Transforming minds through Buddhism

"What I learned at first was about understanding, that our minds are the source of our experience of the world as positive or negative, and that, if we learn to transform our minds, we will effectively transform the world by altering our experience of it," says the associate professor in the faculty of religious studies at McGill University.

"It was a life-changing experience for me.

"Eventually, I started to study Buddhism formally and got hooked. The philosophy, the history, the many forms of practice and extraordinary range of cultures that are all authentically Buddhist. What's not to like? Buddhism describes such an amazing array of traditions. To me, it is totally captivating."

Braitstein will bring her passion, wisdom, knowledge and perspective on Buddhism to Calgary for two talks.

The Numata chair in Buddhist studies at the University of Calgary is hosting her lectures.

On April 2 at 7: 30 p.m. at the CIBC Hub Room, Rozsa Centre, her topic is titled Composing Awakening: Saraha and his Adamantine Songs.

On April 3 at noon at Social Sciences 1339, her topic is Doringpa's spiritual biography (rnam thar) and the 10th Shamarpa: On the Trail of an 18th-century Renegade Lama.

"Well, these are academic talks. They come out of my research over the past many years. They will be quite different from each other," Braitstein says.

"The first one is about the ninth-century Indian Buddhist yogi-saint-poet Saraha. One of the famous 84 Great Adepts ("mahasiddha" in Sanskrit), he was an unconventional, even wild, figure who flouted social and religious conventions and taught through poetry and song. I will mainly be focusing on a set of three poems he composed about the nature of mind and how to become awakened. Until now, these particular poems have remained untranslated and untreated in scholarship. I'm not sure why that's been the case, but I translated these poems myself and have been working with them for 12 years now. I will be introducing Saraha and these poems, as well as discussing how he fits into the broader South Asian religious and literary context.

"The second talk is about a Tibetan Lama who lived in the 18th century (1742-1792)," Braitstein says. "His name is Chodrup Gyatso and he was the 10th incarnation of the Shamarpa, or Red Hat Lama, the second-oldest reincarnate Lama lineage in Tibet. He is remembered in many histories of Tibet in the 18th century as something of a villain for the role he played in a series of wars between Tibet and Nepal. At the same time, however, he is revered to this day in Nepal, and there are other narratives of that period (Nepalese, British and one important Tibetan text) that seriously challenge the view that he was a 'renegade Lama.' So I will be discussing his life and the many ways that his deeds have been interpreted, really trying to trace the history of his story."

She says the appeal of Buddhism today is the same as since the lifetime of the Buddha: we want to be happy, but we suffer.

Why is that the case?

How can we have a positive effect on that experience?

"Those are the questions that Buddhism goes deeply into," says Braitstein. "I'm not sure it's growing - it is certainly moving and changing, as it has done since the very beginning. I think it is growing in Canada, in the Americas as a whole, in fact, and in Europe. And that may give us the impression that it is growing, but I think we may have that impression because it is relatively new here. I think it is simply the case that it is becoming a Canadian tradition, or set of traditions, now and this is just one more place that it has taken root and taken new shapes, just like it did all over South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia over the past 2.5 millennia. We're just the latest stop."

Braitstein says a variety of people have been attracted to Buddhism.

"If you visit local Buddhist temples or Dharma groups, or attend large events, like His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Kalacakra initiations, for example, you will see people from everywhere and all walks of life," she says.

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Kalu Rinpoche's YouTube confessional sending shockwaves through the Buddhist world

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Young Kalu Rinpoche's traumatic revelations highlight the dissonance between Tibetan tradition and 21st-century life

London, UK -- He is 21, a handsome, charismatic Tibetan who describes being a lama as his job. He is passionately keen on music, he raps, break-dances and parties in capital cities around the globe.

<< Snapshot of Kalu Rinpoche's YouTube confession. Watch the video at the bottom of this page

Kalu Rinpoche chronicles his moods, his existential angst, his activities and philosophical insights on Facebook – and he recently broke the most profoundly entrenched Tibetan Buddhist taboo with a confessional video that received more than 23,000 hits on YouTube.

It is hardly surprising that Kalu is agonising over what the future holds for him. As a baby, he was recognised as the reincarnation of the deeply revered previous Kalu, who was one of two lamas largely responsible for the worldwide explosion of interest in Tibetan Buddhism during the late 1970s and throughout the 80s.

