What Tibetan Buddhism Can Teach Us About Happiness

Home Dharma Dew

San Francisco, CA (USA) -- One of the most geographically isolated cultures in the world may contain the secrets to happiness that the rest of us have been looking for. Perhaps in part because of the country's remote location, the Tibetans have become the guardians of a deep, well-preserved wisdom tradition that modern science is only now catching up to.

But with the "mindful revolution" spreading in the West and a growing amount of research funding being dedicated to the study of contemplative practices and the science of compassion and altruism, the secrets of this ancient tradition are finally being recognized globally.

"Tibet has probably the greatest treasure trove of ancient contemplative knowledge, science and wisdom about how to influence the mind from the inside out," Joe Loizzo, founder of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, told The Huffington Post. "The Tibetans have an unbroken lineage of oral knowledge and technical expertise ... both in medicine and in psychology."

Early Indic cultures developed public systems of training in mindfulness -- including the Hatha Yoga tradition and Tibetan Buddhist mind training -- to ensure that the skills of contemplation and positivity were taught to everyone, explains Loizzo.

A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and a Columbia-trained Buddhist scholar, Loizzo has spent his career merging "the scientific and the spiritual," bringing ancient teachings on contemplative practice to modern Western psychotherapy and preventive medicine.

"There's a growing understanding that we need to move back in the direction of the contemplative traditions -- the ancient wisdom that says slow down, pay attention, be kind, be at peace -- whereas our modern wisdom has said that we need to just push forward and move into the future. We're realizing that's not sustainable for us either as a civilization or for our individual minds and brains. It's wearing and tearing us down just like it's wearing and tearing the planet down."

Loizzo spent years studying with Tibetan teachers in exile in India and in the West, and is convinced that the Tibetan Buddhist tradition -- which emphasizes training in mindful awareness and compassion -- has something to teach us all about how to live better lives.

Here are four essential lessons from Tibetan Buddhism that can help in your own pursuit of happiness.

Get intimate with your own mind.

We need two main things to become happy, according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition: mindful awareness and loving compassion. The theory goes that the combination of attention and loving-kindness -- both of which can be built through contemplative practices like meditation -- can help bring the brain into its most plastic, growth-oriented state and support the development of a greater state of consciousness, Loizzo says.

Meditation -- "the quiet, humble work it takes on a daily basis," as Loizzo puts it -- is the cornerstone of the Tibetan contemplative science. Through a meditation practice, we can begin to overcome negative thoughts and habitual emotional responese, and start to live from a more calm, centered place, he says.

“Above all, be at ease, be as natural and spacious as possible. Slip quietly out of the noose of your habitual anxious self, release all grasping, and relax into your true nature," Sogyal Rinpoche advised in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, a guide to meditation and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. "Think of your ordinary emotional, thought-ridden self as a block of ice or a slab of butter left out in the sun. If you are feeling hard and cold, let this aggression melt away in the sunlight of your meditation."

The research is now there to back up the benefits of this time-worn strategy for stabilizing emotions and boosting the brain's capacity for joy. Studies have shown meditation may be effective in reducing anxiety and depression, lowering stress levels, reducing loneliness and boosting emotional well-being.

"Twenty years and a thousand stories that have given me an unshakable confidence in the truly boundless potential we human beings have to heal ourselves and transform our lives," Loizzo wrote in his 2012 book, Sustainable Happiness.

Practice compassion, at every moment.

Most Eastern spiritual traditions involve some form of practice around compassion, or "loving-kindness." In Buddhism, there is a meditation for loving-kindness,“metta bhavana”, which involves sending kindness to yourself, loved ones, community members, people you may dislike, and eventually, all beings. In the Tibetan tradition, monks practice tonglen, which consists of breathing in suffering and breathing out happiness, so as to reduce pain and spread peace among all beings.

"What's unusual about the Tibetans is that they have what I call an industrial-strength version of this discipline," Loizzo says of loving-kindness practice. "These practices allow us to turn our sense of life as a battle, a struggle for survival against everybody else, into a communal experience of connecting with friends and the larger world. That, we've learned, is so important to our quality of life and our personal sense of meaning in life."

The Tibetans have devised powerful ways of helping people learn how to become more compassionate that are now being used in the Western world. A 2012 Emory University study suggested that compassion training derived from ancient Tibetan practices may boost empathy, and other studies have shown that loving-kindness meditation could increase positive emotions and lead to more positive relationships over time.

Connect with others who support your journey.

The traditional "Three Jewels" of Buddhism consist of the Buddha (the example), the Dharma (the path) and the Sangha (the community). In this tradition, the community is just as important an element as any other in living a happy, purposeful life. Increasing your happiness and well-being is a difficult thing to do alone. It requires the support and love of others, and a sense of belonging to a community.

"Modern neuroscience is showing us that we're really wired to be extremely social creatures," Loizzo says. "We're happier and healthier when we do that in a committed way ... We need to learn to connect with others with mindful openness and positivity, and to deal with the daily slings and arrows and work through those and maintain a sense of connection that's positive. This is something we practice in spiritual communities."

Strong social support networks have also been linked to a number of health benefits, including lower stress levels and increased longevity.

Embrace death -- don't fear it.

In Western cultures, our attitude toward death is largely characterized by fear and denial -- and this can, consciously or unconsciously, cause a great deal of suffering throughout our lives. But a central aspect of the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy is the belief that death should be embraced, and the concept that dying can be the "crowing achievement" of a life well lived. Although this attitude stems in part from a strong belief in reincarnation, you don't have to believe in an afterlife in order to better accept the impermanence of life in the here and now. The Tibetans believe that meditation can help us to come to terms with the nature of life and death.

When Loizzo is working with patients who are suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses, in addition to practicing meditation and loving-kindness, he goes through a traditionally Tibetan practice of asking some of life's big questions: What has been meaningful to you in your life? How do you face the impermanence of your life and the inevitability of death?

"Being able to embrace the idea of death and being present ... some of the women say it gives them a new lease on life," says Loizzo. "The ancient traditions made a science of trying to understand the death process and make meaning out of it ... This kind of approach of facing reality, even the parts that scare us, has tremendous potential for healing."

Asking these questions can help bolster an acceptance of things that can't be changed or controlled, which Buddhist teachings have long touted as a key to reducing suffering. Now, this ancient doctrine has science on its side: A recent study from Australian researchers showed that during the difficult changes of later life -- moving into residential care and losing independence -- an acceptance of what can't be changed may be a significant predictor of life satisfaction.

View the original article here

Tibetan monk Tarap Shetrup Akong killed in China

Home Personality

BEIJING, China -- A respected Tibetan monk who co-founded the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West and maintained contacts with the Beijing government was killed in China, local police and his brother said.

<< Chöje Akong Rinpoche (1939 - 2013)

Tarap Shetrup Akong was a rare example of an overseas Tibetan monk who was able to travel regularly to China, build schools in poverty-stricken areas and meet with senior government officials despite fleeing his Himalayan homeland after the Communist Party's takeover of Tibet decades ago. Reports of his death by stabbing Tuesday were met with shock and sadness among Tibetans.

