Dharamshala: Following is the remarks delivered by Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok, Kalon for Religion and Culture, CTA and a Vice-President of the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) for the Concluding Event of Global Prayer Week initiated by IBC, 16 May 2020:
༄༅།། གང་གིས་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་། །འགག་པ་མེད་པ་སྐྱེ་མེད་པ། །
ཆད་པ་མེད་པ་བརྟག་མེད་པ། །འོང་བ་མེད་པ་འགྲོ་མེད་པ། །
ཐ་དད་དོན་མིན་དོན་གཅིག་མིན། །སྤྲོས་པ་ཉེར་ཞི་ཞི་བསྟན་པ། །
རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨྲ་རྣམས་ཀྱི། །དམ་པ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
My homage and prostrations to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
Dear brothers and sisters all over the world,
I am extremely honored and privileged to be with you all virtually for a short while and speak a few words on this concluding event of the Global Prayer Week initiated by International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), New Delhi, India and dedicated to pray for the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, their families and the frontline service personnel including medical, security and first-hand media professionals.
First of all, I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate and thank the Head Office and officials of IBC led by its Secretary-General Ven. Dr. Dhammapiya for their wonderful initiatives of organizing Virtual Vesak – Buddha Poornima Day on
May 7, 2020 and a Global Prayer Week immediately following that sacred occasion dedicated for the well-being of the Covid-19 pandemic victims and frontline support people. I am very happy to know that these initiatives were very well received by their global audience.
There is no need to talk about the nature and impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Information on them in all forms is available more than actually necessary. All-out efforts are also being made from all sides and at all levels to overcome the massive problem. As we all witness, much of the problem has to do with the disorder or disturbance of human mind and emotions like intense fear, doubt and despair. So, the religious masters and institutions have a very crucial role and responsibility in this problem – as much as the medical professionals and hospital have.
In this connection, I would like to report that – like many leaders and institutions of other Buddhist traditions of the world – our Tibetan Buddhist leaders and institutions in India and elsewhere have been actively engaged in calming down the outburst of human sufferings and in extending a helping hand to the urgent needs of the affected individuals, families and the society at large in various forms.
The Department of Religion and Culture of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala, India, has called upon all Tibetan monasteries and nunneries in exile for performing various daily and weekly prayers and rituals from March 2020 onwards for the well-being of the Covid-19 victims and the frontline service people worldwide. It also includes a weekly special prayer event for purification and restoration of the highly polluted and damaged global environment. Many spiritual leaders and experts are constantly engaged in providing much needed spiritual and emotional guidance to the affected individuals and community through various media. I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to all of them for their exemplary dedication and generosity in this great hour of need and crisis.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has already been and is certainly going to be a Great Centennial Lesson and Alert to our contemporary world. Ultimately, it’s nothing but a revelation of the Law of Karma. It’s nothing but the reaction of our past action. The behavior and attitude of the modern world in the past century towards the natural environment and non-human living species has been unthinkably rude and destructive. Until and unless our world mends its way, there will be no end to pandemics and other natural disasters. Let’s all pray that our world mends its present way and see better and happier times in the future.
སེམས་ཅན་ནད་པ་ཇི་སྙེད་པ། །མྱུར་དུ་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་གྱུར་ཅིག །
འགྲོ་བའི་ནད་ནི་མ་ལུས་པ། །རྟག་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བ་མེད་པར་ཤོག །
འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སྨན་གཅིག་པུ། །བདེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས། །
བསྟན་པ་རྙེད་དང་བཀུར་སྟི་དང་། །བཅས་ཏེ་ཡུན་རིང་གནས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
Thank you all very much.