His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching in California attracts more than 13,000 peopleSaturday, 26 September 2009, 9:37 a.m.
Long Beach, California:
His Holiness began his second day in Long Beach, California, with some
private audiences. Thereafter, he departed to the nearby Long Beach
Arena where he was welcomed by the Mayor of Long Beach, Bob Foster.
The Mayor presented His Holiness with a Certificate of Welcome, the
text of which said: “Certificate of Welcome presented to
His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. As Mayor of the City of Long
Beach, it gives me great pleasure to welcome His Holiness, the 14th
Dalai Lama of Tibet to our city. Receiving numerous awards over his
spiritual and political career – from the Nobel Peace Prize to the
Congressional Gold Medal Award – His Holiness is truly an uplifting
individual. The City of Long Beach celebrates diversity and recognizes
all you do for Tibetans and the respect you have for people of all
faiths. We welcome you and wish you the very best on a most enjoyable
stay in Southern California”.His Holiness then began his
religious schedule by first requesting selected people to recite the
Buddhist prayer, the Heart Sutra, in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Vietnamese
after which he led it in Tibetan. Then, before beginning his
explanation of the Four Noble Truths, His Holiness talked in general
about the role of religion in our society. He said religion served as
an antidote to the ills affecting the society. If someone is religious,
he said that person should be serious in the practice. Otherwise, His
Holiness said it is better to consider oneself as a non-believer. His
Holiness then spent the morning session giving a detailed explanation
of the Four Noble Truths of suffering, it origin, its cessation and the
path.In the afternoon, His Holiness addressed a press meet
attended by journalists representing the mainstream media as well as
Tibetan and Vietnamese language media. He began by talking to them
about his two main commitments of promoting human values and promoting
religious harmony. His Holiness talked about the importance of
being warm-hearted and compassionate saying that even scientific
experiments have proved the benefit of having such a mental
disposition. He said that the potential to become a more compassionate
person is already there adding that it was clear that we learn from our
mother. He said in his own case, the seed of compassion came from his
mother. He said everyone had the potential for generating compassion
and that there was no difference in terms of believers or
non-believers, this religion or that religion, educated or uneducated,
rich or poor. As long as we are the same human beings, and as long as
we have the human body, mind and brain we all have this potential, he
said. His Holiness listed this as being his number one commitment and
that as a Buddhist practitioner in his daily prayer he dedicated his
body, speech and mind for the wellbeing of others.His Holiness
said his second commitment, as a Buddhist monk, is the promotion of
religious harmony. He said wherever he went he worked on implementing
these two commitments.His Holiness then reminded the media of
its role as a watchdog to “have long nose like an elephant” and to be
able to “smell” from all sides. He said the media had the task of
doing unbiased coverage of developments.He said in order to
create happy human society, justice, truth, and transparency were
essential. His Holiness said this is because even at the family or
community level, where there is suspicion and distrust it is difficult
to develop genuine harmony and genuine friendship. He said it is clear
that without these a community cannot be a happy one. Therefore,
in order to develop a clean, truthful, honest and healthy society,
media people should carry thorough investigation to correct the
wrongdoings of “mischievous” peoples, he said. His Holiness said he shared these views wherever he went.Among
the questions posed by the journalists, one asked him whether he had
any plans to visit Vietnam where there are 60 million Buddhists. His
Holiness responded that he had no plans to visit quite simply because
“no invitation.” His Holiness added that he knew that inspite of the
outward appearance of a non-believing Communist, internally there were
many people in Vietnam who are sincere Buddhists. He said he had the
opportunity of reaching out to Vietnamese Buddhists outside Vietnam
like he was doing in Long Beach.Another said since His Holiness
had talked about his faith in the Chinese Government thinning, what was
the next course of action?His Holiness said after the crisis in
Tibet of last year he had also said that his faith in the Chinese
people has never been shaken. In the last one year, His Holiness said
he had met a number of Chinese writers and scholars. All these meetings