"He was kind and astute, and earned the respect of the community," said Tibetan writer and activist Tsering Woeser, who met the monk in 2003 in a western Chinese town where he was preparing for a charity school project.

The monk, a British citizen, was attacked by three Tibetans at his residence in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu on Tuesday and was killed along with his nephew and a driver, Chengdu police said.

Police said the attack occurred after negotiations over a financial dispute soured. The victim's brother, Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, issued a statement saying the three had been "assassinated," but did not elaborate.

The brother wrote on the website of the Scottish monastery co-founded by Tarap Shetrup Akong that the monk's body had been taken to a hospital where a post-mortem would be carried out.

Chengdu police said suspects have been detained and admitted carrying out the killings.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the death of a British citizen in Chengdu and said a consular team had traveled to the city to "liaise with Chinese authorities about this case."

The monk's philanthropic work in China won him respect and admiration among Tibetans, who referred to him using the honorary title of Rinpoche.

"Akong Rinpoche was very committed to the Tibetan community. He tried to come to China almost every year and helped build many schools for Tibetans," Woeser said. "Despite many difficulties, he was able to obtain permission from Chinese authorities to run projects in Tibetan regions."

Born in 1939, Tarap Shetrup Akong was groomed to become an abbot in a Tibetan monastery, but fled to India after the 1959 Communist takeover of Tibet. He settled in England in 1963 and later co-founded the Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland in 1967, the first Tibetan Buddhist center to be established in the West.

In the 1990s, Tarap Shetrup Akong shifted his focus to humanitarian projects in Tibet, Nepal and Europe. In Tibet, he helped set up schools, clinics and medical colleges, according to a website affiliated with the monastery.

Tarap Shetrup Akong maintained political ties with Beijing and met with Jia Qinglin, then chairman of China's top political advisory body, when he traveled to Britain in 2006 to explain Beijing's policies in Tibet, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.

"Though we have settled abroad for a long time, we are always concerned about the development of our motherland, in particular the development of Tibet," Xinhua said Tarap Shetrup Akong told Jia.

The death came days after tensions flared as Chinese security forces fired into a crowd of Tibetan residents who were demanding the release of a fellow villager detained for protesting orders to display the national flag. Overseas rights groups said about 60 Tibetans were injured in the unusual shooting, a sign that Beijing is tightening its control in the Himalayan region following a wave of self-immolations protesting Beijing's rule.

The Chinese Communist government's rule over Tibet has been turbulent. Beijing says it has made vast investments to boost the region's economy and improve the quality of life for Tibetans, but many Tibetans say Beijing's economic policies in the Himalayan region have mainly benefited ethnic Chinese migrants. They also resent the government's strict limits on Buddhism and Tibetan culture, while their spiritual leader Dalai Lama remains in exile.

On the web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akong_Rinpoche

View the original article here

Tibetan Buddhists practice sky burial for the dead

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

Tibet, China -- Sky burial is a funerary practice in China's Tibetan regions, where the dead are laid out in a high flat place and ritually cut up, usually by a monk and rogyapas (body-breakers) and then fed to birds of prey, most commonly the Eurasian Griffon vulture.

Sky burial dates back thousands of years and probably started because above the treeline wood is too scarce for cremation and the ground too hard for burial.

The practice was banned in China in the 1960s, but was allowed again in the 1980s when China started to reform after the Mao Zedong era.

The photo taken on April 5, 2013 shows vultures (bottom) gathering to eat as a Tibetan Buddhist monk (bottom, centre) prepares dead bodies for a sky burial while tourists and monks (back) watch in Seda, in the western region of China's Sichuan province.

View the original article here

Tibetans and Koreans jointly mark 54th Tibetan National Uprising Day

Home Asia Pacific North Asia S/N Korea News & Issues

Seoul, South Korea -- On March 10, 2013, Tibet House Korea and Jogye Administration of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism held an event at the Buddhist History and Cultural Memory Hall of Jogye Order of the Korean Buddhism in Seoul to support the 54th Tibetan National Uprising Day.

The Tibetan community and over 200 Korean supporters gathered at the Memory Hall, where Geshe Tenzin Namkha addressed the audience on the urgent situation inside Tibet, and a special video message by Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay of Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India, was shown to the Korean audience.

In his video message, the Sikyoung stated, “The occupation and repression in Tibet by the government of the People’s Republic of China are the primary conditions driving Tibetans to self-immolation. Tibetans witness and experience China’s constant assault on Tibetan Buddhist civilization, their very identity and dignity. “

He continued to state, “Finding a just and lasting solution to the issue of Tibet is also in the interest of the world at large. Tibet, one of the oldest civilizations is viewed as the Third Pole as its glaciers feed the 10 river systems of Asia. It will contribute to the peace and prosperity of over a billion people in Asia who live downstream and depend on Tibet’s water for sustenance. A speedy resolution will send the right message and serve as a model for other freedom struggles as the Tibetan struggle is one firmly anchored in non-violence and democracy. Last, but not the least, solving the issue of Tibet could be a catalyst for moderation of China.”

During this event, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism announced its continued support for regarding the Tibetan situation affirming and further solidifying the Korean Buddhist’s support for Tibet.

View the original article here

Sense of foreboding surrounds Tibetan Buddhist leadership

Home Issues

Beijing, China -- With the process of determining the next Dalai Lama unclear, China will pounce upon the opportunity to cause confusion among followers

<< The Dalai Lama

There has been no let-up for five years in the steady drumbeat of unrest among Tibetans in China, and the tempo now seems to be building to a crescendo.

Chinese authorities have failed to produce any policy that addresses Tibetan claims about religious, ethnic, political, cultural and economic oppression in any meaningful way.

And as the Tibetans' religious leader, the Dalai Lama, who is now 77, approaches the end of this incarnation, there are increasingly sharp divisions among leading political and religious figures, especially in the exile capital in Dharamsala in northern India where he lives.

It has been evident for some years that the discovery of the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama is going to be a contentious and politically charged business.

Nothing that has happened recently has given reason to change that judgment.

More than 100 Tibetans in the Beijing-administered Tibet Autonomous Region, and predominantly Tibetan regions of neighbouring Sichuan and Qinghai provinces, have set themselves on fire - self-immolated - since this wave of protest against Chinese rule began in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Most of these people have died. The Chinese authorities have responded as they usually do in these situations. Security forces have encircled the most activist monasteries, turning them into little more than prisons, and have detained large numbers of monks, nuns and other Tibetans accused of instigating the self-immolations and street protests.

Beijing has also attempted to mount a propaganda campaign against the Dalai Lama, accusing him of encouraging the self-immolations.

However, the Dalai Lama himself has given Beijing room to play with his words.

In an interview last year with India's The Hindu newspaper, the Dalai Lama responded to questions about his lack of a clear denunciation of self-immolation as a protest tactic by saying it is a "very, very delicate political issue."

