At OU, Tibetan luminary speaks on value of tolerance

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Athens, Ohio (USA) -- A renowned Tibetan monk spoke on the importance of practicing tolerance in everyday life in Ohio University's Walter Hall Rotunda last Wednesday. The visit was hosted by the Athens Karma Thegsum Chling (KTC) and the OU Tibetan Buddhist Study Group.

<< Khempo Karthar Rimpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist abbot in the Karma Kagyu line of Buddhism, addresses local community members and Ohio University students about the importance of tolerance and empathy at the Walter Hall rotunda in Athens, Ohio on September 21, 2011. Khempo Karthar Rimpoche is one of the few remaining Buddhist elders to have studied in Tibet before Chinese communist rule came to Tibet in 1951. Photo: Kevin Briggs.

Lama Kathy Wesley, who serves at the Columbus KTC Meditation Center, introduced Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. She said that the 87-year-old was born in the mountains of Tibet and at the age of 12 entered monastery school. He fled the Chinese Communism of Tibet in 1959 with other members of his monastery and took refuge in Bhutan in South Asia.

Wesley said that in 1976 His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa sent Khenpo Rinpoche to the U.S. as the abbot of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra monastery. He has since traveled the nation teaching his lessons of tolerance and compassion.

Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, Khenpo Rinpoche explained the numerous benefits of practicing tolerance, such as peace, energy and success.

"The true root of tolerance is love and compassion... Someone who is loving and compassionate won't even have to try to be tolerant; they will be automatically tolerant. And because they are automatically tolerant, they will also be energetic and successful," he said.

He later said that, "The limitation is that we fail to realize that just as I want to be happy so do all others... so what prevents love and compassion from becoming tolerance is a lack of empathy."

He explained that people cannot be happy if they limit themselves to concern for their own happiness. "When you understand that people do the silly things they do because they are trying to be happy, you will be much more tolerant."

Stephen Kropf, the assistant director of the Athens KTC, serves as the faculty adviser for the Tibetan Buddhist Study Group at OU that was responsible for bringing Khenpo Rinpoche to speak.

"Well, it's always a blessing to hear one of these venerable men and women speak. They embody a direct line of teaching all the way back to the time of Buddha. So you're having as close to a direct teaching of Buddha as you can."

He added that the teachings focus on the notion that every individual is fighting his or her own kind of battle. "Most of these teachings have a message that resonates with people regardless of time and culture," Kropf said.

"I think that it relates equally to any community, and then each community that has its own specific makeup probably appreciates the teaching in their own unique way," he said. "Anybody that finds themselves in any social context would apply the teachings of tolerance to that context."

Melinda Gard, a member of the Athens KTC, said she took away a "good feeling that a lot of people are really coming together to hear about love.

"I think it's good because people want access to the dharma and teachings, and I just get that people are seeking some wisdom, and a lot of people look up to elders of all sorts," she said. "I think people really have a lot of respect, and a lot of OU students and faculty are seeking wisdom and knowledge."

Kropf said, "I think all people can hear these teachings and lessons and derive something from it. These things can be understood and put into practice. The overarching idea of this is when you do a good deed a good deed is returned to you. It's the notion of karma."

The public is welcome to attend the Athens KTC meetings every Sunday at 10 a.m. at Factory Street Studio on Ohio Avenue for meditation and the study of Tibetan Buddhism.

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Richard Gere speaks out on suffering in Tibet

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Seoul, South Korea -- American actor and practicing Tibetan Buddhist Richard Gere spoke out on the sufferings of Tibetans under Chinese occupation in Seoul, Wednesday.

“I think it’s impossible to look at these photographs and not realize the extraordinary suffering of the Tibetan people,” Gere told reporters at a press conference promoting his Tibet-themed photo exhibition at Seoul Arts Center. “I think when you see these photographs you have to be aware of the political situation there to understand the depth where I was coming from in offering this exhibition.”

The exhibition, “Pilgrim,” features a total of 64 photographs of Tibet and India taken by Gere, as well as 24 photos of Tibet by 24 renowned photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Steve Meisel and Jerry Uelsmann. The exhibition currently on at Seoul Arts Center runs till July 24.

Gere, who is the co-founder of the Tibet House in New York City and a persistent advocate for the Tibetan independence movement, is banned from entering China. The photos on exhibit are from a 1993 trip to China and Tibet, the only time he was able to visit those countries.
Hollywood star and practicing Tibetan Buddhist Richard Gere speaks at a press conference promoting his Tibet-themed photo exhibition at the Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, Wednesday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

Back in the late 1980s, while travelling in India, Gere came across a wall that had a series of drawings of Tibetan nuns being tortured by the Chinese in Tibet. He took a photograph of the wall at the time.

“And in 1993, during my only visit in Tibet, I was able to encounter three nuns who had been just released from Chinese prison in Tibet,” Gere told reporters. “And they told me exactly the same stories (with the drawings). So I included the picture of them in the montage of these drawings that I’d seen on the wall.”

Gere did not hesitate to openly criticize the Chinese government for their occupation of Tibet.

“The same kind of torture and deaths in Chinese prisons in Tibet is still taking place today,” Gere said. “Of course it’s not only in Tibet. The Chinese communist government does it to their own people in China as well.”

Such political remarks were contrary to what art CDI, the Korean PR company for Gere’s exhibition in Seoul, told the press prior to the conference.

The PR company had requested that Gere not be asked “questions that are too political” as he was feeling "sensitive" about the local press. Gere, who seemed to be unaware of art CDI’s request, volunteered to talk about the political situation in Tibet without a reporter asking him about it.

The Hollywood star arrived in Seoul on Monday along with his wife, actress Carey Lowell and their son, Homer Gere, to promote his exhibition and experience Korea’s traditional Buddhist culture.

On Tuesday Gere met with Ven. Jaseung, the head of the Jogye Order, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, at Jogye Temple in central Seoul. The practicing Buddhist signed the temple’s guest book with a message that wished “peace and happiness” for all beings in the world.

“I had a very nice time there,” Gere told reporters about his visit to Jogye Order on Wednesday. “The monks and nuns were so lovely and generous to us. We had the most extraordinary meal across the street from the temple. Really, really nice vegetarian meal. The Jogye form of Buddhism was actually the first form of Buddhism that I studied.”

Gere said although he has met a lot of Korean students of the Dalai Lama in the past and is very much interested in taking photos to do with Korean Buddhism, he thinks he still needs more time to explore the country first.

“What I am aware of is that Buddhism first came to Korea in the 6th century,” Gere said. “And there has been a direct continuity of very high-level Buddhism here in Korea since the very beginning. So I’d really like to explore how that has influenced the culture here and how it can affect in a very modern way present day and future.”

Gere is scheduled to visit Donghwa Temple near Daegu and Tongdo Temple near Yangsan City, South Gyeongsang Province, on Thursday. He will be participating in meditation, chanting and other Buddhist practices that are part of the “temple experience” programs at the two temples.

He is scheduled to leave on Saturday.

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