Old Kalu was seen as a bodhisattva – a person who has attained a level of realisation similar to that of the historical Buddha. He spent 13 years in solitary retreat as a hermit yogi in eastern Tibet, before escaping to India following the Chinese invasion. Kalu had his headquarters in the Himalayan foothills, but he spent the rest of his life travelling the world, setting up meditation centres, teaching and attending to the needs of many thousands of followers.

Old Kalu died in 1989 after establishing a formidable reputation. He was an impossible act to follow, leaving his successor with responsibility for over 70 centres across four continents, together with a duty of care for the spiritual wellbeing of the people involved in them. Young Kalu's father, Gyaltsen, was old Kalu's personal assistant. In his confessional video, young Kalu says the traumatic events he experienced during his teenage years started after his father died when he was nine.

He relates how he was moved to a different monastery and at the age of 12 was sexually abused by older monks. He goes on to reveal that when he refused to obey instructions, his tutor tried to kill him.

"It was all about money, power and control," he says.

Kalu did the traditional three-year retreat from the age of 15, but after that his training came to an abrupt end. "I went crazy," he says. "I became a drug addict and an alcoholic."

Kalu's exposure on the internet of the dark underbelly of Tibetan monastic life is unprecedented in modern times. People who knew his predecessor say that he was sometimes critical in private, but the rule in lama land is that you never air your grievances to the outside world. Above all, you never cause loss of face by criticising a fellow lama in public.

The shock that reverberated across the Tibetan Buddhist community following these revelations is still making waves. In his Facebook posts, young Kalu seems undecided about what to do next. He is no longer a monk and appears to have moved on from drug and alcohol excess, but there is no teaching schedule for 2012 on his website.

The respected British lama Jampa Thaye sympathises with Kalu: "Ideally, a young incarnate lama should be given time to mature – intellectually and in contemplation," he says. "But all too often they are thrust into teaching tours in order to raise funds for their monasteries or in Kalu's case, the organisation he inherited from his predecessor." Lama Jampa points out that Kalu does not benefit from "the protective cocoon of a monastery" and also has to cope with the unrestrained adoration of his western devotees: "No wonder he's floundering. Sadly, I think his suffering will continue for some time. In my view the best thing he could do is try to live an ordinary life."

According to his recent public utterances, Kalu has this idea in mind. Instead of urging his followers into the study and long retreats essential to serious Tibetan Buddhist practice, he asks them to be kind to each other and to take care of the poor and the needy. He often talks about love and insists that he is just an ordinary person doing his best to lead a good life.

Young Kalu demonstrated his moral fibre shortly after he first arrived in France to check out the meditation centres set up by old Kalu. He discovered that one of them had been taken over by a group of corrupt Bhutanese monks, who were breaking their vows and wallowing in self-indulgence. Most of the French Buddhists who had supported the centre for many years had fled in disgust and the place was no longer functional. Horrified and distressed, Kalu ordered the monks to leave. They refused to acknowledge his authority and were only persuaded to return to Bhutan after Kalu enlisted backup from Tai Situ Rinpoche, the senior lama of his lineage.

At the age of 21, Kalu has been traumatised by an attempt on his life, sexual abuse and a massive load of expectations and responsibilities. He is a deracinated Tibetan, born in exile – and also a high-profile guru with a worldwide following.

The intensity of his experiences so far highlights the cultural dissonance between Tibetan tradition and the challenges of 21st-century life in the developed world. Kalu is probably seen as a loose canon by older lamas, but he gets away with it because of his status. In one sense he is a victim, but perhaps he will turn out to be a pioneer. Or a bit of both.

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Engaging the world through Buddhism

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Washington, D.C. (USA) -- Engaged Buddhism refers to Buddhists who are seeking ways to practically apply insights from their meditation practice and spiritual teachings to social, political, environmental, and economic suffering and injustice.

<< Practitioners listen as Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama speaks during the Kalachakra for World Peace at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, July 6, 2011. (SAUL LOEB - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

While the roots of Engaged Buddhism may be found in the teachings and actions of the Buddha himself, and other great teachers of the past, Engaged Buddhism can also be understood principally as a movement that began in the late 19th century as a response to Western colonialism in Asia. It is best known through its political movements, such as the struggles by the Tibetan, Burmese, and Vietnamese Buddhists for self-determination, democracy, and peace.

