His Holiness Urges Tibetans From Tibet to Study Buddhist Philosophy

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Dharamshala, India -- The spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has urged Tibetans who have recently arrived in India to study Buddhist philosophy, rather than simply familiarizing themselves with prayer.

The 77-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader made his point in front of around 30,000 people from 53 countries, who are currently attending his 14 day teaching on the 18 Great Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam Rim) at Gaden Changtse monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka, on December 1.

The crowd included monks from Karnataka's great university monasteries, Drepung, Ganden and Sera, which were all resurrected in the south Indian state after their Tibetan predecessors were overrun and controlled by Chinese forces following China's occupation of the country in 1959.

“In Tibet, many Tibetans feel that studying Buddhism is only the responsibility of monks,” he said.

“Some monasteries offer only prayer, no philosophical study, and many lay people are good at prayer, but have no concern about studying Buddhist philosophy. This is a big mistake.

“Nowadays in Tibet the situation is very critical and many people who have studied Buddhism, the older generation, have passed away, and it is very rare to see a new generation of Buddhist practitioners.

“Usually nowadays I’m not only talking to Tibetans, but to Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Burmese, Sri-Lankan and Taiwanese Buddhist friends. We are all the same Buddhists as our grandparents, and now we should all be 21st Century Buddhists.

“We should study and understand what Buddhism is,” he continued.

“Buddhism is different from other religions which believe that God created everything, as the Buddha said that we are all our own protectors.

“Everything we do, we do by ourselves, so studying Buddhist philosophy is very important.”

The Dalai Lama arrived in India's largest Tibetan settlement on November 29, before commencing the teaching the following day.

Upon arrival he visited Drepung monastery, where he met with the head of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, Gadan Tri Rinpoche, and the monastery's abbot, Lobsang Tenpa, who made long life offerings in his honour, before he visited a stupa containing the relics of his former tutor, the sixth Ling Rinpoche.

Alluding to his decision last year to retire from his role as Tibetan political leader, after which Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay was democratically elected to lead Tibet's exiled community, His Holiness the Dalai Lama explained how the Gadang Podrang, part of the original Drepung monastery in Lhasa, had been the traditional seat of the Dalai Lamas until 1642, when the fifth Dalai Lama became Tibet's political and spiritual leader and established the city's iconic Potala Palace, where they remained until the current Dalai Lama's escape from the country following Chinese occupation.

“When I was 16, I took political responsibility for Tibet from Sikyong Tadrak Rinpoche (who ran the country while he was still considered a minor,)” he said.

“Sixty years later, I was able to proudly and happily hand over that responsibility to a political leader elected by a majority of Tibetan people.

“When we first arrived in India we tried to establish a democratic system and now this has happened my long term wishes and hopes have been fulfilled.

“If I were in Tibet it would now be time for me to return to Drepung monastery.”

He then visited the nearby Gaden Chartse monastery, where he opened a scholar's debate on the Jangchup Lam Rim Chemo text (Atisha's lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.) 

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Psychiatrist incorporates Buddhist philosophy to heal patients

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Buddhist philosophy and practice is incorporated into psychotherapty by Dr. Loizzo

New York, USA -- In the practice and study of Buddhism, non-duality or wholeness is a binding philosophy and critical to achieving enlightenment. All beings are equal in wanting happiness and not wanting pain; therefore one should protect others as one protects the self. This is called “the exchange of self for others,” or mindfullness.

Joseph Loizzo, founder and director of The Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, has written a book called Sustainable Happiness in which he shares decades of research and clinical practice using traditional psychoanalysis, neuroscience and Buddhism in the practice of achieving wholeness.

“The main problem in our human condition has to do with the fact that our natures were adapted for life in the wild, and that because of civilization, we are living in very unnatural conditions,” says Loizzo, who believes this is the primary source of stress for most people. "The stress instincts are what prepare us to fight or fly or freeze sometimes in dangerous situations. But since civilization began to sort of take over our whole lives, these stress reactions are a less and less useful part of our makeup,” according to an interview with Voice of America.

Controlling involuntary responses in stressful situations result in shortness of breath, sweating, and adrenaline surges alerting the body it is in possible danger.

“And because really what is challenging us is not a predator, but is another human being," he says, "whom we need to cooperate with and we need to negotiate with, essentially we become maladapted.”

Buddhist practices and philosophy have long been used for conflict resolution. Dr. Loizzo says by incorporating Buddhist techniques into his medical practice using meditation and breathing techniques, one can re-train the brain to control the body responses to reduce the stress which can lead to depression, chronic anxiety, hypertension and heart disease.

“The idea is that if you’re mindful, you are able to assess things more clearly, and you are able to catch the misperceptions and over-reactions as they occur and opt out of them and choose the alternative [and] to see what is happening to you. Meditation becomes sort of a teachable simple pragmatic system for strengthening the parts of our mind and our brain that we need to be healthy and happy.”