"Now, the reality is that if I say something positive, then the Chinese immediately blame me. If I say something negative, then the family members of those people feel very sad. They sacrificed their own life. It is not easy. So I do not want to create some kind of impression that this is wrong."

In theory, the Dalai Lama freed himself from such conundrums in 2011 when he relinquished the political leadership of Tibetans and the Tibetan movement for autonomy within China in order to live as a "simple monk."

Following that retirement there was an election in which 50,000 among the 85,000 Tibetans in exile voted for a government with Harvard academic Lobsang Sangay as its prime minister.

While many hoped this division of labour between the religious and political branches of Tibetan life would clarify the situation and perhaps lead to a resumption of talks with Beijing, stalled since January 2010, on Tibetan autonomy, this has not happened.

Meanwhile, the political aspects of the religious future of Tibetan Buddhism is becoming more complex and immediate.

There is no doubt that when the Dalai Lama dies, China will make every effort to take control of the process of discovering his reincarnation, and making sure the new religious leader follows Beijing's instructions.

And the process of divining the identity of the new Dalai Lama is unclear enough for Beijing to be able to pick its own rival successor, and thus cause confusion in the Tibetan Buddhist community.

Beijing's bid to take control of the process began 20 years ago with the death of the 10th Panchen Lama. He is second in the hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism, and his political significance is that he traditionally leads the hunt for the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama in 1995 identified a small boy in Tibet, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the 11th Panchen Lama.

But the Beijing authorities spirited Nyima away - he has not been seen since - and used another available method of discovering reincarnations - picking names from a golden urn - to identify another small boy, Gyain-cain Norbu, as the 11th Panchen Lama. Norbu has, of course, been raised by Chinese authorities to present Beijing's views on religion and its role in society.

In January 2000, however, a young monk escaped from Tibet to Dharam-sala who adds another unknown factor to the equation of the succession. He is 28-year-old Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, who is head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Dorje has emerged as a charismatic religious teacher among followers of Tibetan Buddhism worldwide. He also works with the World Wildlife Fund and writes on environmental issues.

There is, unsurprisingly, a movement to have the Dalai Lama name Dorje as his successor.

Whatever happens, a shattering of the Tibetan religious and political leadership appears inevitable, with little likelihood that a clear voice championing the aspirations of the Tibetan people will emerge.

View the original article here

Buddhists, Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals, Wield Their Brushes in Nepal

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Nepal

LO MANTHANG, Nepal -- Dozens of painters sat atop scaffolding that soared toward the roof of an ancient monastery. With a swipe of their brushes, colors appeared that gave life to the Buddha. Gold for the skin.

<< A local woman worked on a historic mural at Thubchen Monastery in Lo Manthang, Nepal.

They worked by dim portable electric lights. Dusty statues of Tibetan Buddhist deities gazed on. From openings in the roof, a few shafts of sunlight fell through the 35 wooden pillars in the main chamber of the enormous Thubchen Monastery, the same edifice that had awed Michel Peissel, the explorer of Tibet, when he visited a half-century ago.

“In Nepal, no one knows how to do this, so we have to learn,” said Tashi Gurung, 34, a painter participating in what is one of the most ambitious Tibetan art projects in the Himalayas.

Financed by the American Himalayan Foundation, the project is aimed at restoring to a vibrant state the artwork of two of the three main monasteries and temples in Lo Manthang, the walled capital of the once-forbidden kingdom of Mustang. Bordering Tibet in the remote trans-Himalayan desert, Mustang is an important enclave of Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Tibetan leaders, including the Dalai Lama, say their culture is under assault in the vast Tibetan regions ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, which occupied central Tibet in 1951. That, along with the encroachment of modernity, means that the act of preserving or reviving Tibetan art is arguably more important than at any time since China’s devastating Cultural Revolution.

The project in Lo Manthang has stirred debate. Some scholars of Tibetan art assert that the painters in Lo Manthang are altering important historical murals and jeopardizing scholarship by painting new images atop sections of walls where the original images have been destroyed. Those involved in the project argue that residents want complete artwork in their houses of worship.

The project’s director is Luigi Fieni, 39, an Italian who first came to work here after graduating from an art conservation program in Rome. Mr. Fieni and other Westerners have trained local residents to work on the art, creating a 35-member team that includes 20 women and one monk (though there was initial reluctance from local men to tolerate the women’s participation).

There are three major religious buildings in Lo Manthang. Two of them are monasteries, and one is a temple traditionally used for ceremonies by the royal family. Their thick, red walls rise among alleyways that wind past whitewashed mud-brick homes. An 80-year-old king and his family reside in a palace in the town center. The town was founded in the 14th century, and the oldest religious buildings date to the 15th century.

Much of the Tibetan art here reflects a Newari influence, which comes from the Katmandu Valley. Centuries ago, Newari artisans were welcomed by some Tibetan rulers, especially those who followed the Sakya branch of Tibetan Buddhism, which is common throughout Mustang.

The art project began in 1999 with the cleaning of murals in Thubchen Monastery, after an initial round of architectural reconstruction. Then the painters moved on to Jampa Temple, where the dark main chamber has a towering statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha.

The walls on the first floor are adorned with remarkably detailed mandalas, a form of geometric art considered a representation of the cosmos. Here, Mr. Fieni decided to deviate from the initial approach taken at Thubchen. He wanted his team, rather than do purely restoration, to paint sections of the walls where an original mural had disappeared or been destroyed.

The painters would then try to recreate those pictures based on tradition and on what had been painted elsewhere in the chamber. Mr. Fieni also consulted with monks to ask what pictures they wanted on the walls. In 2010, the team returned to Thubchen to adopt the new approach and paint large sections.

“Call this painting, not restoration or conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. He added that this method helped restore the living nature of the artwork, as opposed to what he called the Western “colonialism” approach of preserving the old above all else.

“When we arrived, we started working following the Westerners’ theories of conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. “Then, while working and living within the community, I changed my point of view, and I decided to follow the needs of the culture I was working for. So I decided to start reconstructing the missing areas.”

Once taught how to paint, local residents decide how they want to decorate the monasteries, Mr. Fieni said.

 “All the other conservation projects I’ve seen are Westerners doing the artwork, locals fetching clay,” he said. “This is the first one where we train the locals.”

There were challenges. Painters in higher castes initially did not want artists in lower castes sitting on the scaffolding above them. And there were religious beliefs to accommodate. At the buildings, an abbot used a mirror to absorb the spirits of the gods in the statues and murals before the painting began; after the project is completed, the abbot is expected to release the spirits from the mirror so they can return.

Mr. Fieni’s approach to restoring the temples and monasteries has been contested. Christian Luczanits, a senior curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, which displays Himalayan art, said he blanched at what he saw when he traveled to Mustang in 2010 and 2012. Mr. Luczanits said that sufficient scholarship had not been done into the original paintings. Now, because of the new painting, any scholar wanting to study the originals must look at photographs rather than rely on what is present in the temple, he said.

“The temple now after restoration cannot be understood anymore without the previous documentation,” Mr. Luczanits said in an interview.