Engaged Buddhism is not simply being a Buddhist and involvement in politics and social justice. Rather, Engaged Buddhists critically and creatively apply the Buddha’s teachings to transform themselves and their societies. Thich Nhat Hanh of Vietnam, Ajan Maha Ghosanand of Cambodia, The Dalai Lama of Tibet, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, and Ajan Sulak Sivaraksa of Thailand are modern-day leaders who embody Engaged Buddhist principals and have guided organizations such as the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the International Network of Engaged Buddhist, and the Zen Peacemakers.

When I first went to Tibet in the late 1990s, I was on a pilgrimage and did not intend to involve myself with politics in general, nor practice Engaged Buddhism. The roadmap for my pilgrimage was the far-ranging travels across Tibet by a 19th century mystic known as Tertön Sogyal. I meditated among hermits in remote sanctuaries and slept in caves where Tertön Sogyal had experienced spiritual visions. On foot, on horseback, and in dilapidated buses, I crossed the same snow-covered passes that he had used to travel from eastern Tibet to Lhasa. I was searching out the living masters and yogis who uphold Tertön Sogyal’s spiritual lineage and could tell me the oral history of his life and teachings.

But my pilgrimage took an unexpected turn.

The more time I spent in Tibet delving into the 19th-century teachings of Tertön Sogyal, the more often I met Tibetans who wanted to tell me their stories of frustration and suffering in what they see as Chinese occupation of their country. And the Tibetans spoke of their never-ending hope that one day the exiled Dalai Lama would return to Tibet. Traveling as a Buddhist pilgrim, I gained the trust of Tibetans. Political prisoners who had experienced abuse and torture in Chinese prisons showed me scars. Monks and nuns who had been kicked out of their monasteries gave me their expulsion notices from the local security bureau. I was taken to meet a Buddhist leader who had been scalded with boiling water and then jailed for five years for publicly praying to the Dalai Lama.

Tibetans not only told me their stories, but early into my pilgrimage they asked me to spirit such firsthand accounts of human rights abuses out of Tibet and into the hands of Western governments and advocacy groups. I became a courier of often-graphic accounts of torture and abuse. This required evading China’s vast security network of plainclothes security agents, undercover cops in monk’s robes, and sophisticated cyber police. I began photographing Chinese secret prisons where Tibetan monks and nuns are incarcerated for their Buddhist beliefs. The decade-long journey in Tertön Sogyal’s footsteps became a different kind of pilgrimage -- one that became the dual narrative of the book In the Shadow of the Buddha; Secret Journey, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet.

While I do not claim to have benefited anyone from my human rights work, I can say that I have tried to apply what the Buddha and my teachers have taught me about acting for the benefit of others. This is how I entered the path of Engaged Buddhism. I have given voice to what I have witnessed. I know in politics, ultimately, there are no winners, for every politician will die and every government will eventually fall -- the real question is not if a political system will survive, but when will it fail, Because everything is impermanent, including politicians and their governments, we have a responsibility to affect change that will bring about the conditions right now for others to find contentment and happiness. For me this is Engaged Buddhism.

Like many others who have been profoundly affected by Tibet’s unique wisdom culture, I cannot let the world forget about Tibet. China wants governments and people around the world to forget about Tibet, to turn their backs on monks, nuns, musicians and bloggers who languish in prison for their religious beliefs and their peaceful expression of political views. It is the responsibility of those who have the freedom to travel, to write, and express our opinions, to talk to our governments -- and to not only bear witness but act to change injustice. This is why I documented China’s human rights abuses in Tibet and why I wrote In the Shadow of the Buddha. I do not expect everyone to take up the Tibet issue. That is not my reason for writing. Rather, it is my hope that wherever we find ourselves in the world, we never lose hope and faith and a sense of responsibility to those who are suffering in our family, in our community, or in other countries.

I believe progressing on our spiritual path means doing what each of us needs to do to for ourselves to bring about true and lasting contentment, beyond suffering. And accomplishing the path of social engagement means creating the conditions for others to find that same lasting satisfaction. These are the commitments I’ve learned from my venerable teachers, and ones that I continue to take with me.

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Matteo Pistono, author of recently released “In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet,”  will be contributing to On Faith during the Dalai Lama’s visit to Washington D.C., and tweeting from the Verizon center (Twitter:@matteopistono).

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