Personal story-telling

Australian aborigines have practiced story-telling for centuries. An adolescent experiences a rite of passage in which they create their own story by going on a “walkabout.” In this practice they trace the paths, or "songlines", that their ancestors took, and imitate, in a fashion, their heroic deeds in order to build their own life rooted in tradition.

Personal story-telling is also one of the techniques Dr. Loizzo encourages. “That’s the way our minds work. Our minds produce stories and images. And so some of the skills we teach have to do with learning to tell ourselves more constructive stories that empower us and help us to build the life that we really want to live - not the one we are trying to survive, or are afraid of being stuck in forever.”

Such methods have been life-changing for many of Loizzo’s patients.

Depression was a major problem for me," says one patient. "And through Dr. Loizzo’s support and our interaction I’ve been able to connect myself with other people and develop a network of people who support me in more meaningful relationships, things like that. It’s been a revolution in my life the way I think about myself and think about the world. I feel like I still have a long way to go but I’ve come a long way.”

Mindfulness techniques have been effective in other settings. For example, breast cancer patients whose disease has gone into remission often report PTSD-like symptoms long after treatment ends. Western medicine offers little to ease the continued fear and anxiety.

For a pilot study, Loizzo taught 60 women in a 20-week course that included meditation instruction and group discussions. Afterwards, most reported feeling less anxious and more hopeful about their lives. "Apart from curing and treating the disease, it’s important that we improve people’s quality of life.”

Combining Western psychotherapy with Eastern philosophy is the basis for Dr. Loizzo’s book and the direction of his practice.

Like the Australian Aborigines who, by singing the songs they created in walkabout, could navigate vast distances through the deserts of Australia's interior, Loizzo’s patients are learning to navigate or “walkabout” in their own lives through meditation and creating constructive stories to empower them through daily living as well as in crises.

Source: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12500393-psychiatrist-incorporates-buddhist-philosophy-to-heal-patients

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The Philosophy behind the Buddhist ethic of Ahimsa

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The concept of ‘ Ahimsa ‘ had its origins in the movement to oppose Animal Sacrifice initiated by the Buddha and Mahavira (also known as Nigganta Natha Putta ) the founder of Jainism, in the 6th Century B.C.

We reproduce below an article by Professor Mahinda Palihawadana, President of the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society and Founder Member of the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights (SPAR), on this subject:

During the time of the Buddha, many kinds of sacrifices were practised by Brahmins who were the priests of the Vedic religion professed by the upper castes of contemporary Indian society. The Buddha did not see any value in these sacrifices, primarily because they were entirely external rites. If one could speak of a ‘right sacrifice’, it had to be something that was internal or ‘spiritual’.

“I lay no wood, Brahmin, for fire on altars Only within burneth the fire I kindle” – says the Buddha, mindful of the Brahmins’ practice of tending a regular ‘sacred fire’ and pouring oblations into it for the various gods of the Vedic pantheon.

This however was only a relatively harmless, albeit in the eyes of the Buddha useless, activity. The Vedic priests also advocated and performed several types of cruel animal sacrifice such as “The sacrifices called the Horse, the Man, The Peg-thrown Site, the Drink of Victory, The Bolt Withdrawn – and all the mighty fuss- Where divers goats and sheep and kine are slain”.

The Buddha rejected all these sacrifices in no uncertain terms. For example, when he was told of a ‘great sacrifice’ that the king of Kosala was about to perform, where 2500 cattle, goats and rams were to be immolated, he declared: “Never to such a rite as that repair The noble seers who walk the perfect way.”

And, in one of the Jataka stories (Bhuridatta), the future Buddha is reported to have said: “If he who kills is counted innocent, Let Brahmins Brahmins kill.

We see no cattle asking to be slain that they a new and better life may gain; Rather they go unwilling to their death And in vain struggles yield their final breath.

To veil the post, the victim and the blow, The Brahmins let their choicest rhetoric flow”.

Many times in his discourses the Buddha speaks of four kind of persons – those who (1) torture themselves, (2) torture others, (3) torture both self and others and (4) who do not torture themselves or others.

The first are the strict ascetics and the second the butchers, trappers, fishers and robbers. It is however the third group that is of special interest in our context. It includes kings and powerful priests who, on such occasions as the opening of a public building, hold a great ritual, “with the sacrifice of many cattle, goats and rams, with wood-cutting and grass-strewing and with much bullying and hustling of servants and slaves, working in fear of chastisement.”

The Buddha does not approve of the conduct of these three classes. It is the last kind, who do not torture themselves or others, that he admires and they are none other than those who follow a compassionate ethic such as the one the Buddha himself advocated.

A particularly touching discourse of the Buddha on animal sacrifice comes in one of the most ancient Buddhist texts, the Sutta Nipata. Here in a discourse on the ethical conduct fit for a Brahmin (Brahmana-dhammika Sutta), the Buddha speaks respectfully of ancient Brahmins who spurned the taking of life and never allowed their religious rites to be tainted by the killing of animals. But corruption set in and they started the practice of animal sacrifice. When the knife was laid on the neck of cattle, the gods themselves cried out in horror of that crime of ingratitude and insensitivity perpetrated on an animal that was to humans such a faithful worker, such a sustainer of life.