Last year, he made his opinion known at a contentious meeting at the palace in Lo Manthang. Among those present were Mr. Fieni, an abbot, the prince of Mustang and representatives of the American Himalayan Foundation, which gives financial support to many development projects in Mustang. (The foundation’s president, Erica Stone, said the total being spent on the building renovations in Lo Manthang alone was $2.58 million. An additional $768,000 had been spent for restoring the town wall and constructing drainage.)

There was vigorous debate, and the royal family and the abbot both backed Mr. Fieni. The ceremonial prince, Jigme Singi Palbar Bista, said in an interview that the buildings “are renovated very well.”

Thoroughly painting Thubchen Monastery would take another three to four years, but the project’s budget will run out this year. Mr. Fieni estimated there was a total of about 3,660 square feet of wall space to paint.

He said he was thinking about moving on to restoration projects in India or Myanmar with some of the painters he had trained here. In 2006 and 2007, he took five of them to work with him at a Tibetan monastery in Sichuan Province, in western China, a project that was never completed because the Chinese authorities shut down access to the area after a Tibetan uprising in 2008.

View the original article here

Tibetan Buddhist monks organize prayers for victims, families of Sandy Hook school

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Mysore, India -- Tibetan monks are praying in Mysore, India, for the victims and families of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, as well as the Newtown community. The school was the site of a horrific tragedy where a lone gunman killed 20 kindergartners and six adults last month, on Dec. 14.

<< Students and teachers at Sera Mey Monastery in India offer their prayers for the victims and families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and the community of Newtown. Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche, spiritual director of Do Ngak Kunphen Ling, Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace (DNKL), in Redding, and Geshe Dhargye, right, in the back row, resident teacher and scholar, organized the prayers. They are currently visiting and teaching at Sera Mey Monastery.

“We are all one. Even on the other side of the world people are praying for you. We send prayers of compassion from Sera Mey Monastery in India,” said Geshe Lobsang Dhargye of Do Ngak Kunphen Ling, Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace (DNKL), in Redding.

Currently, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche, spiritual director of DNKL, and Geshe Dhargye, resident teacher and scholar, are visiting and teaching at Sera Mey Monastery in India. As neighbors in Redding to the Newtown community, they share the sorrow and suffering brought forth by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Rinpoche and Geshe organized weekly prayer services for the victims, families and community.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche is also head of Thewo Khangsten in Sera Mey Monastery in India. As a senior scholar of the Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist lineage, Rinpoche and Geshe offer traditional and authentic teachings in Redding and at the monastery in India.

Sera Mey Monastery history links directly to Buddha Shakyamuni. Sera Monastery is one of the “great three” Gelugpa university monasteries of Tibet. During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera monastery suffered severe damage. After the Dalai Lama took asylum in India, many of the monks of the Sera Monastery who survived moved to Bylakuppe in Mysore, India. They established a parallel Sera Monastery with Sera Mey and Sera Jey colleges and a Great Assembly Hall, similar to the original monastery.

There are now more than 3,000 monks living in Sera. This community has spread its teaching activities to several countries by establishing Tibetan Buddhist Dharma centers which share the knowledge of Buddhism, such as the DNKL Tibetan Buddhist Center in Redding (dnkl.org and facebook.com/DNKL.Buddhist.Center).

View the original article here

Breakaway Tibetan Buddhists threaten the Dalai Lama

Home Issues

Dharamsala, India -- After remaining dormant for five years, the dissident group in the Tibetan community in exile has once again started its covert activities in Dharamsala town.

Dharamsala police received a parcel from followers of Dorje Shugden containing anti- Dalai Lama literature and a video
CD.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Kangra G Siva Kumar, while confirming the news, said the some unknown person had been the parcel from Singapore.

"The parcel contains a pamphlet and a video CD," said Kumar, adding that there was nothing threatening in the contents.

"In the pamphlet and CD, questions have been raised over the efforts being made by the Dalai Lama and Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) for the freedom of Tibet and have alleged that proper path was not followed to achieve autonomy and independence," said Kumar. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile have also been accused of discriminating against Shugden devotees, added Kumar.

He said the CD contained a news clipping aired by a French channel in 2009. Meanwhile, SP Kangra, Diljeet Thakur said that security at the Dalai Lama's residence had been cautioned.

Shugden devotees are among the most violent fundamentalist groups among the exiles. One of their groups, Dorje Shugden Devotees Charitable and Religious Society (DSDCRS) has its headquarters in Delhi. In Feb1997, three Tibetan Buddhist monks, including the Dalai Lama's close associate, Lobsang Gyatso, who was opposed to Shugden-worship, were brutally murdered in Dharamsala. It was widely held that the perpetrators were monks loyal to Shugden.

The Indian police had identified and charged DSDCRS members of the triple murder and Interpol had issued a red corner notice against two accused in June 2007.

In 2008, an organisation named Western Shugden Society (WSS) had begun a campaign directed at the Dalai Lama. Picketing the venues where he was to appear around the world, they claimed that he was banning them from practicing their own lineage of Buddhism.

May this year, when the Dalai Lama apprehended a "poison plot" by the Chinese intelligence agencies, the Tibetan government in exile had felt threatened from fundamentalist groups backed by Chinese authorities. The CTA had asserted that efforts of the spiritual leader to reform and democratise the Tibetan society had emboldened certain fundamentalists within the community.
Shugden Dorje

Dorje Shugden is a controversial deity within Tibetan Buddhism. He is primarily associated with two influential lamas of the Gelugpa school of Tibet: Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche. The Dalai Lama is the current head of the Gelugpa sect. Dorje Shugden is viewed by some as a protector and by others, including the Dalai Lama, as an 'evil and malevolent force'. In 1996, the Dalai Lama disassociated himself from the worshippers of Dorje Shugden and had appealed to the Tibetan community not to worship Shugden.

View the original article here

Briton becomes first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk to die from self-immolation

Home Issues

A Briton has become the first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk to die by self-immolation, dousing his head and clothes with petrol at a monastery in southwestern France.

Paris, France -- Tonden, 38, whose name at birth was David Alain, had been training for the past five years in the Nalanda monastery near the southwestern village of Labastide-Saint-Georges. The secluded monastery's 25 monks, including five Britons, are currently in retreat.

<< Tonden, whose birth name was David Alain

Horrified colleagues rushed into the garden of the quiet monastery, which is surrounded by rolling farmland, at 4.50pm on Thursday afternoon, after spotting their orange-robed, shaven-headed colleague burst into flames on the lawn.

They were powerless to help and by the time the emergency services arrived, Tonden had died.

Monks and local police said they were unsure whether Tonden had been depressed and committed suicide or that it was a political statement.

But given international events of the past week, the timing of his demise could not have been more significant.

Tonden died on the day that the Chinese Communist Party enacted its once-in-a-decade leadership change, with Xi Jinping taking over from Hu Jintao.

In the past week alone, at least nine Tibetans were reported to have self-immolated in protest at what they say is religious and cultural repression by the Chinese authorities.

