༄༅། །ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༤ ཟླ་ ༡༡ ཚེས་ ༥ ཉིན་སྤྱི་ནོར་༸གོང་ས་༸སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གིས་ནིའུ་ཡོཀ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ནང་བོད་རིགས་རྣམས་ལ་བཀའ་སློབ་སྩལ་བ། ངེས་པར་དུ་གསན་གཟིགས་ཡོང་བ་ཞུ། November 5th, 2014 His Holiness the Dalai Lama speech at the Javits Center in New York City. Translation: “My dear Tibetan brothers and sisters,” His Holiness responded, “today, when I have this opportunity to meet all of you, I wondered for a moment if I was back in Tibet, or in one of the large settlements in South India. You’re all working hard to retain your Tibetan identity and spirit and I thank you. Here on this new soil, it seems you have made a lot of children! Ensure that they grow up as Tibetans. They may learn to chant the verse for taking refuge, but that’s not enough. You can even teach a parrot to chant. We had one at the Norbulingka Palace that could recite ‘manis’ while nicely nodding its head. The children need to study and know what the Dharma is about. 21st century Buddhists need to study. Prostrating, chanting mantras and circumambulation are good, but they are not the main practice. You need to know how to transform the mind.” He went on to explain that the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which derives from the Nalanda tradition, is impressive. It’s a culture of peace that has a contribution to make in a world riven by competition and conflict. Today, he said, even scientists take interest in its knowledge of the mind and emotions. It is peace of mind that is important and mere chanting isn’t enough to secure that. His Holiness talked about his hopes for reclassifying the content of the Kangyur and Tengyur in terms of science, philosophy and religion. He pointed out that the Mind Only and Middle Way Schools of Thought have much in common with the approach of Quantum Physics and can be of interest to anyone, while topics like the Four Noble Truths are primarily of interest to Buddhists. Two volumes of science from these sources were recently published in Tibetan and will soon be available translated into English, Chinese and other languages. After Buddhism came to Tibet, the collective values of society became more compassionate. Tibetans have their own spoken and written language, and it is the language best suited to expressing the Buddhist path including Tantra, logic and epistemology. His Holiness has encouraged the study of the classic Buddhist texts, even in monasteries and nunneries that were previously concerned only with chanting rituals. These days there are nuns who have studied well and are close to receiving their Geshe-ma degrees. Individuals who have an interest in Buddhism need to study. In Ladakh, laypeople have set up discussion groups to encourage this and His Holiness said he had heard of people doing the same in Tibet. It is not necessary to have a lama involved. This is how to preserve Tibetan religion and culture. “I have studied in our tradition and whoever I meet, wherever I am, I’m proud and confident. I respect all the major religious traditions, but I am aware that of all the great religious teachers it was only the Buddha who gave his followers advice and encouragement to examine and question what he had taught.” Changing the subject to what is happening in Tibet, His Holiness said: “The 6 million Tibetans in Tibet are our real masters. They have been going through difficult times, not least because of the hard-line policies pursued by Chinese officials in Tibet. And yet Tibetans have not lost their spirit and character. Just as Chinese are proud and devoted to their culture, so are we Tibetans. The people of the three provinces feel a strong sense of unity as Tibetans and we in exile should give them our support. “Whenever I can, I meet Chinese. Many years ago I encouraged the setting up of Sino-Tibetan friendship groups and they have been quite effective. Today, there are 400 million Chinese who call themselves Buddhists, many of whom have an interest in Tibetan Buddhism. Others concern themselves with preserving the natural environment and ecology of Tibet. Relations with ordinary Chinese have improved. The Tibetan issue appears to be a struggle between the gun, the use of force, and the truth. It may appear that in the short term the gun is more effective, and yet in the end the truth will prevail. “When I was young in Lhasa, the servants used to keep me informed. I became aware of the shortcomings of too much power in too few hands. Everything depended on who you knew. I wanted to change it, but my attempts at reform were thwarted. We began democratization in 1960 and when a new leadership was elected in 2011, I retired. It took time, but eventually we have reached a point where our leaders are elected.” Jampa Khedup Tsering Dolkar Tenzin Youlo Yeshe Gyatso Dawa Tsering Drongbu Minz Geygong Tsetan Lungkara Tsering Namgyal Tsering Lhamo Dechen Tashi Tashi Tibet Dorjee La Yeshe Yes Ley Sonam Dolkar
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 22:31:55 +0000