have been very, very fruitful, he said, adding that these people really
showed their solidarity and fully supported his stand in not seeking
separation but for a mutually agreeable solution within the framework
of the Chinese Constitution. In some case, he said, some of these
Chinese who come from mainland China expressed their worry at the
disappearance of traditional value in today’s China where there was lot
of corruption. Their main concern is how to restore the traditional
value, His Holiness said. Some of them say that Tibetans can make some
contribution in the revival of the traditional Chinese values.Another
questioner asked which of the two responsibilities of being a religious
leader as well as “a leader of a nation” His Holiness found more
challenging.His Holiness said that he was a Buddhist monk and
had been trained in Buddhist philosophy. He said he had never been
trained in political science or international relations. He said
traditionally the Dalai Lama institution has become both the temporal
and spiritual leader for the last 400 years. He said since his
childhood he had been interested in democracy adding that after coming
into exile we started democratization. His Holiness said that in 2001
we started having elected political leadership and since then the 400
year old tradition of the Dalai Lama institution being head of both
spiritual and temporal affairs has ended. He said he was now in
something like a semi-retired situation. The main responsibility is in
the shoulder of the elected political leadership, he said. He said he
often mentioned that in the political field, the elected leader was his
boss while in the spiritual field he said he was the boss of the
elected leader.The next questioner asked when would be the next
democratic election of Tibetans in exile. Secondly, he asked whether
His Holiness was “disappointed” at President Obama’s “decision not to
see you in October.” His Holiness explained that the present
Kalon Tripa had served two terms and it was not possible for him to
have a third term. He said in 2011 there will be elections, but that he
did not know who will be the winner. His Holiness said already there
were discussions in our community about candidates and that names were
being mentioned.On the issue of meeting President Obama, His
Holiness responded that wherever he went he always avoided any
inconvenience. He said that the United States Government has very, very
important close relations with mainland China in the economic field and
therefore they have to take various considerations.When His
Holiness stressed the important role of the media, a journalist asked
whether His Holiness felt Tibetan monks should be trained in media
relations, too. His Holiness responded that he did not know. He added
that there were some suggestions that Tibetan spiritual teachers should
know western thinking. Here, His Holiness said he had the view that the
Buddha’s teachings is actually dealing with our destructive emotions
and on that human beings of 2600 years ago and human beings of today
are the same. So there was no need for any modification, he added.
Anger, jealousy, and attachment are all same through the ages although
external environment is different. He said the important thing is that
the Buddha’s teaching is very much relevant today. Buddha’s teachings
were the same both for all. His Holiness, however, said that were
differences in the nature between text or literature written by Tibetan
masters in Tibet and those written by Indian masters in India. This
was because the Indian masters were writing in a place where there were
many non-Buddhists, he said. Whereas in Tibet, he said, almost more
than 99 per cent are Buddhists and so the writers took for granted that
the audiences are Buddhists. So there was slight differences, he added.
His Holiness said when he gave lectures even to Tibetans in India, he
emphasized the Indian style, not the Tibetan style. He said the Indian
style was using more reason while many Tibetan texts did not rely much
on using reasons, but rather opted to use Buddhist quotations. He
added that those Tibetan texts concentrating on Indian text used logic.Following
the press meet, His Holiness performed the preparatory ritual for the
Amitabha Initiation. Thereafter, he gave further explanation on the
morning’s topic. His Holiness concluded the day’s program by giving
the actual Amitabha empowerment and blessing.Nearly 13,000
people had gathered at the Long Beach arena to attend today’s sessions.
Tickets for the teachings were provided free of cost by the Geden
Shoeling Center of Khensur Lobsang Jamyang. The teachings were
translated into English, Vietnamese and Chinese.His Holiness
said he will be giving the medicine Buddha empowerment on 26 September
morning and that since it would not take that long, he wanted to see if
there were questions from the audience that he could answer before that.–Report filed by Mr. Bhuchung K. Tsering of ICT