In all, 74 Tibetans have now set themselves on fire since 2009 demanding freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since 1959.

Tonden was keenly aware of the Dalai Lama's plight, having met the spiritual leader last year when he visited the monastery

He also met the Dalai Lama's sister in September when she came to Nalanda and its nearby meditation centre, Vajra Yogini, which receives lay people.

Despite the timing, the office of the public prosecutor in Castres, said: "Nothing in the investigation allows us to confirm that it is linked to the events in Tibet."

Michel-Antoine Andreani, number two of the Tarn gendarmerie said the idea a Tibet-linked protest was the "first that sprung to my mind" when he was informed of the self-immolation.

But he told The Daily Telegraph: "Given the information we have gathered so far, the individual was psychologically fragile and during his training was having difficulty coming to terms with all the obligations and vows that his position demands."

The five Buddhist precepts urge against harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication.

The monastery, an hour's drive northeast of Toulouse, is described on its website as "a unique monastery for Western monks in the Tibetan Geluk tradition".

The entrance to the beautiful location warns visitors: "Retreat in progress. Nalanda monastery is completely closed to all visitors except by appointment."

A lone monk praying by a gold-topped stupa – the structure used for meditation – smiled but declined to speak. The monastery stands at the end of a long drive lined with pine trees adorned with hanging crystals and Buddhist prayer flags of blue, white, red, yellow and green that were last night swaying in the evening breeze.

Standing outside waiting for the undertaker, its director, the venerable Losang Tendar, said: "We don't know at this stage whether he acted for personal or political reasons and cannot comment due to an ongoing police investigation."

"What I can say is he never once spoke about such an act. He gave no warning and left no note. I also can say that nobody was with him at the time." Beside him, Francois Lecointre, a monastery spokesman, said: "We are like his Buddhist family and it's a huge shock for the whole community that nobody could have predicted," he said.

"We have of course followed the events in Tibet, but until now it was simply inconceivable that it would happen here in the West."

He was adamant that "Buddhism proscribes all forms of violence including against oneself. That is very clear in Buddhist teachings."

While police try and piece together the motives, others warned that frustration against Chinese repression of Tibetan Buddhists is threatening to spill over in the West.

"I actually befriended someone on Facebook recently who was threatening to self-immolate to draw international attention to what is going on," said Kate Saunders at the International Campaign for Tibet.

"As far as I know he did not go ahead with it, but it was not the same person".

On Friday, the political leader of Tibetan exiles called for international support for his people's struggle against Chinese rule.

Speaking to support groups from 40 countries at a meeting in Dharmsala, the Dalai Lama's headquarters, Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay said: "Tibet is a litmus test for China and the world. By supporting Tibet, the international community will clearly show what they stand for."

"By not supporting us in our non-violent struggle, the world will send a wrong message to all oppressed people of the world."

Beijing insists it has boosted living standards in minority areas and treats minorities fairly.

View the original article here

Meet Mr Happy: French geneticist turned Tibetan monk

Home Personality

As he grins serenely and his burgundy robes billow in the fresh Himalayan wind, it is not difficult to see why scientists declared Matthieu Ricard the happiest man they had ever tested, AFP reports.

Wisconsin, USA -- The monk, molecular geneticist and confidant of the Dalai Lama, is passionately setting out why meditation can alter the brain and improve people's happiness in the same way that lifting weights puts on muscle.

<< Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard sitting in a soundproof room and preparing for an electroencephalography (EEG) test. ©AFP

"It's a wonderful area of research because it shows that meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are," the Frenchman told AFP.

Ricard, a globe-trotting polymath who left everything behind to become a Tibetan Buddhist in a Himalayan hermitage, says anyone can be happy if they only train their brain.

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up Ricard's skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin four years ago as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves -- those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory -- "never reported before in the neuroscience literature", Davidson said.

The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

Research into the phenomenon, known as "neuroplasticity", is in its infancy and Ricard has been at the forefront of ground-breaking experiments along with other leading scientists across the world.

"We have been looking for 12 years at the effect of short and long-term mind-training through meditation on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance," he said.

"We've found remarkable results with long-term practitioners who did 50,000 rounds of meditation, but also with three weeks of 20 minutes a day, which of course is more applicable to our modern times."

Not always on enlightenment path

The 66-year-old, accompanying other senior Tibetan monks at a festival in the remote Nepalese Himalayan region of Upper Dolpa, has become a globally respected Buddhist and is one of the religion's leading western scholars.

But he has not always been on the path to enlightenment.

Ricard grew up among the Paris intellectual elite as the son of celebrated French libertarian philosopher Jean-Francois Revel and abstract watercolour painter Yahne Le Toumelin.

"All these people used to come around, most of Paris intellectual life. We had all the French painters and I was myself interested in classical music so I met a lot of musicians," he said.

"At lunch we'd have three Nobel Prize winners eating with us. It was fantastic... Some of them were wonderful but some could be difficult."

By the time he got his PhD in cell genetics from the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1972 he had become disillusioned with the dinner party debates and had already begun to journey to Darjeeling in India during his holidays.

Eschewing intimate relationships and a career, he moved to India to study Buddhism and emerged 26 years later as something of celebrity thanks to "The Monk And The Philosopher", a dialogue on the meaning of life he wrote with his father.

"That was the end of my quiet time because it was a bestseller. Suddenly I was projected into the western world. Then I did more dialogues with scientists and the whole thing started to spin off out of control.

"I got really involved in science research and the science of meditation."

A prominent monk in Kathmandu's Shechen Monastery, Ricard divides his year between isolated meditation, scientific research and accompanying the Dalai Lama as his adviser on trips to French-speaking countries and science conferences.

He addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos at the height of the financial crisis in 2009 to tell gathered heads of state and business leaders it was time to give up greed in favour of "enlightened altruism".

His other works include "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" and several collections of photographs of the landscape, people and spiritual masters of the Himalayas.

Ricard donates all proceeds of his books to 110 humanitarian projects which have built schools for 21,000 children and provide healthcare for 100,000 patients a year.

He was awarded the French National Order of Merit for his work in preserving Himalayan culture but it is his work on the science of happiness which perhaps defines him best.

Ricard sees living a good life, and showing compassion, not as a religious edict revealed from on high, but as a practical route to happiness.

"Try sincerely to check, to investigate," he said. "That's what Buddhism has been trying to unravel -- the mechanism of happiness and suffering. It is a science of the mind."

View the original article here

Recovering Tibetan Buddhist Monk Faces Uncertain future

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Dharamshala, India -- Less than a year after his self-immolation protest, Tibetan monk Dawa Tsering is now making good recovery from his burn injuries, but his future remains uncertain, a source with contacts in Tibet told TCHRD Monday, September 17, 2012.

"Dawa Tsering has got his life back and his health condition is quite well," the source says. "And he longs to return back to his monastery."

"But his future remains unknown and uncertain because he might not be allowed to return back to his monastery. Instead, he could be jailed at any time," the source adds.

Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD) has received two recent pictures of Dawa Tsering and his father at their home as he recovers from injuries he sustained during his self-immolation protest. The pictures show a gaunt Dawa Tsering with his chin and throat shriveled up and the area around his throat showing dark patches.

Dawa Tsering, aged 38 at the time, set himself ablaze on 25 October 2011 shouting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, during a religious ceremony at Kardze Monastery in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Dawa Tsering was a monk at Kardze Monastery for seven years before his self-immolation protest. He now wants to return to the same monastery to continue his studies. His family, including his father, is taking care of him at their home in Kardze.

But the family is facing financial problems as they struggle to meet Dawa's medical expenses. There is no information as to whether the Chinese authorities have offered any help in terms of free subsidized medical treatment.

"I heard that his Dawa's family is having financial problems, as they have to bear the medical expenses for Dawa at home," the same source said.

View the original article here

Tibetan delegates forced to leave conference due to Chinese pressure

Home Asia Pacific North Asia S/N Korea News & Issues

Three Tibetan delegates left the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) conference after China's delegation threatened boycott

Yeosu, South Korea -- Three Tibetan delegates were forced to leave the delegates’ assembly meeting after Chinese officials threatened to boycott the 26th World Fellowship of Buddhist Conference’s delegate’s assembly on June 12th, 2012 claiming that they represent Tibet’s government-in-exile.

Two Tibetans, including a senior envoy of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, are in Korea to attend the biannual event currently being held in the coastal city. The two are Samdong Rinpoche, a former prime minister of Tibet’s government-in-exile, and Pema Chhinjor, minister of religion and culture.

AFP reports a spokesperson stating that “The WFB secretary-general accepted the Chinese demand that the Tibetans leave so the meeting could go smoothly,” as the spokesperson “...called the decision by the WFB chairman ‘embarrassing.’ ”

The Chinese delegation left for Busan on Wednesday morning in a vehicle provided by the Chinese Embassy, the organizing committee said.

Seventeen delegates from China and the Chairman of the WFB returned to their home countries on early morning of June 14th, 2012 in what was said to be an apparent protest against Tibetan participation.

The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the main organizers of the the 26th World Fellowship of Buddhist Conference of South Korea, criticized the Chinese delegations’ actions and showed support to the Tibetan delegations.

In a statement released on June 14th, 2012, the Jogye Order criticized the actions of the Chinese delegations stating, “...Tibetan participation is a WFB approved representation, and the Chinese delegation’s apparent protest against Tibetan participation goes against values of what the Buddhist communities across the globe stands for...” 

The Jogye Order also states, “Through the World Fellowship of Buddhists Conferences in South Korea, we hope that the Buddhist communities across the globe can once again  recognize Tibetan Buddhism warm heartedly, and we also actively wish for Tibetan Buddhism to be freely practiced in Tibet.”

View the original article here

Beijing orders Tibetan detentions after India pilgrimage

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

Beijing, China -- HUNDREDS of Tibetans who attended an important Buddhist ceremony earlier this year in India have been detained without charge by Chinese security officers on their return to Tibet.

<< Exiled Tibetans attend a religious ceremony at the Chime Gatsal Ling monastery in Dharamsala, India. Photo: AP

According to family members and human rights groups, this is the first time that Chinese authorities have detained large numbers of Tibetan pilgrims returning from the January ceremony, held every year in northern India.

Many of the pilgrims are elderly and have been detained for more than two months in central Tibet, or what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region. The detainees are being interrogated and undergoing patriotic re-education classes, and have been ordered to denounce the Dalai Lama, who presided over the ceremony, known as the Kalachakra, say people who have researched the detentions.

The detainees are being held at hotels, schools and military training centres or bases; some are being forced to pay for their lodging and meals.

The detentions are expected to stoke resentment among Tibetans towards the Chinese government at a time when tensions across the Tibetan plateau are at the highest in years.

The pilgrims were detained at checkpoints while returning overland via Nepal or while flying into Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Some have been released, and many who were held in central Tibet but are registered as residents in other regions have been sent to those areas, according to researchers, who interviewed released detainees and their friends and relatives.

The Kalachakra ceremony, an important teaching ritual in Tibetan Buddhism, takes place every winter in Bodh Gaya, the site in the Indian state of Bihar where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.

The Dalai Lama travels there from his home in the Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala to give teachings, and Tibetans and other Buddhists from around the world attend.

Human Rights Watch said it was unclear how long the detainees were being held, and that there had been no reports of any of the 700 Han who attended the Kalachakra being detained. The Han are the dominant ethnic group in China,

Calls to Chinese authorities in Beijing went unanswered.

View the original article here

Calming influence of Tibetan Buddhism

Home Asia Pacific Oceania Australia

Balmain, Australia -- CHODEN Rinpoche never left his room for 19 years. Rather than escaping his country during the Chinese invasion, Rinpoche, one of the highest lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, decided to not leave his small, dark room in Lhasa until 1985.

<< Buddhist Master Choden Rinpoche with attendant Geshe Gyalten.DANNY AARONS

Through Rinpoche’s attendant Geshe Gyalten, he said there were two main reasons: “The benefit of doing a 19-year retreat was to be able to enhance the quality of the mind in ways of peace, focus and clarity, even though the outside world during that time was very crazy during the cultural revolution.”

Rinpoche said all Tibetans were forced to denounce Buddhism as the the Chinese saw it as poison, another reason to stay indoors. “The second reason was to learn all about the Buddhism philosophy, to interpret it and put it into practice.”

He was closely monitored by the Chinese and if any religious objects were found they would take them away, but Rinpoche did all the retreats using just his mind.

Rinpoche will bring his extraordinary knowledge, peace and spiritual teachings to Balmain. “All this stress, fear and worry can be defeated” he said. “In order to overcome it you must identify it ... the stress and worry is just a feeling and part of the mind.

“If you have a content mind, there’s no more base for fear or worry,” he said.

Rinpoche will teach calm abiding meditation and the six yogas of Naropa.

There will also be an introduction to Tantra with Geshe Gyalten.

MASTER’S VISIT

The free teaching is on now until April 1 at Balmain Town Hall. For bookings and more information visit www.AwakeningVajraAustralia.org

View the original article here

China's Tibetan areas experience fresh turmoil

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

ABA, China -- Armed police in full riot gear stand guard along the main street in Aba, a small Chinese town where a young monk burned himself to death last March, setting off a series of self-immolations.

<< China's Tibetan areas experience fresh turmoil 
This photo taken on Sunday, March 11 shows a police roadblock into Aba county town in Sichuan province. Armed police in full riot gear are standing guard along the main street in Aba, a small Chinese town where a young monk burned himself to death last March, setting off a series of self-immolations. (AFP)

Four years after deadly unrest shook China's Tibetan areas in March 2008, beginning in the Tibetan capital Lhasa before spreading to other areas, the region is once again in turmoil.

In the last 12 months, at least 26 Tibetans, many of them young Buddhist monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire to protest against Beijing's rule and call for the return of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Many of the gruesome protests have happened in Aba in the southwestern province of Sichuan, home to the sprawling Kirti monastery, one of the most revered institutions in Tibetan Buddhism.

