His Holiness Tells Tibetans in Exile to Maintain Tibet’s Identity and Culture[Friday, 14 May 2010, 11:33 a.m.]
Bloomington, IN:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Thursday met a group of Japanese
supporters of the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in
Bloomington, following which he gave an audience to the Tibetan
community and Mongolians. Tibetans had gathered from Indiana, Arizona,
New York, Illinois, Minnesota, California, as well as from Canada, many
of them attending the two day teaching. The venue had to be shifted
from the outdoor spot to inside the temple on account of a sudden
rain. In his remarks, His Holiness stressed on the importance
of education, specifically attaining knowledge about one’s own religion
and culture, saying Buddhism was not mere recitation of prayers. He
narrated anecdotes during his visit to Sikkim as well as stories heard
from Tibetans in Tibet to criticize views prevalent in a section of the
community that negated the importance of study while upholding ritual
aspect of Buddhism. He said that era has ended.His Holiness
said that today Buddhists needed to be 21st century Buddhists. If one
can have good knowledge of Buddhism then modern material and scientific
development will enable one to see the increasing value of the religion.His
Holiness said it was encouraging to see that increasingly young
Tibetans and Himalayan Buddhists in the Indian subcontinent were
showing new interest in the study of Buddhism. He said he had reports
from Tibet, too, that his constant appeal at study was having an impact
and that monastic institutes, not just Gelug, but Nyingma, Sakya and
Kagyu, were taking steps to promote deep study of Buddhism. He said if
one did not have faith in Buddhism then it did not matter whether one
studied it or not, but calling oneself Buddhist while not knowing
anything was not proper. His Holiness said it was also wrong and
backward thinking to believe that Buddhist study was the responsibility
of the monasteries alone. His Holiness talked about his categorisation
of Buddhism into Buddhist science, Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist
religion and how the first two had universal value. He said even if
one did not believe in Buddhism it was beneficial to study Buddhist
science and philosophy.In his remarks, which were being
translated in Mongolian, His Holiness talked about the shared Buddhist
heritage of the two communities and said the study of Buddhism was also
linked to the complete knowledge of one’s identity. If people aspired
to study Buddhism then it was obvious that knowledge of Tibetan was
important. Looking at the several boys and girls who were sitting in
the front, His Holiness said that if initially they find difficult to
study the religion in Tibetan they could do so in English. He said at
the same time they could study Tibetan and said he applauded the
interest that young Tibetans were paying in learning the language. His
Holiness said if young Tibetans in the free world did not pay attention
to our language and religion then it would be a source of
discouragement for our brethren in Tibet who despite all the challenges
are making efforts to educate themselves in our culture and language.His
Holiness said in the past there were several Mongol scholars. He said
we both follow the Nalanda tradition of Buddhist school. Currently,
several Mongolians are studying in Tibetan monastic institutes in India
and advised the Mongolians to likewise pay interest in Buddhism.His
Holiness asked the Tibetans not to forget their Tibetan identity and
the responsibility they shoulder on behalf of the Tibetans in Tibet.
He said if one had good knowledge of one’s religion and be educated in
one’s language and culture then one could become complete Tibetan. His
Holiness said it was the common language, religion and culture that are
the basis of the common identity of Tibetans.His Holiness then asked the Tibetans from Chicago to perform a song that they had prepared before concluding the audience.On 14 May, His Holiness will be travelling to Indianapolis, the capital of the state of Indiana, to give a public talk.–Report filed by Bhuchung K Tsering of ICT
