text by
putting it in current context as well as in relation to other religious
traditions.  He talked about the fourth stanza as being a
message for people not to reject or isolate others, whether they are
Aids patients or prisoners.  Rather, he said people need to see how
they could include these individuals into the mainstream of the
society.  Similarly, His Holiness said the messages of the 3rd and the
5th stanzas were similar to the messages in the Bible about the
cardinal sins and the turning of the other cheek.  His Holiness also
recalled an Islamic friend telling him that one of the meanings of the
term Jihad was confronting inner mental afflictions. His
Holiness said that the short text had messages that we should all be
reminding ourselves on a daily basis to become better persons. He
suggested that people should start experimenting by devoting a week to
daily thoughts over the eight verses and implementing them. If they
find some benefit by the end of the week, they could extend it.
Eventually, when the mind is familiar with these points, His Holiness
said that real change will come about. At the end of the
event, and as it has become a practice set by His Holiness with
organisers of public events in which he participates, the Gyuto
Vajrayana Center presented a financial report.  They announced that the
event had a total estimated expense of $ 271,000 with total estimated
expenses of $ 360,000. The difference of $ 89,000 will be distributed
to three projects; Gyuto Vajrayana Center’s spiritual activities in the
United States; promotion of health and education for the monks of the
Gyuto Monastery in India; and projects devoted to health care of
Tibetan refugees, particularly children and the elderly. On 13 October, His Holiness will be giving the Amitabha Initiation and travelling to Palo Alto in the afternoon. (Report filed by Bhuchung K Tsering of ICT)