AFP reporters who briefly gained access to the town before being expelled on Sunday saw hundreds of police in full riot gear lining the streets, some armed with guns, metal bars and fire extinguishers.

A day earlier, rights groups say, an 18-year-old Kirti monk self-immolated in Aba to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising in Tibet that led to the Dalai Lama's flight into exile.

But the grim form of protest has become almost commonplace. By Sunday, shops were open and people walked freely around, although the main street was blocked to vehicles and two armored personnel carriers sat outside a small theatre.

“The situation here is very, very serious. March is a very sensitive period in Tibetan-inhabited areas,” a policeman surnamed Jiang told an AFP reporter.

“You are not allowed to be here, and must return to Chengdu as soon as you can,” he said referring to the provincial capital.

Rights groups say the situation is at its worst since the March 2008 unrest, in which Tibet's government-in-exile said more than 200 people died. China denies that account, saying there were 21 deaths and that “rioters” were responsible.

Many of China's ethnic Tibetans accuse the authorities of religious repression, and say their culture is being eroded by an influx of Han Chinese, the country's main ethnic group.

Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy freedom of religious belief and says their lives have been made better by huge ongoing investment into Tibetan-inhabited areas.

China's reaction to the immolations has been to crack down even further, deploying huge numbers of military police and stationing government officials in religious institutions to organize “political reeducation.”

Interviewing anyone in Aba is now virtually impossible, but monks at the Kumbum monastery — known in Chinese as Taersi — in the neighboring province of Qinghai said they were being forced by authorities to undergo “patriotic education.”

“Basically, we must vow to love the Communist Party,” one shaven-headed monk who declined to give his name told AFP at the monastery, which is set against the backdrop of the snow-capped Himalayas.

“This is absurd. We are monks, our love is devoted to Buddha and our spiritual leader the Dalai Lama,” he said, refusing to be identified out of obvious fears of reprisals.

Up to 1,000 of the 3,000 monks in Kumbum have been placed under differing sorts of restrictions due to their failure to meet political requirements, a local Tibetan resident with close links to the monastery told AFP.

Such restrictions range from curbing privileges such as travel to further enforced indoctrination sessions, he said, adding that “there are a lot of officials in the monastery.”

View the original article here

Emory's Carlos Museum finds its center with 'Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism'

Home Arts & Culture

Atlanta, GA (USA) -- Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum, an often-overlooked gem for local art and culture, is exhibiting Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism through April 15. Mandala brings to Atlanta many rare and beautiful Buddhist thangkas, or paintings, along with other objects intended for initiation and meditation.

<< Kimbell Art Museum
Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Series, c. 1429—56, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order, Thangka, gouache on cotton, KKimbell Art Museumimbell Art Museum

Mandalas are a kind of technology for meditation, meant to work with personal practice to achieve spiritual insight and liberation. The most common mandalas in Tibetan Buddhist art place a deity at the center of a palace filled with other deities and iconography. This palace is an individual and a cosmological map that lines up with a highly proscribed set of meditational practices so that an individual may see him or herself as the central deity. In fact, Buddhist philosophy describes individual and deity as one and the same.

Mandalas act as visual tools for meditators. The basics of mandala practice are fairly easy to imagine - think about a golfer on the green visualizing Arnold Palmer putting in order to perfect his own stroke.

Although intended for monks, religious art in Tibet touched nearly every aspect of society. For many centuries, Tibet was at the center of a vast Empire, trading with Nepal, India, Persia, China, and Central Asia. In addition to bringing technology and high-level artisans, this trade delivered to Tibet a fantastic range of artistic styles. The painted mandalas on display at the Carlos Museum are fantastically detailed, including myriad deities, monks, and symbols. Their arrangement in circular forms adheres to iconographic conventions, from the colors used to the placement of elements.

A mandala from Dallas' Kimbell Museum is so meticulously painted that even on closest inspection it’s difficult to discern irregularities; It looks as thought it was printed using modern technology, rather than being created by hand 600 years ago.

The exhibit features rare forms of the mandala: The 18th-century Mahakala (Tibet’s protector diety) is unusual for its large central triangle and absence of central deity. Instead, objects symbolic of deities and practice are present, placed with unusual, lotus-shaped palaces. The mandala’s minimalistic design includes some gruesome imagery: flayed human skin, skulls, and intestines, all designed to remind the viewer how transient and unsustainable human life is.

A mandala beautifully decorated with flowers also elides deities, showing instead empty thrones to connote the “thus gone” aspect of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni and his 16 Arhats (acolytes). Tucked away amid the blossoms are wish-fulfilling jewels and ducks in ponds, while deer, traditional symbols for Shakyamuni adorn the four gates.

In addition to painted mandalas, the exhibition includes cosmological paintings, sculptures, and a fantastic, one-of-a-kind three-dimensional wooden carved model of the Guhyasamaja Mandala.

In association with this exhibition, Oglethorpe's Museum of Art has another kind of mandala on display: images created by patients of the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung. Jung used art as therapy, instructing his patients to create images as a means of expressing the conscious and unconscious, and clarifying mental obstacles.

----------

Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism runs through April 15 at Emory's the Carlos Museum. The Sacred Round: Mandalas by the Patients of C.G. Jung runs through May 6 at Oglethorpe.

View the original article here

Rival Tibetan lamas compete for recognition

Home Issues

New Delhi, India -- Thaye Dorje was only 18 months old when, according to his biographers, he began telling people he was the reincarnation of one of Tibetan Buddhism's most influential leaders, the Karmapa Lama.

<< Tibetan leader Thaye Dorje gestures during an interview in New Delhi. Dorje was only 18 months old when, according to his biographers, he began telling people he was the reincarnation of one of Tibetan Buddhism's most influential leaders, the Karmapa Lama.
Photograph by: Getty Images , Agence France-Presse

Now 28, and embarking on a global religious teaching tour, he is one of two young men at the centre of a murky, divisive and seemingly intractable dispute over the Karmapa title.

Other major players in the long-running row include Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, China's communist government, India's Supreme Court and a remote monastery that holds relics and treasures valued at up to $1.5 billion.

Among those relics is the "Black Crown" of the Karmapas - said to be made from the hair of female deities and a symbol of the Karmapa's status as head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

But since the death of the 16th Karmapa Lama in 1981, the crown has been locked away, coveted but unworn, in the vaults of Rumtek Monastery in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim, bordering Tibet.

A long and hotly disputed search for the 16th Karmapa's reincarnation split the Karma Kagyu school behind two candidates, Thaye Dorje and Urgyen Trinley, 26 - each enthroned by their respective factions as the 17th Karmapa.

The two rivals both now live in India. Thaye Dorje fled Tibet with his family in 1994, while Urgyen Trinley escaped in 2000.

"We've never even met," Thaye Dorje told AFP in an interview in New Delhi ahead of his four-month, 12-country tour.

