His Holiness the Dalai Lama begins teachings in Varanasi[Thursday, 13 January 2011, 5:29 p.m.]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama giving religious discourse in Sarnath, India, on 12 Jan 2011. Photos by Choyang Tharchin / Tibetonline TV

DHARAMSHALA:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama began his teachings to over 30,000
followers. Over 1,800 came from Tibet, and about 6,000 from the
Himalayan region and from different parts of world. His Holiness the
Dalai Lama taught on Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way
of Life (chodjug) and Kamalashila’s The Middling States of Meditation
(gomrim barpa) at Sarnath on Wednesday, 12 January 2010. His
Holiness told the followers to study Buddhist texts by keeping the
teachings in ones’ mind and by having the ability to improve ones’ mind
like a student of Tibetan thangka painter, who has to know how to draw
what his teacher has taught.His Holiness said to achieve
happiness one should learn how to conquer one’s own mind and always
have a thought about benefit for others.  He said a person who thinks
for the benefit of others can be healthy and happy as found by
scientific findings. “Therefore, cultivating warm heartedness is very
important.”His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “It is very
important that lay people should also study Kagyur and Tengyur and they
should not think that this is only the responsibility of monks. 300
volumes of Buddhist teachings are all the books which should not be
kept on the altars for worship only but to study them as the teachings
of the Buddha”.His Holiness said we should emphasis more on preservation and promotion Nalanda lineage of the Buddha’s teachings.

Devotees attending teachings in Varanasi, 12 Jan 2011.