His Holiness the Dalai Lama preaches
compassion, responsibility Monday, 28 July 2008,
8:50 a.m.
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| His Holiness the Dalai Lama traditionally greets a capacity crowd a near-capacity crowd in the Benedict Music Tent on Saturday. His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s hour-long monologue marked the culmination of a weeklong symposium celebrating Tibetan culture, held at the Aspen Institute/Photo Credit: Zach Ornitz/Aspen Daily News |
Aspen, Colo,: What
does compassion and global responsibility really mean to you?
To His Holiness the Dalai Lama, they are inextricably bound to his life, his
religion and his future legacy.
Consider this: Every morning at 4 a.m., His Holiness the Dalai Lama rises in
the pitch black and sits inside a sacred room to practice between four and five
hours of meditation. Clothed only in humble red robes, he is completely alone,
sitting cross-legged on the ground, contemplating the teaching and texts of
Tibetan Buddhist masters.
For years, people have asked him exactly what he is meditating on. And for
years, His Holiness has given them a one-word answer that is a primary tenet of
Tibetan Buddhism: compassion
Yet the word “compassion” for His Holiness the Dalai Lama has come
to symbolize something more than mere altruism on a local scale, but rather, on
a global scale.
After watching his country oppressed, his monasteries destroyed and his
culture dismantled by the Chinese, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was forced to
leave Tibet and enter the worldwide community, infusing the globe with his
idealistic messages and Tibetan Buddhist ethics. This situation was summed up
perfectly by famed journalist Pico Iyer, who said earlier this week at the
Aspen Institute, “That Dalai Lama would always tell me, “I’ve lost my
country, but I’ve gained the world.”
And so it was only fitting that His Holiness the Dalai Lama discussed his
concept of global responsibility and compassion on Saturday morning at the
Benedict Music Tent as the keynote address for the Aspen Institute’s symposium
on Tibetan culture.
A century of dialogue
Capping off a week that included lectures by Tibetan scholars and
practitioners, such as Bob Thurman and Sogyal Rinpoche, Saturday’s lecture
began with a performance of traditional Tibetan chant and dance by Tibetan
monks from the Drepung Monastery. The stage was decorated with colorful prayers
flags designed by local children at the Anderson Ranch.
When His Holinesss the Dalai Lama walked onto the stage amid a booming
standing ovation, he wore white Tibetan khatak (scarf) that was also decorated
by local children with red peace signs.
“I was very touched by this,” said His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
pointing to the scarf. “Young children’s minds are not yet spoiled. They
still have a feeling of humanity.”
His Holiness then began to speak about his idea of global responsibility,
which, he believes, begins not with laws or legislation, but with changing our
fundamental view of the world.
“Our basic feeling of self and desire for happiness is the same,”
he said. “If you look at the world from space, you see one globe. There
are no real boundaries. There is too much emphasis on secondary differences –
religion, nationality, ethnicity. On a basic level, we are the same. We forget
basic humanity.”
This concept of universal similarities among humans, according to His
Holiness the Dalai Lama, must guide how we act on a global level. For example,
he proposed the idea of the Americas joining together with a sense of unity,
and the same for Europe.
“You have to consider your neighbour not foreign, but part of
yourself,” His Holiness explained.
Moreover, His Holiness the Dalai Lama consistently harped on the importance
of dialogue in terms of solving international disputes. This, of course, is a
message that His Holiness has been preaching to Chinese for more than 50 years
in terms of opening a discussion about the future of Tibet.
“The 21st century is a century of bloodshed,” he said. “This
should be a century of dialogue.”
In terms of government, His Holiness the Dalai Lama made it perfectly clear
that he is a proponent of Marxism versus a totalitarian leadership or a
capitalist system.
“I am attracted to the Marxist sense of lifting the lower
classes,” His Holiness continued. “It is about the well being of
working-class people that are normally exploited by the richer classes.”
The Chinese dilemma
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s discussion of Marxism, however, was not a
completely extraneous or hypothetical topic.
Throughout his lecture, His Holiness repeatedly pointed to and spoke to a
group of Chinese professors sitting near the front of the music tent, at times
castigating the current Chinese administration, which claims to rule with
socialist principles.
In essence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama opined that the original precepts of
the Chinese communist regime had merit in the sense that they were designed to
help the lower classes. However, he claimed that this original sense of
political integrity has degenerated.
“The Chinese leaders have become corrupt,” His Holiness argued.
“They only think of profit, and have lost a sense of purity in the
original movement.” At one point, he also referred to the Chinese
government as, “totalitarian and capitalist.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama expressed concern over human rights and their
standing in the Chinese constitution, which are not provided for in reality. In
the case of Tibet, he claimed there is both “human rights violation and
violation of religious freedom.”
As such, His Holiness the Dalai Lama pleaded that the media have a
“long nose,” in order to smell the truth of what exists both in front
of them and behind them.
“They must inform the public clearly and openly,” he said.
“Transparency is very important.”
The issue of transparency within the media has been a central in discussions
about Tibet.
During last spring’s uprisings on the Tibetan plateau, foreign journalists
were expelled from the country and only state-sponsored media were allowed. The
government also set up a series of media tours in which they hand selected
Western journalists and gave them limited access to Tibet.
Most recently, many western media outlets, such as NBC, are beginning worry
about having autonomy at the Beijing summer Olympics to cover projected
demonstrations that the Chinese government would rather not be televised
internationally.
The essence of compassion
Towards the end of his lecture, His Holiness the Dalai Lama returned to the
theme that he has spent his life preaching – compassion.
According His Holiness the Dalai Lama, compassion exists on two levels.
The first is on the biological level, which he said was necessary for
survival, like the way a mother cares for her children.
The second level relates to training and reason, which is something that
needs to be habituated, practiced and extended to on a universal level, instead
just to one’s own family.
“According to science [practicing compassion] makes the body better and
the immune system stronger. So many people spend their money on medicine and
sleeping pills. People that have compassion don’t need these.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s scientific arguments in this passage are not
unfounded. Throughout the week, a world-renowned professor from Stanford
University spoke about a new project, “Project Compassion,” in which
scientists are currently measuring the direct correlation between a
compassionate mind and its positive effects on the body.
It is also important to note that in the past decade, His Holiness the Dalai
Lama has taken a serious interest in the connection between Buddhism and
science, even saying that if certain Buddhist principles are overturned by
scientific truths, they should be discarded.
Returning again to this topic of compassion, at the end of his lecture, His
Holiness the Dalai Lama was asked by an audience member how it can be that in
such a beautiful place like Aspen, people can be so rude and cantankerous. And
moreover, can His Holiness the Dalai Lama teach how to resolve this issue?
Fittingly, His Holiness the Dalai Lama reminded the audience that change,
compassion and global responsibility begin with individuals, not just with the
Dalai Lama.
“I don’t know,” His Holiness laughed. “This is your
responsibility, not mine.”
–Courtesy: Aspen Daily News. Reporting by Jonathan
Bastian
