Dharamshala: As the world navigates the Covid-19 pandemic, growing conflicts and environmental challenges, the lifelong commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has never been more relevant.
His Holiness’ commitments to promote human values, religious harmony, environmental protection and revival of the ancient Indian wisdom on transformation of human mind and emotions are today foundational to achieving lasting individual and world peace.
In celebration of the 85 glorious years that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has spent and continues to devote to the wellbeing of humanity, the Department of Information and International Relations, CTA today began a weeklong marathon of discussions in 15 different languages on the four principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“For Tibetans, His Holiness is the life and soul of Tibet. For Buddhists around the world, His Holiness is the Buddha of compassion and for the world, His Holiness is the beacon of hope and messenger of peace,” President of Central Tibetan Administration and Kalon of DIIR, Dr Lobsang Sangay said as he inaugurated the weeklong talk series.
Dr Sangay gave a brief yet illuminating introduction to the four principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, describing each as a roadmap to building individual, societal and global peace and happiness.
“Firstly, as a human being, His Holiness advocates the cultivation of warm-heartedness and human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. As a Buddhist leader, His Holiness advocates religious harmony and for years, has organised many interfaith dialogues, bringing diverse religious leaders under one roof to exchange views and build understanding and respect.”
His Holiness’ commitments for climate change and environmental protection, is unmatched, President Sangay said, adding how His Holiness has been one of the earliest voices for environmental protection and climate change.
“In recognition of his contribution, His Holiness was awarded the United Nation Earth Prize in 1991. He continues to remain a fervent environmentalist. As such, His Holiness’ third commitment is to call for protection of Tibet’s natural environment and spiritual heritage,” Dr Sangay said.
From climate as well as geological point of view, he said Tibet is vital to Asia and rest of the world and explained how His Holiness recognises the global impacts of the Tibetan plateau as the third pole of the world and water tower of Asia, supporting the lives of over 1.5 billion people in downstream Asia.
“His Holiness’ fourth commitment is reviving interest in Nalanda tradition mainly in India and Asia. And as part of this commitment, His Holiness has initiated a project to establish Nalanda Institute of Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, Bihar of which I am fortunate to be part of.”
Integral to this commitment of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the incorporation of the Nalanda lessons on the workings of the mind and emotions in the secular world so that a more integrated and ethically grounded way of being in the world can be promoted.
“But we all need to learn more about it and enable ourselves to contribute to these principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Towards this goal, DIIR has organised this weeklong marathon of discussions on the four principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said President Dr Sangay who is also the Kalon for DIIR.
He closed his remarks by calling on Tibetans and friends around the globe to initiate and take part in activities in their capacities to create awareness about the life and four commitments of His Holiness.
༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་དམ་བཅའ་བཞིའི་ཐོག་གཏམ་བཤད་ལས་རིམ་དབུ་འབྱེད་ཀྱི་ལེའུ།
༄༅། །བཀའ་ཤག་སྐབས་ ༡༥ ནས་ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༠ ལོ་འདི་བཞིན་བོད་མིའི་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་དབུ་ཁྲིད་སྤྱི་ནོར་༧གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་ལ་བཀའ་དྲིན་རྗེས་དྲན་གྱི་ལོར་སྲུང་བརྩི་ཞུ་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་དང་། འདི་ནི་བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་དབུ་ཁྲིད་པའི་བོད་མི་ཡོང་ནས་སྤྱི་ནོར་༧གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གིས་འདས་པའི་ལོ་ངོ་ ༨༥ རིང་བོད་དང་བོད་མིའི་ཆེད་དུ་བཀའ་དྲིན་བླ་མེད་བསྐྱངས་པར་རྗེས་དྲན་ཞུ་ཆེད་དུ་ཡིན་པ་རེད།
སྤྱིར་འདི་ལོ་རྒྱ་ནག་ཝུ་ཧན་ནས་མཆེད་པའི་ཏོག་དབྱིབས་གཉན་རིམས་ ༡༩ འི་རྐྱེན་པས་འཛམ་གླིང་ཁྱོན་ལ་དཀའ་ངལ་མང་དག་ཞིག་འཕྲད་ཡོད་ན་ཡང་། བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ངོས་ནས་འཛམ་གླིང་གང་སར་སྤྱི་ནོར་༧གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་གི་མཛད་རྗེས་དང་བཀའ་དྲིན་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་ལས་འཆར་སྣ་མང་ཞིག་སྤེལ་ཡོད་པ་དང་། དེའི་ཁོངས་ནས་བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱི་དྲིལ་ལས་ཁུངས་ནས་དེ་རིང་ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༠ ཟླ་ ༡༢ ཚེས་ ༤ ནས་བདུན་ཕྲག་གཅིག་རིང་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་བཞི་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་དམ་བཅའ་བཞི་སྟེ། འགྲོ་བ་མིའི་བཟང་སྤྱོད་གོང་སྤེལ་དང་། ཆོས་ལུགས་མཐུན་འབྲེལ། བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གཞུང་དང་ཁོར་ཡུག་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ། རྒྱ་གར་གནའ་རབས་ཀྱི་རིག་གཞུང་བསྐྱར་གསོ་བཅས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་དྲ་རྒྱ་བརྒྱུད་གསུང་བཤད་ལས་རིམ་ཞིག་གོ་སྒྲིག་ཞུས་ཡོད།