"I've thought for a long time that it could be done - that the two of us could just sit down. I really wonder why it hasn't happened," he said.

Of the two, Urgyen Trinley is the better known internationally and is recognized as the 17th Karmapa by both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

Recent appearances with the Dalai Lama - notably during a visit to Washington last year - have fuelled speculation that he is being groomed as the Nobel peace laureate's spiritual successor.

Thaye Dorje's take on the feud - he prefers the term "confusion" - surrounding the Karmapa title is couched in a strongly Buddhist perspective.

"We are taught that everything is impermanent, always changing, always in motion, and we must expect there will always be obstacles and challenges.

"This confusion tests one's courage in terms of devotion and in terms of seeing obstacles as an opportunity for turning negative circumstances into positive ones," he said.

But the existence of two rival Karmapas sets a dangerous precedent for the Tibetan movement as a whole, given fears that a similar situation might arise over the Dalai Lama's eventual reincarnation, with China anointing its own successor.

And the dispute also has a distinctly non-spiritual side, tainted by violence and a series of bitterly fought cases - some of them ongoing - in the Indian courts.

In 1993, followers of Urgyen Trinley stormed the Rumtek Monastery and ousted members of the Karmapa Charitable Trust (KCT) - a body set up the 16th Karmapa which had recognized Thaye Dorje as the true reincarnation.

But legal control of the monastery - and the Black Crown - remains in dispute with India's Supreme Court in 2004 having dismissed a petition to challenge the KCT's guardianship.

While voicing "disappointment" that the row had dragged on for so long, Thaye Dorje said it was inevitable that lawyers would become involved.

"The legal route is naturally there ... (the courts) are another tool, another way," he said.

"I really wish that sooner rather than later we can find a solution, because it's completely unnecessary."

Soft-spoken but self-assured, the young lama - whose musical tastes range from Mozart to the Irish singer Enya and who lists Star Wars among his favourite films - was born in Tibet in 1983.

His father was a high lama and his mother descended from Tibetan nobility. According to his official biography, he was just oneand-a-half years old "when he started telling people that he was the Karmapa."

Some observers see his tour of Asian and European countries as an effort to raise his profile and counter the publicity his rival has enjoyed as a result of the Dalai Lama's endorsement.

Thaye Dorje says he has enormous respect for the Dalai Lama as "one of the greatest" Buddhist teachers, but is more circumspect when talking about his spiritual authority.

The Karma Kagyu lineage has always maintained a proud independence from the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism and many of Thaye Dorje's hundreds of thousands of followers argue that the elderly monk has no say in the Karmapa's reincarnation.

"In terms of defining whether the Dalai Lama is the spiritual head of Tibet or not, that answer would go into the political side of things," Thaye Dorje said.

"It would be a political statement, and that's something I've always tried my very best to avoid," he added.

View the original article here

Preserve Tibetan culture, Karmapa tells Tibetans

"Your main duty is to guard and preserve Tibetan culture and religion," the Karmapa said while addressing over 8,000 Tibetans, who are in this Buddhist holy site, about 110 km from Patna, to participate in the Kalachakra initiation for world peace.

"It's also the duty of us Tibetans in India and other free countries to let the world know what is going on within Tibet," the Karmapa added.

Recounting the relationship that Tibet shared with India, the 26-year-old Buddhist monk said: "We received the Buddha 'dharma' directly from India. Now, many of us have settled here in exile. Therefore, I do not need to tell you how close and profound this relationship between Tibet and India is."

"The hardships you were willing to undertake to come here to this holy place shows very clearly the deep sense of devotion and affection that we Tibetans feel for India," said the Karmapa, who usually resides in a monastery near Dharamsala town in Himachal Pradesh.

The Karmapa, who fled Tibet and sought refuge in India in January 2000, is the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered the third most important Tibetan religious head after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. (IANS)

View the original article here

Dalai Lama favours Buddhist solution for Tibetan issue

Home Issues

GAYA, India -- Extolling the virtues of 'middle path' or madhyam marg, the central philosophy of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama -- the supreme spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism -- said a solution to the Tibetan problem is to be found through the middle path.

Although the Dalai Lama did not explain the contours of the middle path, his statement is being seen as an offer made to the Chinese government for a negotiated settlement of a nearly six-decade-old Tibetan question that has emerged as the main irritant in the India-China relations.

The Dalai Lama made the reference to the middle path approach vis-a-vis Tibet during his interaction with Tibetans, visitors from China and other areas of the Himalayan region on Tuesday. The Tibet problem is 'man made' and, as such, its solution has to be found by people who created in the first place, said the Dalai Lama.

In a somewhat measured tone, the Dalai Lama said the Tibetan problem was known to one and all and there was no need repeating it all over again. The reality cannot be concealed for long, he said.

The Dalai Lama is in Bodh Gaya in connection with Kalchakra Puja, the mega prayer for peace and creation of living Buddhas.

View the original article here

The Karmapa's statement on the recent acts of self immolation by Tibetan monks and nuns

Home Issues

Dharmsala, India -- A Buddhist nun in China’s western Sichuan Province burned herself to death on November 3, 2011, bringing to 11 the number of Tibetan clergy and former clergy who have set themselves on fire since March. The series of self-immolations, unprecedented in Tibetan Buddhism’s modern history, has continued despite an increasingly large Chinese security presence in the predominantly ethnic Tibetan area.

In response to the gruesome events, His Holiness the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, issued the following statement on November 9, 2011:

"Since March this year 11 brave Tibetans have set themselves on fire while calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.

These desperate acts, carried out by people with pure motivation, are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live. The situation is unbearably difficult, but in difficult situations we need greater courage and determination.

"Each report of self-immolation from Tibet has filled my heart with pain. Most of those who have died have been very young. They had a long future ahead of them, an opportunity to contribute in ways that they have now foregone. In Buddhist teaching life is precious. To achieve anything worthwhile we need to preserve our lives. We Tibetans are few in number, so every Tibetan life is of value to the cause of Tibet. Although the situation is difficult, we need to live long and stay strong without losing sight of our long term goals.

"As His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, the Chinese leadership should face up to the real source of these tragic incidents. Such drastic acts have their origin in the desperate circumstances in which Tibetans find themselves living. A ruthless response will only make things worse. Where there is fear, there can be no trust.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama has stressed that the use of force is counter-productive; repressive measures can never bring about unity and stability. I agree with him that the Chinese leadership needs seriously to review its policies towards Tibetans and other minorities. I appeal to right-thinking, freedom-loving people throughout the world to join us in deploring the repression unleashed in the monasteries in Tibet, particularly in the Tibetan region of Sichuan. At the same time I appeal to the Chinese leaders to heed Tibetans' legitimate demands and to enter into meaningful dialogue with them instead of brutally trying to achieve their silence.

"Because the Tibetan issue involves truth and justice, people are not afraid to give up their lives, but I request the people of Tibet to preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet. It is my heartfelt prayer that the monks and nuns, indeed all the Tibetan people, may live long, free from fear, in peace and happiness."

View the original article here