In the piece known as the Discourse with Kutadanta we come across a king’s Brahmin counsellor who is preparing a great animal sacrifice, concerning the right procedures of which he consults the wisdom of the Buddha. T. W. Rhys Davids, the distinguished translator of this text, alerts us to the fact that this would be the last thing that an eminent Brahmin is likely to do – to seek the Buddha’s opinion on how to conduct a sacrifice. So he describes the discourse as a “deliberate fiction full of ironical humour”.

The Buddha tells Kutadanta of a worthy sacrifice held in ancient times under the guidance of a certain enlightened Brahmin counsellor. In this sacrifice no living thing is injured; all the labour is voluntary and the sacrifice is offered not only on behalf of the king, but of all the good.

The Buddha then tells Kutadanta of even better forms of sacrifice. In the course of this discourse, as Mrs C. A. F. Rhys Davids points out (Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, article on Sacrifice/ Buddhist), the stations in the road to the good life – the perfect lay life and the perfect religious life – are set forth as so many degrees of sacrifice, each better than the other. Thus the highest sacrifice is that insight and wisdom which signifies the abandonment of the sense of self – i.e., the sacrifice of ego-centredness .

It is not a matter for surprise that the Buddhism along with Jainism, the other great religion of Ahimsa, as well as several sects of Hinduism, rejected animal sacrifice, although many other religions approved of it to some extent or another.

The Buddha in fact was outspoken in His criticism of such entrenched features of the contemporary religious and social scene as sacrificial rituals and the caste system. (His ‘detachment’ was not indifference or withdrawal of judgement, as has been often misunderstood. Consider his reply to Potaliya who told him that the best person was one who neither praised the praise-worthy nor blamed the blame-worthy: Far better is the person who speaks in dispraise of the unworthy and in praise of the worthy, saying in due time what is factual and truthful. (Anguttara ii 100)

In the modern world, there is a powerful movement which seeks to reduce and eliminate the crimes that are perpetrated on animals and to introduce to the social ethic an element of justice to other sentient beings who share the planet with us, humans. This movement is all the more remarkable in that it reflects an attitudinal shift in the predominantly Christian West which is beginning to see the true nature of the moral evil that the abuse and exploitation of animals is.

The fundamental thrust of this movement stems from the realisation that animals are like us when it comes to suffering, pain and the prospect of the deprivation of life. It is this very sympathy with the suffering of animals and other sentient beings that is at the core of Buddhist compassion or loving kindness (mettaa). Says a verse in the Dhammapada, the most popular of Buddhist texts:

“All fear the rod of death are all scared.

(Understanding others) from one’s own example, One should neither kill nor cause to kill.”

In the very next verse much the same is said with this addition: ‘For all is life dear’. Here in simple terms is the ‘philosophy’ behind the Buddhist ethic of Ahimsa: other living beings are like us; we should treat them the way we want to be treated ourselves. This is the spirit behind the first precept which enjoins us neither to kill, nor to encourage killing as clearly explained in the Dhammika Sutta.

This is the spirit that prompts the Noble Eightfold Path to forbid the trade in flesh and engaging in fishing, hunting etc. for those who profess to follow that Path. It is the same spirit that projected an ideal of kingship in which the ruler provided defence and protection (rakkhavarana-guttim) not only to the different classes of the human population, but also to birds of the air and beasts of the land (miga-pakkhisu).

The natural corollary of such a teaching in modern parlance is that animals have the same right to life which we humans claim for ourselves. And it is the sensitivity to this right that made Emperor Asoka, whose life was abundantly inspired by the teachings of the Buddha, to promulgate, in the well known Rock Edict I: “Here no animal shall be killed or sacrificed”. This is an outstanding example of an ethical teaching being made the basis for a legal pronouncement.

The tradition of royal decrees based on the ethic of respect for animal life was also followed in Sri Lanka prior to the advent of colonialism. Consider the Maaghaata (Do not kill) proclamations of five kings of Lanka from the first to the eighth century, beginning with Amandagamani Abhaya, which forbade the killing of any living being within the realm. King Vijayabahu I in the 11th century and Parakramabahu the Great in the 12th also made proclamations of protection of wildlife and fishes in the forests and lakes of Sri Lanka.

Kirti Sri Nissankamalla, one of the kings who came after Parakramabahu, promulgated a remarkable decree, which he publicised in six of his famous inscriptions, forbidding the killing of all living beings in the irrigation lakes of the entire country. In his Anuradhapura inscription he decreed that no animals should be killed within seven leagues of the city and induced a certain group of hunters to desist from the trapping of birds. These few instances suffice to give us an idea of the pervasive influence of the Buddhist attitude to animal life in the social and legal history of Sri Lanka.

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The writer is the President, Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society.

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