གསུང་བཤད་ལས་རིམ་འདིའི་ཐོག་བོད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བརྒྱུད་ཁག་གི་བླ་ཆེན་དབུ་ཁྲིད་རྣམ་པ་དབུས་པས་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་འདྲ་མིན་བཅུ་དགུའི་མཁས་དབང་དང་ཤེས་ཡོན་ཅན་མི་སྣ་གྲངས་ ༡༢༠ ནས་དྲ་བརྙན་བརྒྱུད་སྐད་རིགས་བཅོ་ལྔའི་ཐོག་གསུང་བཤད་གནང་གི་རེད།
དེ་རིང་ལས་རིམ་འགོ་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་ཐོག་མར་བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་དཔལྡན་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་འབུམ་རམས་པ་བློ་བཟང་སེངྒེ་མཆོག་གིས་དབུ་འབྱེད་གསུང་བཤད་དང་། དཔལ་ལྡན་དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང་གི་དྲུང་ཆེ་ཡང་སྟེང་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་བཞི་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་དམ་བཅའ་བཞིའི་སྐོར་སྤྱི་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་གནང་གི་རེད། སང་ཉིན་ནས་བོད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བརྒྱུད་ཁག་གི་བླ་ཆེན་དབུ་ཁྲིད་རྣམ་པ་དང་། བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་བློན་རྣམ་པ། དེ་བཞིན་ཕྱི་ནང་གི་མཁས་དབང་དང་ཤེས་ཡོན་ཅན་སོགས་ནས་༧རྒྱལ་བའི་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་དམ་བཅའ་བཞིའི་སྐོར་རིམ་པས་གསུང་བཤད་གནང་གི་རེད། བདུན་ཕྲག་གཅིག་གྱི་ལས་རིམ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་འདི་ག་བོད་ཀྱི་བརྙན་འཕྲིན་གྱི་ངོ་དེབ་དང་ Youtube གཉིས་ཀྱི་བརྒྱུད་རྒྱང་སྲིང་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། མཛད་རིམ་དྲྭ་ཐག https://tibet.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Gratitude-HHDL-Final-ok-true-final.pdfPosted by TIBET TV on Thursday, 3 December 2020
Yangten Tulku Rinpoche, Religious Secretary at the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a detailed introduction to the four principal commitments, observing that each commitment although based on a specific issue is interconnected and not mutually exclusive.
“From a wider perspective since the start of human civilization, the first invention was language, then farming was discovered which transformed human civilization from the stone age era to agrarian-based society. This influenced livelihood and cultural practices, and soon the need for a central thought-basis to orient society led to the invention of religion and science. Keeping all this in mind, the four commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama can be considered an innovation in the educational sphere and the psychological field,” said Rinpoche.
He said any misconception of the four commitments lies in the misunderstanding of it as a commonplace message, which fails to take into note the in-depth study of His Holiness’s definitive teachings.
Yangten Rinpoche sums up the first commitment as being based in the universality of compassion and humanity. “All humans are united in their desire for happiness and aversion to suffering and seek the same ultimate goal. This realization of the universality of humanity is the key, which scientific studies have recognised as innate to humanity.”
Speaking on the second principal commitment, he said the essence of humanity is coexistence and compassion and which is enshrined in all religious teachings, although developed differently to suit its own people.
“The third commitment, the preservation of Tibet’s environment and spiritual heritage,” Rinpoche said is necessary not only for the survival of Tibetan people and the world at large. Tibet is recognised as the third pole of the world and affects global climate and survival of millions of people.
Citing environmentalist and activist Vandana Shiva, Yangten Rinpoche told how the sustenance of half of the world’s population depends on the health of the Tibetan plateau. He added that global warming in Tibet is at a higher rate than the world and that if unchecked, it could accelerate the rate of global warming of the world.
Rinpoche highlighted the preservation of Tibetan language and culture as crucial to the survival of the ancient Indian wisdom and the time is all the more urgent for the Buddhist tradition to be of benefit to the humanity through the revival of its ancient yet relevant wisdom.
“For that reason, the revival of ancient Indian knowledge is among His Holiness’ chief commitments. While the ancient Nalanda tradition has undergone a decline in India, the tradition has been kept alive by the Tibetan Buddhists and it is now His Holiness’ commitment to introduce and revive ancient Indian knowledge in modern India through education and with secular approach.
“This is because rich ancient Indian understanding of the workings of the mind and emotions, as well as the techniques of mental training, such as meditation, developed by Indian traditions, are of great relevance today and can guide humanity in these troubled times,” Rinpoche said, concluding the inaugural ceremony of the talk series on the four commitments.
The pre-recorded talk series featuring addresses by atleast 120 speakers from 19 different countries will start from tomorrow. View the detailed schedule here.
The first Tibetan keynote panel will feature Dr Thupten Jinpa, principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an adjunct professor at the School of Religious Studies at McGill University, Geshe Wanghcuk Dorji Negi, professor at Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS), Sarnath, Geshe Lhakdor, Director, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) and Geshe Ngawang Samten, Vice Chancellor of Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath.
Watch the talk series on Tibet TV Facebook and Youtube channel.